Feeling Strong, Dundee: A connected Board

Brook Marshall, Director of the charity Feeling Strong, completed an SCVO digital checkup and received support from Kyle Usher, SCVO Digital Change Manager back in May, as Feeling Strong was getting up and running.

Feeling Strong is a new charity, working to improve the lives of young people with mental health challenges in Dundee. As a new charity they wanted to use digital tools to improve their capacity. They also wanted to ensure strong board participation as they set their strategic direction. 

Feeling Strong have been trying out virtual board meetings where board members join by web conference. To do this they had to ensure their constitution allowed for virtual participation. They also had to test and adapt their approach to ensure the virtual experience worked for everyone. They found that using wired networks where possible really speeds things up. Using headsets also really helped with audio quality. There were some limitations though: they found that using smartphones and older tablets tended to slow down the connection, and board members using rural connections also found it hard to get good call quality. 

Brook Marshall, Director of Feeling Strong said:

“Good governance is really important to us, but we also wanted to do it efficiently. Being able to join board meetings virtually helps us involve a wider range of people. Although we’ve had to tweak our approach to make sure the experience works for everyone, we would recommend using virtual meetings.”