The first actual conference session that I attended was a “dud.” The topic was financial planning for the future, which I assumed to mean the library’s future, when, in fact, it was a session on planning for individual retirement. Taking advice from one of the preconference speakers, I left that session when I realized it wouldn’t be useful to me, and spent the time exploring exhibits. I focused particularly on vendors of book trucks, library cards, and book drops – all things that my library will be purchasing within the next year (or sooner).
I attended an excellent session on Library board/Friends/staff roles with a panel of speakers who described various models of board/director relationships and strategies to encourage the Friends of the Library to work more effectively with the library board and staff. Some ideas that I took back from this session included:
- Redoing a trustee training session every time a new board member is hired (so that all will be on the same page about the role of board members versus the library director and staff)
- Looking into state laws on term limits for board members (and discussing the possibility of term limits with my board members)
- Proposing the idea of a board evaluation (to be conducted by the board or by members of the community in accordance with ALTA publication on this topic)
- Liaisons from our two school districts providing representation on the library board
- Written job descriptions for library trustees
- Circulating library journals to trustees to keep them in the loop about library issues.
North Valley Public Library
208 Main St.
Stevensville MT 59870
reneemcgrath@northvalleylibrary.org
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