Case Study 2 - Voluntary Sports Organisation

Customer Profile
The Irish Orienteering Association (IOA) is the national governing body for the sport of Orienteering in the Republic of Ireland. It is responsible for 22 clubs with 1,200 active members. It is a voluntary organisation - the Executive Officers are not paid for their work.

The Situation
Like many voluntary or non-profit organisations, the IOA's Committee must meet on a periodic basis. Previously meetings were in the evenings with venues spread around the country, meaning that all Officers had to drive a considerable distance to most meetings. Scheduling meetings was difficult as they required many people to take time off their own jobs to attend and give up time with their families. According to Marcus Geoghegan, IOA Chairman "we found that attendance at quarterly meetings was a real imposition on the Executive Officers. Most have full-time jobs and families, and to drive 150 miles to attend a 2-hour meeting in the evening was too much".  The IOA trialled a number of conference call providers, but found service and reliability to be poor.

The Solution - 247meeting's Conference Call service
The IOA signed up online for 247meeting's free trial conference service and tried it with a meeting - "there was no problem, better than previous facilities we were using. We had callers from all over the country, including Northern Ireland, there were no dropouts and call quality was excellent".

The Benefits
In addition to the ease-of-use, the IOA will benefit in terms of time and money - "we reckon that for an average 6-person meeting, we save 30 hours of driving time between us, and that's before we count the savings in travel costs. Compared to the small fee for a conference call, the financial, environmental and time benefits make it an easy choice for us"