Trustees

Board Orientation

Getting on Board

Click the following to watch the videos: 

  1. Orientation
  2. Board Basics
  3. Hiring and Managing Relationships
  4. Planning and Meetings
  5. Policies
  6. PR and Marketing
  7. Advocacy and Money Matters
  8. Buildings

In order for Trustees to more conveniently access the Office of Commonwealth Libraries’ DVD series, Getting on Board: Tools for Board Development and Assessment, the video program is now online.   Getting on Board is a voluntary program, developed by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries to inspire, encourage and direct performance expectations to continuously improve public library governance.

Included in the series are the following eight board development topics: Orientation, Board Basics, Hiring and Managing Relationships, Advocacy and Money Matters, Planning and Meetings, Policies, PR and Marketing and Buildings.

The videos feature best practices with practical quotes, advice and thanks from fellow Trustees, Library Directors, System Administrators, District Administrators, a Non-Profit Management Consultant, a Friend and a District Consultant.  Children, offering their thanks to trustees, will provide a delightful feature to the training sessions.  Each of the sessions runs about ten minutes long.

The program, which includes the videos and a manual was supported in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries.

Getting on Board Toolkit

Leadership by Design

Download (PDF, 691KB)

Template for a Great Board Orientation

Developing a Recruitment Plan

Board Source

General Resources for Boards

BoardSource
BoardSource is a national organization working to strengthen non profit board leadership.

Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations (PANO)
PANO is the statewide membership organization serving and advancing the nonprofit sector through advocacy, collaboration, education and other services in order to improve the overall quality of life in Pennsylvania. The Standards for Excellence offers tools and resources to empower Community Benefit Organizations (nonprofits) to meet the highest standards of nonprofit governance, management and operations.

National Council of Nonprofits
National Council of Nonprofits curates tools, resources and samples for nonprofits.

Sample Policies

United for Libraries Sample Policies 

Checklist of Library Policies


Download (PDF, 12KB)