[Michlib-l] Millage Campaign Questions – Staff/Board Advocacy & Board Vote Requirements

[Jack Buck]

Hi,

Apologies for the flurry of questions on the listserv over the past 24 hours. I’ll take a long break after this one.

I have a couple of questions related to millage campaigns and hope to learn from your experience:

1. Informational Campaigns and Personal Advocacy
In an informational only campaign, without an official “Vote Yes” committee:

  *   Can Board Trustees or staff express personal support from their own social media accounts (for example, posting “Vote Yes and here's why” in local Facebook groups)?


  *   As the library director, can I provide staff and Board members with a unified FAQ to help them respond to common questions on their personal accounts? Or does that risk blurring the lines too much without an official advocacy group in place?


I understand the clearest path under campaign finance laws is to establish a “Vote Yes” committee. Still, I’ve heard of libraries running successful informational campaigns without one, since it can take significant time and energy to set up such a group.

2. Board Vote Requirements for Ballot Proposals
Does a library board need a unanimous vote to adopt the resolution to put the levy proposal on the ballot , or is a simple majority ( 6–1/5–2) sufficient?

Thanks. TGIF.

Jack





--
This message has been scanned by E.F.A. Project and is believed to be clean.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail3.mcls.org/pipermail/michlib-l/attachments/20250509/7897b198/attachment.html>