Teleconferencing.

Who planes, trains and automobiles?

The National Benevolent Association (NBA) in St. Louis saved nearly $5,000 in travel costs and lodging expenses by not sending people to a meeting.

That doesn't mean the staff didn't get an education.

The organization employed three-way, interactive video conferencing for a meeting involving the nonprofit and representatives from Christian churches in Indianapolis, Phoenix, and Alhambra, Calif.

The NBA, which ranked 47th in last year's NPT 100 listing the of largest nonprofits, had been contemplating video conferencing, and the timing of the organization's building renovations, and a $500,000 grant from the Anheuser-Busch Foundation couldn't have come at a better time.

According to NBA President Cindy Dougherty, the organization thought video conferencing would result in better stewardship of resources if executives weren't always flying all over the country for meetings - not to mention savings from hotel, meal and rental car expenses.

The problem facing the NBA, according to Doughety, was the cost of setting up a technology center without "taking the food out of the mouths of abused children and citizens."

A $500,000 grant from the Anheuser-Busch Foundation became part of the NBA's building renovation plans, which totaled $2.65 million. The existing 30-foot in diameter boardroom was transformed in to the technology center, named the Anheuser-Busch Technology Center.

While not all of NBA's 87 facilities have video-conference centers, three are in the process of obtaining the technology, and one is actually up and running, according to Dougherty.

Although many of NBA's affiliates do not have the video-conferencing equipment yet, anyone that wants to set up a two-way or training videoconference with the St. Louis tech center can go to their local Kinko's, which has videoconferencing capabilities, and participate in a conference there. "We've done a number of video conferences in those public settings," she added.

The technology

NBA's $2.65 million building improvement project began in 1998 - finishing up in September 2000. The office space was increased from 76 workstations to 116, and upgraded ergonomics, sound proofing, higher technology, and a library were added.

The technology center was added during the second phase of the project, thus pushing back completion, said Dougherty. The existing round boardroom posed problems for the NBA, but an eight-foot screen was constructed behind a corrugated wooden front, and a stereo DVD system was installed.

The 30-foot wide boardroom was constructed with three remote controlled/automated video cameras, 12 microphones, and an eight-foot rear projection screen and the control panel for the tech equipment.

The control panel allows the staff to do videoconferencing; telephone conferencing; show videos or DVDs for training; show PowerPoint, Web-based, or other computer screens; and to project documents. The recorders and speakers are mounted in cabinets adjoining the projection screen.

An adjoining projection and equipment room is 8' by 14', and was created out of part of NBA's former lobby space. This room contains the video projector; recorders; audio amplifiers, echo canceling and related audio filters and components.

"I mean it's a complete technology center," Dougherty said. "It works on a three-camera system with voice-activated microphones at each station around this table, which very comfortably seats 28 people."

The three cameras track the person who's talking within a tenth of a second, and with only a one to two second delay, said David Sauer, sales engineer of St. Louis-based VMI Company, who installed the technology.

Sauer said the costs of a videoconferencing unit vary depending upon budgetary restraints, but a very simple, portable set up for a couple people could be done for roughly $15,000.

"If you're looking at an entire boardroom presentation system with video-conferencing you'd probably be more in the area of ... it really can range . A range of a system similar to that (NBA's) would probably be anywhere from, depending on capabilities, from $50,000 to $100,000," he added.

Video Conferencing vs. Streaming Video 

There are two explanations of videoconferencing and people often confuse them, said Doug Green, president of Rochester, N.Y.-based MMI Events, who works mostly with for-profit organizations on videoconferencing.

"One is videoconferencing, which is actually not conferencing but streaming where there's a meeting going on, or a conference going on, and you can sit in your office and, if you will, join the meeting without actually being there," Green explained.

"It has all kinds of various names and it's not really videoconferencing. Videoconferencing (where there is interaction among participants) is where two or three people can sit in one location and two or three people can sit in another, somewhere else in the world, and through the use of (a) medium called videoconferencing communicate back and forth with each other.... That's true videoconferencing."

According to Green, there are numerous Fortune 500, for-profit organizations using videoconferencing for weekly meetings. However, he does not see the nonprofit sector using the medium on a large scale. "For the life of me I don't know why," said Green.

