Good governance in a school relies on accuracy, transparency and deeply ingrained trust: both in people and systems. For Heather Arthur, Board Secretary at Tyndale Christian School, this operational integrity spans across many daily tasks, from maintaining up-to-date records to coordinating Annual General Meetings (AGMs), and ensuring directors meet compliance requirements. However, with data scattered across multiple systems and manual spreadsheets to juggle, accuracy was hard to maintain, and communication gaps were common.
Thankfully, a change is on the way with the introduction of a new SIS. By adopting Veracross, Tyndale is redefining how board operations are managed and making way for a more holistic and strategic vision. With a single source of truth for member data, integrated communication tools, and greater visibility into engagement, the school is building a stronger foundation for efficient governance and informed decision-making.
What were some of the biggest frustrations you and your team were having with the SIS you had prior to switching to Veracross?
The biggest limitation that we had was being able to keep the data that we have of our association members accurate because there was double-handling of how we were storing it. Being able to have the right details and get documents out was a big challenge. We would quite often get people contacting us saying ‘we didn’t receive this information’ and it’s generally because there’s that difference in data where one system has one record, then our manual spreadsheet has got something different. We were not being efficient with our time.
Before deciding to switch to Veracross, how did you feel about the future in terms of your school’s tech stack with your role?
I was definitely concerned about the limitations that we had; not being able to reach the right people at times and not being able to keep accurate data. Once I heard about what Veracross could do for the board as a whole, I was really excited about the potential of reaching people quickly, being able to store our data in one place, and also being able to see audit logs. It’s really exciting because it means that we’ve got data there that can say: we’ve sent it to you.
What operational or administrative improvements are you hoping to achieve with the change to Veracross?
Firstly, the integrity of the data that we have — that it’s accurate. Making sure we’ve got the right information and it’s being updated in one place. For me, one of the biggest things is when we’re sending out documentation for AGMs. With Veracross, we will be able to see click through rates, know what communications we are sending, and see that people are actually opening the documentation. At present, we don’t have anything like that. We’re not able to see if people are reading what we are sending out to them. From the other side, being able to access information about the board members and track their Professional Development.
If you’re looking ahead to the future, what do you hope this change will unlock for you and for Tyndale Christian School?
At the moment, it’s documents in drives and using a basic email account, which means no back-end data to actually see what people are doing. Veracross gives a whole lot more transparency. We can flip the business model and figure out what works for the people that we’re trying to reach.
Ready for change at your school?
Book a demo with our team to learn what’s possible with a Veracross SIS.
