Keys to Managing Your Board(s)

Depending on your view, most public libraries are blessed or cursed with multiple boards. These may include the library, Friends, and foundation boards, and a governing body that provides funding. Managing these boards can be critical to the success of the library. While every situation is unique, there are key principles that help effectively manage boards. Here are some of the fundamentals – in no particular order – to making your boards work better:

• Communication – Clear, regular communication goes a long way to making any board work. On one level, boards are simply groups of people gathered together on a common cause. The group needs to get the same messages and be connected regularly in order to work together. Invest in communicating directly, briefly, and often – it will pay rich dividends.

• Transparency – Libraries and their affiliated organizations need to be “open books,” for their boards, staff, and the public. Make access to information (by-laws, minutes, reports, etc.) easy to access and available in a timely manner. By not sharing all information, distrust can occur quickly and undermine board and library actions for a long time.

• Relationship Building – Board members are people, too. It is important for the director to establish good working, and even personal, relationships with board members, and particularly with board leaders. Having a relationship that is deeper builds trust and understanding.

• Leadership – It is important that the library director, and board chair/officers take a leadership role. They need to have vision, direction, and adopt a role of managing and inspiring other board members. Leaders don’t do it all – they inspire other people to work for the cause.

• Clear Processes and Roles – Boards are mini-organizations, and they need processes that make sense and are understood by all. These include good by-laws, effective agendas, and clear responsibilities for committees. Role clarification is also vitally important. What does the library board, director, and private support organizations do – and, perhaps more importantly, not do? Where is there overlap in roles, and how is that clarified?

• Vision and Direction – People are motivated by other people and a sense of purpose and accomplishment. Boards without a vision and plan typically are ineffective and have trouble recruiting new members. Each board attached to the library should have vision and direction that guides its activities, and motivates its members. Ideally, each board’s direction is informed by the over-arching vision and plan for the library.

Managing the various library boards takes time and resources. When managed effectively, boards bring new resources, focus, energy, and success to public libraries. But all too often the reverse is true. By not taking the time to manage a board, the risk is that the board will be ineffective, waste precious time, and even be a negative for staff and the community. Library Strategies works with libraries to improve board effectiveness, through retreats, workshops, planning processes and more. Contact us any time to discuss how we might help your board become more effective.

-Stu Wilson
Principal Consultant