[Michlib-l] Staff's children and prizes

[Kristina Reynolds]

Thank you to all who responded to this question. Here are the answers I
received.

Whyever not.

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Yes, we allow children of staff to claim prizes.

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We let the children of staff claim prizes, including grand prizes.  Myself
as the director, did not let my kids enter for the grand prizes.  It would
look odd if they would happen to win.

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we absolutely would.  My staff and their families are patrons too, and they
check out a lot of books that makes up a nice chunk of circ stats. I see no
reason to exclude them as long as the public gets the same fair chance at
prizes.

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Of course! They are participating.

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Of the 6 libraries I've worked at, only one allowed children of staff to
win prize drawings, but all of the libraries allowed them to take
finisher giveaways, like a book for completing the reading look. Much like
family of radio station employees are not allowed to win raffles or
contests but could take home swag from an event.

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I've served as director at 2 libraries in the past 20 years, and at both we
have allowed children of staff and board to participate.  We also allow
staff and board to participate in adult reading challenges.  Everyone who
participates and completes are eligible for prizes equally.

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Of course. Why would we penalize them for being a staff member's child?

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Absolutely, we do. A lot of us have kids that participate in reading
initiatives such as the Summer Reading Program. Our children get the same
prizes as any other children that have completed the program.

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The kids get the weekly or level prizes. They do not get entered into the
grand prize drawings. We think it would look bad to the public if a staff
member’s child won a grand prize; the same goes for the adult.

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Yes, although typically if there's a prize drawing in which a staff
member's child or grandchild is participating, we try to get a non-staff
member to draw the name (not even a different staff member, just someone
else present who we trust and who didn't have a hand in putting the drawing
together).  If there's a judging panel for an event or prize, the children
can still participate, but the staff member cannot sit on the panel.

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Is it a perfect solution in terms of optics? No, but it also didn't seem
right to refuse entry to a child just because a family member works there.
And then where do you draw the line? What if it's a grandparent who works
there, or a sibling? What about the children of library board members, or
Friends of the Library board members, etc. These are the questions I asked
myself when I was dealing with the uncomfortable decision of whether or not
to exclude members of our service area from prize drawings based on their
relationship to staff or board members.

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We consider staff and their families patrons, too. So we always encourage
them to participate in our programs and earn prizes.

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Yes, we do. This is their library.

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I’m currently the only staff member with children participating in library
programs. But I do allow them to get the goodie bags, etc., that anyone’s
kids would qualify for. I don’t enter them into drawings for grand prizes.

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We allow the children of staff to win small prize drawings but not our
large SRP grand prize drawings. They also can get the finisher prizes that
everyone gets.

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We do!

However, I have asked that my children NEVER win any large prizes. I think
it would look really bad to have the director's child win a big prize... I
don't make that decision for my staff. However, I was working at a library
where ALOT of us all had kids about the same age. So we just went in on a
staff kid big prize and had a drawing amongst ourselves. Staff paid for
this, so we didn't use library funds. It only happened once, the next year
everyone was content with the small prizes. :) It isn't as much fun to buy
the prize...



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I have always let the staff''s children claim the weekly prizes everyone
receives but the "grand prize" they were not eligible for. I felt that it
looks unprofessional for a staff member's relative to win the big prizes.
Besides our staff receives a lot of freebies regular patrons do not. Such
as free copies, faxes and fines waived.



-- 
Kristina Reynolds
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