Registration is now open for Wisconsin Trustee Training Week 2022. This year's webinars will be held from August 22 - 26. There will be one webinar each day from noon to 1 p.m. on a topic that's relevant to public library boards, friends, and trustees. Webinars are available free of charge and are open to anyone.
The schedule of presentations is as follows:
- Monday, August 22 -- Materials Challenges and Your Library from the Trustee Table-- Regardless of whether or not your library has had a request for reconsideration of library materials, the increase in challenges is dramatic, and quite frankly, upsetting. Becky Spratford, an expert in serving leisure readers through the public library with over 20 years of experience as a locally elected library trustee, Reaching Across Illinois Library System board member, and Illinois Library Association Executive Board member, will walk you through everything you need to do to prepare for a request to ban titles at your library. From the steps you need to take right now, to how to properly handle a challenge from your seat at the trustee table, Becky will help you to put the emotions aside and protect intellectual freedom.
- Tuesday, August 23 -- Here to Stay: Recruiting & Retaining Dedicated Library Workers -- The highly competitive job market makes it much harder for libraries to attract and keep library staff - including directors. While libraries might struggle to compete with other employers on wage scales, they can create a culture of inclusivity, inspiration, and belonging that appeals to creative and hard-working employees. This session will include practical tools for library boards like improving board-director relationships, reviewing job descriptions, and investigating options for improved salaries and benefits, and more to make your library a great place to work and help reduce staff turnover and shortages.
- Wednesday, August 24 -- Effective & Efficient Meetings: Parliamentary Procedure -- Planning great meetings and running them effectively and efficiently is crucial to a strong organization. This webinar will help make parliamentary procedure understandable and useful to you as well as focus on the tools to help you with the meetings you conduct and attend. After this webinar, the attendees will not only have a better understanding of parliamentary procedure but will have the knowledge and skills to help run an effective meeting.
- Thursday, August 25 -- Making Sense & Cents of a Library Building Project: The Library Trustee Role -- Public libraries around Wisconsin are building, expanding, and/or renovating their spaces. Your Library Director or Building Consultant is recommending to the board the need for additional library space. What is the role of the library board? How can the library board support the project? John Thompson will share some tips and insights on the library board role, an overview of the process, some of the costs involved, and how potential choices might impact the project and library services.
- Friday, August 26 -- From Stories to Action: How to Talk about Your Budget to Activate Support & Secure Funding -- The core of any library's strategic plan, management plan, or development plan is the organization's own mission, vision, and values system. But very often, the plans describe the “features” of the library, like hours, collections, staffing levels, and facilities rather than the expected or hoped-for outcomes. And library leaders are ready to share powerful stories about how the library impacts users, but not often about their own work. Learn how to talk about your funding in a new way by talking about you, your staff, and board, and why you do the work you do.
You must register for each webinar individually at www.wistrusteetraining.com. More information, including bios of the presenters, is also available at the link above, and you can also access recordings from the 2015-21 webinars.
Trustee Training Week (TTW) is produced by the South Central Library System with support from all Wisconsin Public Library Systems. TTW is funded in part by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services which administers the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). Thank you!
