Board Watcher Bingo
Happy June, Library Defenders!
Lots to cover today, including the introduction of Board Watcher Bingo, upcoming events, a data collection project update, and last, but definitely not least, our monthly volunteer scoreboard and prize giveaway announcement.
Board Watcher Bingo
Have you heard of Court Watchers? The central idea of that project is that "bad things happen in empty courtrooms," (which, let's be real, bad things happen in all courtrooms).
Because bad things also happen at unattended public library Board of Trustee meetings, we’re encouraging you to become Board Watchers for your local public library system. For The People would especially like to encourage those of you who have indicated that you're interested in being seated on your local public library boards to take up this activity. Our spin on the Court Watchers idea also includes bingo, because we want you to have fun! The Board Watcher Bingo squares feature common public library board of trustee responsibilities, activities, or topics.
Here's how to become a Board Watcher:
Find out when your local public library's next board meeting is (in person or remote).
Put it on your calendar (pro board watcher move: put a recurring item on your calendar based on when these meetings usually occur!).
Identify and review any public agendas or perhaps take a look at the "minutes" from previous meetings.
Attend the board meeting and play Board Watcher Bingo while you attend (download as image or download as pdf).
Take notes while you play (Did you cross off the POLICIES square? What types of policies were discussed? Cross off the ACCESS square? What type of access was covered? Was it access to technology, to facilities, to collections, or something else?)
Extra credit task #1 (worth one square of your choice): Read the public library trustee handbook for your state, or read a general public library trustee handbook if there isn't a dedicated one for your state. Huge thanks to FTP volunteer Lauren for the research help pulling these together: Library Trustee Handbook Collection.
Extra credit task #2 (worth TWO squares of your choice, wow!): Sign up to make a public comment and speak at a public library board meeting. Here's a great set of talking points that you can check out for inspiration. If you don’t have a current issue or problem that you want to address, and you’re not sure what to talk about, find something you think your library is doing well or recount a recent positive experience you had as a library user! Most libraries only hear from patrons with problems (which is entirely legitimate), so adding something positive to the mix can go a long way and shows that there is community support for what you love about your local public library.
It may take multiple board meetings or a meeting plus an extra credit item or two before you’re able to complete a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line through your bingo card and that’s okay!
The first 25 people to complete their bingo card can fill out this form to receive a small gift from us (Library Defenders Stickers, For The People buttons, and/or postcards).
Upcoming Events of Interest
June 7th - Run for Something is hosting their next Candidate Intro webinar
June 7th - United for Libraries has an event titled The Library Ecosystem: One Voice for Advocacy
June 8th - Library Freedom Project is hosting a super interesting sounding event titled Power Mapping and Open Source Intelligence
June 11th - If you happen to be in Minnesota, join Library Patrons Union at their next meetup. (And if you're not in Minnesota, you should do yourself a favor and follow them on Instagram, they're doing inspiring and important work!)
June 22nd - Are you in Chicago, or will you be there for ALA this year? Haymarket Books is hosting a Left Library Workers Meet and Greet. And keep an eye out for the “Left Track” recommendations for attending ALA too.
June 27th - Run for Something is hosting their next See Yourself Running webinar
July 28th-29th - If you happen to be in the Pacific Northwest, Library Freedom Project is hosting a regional meetup for library workers in Portland, Oregon over these two days. Learn more via the Abolitionist Library Association newsletter
Data Collection Project Update
For The People is compiling the first-ever nationwide database of public library board seats to support leftists in running for (or seeking appointment to) office. This has been a huge volunteer effort and it is truly inspiring to see so many people coming together to move this project forward. Since we kicked this project off in March, we've had 130+ people sign up to research a batch of 25 or more public library systems.
We've now seen 92% of the total dataset checked-out (someone’s committed to working on it), and 38% of the total dataset has been returned (completed). This is incredible progress, and we'd love to keep things moving in the right direction. We've got 733 public library systems left that still need to be checked out to volunteers, if we can get 30 new volunteers to each sign up for a batch of 25 this month we'll be at 100% "checked out".
Research for a batch of 25 takes somewhere between 2.5 and 5 hours to work through, and it's a really neat way to learn about libraries that you otherwise may never have encountered. It's actually really fun if you like public libraries and know your way around a search bar! Plus if you volunteer on this project you become eligible for our monthly prize giveaways (see more details below).
Monthly Volunteer Scoreboard and Prize Giveaway
We are so grateful to everyone who has pitched in on this research effort, you are all making a real difference. Congratulations to our month-of-May prize winners, Tracy, Ben, and Lauren, thank you so much for your incredible contributions! We will be reaching out to you individually to coordinate your prizes.
Want to join the fun? Feel free to sign up for a batch if you'd like to contribute during the month of June!
You can learn more about the monthly scoreboard and prize giveaway by reading a previous issue of our newsletter here. Most importantly though, the exciting prizes you could be winning are listed below:
1st place🥇: Two items from the For the People Bonfire Store (not to exceed $70 in total value) + A signed copy of Mariame Kaba's book Let This Radicalize You (or a $10 Bookshop gift certificate)
2nd place 🥈: One item from the For the People Bonfire Store (not to exceed $30 in total value) + A signed copy of Mariame Kaba's book Let This Radicalize You (or a $10 Bookshop gift certificate)
3rd place 🥉: A signed copy of Mariame Kaba's book Let This Radicalize You (or a $10 Bookshop gift certificate)
Sign up for a batch here! Be sure to choose the option to “Find and share library board data for a larger list of libraries".
Awesome!
Thank you!!!