According to Comfor Management Services Ltd. executive assistant Michael Riis-Christianson, the idea for the electronic delivery of the company’s agendas has been in the works for a while.
Riis-Christianson said to the board that the suggestion had not come about just because of the Village of Burns Lake’s recent move to paperless agendas.
“It is something that I have been thinking about for a while,” he said to board members during a CMSL meeting last week.
He said the move to paperless agendas would be in keeping with CMSL’s strategy of reducing administration costs.
As reported in the Lakes District News on Feb. 1, 2012 the Village of Burns Lake’s council meeting agendas will be going paperless next month, with councillors being given a one time amount of $500 to purchase an electronic device like an Ipad that they can use during council meeting to view their agendas.
Riis-Christianson said that he is not suggesting funds should be available to directors for the purchase of an electronic device, adding that existing email technology should suffice.
He said the electronic delivery of agendas to board members would result in savings of more than $897 over the course of 12 months.
He said, “Even if some board members still wish to have a hard copy of the agendas waiting here for them at the office on meeting days, we could still expect to save $200 every year.”
According to Riis-Christianson, with the exception of Jeff Brown, all board members, their alternates and senior staff members have email.
“Using existing technology in the office I can PDF board agendas and distribute them via email. I believe that in most instances, this would not only be a quicker, more fail safe and cost efficient form of delivery, but also a convenient one for most board members.”
Riis-Christianson said the move to electronic delivery would also eliminate postage costs as 12 agenda packages are posted out to directors and their alternates.
“I encourage you all to do this, most of you have internet,” he said.
Director Wesley Sam said he would be willing to give it a try and added that he has a new Blackberry tablet that he could view the agendas on.
President Quentin Beach, who is also a councillor for the village, said he would be willing to make the switch.
“I am forced to buy an Ipad to view council agendas anyway,” he said.
Roseanne Murray said she wasn’t sure about the idea, adding that she still liked to make notes on her agendas. “I will do it, but I think we should make it voluntary,” said Sam, joking adding ‘no spam please.’ He made a motion for directors to make the switch to electronic agendas, only if they wanted to.
Directors agreed unanimously.
