Interesting dilemma.
When I served as a Life Trustee on the Board of
Trustees of the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music
Hall, in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, in the late 1990s, a
similar dilemma faced the Board of Trustees.
Our Library Director was seriously considering running
for Mayor of Carnegie. The problem was that, at that
time, the Mayor and all six Borough Councilmen also
held ex-officio posiitons on the Library Board of
Trustees, as arranged by Andrew Carnegie's original
Declaration of Trust agreement.
Most of the members of the Board of Trustees did not
want the Library Director to run for Mayor. In the
end, she did not run for Mayor. A former Borough Mayor
told me that, although she could have received the
Democratic nomination for Borough Councilman, he
doubted she could have received the Democratic
nomination for Mayor.
However, in my view, had she decided to run for Mayor
this was her right as a resident of Carnegie. The
Library is not a legal part of Borough Government;
legally, it is a separate entity governed by Andrew
Carnegie's Trust agreement.
Just because the Trust agreement placed the Mayor on
the Library Board should not limit her ability, as a
citizen, to run for political office. Had she won the
Mayor's race, she could have simply abstained from
voting at Library Board meetings; from an ethical
standpoint, that should have been sufficient.
Politics is everywhere; it cannot be avoided. I see no
real conflict-of-interest with a Library Board member
also working in the local historical society. Indeed,
this would actually be a great fit!
And, in my experience, you may be one of the few
Library Board members with real interest in the
library and willing to actually do some work to help
the library! A lot of board members of libraries and
museums are just poltical appointees looking to use
the board position to climb the ladder to a better
political posiiton. You could be a real asset to the
library and deciding not to join the Board would be
one less truly dedicated Board member for that
library.
Every library is different, in regards to how their
Board members are selected. An election as a Library
Board member does not mean that the politics will
color your interest in the future of the Library.
Indeed, by asking this question on this listserver,
it sounds to me like you would go out of your way to
ensure that politics does not interfere with your
library or museum activities. I wish we had more Board
members who were truly concerned about this.
If you really are interested in serving your local
public library, as a Board member, then go for it--do
not let a little thing such as an election stop you. I
served on the Library Board of Trustees for five
years, and I found the service very gratifying. I am
sure you would to.
Good luck to you!
gaw
--- Kimberly Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 13:10:32 -0400
From: "Kimberly Richards" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Question
To: [log in to unmask]
> I've been asked to sit on the Board of Directors for
> our public library.
> However, in order to keep the position, the Board
> President is now asking me
> to run for election in November to keep my Board
> seat, which is based on the
> Legislative Districts in the County. While I feel
> this is a good
> opportunity, I also feel this is a conflict of
> interest, since I work at the
> local historical society. I do not think it is a
> good idea to mix politics
> with my job in the community, even though the only
> political aspect of the
> board position is the district election. Has anyone
> been in a similiar
> position? Are there any thoughts regarding this
> matter?
>
> Thank you for your time!
> Kim Richards
gaw
Glenn A. Walsh
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