To Find Twelve Good Library Supporters

Tomorrow night--the third Thursday in the month--is the regular monthly meeting of the Trustees of the Pleasant Valley Free Library.  I, to my regret, will miss it.  An organization I support in which my wife is actively involved failed to recognize the importance of the third Thursday and scheduled its annual gathering on that date, and I had long ago promised to attend. I do not like to miss Board meetings, and usually only am absent the meeting if I am also absent the state on vacation, but sometimes it is out of my control.
     A couple of other Trustees have also for good reasons announced they will miss the November meeting, which leaves the Board very close to not having a quorum--which in effect is seven out of the dozen members of the Board if we have a full Board of twelve Trustees. Currently we are one Trustee short and so six would constitute a quorum of eleven Trustees. The rule in the by-laws is "No decision of any kind shall be made without a simple majority of the Governing Board present or polled."  Recently the Board has held a couple of monthly meetings without a quorum, or started a meeting without one (but eventually a late-arriving member brought the number up to quorum level).  One hopes that we will fare better this November.
     It is not clear to me why this is a problem, although some may stem from a change a couple of years ago from a fifteen-member Board to a twelve-member Board.  With fifteen members, even if seven were absent, there was still a quorum.  
     But I really think it must be something else. Today it seems as if Americans are either not involved in anything or else involved in practically everything. Of course, those Americans who are not involved in anything are not on Library Boards.  Thus, the Board gets citizens who are involved in dealing with multiple organizations (why I am missing this meeting) or have multiple business interests (why another Trustee is missing this meeting) or have other distractions.  Today's parents spend more time driving their children to sports and other school-related functions that we did when my children were in school--this applies to the people involved in nothing for their community as well as to those involved in everything, but I mention it because it affects Board attendance.
     Perhaps twelve is too few for a Board that relies on members to be involved in many ways, not just to appear and vote on issues presented to it.  I don't think many Board members skip meetings just because they don't feel like it. 
     We are coming to the end of the year and several current Trustees have indicated that they will not be able to serve next year, in part because they are involved in too much of everything.  So the Library will be looking for several new Trustees.  Remember if you wish to become one of them, we really need to have a quorum. 
UPDATE ON THIRD THURSDAY
A survey revealed that the Board could not convene a quorum today, so the meeting has been postponed until later in the month.
     As noted above, several Trustees will be leaving the Board at the end of 2010.  We are one short now, and I know of three Trustees leaving for sure and possibly a fourth. So come January 1, the Board could be down to seven members.
   If you would like to become a Library Trustee, use the COMMENTS section below to provide your name and either a phone number or email address (or both) or else email me at bbunch@hvc.rr.com. The head of the Nominating Committee will then get in touch with you about details of applying.  Remember that the main obligation of a Trustee is to be present on the third Thursday of each month for a meeting that lasts generally from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm--occasionally later.  Of course, Trustees often have committee assignments that require additional meetings and many Trustees volunteer for fundraising or helping the Friends in other ways.  But the main duty is to be present for those meetings.