presented at the Association of Connecticut Library Boards (SCLB) 2016 Leadership Conference

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

3. A LITTLE BIT
ABOUT
me…

4. 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

5. 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.

6. The Library Director’s

7. Library Director’s Right #1
A Fair Wage

8. A GoodQuote
“It’s unwise to pay too much,
but it’s worse to pay too little.”
--John Ruskin

10. Library Director’s Right #2
timely and
appropriate feedback

12. Appropriate

14. Enjoy
Giving
Negative
feedback

15. Delivering negative feedback is as easy as
this yoga pose

16. Your Library director
is not a mind reader

17. Library Director’s Right #3
a unified and
loyal board

18. 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

19. A loyal board

21. Library Director’s Right #4
participation in the
policymaking process

23. Library Director’s Right #5
protection
from politics

25. “…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

26. advocacy

27. preventative political medicine

28. A little help from your friends

30. Library Director’s Right #6
a free hand in
personnel management

32. Library Director’s Right #7
freedom from
meddling

33. A GoodQuote
“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

34. The well-intentioned time sponge

36. “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..”

37. The special treatment seeker
favors

39. The Library Trustee’s

40. A hard day’s work

41. Effective personnel management

42. Options, not ultimatums

43. loyalty

44. Involved
Courageous
Committed
Informed

45. 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.”