How the Scottish SPCA Improved Governance with Admincontrol

The challenge

Before Admincontrol, the Scottish SPCA, like many charities, relied on SharePoint, email, and printed materials to manage board communications. The fundamental issue wasn't just operational; it was a mindset one. Getting board members and leadership to move away from familiar, if inefficient, tools required as much cultural change as technical change.

Mark Bishop, who has held senior governance roles across organisations of varying scales, describes the challenges he witnessed first-hand. At National Trust of Scotland, a large charity he has worked with, the process was particularly striking: each director's personal assistant independently printed a full board pack — with up to 20 copies produced per meeting, on rotation, across multiple PAs.

The postal costs to send the packs to the trustees (secure recorded delivery packs) meant you had to make sure your pack was going out nine days before a meeting to guarantee it got there seven days before." — Mark Bishop, CEO of Scottish SPCA, and formerly National Trust of Scotland & Dynamic Earth Science Centre

The knock-on effect of paper 

The delays imposed by physical distribution created a cascade of problems. Board packs had to be prepared earlier, which meant management accounts had to cover an earlier reporting period, making the financial and operational information presented to trustees less timely and therefore less useful for decision-making.

In short: the process of getting information to trustees was actually degrading the quality of that information by the time it arrived. 

The outcome

Moving to Admincontrol resolved these challenges immediately and introduced capabilities that paper and email-based systems simply cannot offer.

This includes:

• Instant distribution.

• Board packs published at the click of a button: no printing, no postal delays, no missed deliveries.

• More timely information.

• Management accounts no longer need an earlier cut-off.

• Trustees receive more current data at every meeting.

• Board members can take notes directly within the platform, replacing paper mark-ups and scattered annotations.

Access visibility

 Board portals also offer useful access visibility.  Administrators can see whether trustees have opened their board packs, giving comfort that members are genuinely prepared ahead of meetings. There's an environmental upside too: eliminating hundreds of printed pages per meeting adds up to a meaningful reduction in paper and resource use over time. 

Cost savings

Secure recorded delivery postage for every trustee, every meeting — gone entirely.

"Life is such a short concept and life is full of toils and troubles. When something makes your life slightly easier, why wouldn't you want to sing its praises?" — Mark Bishop 

Accountability at the board table

One of the more significant, and perhaps unexpected, benefits Mark highlights is the ability to verify board member engagement. In any governance environment, trustees may form strong  opinions on agenda items. With Admincontrol, it is now possible to check access logs and confirm whether a member has actually read the relevant papers before the meeting.

As Mark puts it, this allows leadership to know whether a board member is "at the table by rights" — informed and prepared — rather than simply present by role.

"The Scottish SPCA is the largest and leading animal welfare charity in Scotland. We are a 187-years old and have a very established reputation to maintain. That makes getting our governance management right a key consideration. I chose Admincontrol’s governance portal because this is the best platform, matched by the best support service. I say this unreservedly because I have used a variety of platforms and they all have their merits – but Admincontrol wins hands down. I was happy to use them at National Trust for Scotland, the Dynamic Earth science centre – and now, on behalf of furry and non-furry friends (and that’s just the humans!) for Scottish SPCA.

 

The main qualities I rate are security, ease-of-use for administrator access and general access, cross-platform ease-of-use, minimal downtime, easy to learn, great service support – and affordability. I’m sure a decade ago I did not imagine my life would involve advocating for a governance platform, but the amount of hassle Admincontrol has saved me deserves to be celebrated and shared! I’ve been representing charities for 25 years. Anything that allows me to focus on the Cause and not be a casualty of admin has got to be a good thing.” - Mark Bishop, CEO, Scottish SPCA