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About this Case: This case study will describe how an association moved a large board meeting from a face-to-face event to a virtual session.

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The Challenge:
How to relieve the fiscal constraints of paying all travel expenses for all attending board members for every board meeting.

The American Nurses Association hosts annual Congress and Assembly meetings, gathering more than 150 members together at their metropolitan Washington, DC headquarters. The association was paying for all travel expenses (airline, hotel, and food) for each attending member for each meeting. However, fiscal constraints of the association required its management team to reexamine the face-to-face meeting model and consider new, less expensive options.

The Solution:
ANA transitioned to a virtual platform in September 2009 for their Annual Congress.

ANA implemented a virtual meeting platform that would allow for motions, secure voting, and responsive technical assistance for participants. The selected platform was viewed by the participants as trustworthy, user friendly, reliable, and accommodated the guidelines and legalities of Robert’s Rules of Order, while maintaining the interactivity and goals of the attended sessions. In addition, the platform required secure, verifiable voting capabilities.

The Process:
When ANA discussed moving these essential meetings to a virtual platform, they considered using existing off-the-shelf conferencing technologies to facilitate a formal online meeting. Further exploration determined that off-the-shelf platforms proved unwieldy, unreliable, and frustrating for the ANA staff and volunteer participants to use. In addition, getting the decision makers to adjust their mindset to embrace a virtual platform was a process. The expectation that their current meeting processes could be replicated online – exactly as they were – was one that had to be adjusted. ANA volunteer leadership had to be convinced that changing how they conducted the meeting (such as voting) to accommodate an online environment was trustworthy, and would still legally and successfully deliver the desired results. ANA made the transition to a virtual board room with their 2009 Biannual Congress, and worked with the consultant who built the virtual board room platform. For their first event, the consultant placed two event team members at the ANA Chairman’s location. One person facilitated the orderly flow of debate, communication, and collaboration with the presenters, ensuring everyone was able to voice their concerns and opinions. The other coordinated members and customer support, managing any technical issues during the meeting. Additional consultant team members provided live phone support, a live audio line operator, and recording of the event. The ANA staff also provided support to the chair person and assisted in monitoring comments from participants.

The consultant’s team worked closely with ANA to plan and coordinate every aspect of the meeting, and began educating both the presenters and the attending members. With several opportunities to participate in a one-hour training session, members and presenters became comfortable with the features, functionality, and controls on their screens prior to the meeting date. By practicing the controls in advance, the members were able to focus on the topics at hand during the actual board meeting, rather than worry about using the technology.

Members were able to download the agenda, documents, and other resources prior to the meeting. Once started, the Chairman presided over the meeting, at times passing the controls to other presenters speaking to the congress.

Unforseen Benefits:
The meeting was recorded, enabling ANA to forego taking notes and provided a permanent archive of the session, along with handouts and all other related resources, which could be accessed at any time by authorized ANA executives.

Measurements & Results:
Concerns about the new format were quickly dispelled by the first vote, which required interaction by all of the voting members using the virtual board room’s controls. The success of the software reinforced the value of the members’ training and validated the decision to move this critical event to an online format.

Attendance for the virtual congress was about 80 percent, which is comparable to the usual face-to-face events, as members logged in from around the country.

ANA also saved tens of thousands of dollars, spending half of the budget for previously attended congress events. They also secured a high satisfaction rating, as their members saved time and avoided the hassle of travel.

With the success of their 2009 Congress and Assembly virtual meetings, ANA has committed to using virtual board room software for future meetings as well.

Lessons Learned:
ANA learned that once the meeting coordinators changed the way they thought about how meetings could be held, things progressed quickly, with each person contributing ideas about how to adjust processes to fit the technology. Adjusting attitudes toward embracing change became the cornerstone to a successful migration from old to new, while maintaining the integrity of their traditional meetings.

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