Board training should be a prerequisite

Serving on a publicly appointed or elected board comes with much responsibility. There’s a responsibility to listen to the people you represent; a responsibility to care for the institution’s internal needs; and a responsibility of stewardship for the institution’s overarching mission and vitality.

It’s a lot to balance, and without a proper understanding of board ethics, responsibilities, procedure, and boundaries, a board is only set up to fail.

Case in point, ImagineIf Libraries, where trustee overreach has been blamed for an exodus of leadership and simmering discontent among the staff that remains. To recap, the Flathead County’s award-winning library system has lost two excellent executive directors in the last year, along with the successful executive director of the nonprofit foundation that was established with the sole purpose of bolstering the library’s offerings. The system’s assistant director position remains vacant, as well.

To be sure, ImagineIf Libraries isn’t the only local government board broiling in turmoil and turnover. January’s Flathead City-County Board of Health meeting offered an embarrassment of tensions among trustees and staff — and an embarrassment it was.

We can do better.

And while we hope it’s not a case of too little, too late, we were encouraged to learn that ImagineIf trustees were scheduled to attend a board leadership training seminar last week. It was even more encouraging to see that it was sponsored by the Flathead County Commissioners.

In fact, the meeting announcement prompted us to question why these board training sessions aren’t required curriculum for every elected or appointed trustee. We were told they happen on occasion, but not very often.

It seems that regular, professional training on board roles and responsibilities could have prevented the current strife we see with the library and health boards.

The cost for these sessions is minimal — about $500 for a session from MSU’s Local Government Center — but the payoff of a well-functioning governing body is invaluable for the people these boards serve.

The county should budget for similar seminars going forward, and our valley’s municipalities would be wise to do the same.

In the meantime, we hope ImagineIf’s trustees promptly put their new training to use. A new executive director is set to arrive next month, and she deserves nothing less than an effective and knowledgeable board to help guide her and the library staff forward.