Politics & Government
No More Paper Shuffling: Park Board Gets iPads To Cut Costs and Avoid Cutting Trees
The Geneva Park District is soon to be paperless with the impending purchase of iPads for the board, saving money and staff time.
Thegave the go-ahead for the purchase of iPads for use by board members to conduct paperless meetings.
The idea was discussed at last month’s board meeting in an effort to find ways of saving the Park District money with paper costs, printing, and delivery costs which include staff time to deliver the packets to board members before a meeting.
“Both laptops and the iPad have a life of about five years,” Christy Powell, superintendent of finance and personnel, said. “Payback time for the iPad is 1.6 years, about half the time of the laptop.”
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Executive Director Sheavoun Lambillotte said she recommended the iPad because it would be used to view documents only and no files would be downloaded to a computer, which sometimes opens the door for viruses to infect the entire system.
Treasurer Peggy Condon said it would be nice to have all the Park District information in once place “rather than in boxes at home.”
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Board members will go to the district’s website and securely log in to retrieve their board packets and archived documents.
The idea of going paperless is not new. The city of Geneva has been providing laptops for its board for nearly eight years.
Peter Collins, Geneva’s information technologies manager, said maintenance issues are not a problem since his office maintains a network anyway. He pointed out that some people don’t like the touch screens that are on the iPad.
Tina Nilles, administrative assistant to St. Charles Mayor Don DeWitte, said the city has been paperless for at least three years. She said laptops are provided in the council chambers and that it’s been very time efficient since it was implemented.
Bill McGrath, Batavia’s city administrator, said the city has been paperless for about four years, but the administration does not provide laptops to board members, who must use their own computers.
Bloomberg Businessweek reports the introduction of the iPad this year has prompted many businesses to consider its uses. And going paperless is one thing, but the library at the University of Texas at San Antonio is bookless. The Applied Engineering and Technology Library provides its on-site collection only in electronic form.
