ESTHERVILLE - The Board of Trustees of Iowa Lakes Community College learned about how valuable a decision they made in May has been to the future of the college during the regular meeting of the board on Nov. 15.
Registrar Scott Stokes was introduced by Mark Gruwell, Executive Dean of Instruction and Development. Stokes told the Trustees that their action helped put this effort on the 'fast track.' By August, scanners and software were installed in more than 10 locations ranging from Financial Aid and Admission to Housing and Athletics. By late October, the system went 'live.'
A great benefit of the FileDirector software from ActiveDataSystems in Sioux Falls is that it can be customized to meet the needs of each area of the college. This system will eventually lead to 'paperless files' for all current students.
"From this point forward, we will not be filing any paper documents for students," Stokes said. "When a document is received, it will be scanned and filed electronically into the FileDirector system."
It will also mean that students can be served in a timely manner because once the document is filed electronically, any Iowa Lakes employee, who has the appropriate security level, will have access to it.
The software has allowed the college to take a proactive step to increase the security of student files and reduce the chances for identity theft.
Stokes then gave a short demonstration of the software to the Trustees and mentioned how this step will help the college use less paper and also save money.
In other action before the Trustees, 260F training agreements were approved for existing employees at Flannegan Western Corporation and Smarts Broadcast Systems of Emmetsburg, Brown Medical Industries of Spirit Lake, and All-Star Pro Golf of Spencer.
Also during the meeting, Board of Trustees President Jan Lund set up the committee structure for the coming year.