Mickie Rops Consulting

Is it Friday already?  (Actually, it's only Thursday, but in order for those of you who subscribe to this blog by e-mail to receive this in the early morning hours of Friday, I have to post on Thursday.)

Today's PGI is online file sharing for boards or committees.  Gone are the days when you have to mail a three pound binder to volunteers!!  Gone are the days when a volunteer can say "I didn't get that mailing/e-mail."  Consider getting an online file sharing account so that you can post all board/committee documents in one place.  Yes, I know that some folks still prefer to get printed copies of certain documents.  That's fine, but even so, an online file sharing account has benefits:

• You can post documents that volunteers often need to reference, such as policies, expense report forms (hopefully electronic ones, right?!) so that they are always accessible when they need them.
• You can post minutes, committee reports, etc. so that volunteers don't feel the need to keep a paper file and so that new volunteers can review the history.
• You can post draft documents for group review and comment.
• Volunteers can view the documents anywhere they have Internet access, or they can download the documents to their laptops or memory sticks to read while traveling.
• Folders are password protected for access only by those designated.

The features and pricing vary, but here are a couple of services that offer basic services for minimal cost (I've used both, and am currently using xdrive which also lets me back up my files to the Web):
http://www.box.net
http://xdrive.com

If you use and would recommend another service, please use the comment feature and let everyone else know about it.