How to Become a Trustee

Last night was the November meeting of the Board of Trustees. Along with the usual items of business and some other special topics, we reluctantly voted to accept the resignation of Rick Duvall, who has been one of stalwarts of the Board since 2004.  His work as an attorney and his duties to his family have recently become too demanding for him to devote the attention to the Library Board that he feels it deserves. He plans to continue as a friend to the Board, available for legal advice or special projects. Even so, we will miss him enormously.

The Board of Trustees is a self-perpetuating body consisting of from eleven to fifteen community-minded Library patrons who are willing to devote at least one evening a month to managing this important resource for Pleasant Valley--although I would be less than honest if I said that the one-evening-a-month minimum is a good description of the time most Trustees spend working for the Library. Everyone is on one or two committees, except for the Board president who is ex officio on all of them. Some other jobs are especially demanding, also.  Although the Library has a paid bookkeeper and accountant, the treasurer is responsible for making sure the Library is on a sound financial basis, reporting to the Board, and even signing most checks.  Some committees, such as the Building Expansion Fund Raising Committee (which includes many community members as well as Trustees), meet monthly. Members of the action committees, such as Building and Grounds,  are at the Library several times a week as they work to maintain and improve the physical plant. 

One important committee is the Nominating Committee, which is responsible not only for nominating a slate of officers each year, but also for recruiting  new Trustees to maintain the Board as needed.  Rick's resignation brings the number of Trustees on the Board down to thirteen.  There is enough work for the Board to do that we really can use our full complement of fifteen members, although sometimes  we go for months with fewer as the Nominating Committee searches for candidates.

When a candidate is found as a possible Trustee, the candidate is supposed to supply a short document on his or her qualifications for being a Trustee.  There is an interview with the committee and perhaps other Trustees, which is as much for the current Trustees to explain the operations of the Board to the candidate as it is for the Trustees to get to know the candidate.  Following that, the Board votes on accepting the candidate.  In practice, the recruiting process by the committee is the main hurdle to membership; once a candidate is recruited, it would be a rare event if Board membership did not follow.

Trustees are elected for three-year terms, but most choose to stay for several terms. Currently there is a "term limit" of five terms.

This year, although no one has reached the term limit, there are several Trustees who have completed several terms already, and it is expected that some will choose to refuse another term.  As a result, we may find in January that we are at our minimum operating strength of eleven members.  If you are a reader of this blog (and not already a Trustee), you are very likely a good candidate to full one of those four positions that are likely to be open. If you would like to become a Trustee, please submit your qualifications to the Library by giving them to the Library Director, Daniela Pulice, who will forward the information to the Nominating Committee.  We will then consider you for one of the vacancies in the Board in 2009.