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Friday, September 9, 2011

Regarding Boards


Tales from 300 Libraries


Jim Connor shared joys and sorrows of 30 plus years of board development and governance training and the ways library governance has changed. Connor is a past trustee of Jefferson County, Colorado and has been active in ALA as a private citizen. He has been active on a national level with the Chamber of Commerce and has traveled to and consulted with over 300 libraries throughout the U.S.

Observations and notes from the presentation:

Board of Trustees or members of an Advisory Board are private citizens involved in public library governing.

Trustees are volunteers.

One challenge regarding recruiting new trustees is convincing the citizens that they need to care about the library when they are a board member, and that serving is not just something to put on their resume.

Advocacy for Boards and Directors:
·         Sponsor a pot luck dinner for local officials and legislators
·         Don’t always talk about money and what you want from them
·         Get to know them as citizens

Case Study: A librarian of a small library contacted her state library for help. Her Board had not met with a quorum for over three months. Bills were not being paid and the librarian had not been paid. The state library consultant and Connor set up a meeting with the librarian and trustees. Trustees were too busy to come to the meeting. Connor left with the librarian and drove to the pig farm of the board Chair. He asked the Chair if he were aware that bills were not paid and the librarian had not been paid. The Chair had not realized the importance of meeting each month and called a meeting, contacting each board member individually. They met and took care of business. Connor convinced the Board that they needed to pay the librarian a bonus since she had gone three months without a paycheck. The library was fiscally able to do this. He then told them to pass a resolution to close the library. If the board does not care about the library, then it will close or should close. It needs a governing board that cares.

·         Value of library is result of the librarian working with the board to create excellent service and service which is relevant and of interest to citizens.

·         Understand the “value” of the library to the community.

A video is available from Wyoming State Library regarding importance of trustees and also includes trustee training – show this before a board meeting (just a few minutes each month) why aren’t we getting good trustees appointed and why aren’t they being trained? We do not tell them what their duties and responsibilities are. It is not simply a 1- hour once-per-month meeting.

Ideal situation: Board works with Director on Strategic Plan, passes a budget and then allows Director to manage the plan and the library. If a trustee comes in to micromanage specific issues or jobs, they should be booted out the back door. - Jim Connor

Bylaws must be in place. One library advisory board rewrote bylaws to make their responsibilities very non-committal. The librarian was advised to get help from her state library.

·         Many boards look at librarian as a hired hand, not as a professional.

·         Boards should visit the library and visit with the staff

·         If the librarian sees something coming that she cannot handle, get help!

·        Get a consultant to come from the State Library or Regional Library System to come and talk to the board about their responsibilities and limitations and that they need to stop micromanaging.

·         Retired librarians should NOT be named to the board.

·        The most important thing is the sustainability of the library. The library needs to be there, serving the community, for the next 100 years and more.

·       Develop a job description for the trustee. This is what you do, these are your responsibilities, and these are your limitations.

·      You want trustees that use their libraries

Many rural librarians deal with boards that micromanage. They deal with personality conflicts. If they love their job, then they need to get help from the state library to assist them in communicating the limitations of the board.

If they are not passionate about their job, they should quit. It is not worth the frustration and the angst.

END


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