A (mostly) light-hearted look at how what trustees do – and don’t do – impacts their library directors.

A LITTLE BIT

ABOUT me…

Town Municipal Public Library; 96,000 residents, suburb of Rochester, NY

7 member library board, appointed by Town Board

50 staff, civil service, full-time and part-time union

Active Friends organization supports all programming

Your job as a library board is to ensure that your library director has what

he or she needs to deliver the kind of library service that your community deserves.

The Library Director’s

Library Director’s Right #1

A Fair Wage

A Good Quote

“It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little.”

--John Ruskin

Library Director’s Right #2

timely and appropriate feedback

Appropriate

Enjoy Giving

Negative feedback

Delivering negative feedback is as easy as this yoga pose

Your Library director is not a mind reader

Library Director’s Right #3

a unified and loyal board

A unified board “Debate, discussion, and even disagreement over an issue are an important part of policy development and the decision making process. However, every trustee has an ethical obligation to publicly support an adopted board decision.”

- Handbook for Library Trustees of New York State

A loyal board

Library Director’s Right #4

participation in the policymaking process

Library Director’s Right #5

protection from politics

“…there needs to be more focus on how the board interacts with the town……….this is just as important if not more important than the approach they take to decisions within the library.”

“…I wish they would all be active members, attend town budget meetings as support, and continue to act as library ambassadors in the community.”

“Cannot seem to hammer home enough the importance of board members being the library's #1 advocates and how they should go about fulfilling this role.”

Protection from politics also means a commitment to advocacy

advocacy

preventative political medicine

A little help from your friends

Library Director’s Right #6

a free hand in personnel management

Library Director’s Right #7

freedom from meddling

A Good Quote

“The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”

--Theodore Roosevelt

The well-intentioned time sponge

“My board treats my time as if it were their own…...they drop in on me and expect me to be available to drop everything..”

The special treatment seeker

favors

The Library Trustee’s

A hard day’s work

Effective personnel management

Options, not ultimatums

loyalty

Involved Courageous Committed Informed

Positive feedback “A consistently excellent and increasingly professional

board has been the key to every success here.”

“I have a great board!”

“By and large I have had an outstanding relationship with my Boards over the years. I attribute this to fostering excellent communication between myself and

each of the individual Board members, particularly those in leadership positions, as well as cultivation of a collegial relationship.”

“I feel very fortunate to have a supportive board and a knowledgeable group of volunteers.”