WebJunction

For instance:

I'm now on the local Chamber's "education committee." The library and the Chamber have had a relationship since long before I came as the new director three years ago ... but now I've a more formal role.

I should note that while I would not mind being a Chamber director I do not want to be Chamber president. There are two reasons. First, "been there, done that, got the T-shirt" by being a Chamber president in another community nearly 20 years previous. Second, electing a "government employee" as a Chamber president is (or should be) an act of desparation -- what's best for the library in terms of "property tax income" may not be something the Chamber should approve. For instance, a local Chamber having many small retail members might protest a new WalMart while a library director sensing NEW TAX DOLLARS might want it.

It's sorta like blood in the water for us budget-driven types.

Anyway, this new education committee affords some useful cooperation. It gives the library an new opportunity to make its meeting rooms available (at 8 in the morning!) for "business education", it gives us an opportunity to develop programming (giving the Chamber a chance to "sell itself" to the public at least once a year), and it gives the library an additional opportunity to build a partnership with the Chamber. This latter will be extremely important when the library must, in 6 or 7 years, go to the voters for a building expansion referendum.

It does not hurt that the current head of the county's Republic Party is also on this committee. I figure that if the library can at least neutralize opposition by the "conservative side of the political equation" it will have a better chance at the polls.

Finally ... here's one gambit: the Chamber sent an e-mail to its membership asking for business book title suggestions. The library, likely enough, already owns them ... but we likely don't focus enough on the needs of small businesses (as opposed to investors) and may well be surprised. In any case, spending a couple hundred dollars a year in Chamber membership requested business books may well be an essential investment ... it helps us demonstrate an ROI that the business community can understand.