Meet the Bellesboard Trailblazers!
We spotlight nonprofit leaders throughout the year who are using BellesBoard in unique ways to maximize mission impact. Trailblazers are featured in our monthly BellesBoard e-Bulletin and here on our site. In December, all are given the opportunity to vote for the “Trailblazer of the Year” who is announced in January.
Steve Porter, Executive Director, Finance and Operations, King’s-Edgehill School
Grace Calderon – Pequot Library
Keith Howard & Kyla Powers – Circle of Care
CEO Keith and his colleague Kyla use BellesBoard to make it easier for board members to quickly, and easily, get to the information they need to fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities.
100% of their board members access BellesBoard on a regular basis, which also improves productivity among the administrative staff, as well as the board. And, because the team at Circle of Care have all board and committee documents organized in BellesBoard, they can take advantage of BellesBoard’s new board and committee book feature.
Circle of Care is an amazing organization caring for children & families across Oklahoma since 1917.
Noelle Cashman – Moorings Yacht & Country Club
Noelle is the Director of Finance at The Moorings. Like many private clubs, The Moorings relies on financial support of its members for the ongoing sustainability of the organization.
To ensure that the board of directors is aware of membership trends, Noelle uses the BellesBoard Dashboard Module to provide the board with an early and ongoing view of its membership rolls year by year. This information helps the board make more informed financial decisions for current and future operations.
Kerry Chester – HorseAbility
HorseAbility’s mission is to improve the lives of individuals with special needs through Equine Facilitated Interactions.
Like many organizations, they require a Code of Conduct to be signed annually. To increase efficiency and reduce manual steps in this process, Kerry, the BellesBoard organization administrator at HorseAbility, implemented BellesBoard’s eSignature feature, thereby eliminating the need for board members to print, scan and email documents. It’s quick, and all signed documents are neatly organized in BellesBoard for future reference.
Sandy Whewell – The Haitian Project
The Haitian Project has overseen a top-notch Catholic boarding school outside of Port-au-Prince for nearly four decades.
Sandy, Media Director at THP, has used BellesBoard to increase mission awareness and encourage engagement with THP’s geographically-diverse board. She works with committee chairs to maximize BellesBoard for ease of their communications, too.
Joel Harris – Treasurer, Mineola Chamber of Commerce
The Chamber began using BellesBoard in January 2024. In a few short months, Joel has provided the board with the information they need to be better stewards for the organization.
For example, Joel developed useful dashboards so that board members now have access to financial and membership information on their computer and mobile phone
To connect with Joel and the Mineola Chamber, click here.
Jennifer Frans, Chief Operating Officer – Love146
For over 20 years, Love146 has been a credible force preventing child trafficking and providing holistic support to survivors.
Jennifer, this month’s Trailblazer, states that BellesBoard has enabled Love146 to increase efficiency, reduce the time it takes to prepare for meetings, organize board documents, and conduct polls. BellesBoard’s ”one-stop shop” has enabled them to increase board engagement. Jennifer says “Everyone loves BellesBoard!”.
To learn more about Love146, click here.
Tim Miller – the Vanderbilt Country Club
Based in Naples FL, Tim, the General Manager, engaged Assistant General Manager, Helen Szakaly, to have each board member stop by her office so that she could make sure the BellesBoard mobile app was installed on their phones.
The result: quicker overall adoption and transition to the portal as well as increased engagement!
To learn more about Vanderbilt, click here.
Alysha McAlester – the Southern Hills Country Club
Based in Tulsa OK, Alysha is the Executive Assistant and Membership Director. At the club’s first board meeting of 2024, Alysha used BellesBoard’s eSignature feature to complete the annual conflict of interest (COI) disclosure forms. Within 24 hours, 80% of the forms had been signed electronically.
Alysha has also used eSignature for three other compliance requirements related to the First Tee of Tulsa Program and saved significant administrative time.
To learn more about Southern Hills or to connect with Alysha, click here.
Owen earned this distinction because of the creative way he is using the BellesBoard Dashboard module to keep his board of directors informed of membership trends.
Board members now have easy access to see, for the past five years, a visually appealing breakdown of multiple membership categories, total active members, and total members overall.
To learn more about BAC or to connect with Owen, click here.
Joyce earned Trailblazer status because of the innovative way that she uses BellesBoard to manage Cassia’s three separate boards. Cassia provides housing, health care and community services to older adults.
Joyce says “I like that I can keep information for all the boards in one calendar, and all documents in one place. If a board member only serves on one board, they only see that board’s information. Similarly, an individual serving on multiple boards only need to look in one place for both board’s information.”
To learn more about Cassia or to connect with Joyce, click here.
Hopkins House (Alexandria, VA) provides high quality, high impact educational programs and learning opportunities to children, youth, and their families.
Under Glenn’s leadership, board members have quick and easy access to meeting details, governance documents, and committee and board member contact information. Glenn has also used the Dashboard module to provide board members with graphical views of the organization’s sources of charitable support, number of individuals served, volunteer hours donated, and a summary of revenue and expenses.
To learn more about Hopkins House’s great work, click here.
Preble Street (Portland, Maine) helps individuals dealing with homelessness, housing, hunger, and poverty. Under Rosie’s leadership, she and her colleague Elisa Fleig have enabled board members to have access to meeting and governance documents on their laptops, tablets, or mobile phones. They also have organized their documents in a clean and organized structure to enable board members to easily find desired information 24/7. As a result, Preble Street enjoys 100% utilization of BellesBoard among its board.
To learn more about Preble Street’s good work, click here.
In less than two months, Julie has increased board engagement and saved time with BellesBoard.
Using BellesBoard’s e-Signature feature, Julie has eliminated the need to email, print, and scan governance documents. Scheduling members’ availability has now improved using the BellesBoard User Availability Polling feature. This month’s Trailblazer has also begun to use BellesBoard’s project management feature to plan and execute upcoming events.
Want to learn more about RCF’s good work? Click here.
The dynamic duo of Susan and Marianne are using BellesBoard to increase board engagement. Board members now have easy access to their governance documents. They also use the Polling function to simplify the process of seeking ideas and recommendations from board and committee members.
Want to learn more? Click here to reach out to Susan directly.
Wendy Barber, Membership Coordinator – San Antonio Country Club
Kim earned Trailblazer status by setting up the Girls Inc. of the Valley Board Policies Acknowledgment process using the BellesBoard e-Signature module. Board members were able to eliminate printing, scanning and emailing documents — everything was updated and stored within BellesBoard.
In order to increase board member awareness, Koby and his team created 9 dashboards, covering the last 3 years of Clinic Visits; Emergency Visits; Hospital Admissions; Imaging Procedures; Laboratory Tests; Long Term Care Average Patients Per Day, Long Term Care Average Patients Per Day, Rehabilitative Visits, and Salaries & Benefits.
To connect with Koby directly, email him here.
Ray and his team earned this recognition because they were able to combine information from two separate data sources into BellesBoard, thereby saving administrative time while also improving board engagement.
To connect with Ray directly and learn more, email him here!