Week 13 Post

Week 13 at my IPPL practicum went a bit differently. Sure, I had my usual Kids and Teens Desk time - assisting patrons with catalog lookups, setting them up on the Nintendo Switch, and making sure that behavior expectations were being followed - but this week also contained one of the monthly IPPL board meetings, and for the first time, I was able to sit in a observe.  

The board is made up of several unpaid elected officials. They represent a variety of age ranges and racial demographics, which seem to be representative of the patronage as a whole. No one from the public attended to comment, which they indicated was not unusual, but they seemed to be grateful nonetheless.  They expressed that public comment can get quite heated at times. Besides the typical board-related items of approving consent agendas and other fiscal matters, they heard a presentation from senior librarian Erin regarding her work as the Programming and Outreach department's Early Literacy expert. She went over the programs that she had run, toys that she had purchased for Little Town, and outreach that she and others had done at local schools and daycares. The board and nothing but praise to say about her work and that of the entire P&O team. Since most of my time at IPPL is spent with P&O, this was really wonderful to hear. 

Sphere 2 of the PLA Leadership Model is all about the organization itself:

  • Organization: How does a leader guide an organization through change and help the organization adapt to constant change as the new normal?
    • Discovering new ideas
    • Building vision
    • Operating strategically
    • Taking risks and seizing opportunities

When I sat in the board room, it was easy to slip into a state of mind that this was all rote repetitiveness, but when you look at past agenda, you can see that in each meeting there are instances where the board needed to take decisive action, or spend taxpayer money, or make difficult decisions that hadn't come up before.  Each meeting brings new challenges that these unpaid people have to tackle for the greater good of their constituents.  That's pretty remarkable. 

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