1. With a Little Help From Our Friends
A re:volution in Library Advocacy
GOLD/GALILEO Conference
July 31, 2009

2. It’s All About re:lationships!
Or…
It’s All About re:lationships!

3. Friends Do we need them? How can they help us?
How do we help them be successful?
How many of you have Friends groups?
What do they do for you?
We’re going to talk about how to get a group started,
Keep them on track,
And solve any problems that may occur.
I’ll also talk briefly about putting together an advocacy campaign.

4. Need for Friends Library budgets are shrinking.
People love libraries, but aren’t aware that they need help.
Users are the wrong target group.
From Awareness to Funding
OCLC study, 2008
Does anyone doubt the need?
Economy
Lack of awareness that libraries are in trouble
If you had to choose between a user and an advocate, what would you choose?

5. Value of Friends Built-in base of support
Represent beneficiaries of our service
Close to / known by community
Advocacy rule of 10
Besides the obvious fundraising and monetary support, how can Friends help?
One of the benefits is that built-in base of support—communicates that the library is loved and supported
Members should be active in a number of arenas

6. Start Now! Secure buy-in Use tools at Find the right people
Find the right people
Provide clear definition of role, responsibilities
Appoint a steering committee
Buy-in from administration, development officer, library board
Right people—what are you looking for?
Know what role Friends should assume, and what responsibilities are appropriate and make it EXPLICIT
Steering committee of high-profile people

7. Steering Committee Decisions
Mission
Benefits of membership
Membership goals and dues (numbers vs. commitment)
Constitution and Bylaws (samples at )
Tax exempt status
Kick-off event
Must be some reason for people to get involved—not necessarily tangible
Membership=high numbers at low cost (FOGL) or lower numbers at higher cost (leaders)? Depends on your goals and who you need to attract.
If you expect gross receipts under $5000 you can be considered tax-exempt already.
Event is a good way to get media’s attention, attract large numbers of folks, let people know about your group

8. When Friends Become Fiends
Mission drift
Clubby clique
Loose cannon
Role confusion
Power grabber
How can Friends turn into Fiends?
Prevention is the best medicine for these ills
Once problems occur, may need MOU

9. Create Solutions Memorandum of Understanding Leadership Change
Retreat to clarify roles and responsibilities
Leadership Change
Thank-you event for past leaders
Introduce strong members
Self-evaluation, self-monitoring
Sometimes shining a light on the problems can help
MOU, have a retreat
Bring peer pressure to bear

10. Identify Key Advocates
Relationship mapping
Education
Business
Recreation
Students
You
Government
Civic
Organizations
How do you find the people you need to help with your advocacy campaign?
Remember, it’s all about relationships!
Everyone on the steering committee should do this
Parents
Social Services
Industry

11. Build a Coalition Statement of need Who is interested?
Find mutual connections
Limited involvement
You may be able to pull in people you don’t normally align with around specific issues—
For example, maybe the local realtor’s association supports a new library building for economic development.
Depends on having a clear statement of your need/issue
Brainstorm –who else would care or would benefit from it?
How can you get to them? (Use relationship mapping)

12. Plan the Advocacy Campaign
Identified need
Timeline
Clear strategy
Who?
What?
When?
Specific assignments
Follow-up
Match assignments to team’s skills and interests

13. Conduct the Campaign Tell stories about why the library matters Listen
Recognize and thank
Evaluate the outcome
Answer the question “so what?”
Focus on benefits to users (participants read example of audio book)
Listening is an important skill in advocacy—what do decision makers care about?
Public recognition always great for elected officials, but THANK-YOU notes are powerful, too!

14. Get Your Geek On! Gates-funded OCLC campaign
Savannah area and Des Moines, IA
Multiple channels (billboards, festivals, newspapers, radio, TV)
geekthelibrary.org
Aware of this campaign right now
Geek is now a verb
Whatever you are passionate about, the library can support you.
Points people to the website, geekthelibrary.org

15. A FULL RANGE OF ‘GEEKS’ – THE LIBRARY IS FOR EVERYONE
Small Print:
The library can help everyone explore the things they geek. Get your geek on. Show your support.
Brought to you by OCLC, a nonprofit library cooperative, with funding from a grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

16. re:cap It’s all about relationships! Start now. Stay on track.
Plan and evaluate.
Listen and thank.
Celebrate success!
We’ve looked at some ways to get started
To keep everyone on track and on message
Planning and evaluation are imperative!
Remember to listen.
Thank in as many ways as you can think of.
Celebrate –one more way to engage media, other supporters, raise your profile