Green offered a reason why nonprofits aren't using videoconferencing. "No group dynamic can be established."

Gathering people together, in the same room, develops a group dynamic that otherwise doesn't happen through a video screen.

Given that, the way board meetings are conducted would also change under the video meeting concept, wouldn't it?

"Yes it does. And what you don't have, the element that you miss now is this thing that I call the group dynamic. It doesn't exist. ... It can't be there. And so that's one of the elements that's missing," Green added.

Chapter, or affiliated organizations are not using videoconferencing as a means of communication as much as one might think. Of those nonprofits contacted by The NPT, most said they are not conducting videoconferences.

Alexandria, Va.-based United Way of America has dabbled in videoconferencing since 1992, according to Philip Jones, director, media relations. But UWA's focus changed with the abundance of executive turnover.

After having three videoconferences in 1992, one of which included The Leadership 18 (17 executives were part of it at the time) discussion about the United Way in San Francisco terminating its funding of the Boy Scouts; one in 1993, and one when Elaine Chao was introduced as president, there were none in 1995, 1996 and 1997.

"I mean over the last couple of years we've not really done them (videoconferences) except with this opportunity with the certificate program," Jones said.

According to Jones, the initial goal was to set up a nationwide network ,but the focus changed after the turmoil at UWA in 1992. Nevertheless, UWA still has the technology available to them and other nonprofits in the Alexandria area, he said.

Some organizations added that it could be possible in the future.

According to Bill Shaffer, senior director, information technology, for the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the Alexandria, Va.-based organization is not currently holding videoconferences because it doesn't have the technology to do so. However, he said AFP has experimented with streaming video with its Long Island, N.Y Chapter in the past.

Rod Zuch, director of advancement for University of Stony Brook in New York said when he was chairman of the Long Island Chapter of AFP's Philanthropy Day in 1999 they successfully completed a live Internet feed of NPT columnist Thomas A. McLaughlin's keynote address. Notably, $15,000 to $20,000 worth of technology was donated.

"It was a small conference center. I believe there was maybe 25 or 30 people. And they (the national office of AFP, and members of the United Way) received our keynote speaker, Tom McLaughlin, live," explained Zuch. "We had the capacity to plug it in two-way - we just downed the mic ... I just wanted to prove the concept worked."

Zuch then took McLaughlin's keynote address and broadcast it live on the Internet where 547 concurrent users logged on. "And that basically doubled the number of people I reached just by using technology," Zuch said.

But technically that was not a video meeting where there is two-way interaction among the participants. "Basically we did a stream over the Net and we did a live one-way conference to a facility in D.C.," said Zuch.

A problem that may crop up when trying to deal with video streaming of a conferencing, Zuch said, is holding it at a facility with the proper lines.

"A lot of them now are realizing that's a faux paux in their (facility). When they renovate they're putting in digital, or they're putting in whatever they need," Zuch said.

Another point Zuch brought up is the fact that nonprofits are more inclined to focus on mission rather than on infrastructure. "Particularly more your social service organizations take precedent over infrastructure and they may not always address (videoconferencing)," Zuch said. "This may be considered a bell and whistle as opposed to an economy of scale. I really do believe that it is something that our sector should embrace."

AFP's Shaffer said the organization is currently looking into the tools and technology but nothing has been decided. "We've recently implemented an online collaborative work tool, but it's not videoconferencing," Shaffer said.

But in terms of Web conferencing, as the term might be applied to the old satellite up-link/down-link teleconference, AFP is not quite there yet. And Shaffer admitted that he didn't know if they would conduct two-way videoconferences in the future or not.

"If we do (use two-way videoconferencing) I think what we will do is it will supplement our current travel - it won t replace it," Shaffer added. "The meetings that we have, the board meetings and the like, are done in conjunction with other conferences that we've put on."

According to Amy Blagriff, manager of distance learning for Washington, D.C.-based American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), the association is not currently doing videoconferences, but as the costs go down it could move in that direction, "if they solve the bandwidth issue soon, then a number of us will be moving in that area," Blagriff said.

What ASAE is currently doing, and has been doing since November of 1999, consists of live audio seminars where people from all over can either listen by telephone, and follow hand outs, or follow online with a PowerPoint presentation.

So what do you need to participate in an ASAE seminar?

Blagriff said,"A: you need a separate phone line, B: you need a computer with a projector to project the slides on the screen, and the speaker while the person is speaking has the ability to annotate the slides live ... So for instance just like in a conference where somebody might highlight something, etc., the speaker can do that, or they could take you on a Web tour."

Another aspect of the ASAE seminars is participants can call in or email questions directly to the speaker. "It's like a talk radio show in that you can call in your questions to the speaker and then you would be bridged in and the speaker would actually hear you ask a question, live, said Blagriff.

The seminars cost $149 per site and ASAE has had as many as 120 sites participate during any of its 13 annual seminars. And the cost for ASAE's 90-minute seminars comes in under $5,000, Blagriff added.

Who has the technology?

The NBA's Dougherty said that a number of universities across the country have video-conferencing technology, as well. As a visiting teaching executive at Dartmouth College she taught 60 business students from the tech center when she was snowed in and couldn't fly to the Hanover, N.H., campus. That saved Dougherty time and she only had to travel 100 feet (from her office to the tech center) to conduct the class.

Saving travel costs is a big part of what videoconferencing affords the NBA, but another thing it allows for is an employee to go home to their families at night, Dougherty noted.

"We probably saved $6,000 in travel costs in the first two months," Dougherty explained. "I know we did a videoconference with CEOs ... I think we had six. We had four CEOs, and a number of people here in four different locations. And what would have been an overnight out of six different states ended up being a videoconference that lasted three hours."

She continued, "But we did have to meet face-to-face. We did need to be able to look at construction plans and share them so it wasn't like we could just do it on teleconference. And we moved some buildings around and moved some load-bearing walls and we had our conference and everybody got to sleep in their own bed that night."

And where will the revenue savings be used, you might ask?

Dougherty said, for $200 a day a child can be taken from an abusive situation and into the care of the NBA Colorado Christian home. So that's 30 children that can be saved and not been in a crisis situation.

And for $175 dollars a day someone is cared for in NBA's Alzheimer's treatment center. "We're talking about senior citizens who are safe and can live their lives in the least restrictive environment," she said.

A $3,000 specialized wheelchair was just purchased for a quadriplegic resident, said Dougherty, and with 80 percent of NBA facilities having lengthy waiting lists, any additional savings is rolled right back into pro grams.

"I mean we try and alleviate those waiting lists, but they seem to be growing as fast as we are."

The NBA has also made the video conferencing technology available to their local United Way, in addition to the local Regional Chamber Growth Association.

"We partner with a group called Oasis (another 501(c)(3) in St Louis) and they have access to it. So we're not just using it specifically for NBA but for other nonprofits that could use that kind of technology," said Dougherty. "And all they have to pay for is the line time."

According to Jimmie Alford chair and CEO of the Afford Group Inc in Skokie, Ill., he has coordinated three training videoconferences where for between 150 to 200 sites around the country for the national Certificate Program in Nonprofit Management, sponsored by the United Way of America, The Learning Institute for Nonprofit Organizations, and the University of Wisconsin.

The three partners began the program in 1998 and the seminars were broadcast from the University of Wisconsin at Madison using Public Broadcast System's down link system, explained Afford, who is one of nine program senior faculty members.

"I'm in a studio and literally they put PowerPoint right on the screen, and I have to organize all of this stuff obviously in advance," Alford said. "But I also had exercises in the various sites, there was a facilitator in each site."

He continued, "There would be a facilitator at each site with a workbook that I had developed with the folks at the Learning Institute. And then the people on site could fax back or call back with questions or comments, or interactions."

Alford explained that he sits on a handful of national boards and many of the meetings are done via teleconference, but videoconferencing would enhance the quality.

But as for the third sector embracing the technology Alford said, "I guess my sense is when the cost comes down it becomes more convenient. There's already the technology... The see-you see-me technology with computers ... I think in five years it'll become very common to have everybody at their own desk and when you start to talk (a camera and microphone will) switch to that person."