Funding during the transition phase
No matter when the vote happens you are probably not going to have funding right away. Generally speaking these elections occur in between the two times of year that property tax bills are sent to residents so there will be a period of about six months where you will not have any funding. Depending on your circumstances it could even be one year from the date of the election certification before you receive funding.
Because of this you need to work with the city and/or county to determine whether or not they will carry you for that period of time. Other library districts have been funded by their local government officials so they did not have to pay back their loans. This is an option that you may be able to successfully negotiate. Hopefully the district planning committee explored this option, and you know what to do now that you are officially a district. If not you will have to start from the beginning. If the city/county is willing to either loan or give money to the library begin writing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the district board and the city/county that spells out how much money the city/county will either give or loan to the library. If it is a loan the MOU should also talk about how much the library will pay back annually and what the interest rate will be.
ASPeN: The New Library Directory
- Home
- Introduction
- Challenges of being a library district
- Joys of being a library district
- Contact Us
- Getting Started - Helpful Hints
- Develop an Action Plan
- Work/Life Balance
- Celebrate Your Successes
- Getting Started Checklist
- Working with the city and county during the transition
- County Actions
- City Actions
- Memorandums of Agreement
- Independent or with County
- City/County Transitions Checklist
- Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork!
- Employer Identification Number
- Name Change
- Notify Department of Administration
- Create List of Contacts
- Paperwork Checklist
- Accounting and other money matters
- Funding during the transition phase
- Decide how to handle accounting
- Paperwork and other details
- Transfer of cash and other liquid assets
- Develop agreements with the Friends and Foundation
- Funding for the First Year
- Accounting Checklist
- Payroll and Personnel
- Initial Decisions
- Take a class
- Notify Revenue Departments - State and Federal
- Personnel
- A note about independent contractors
- Payroll
- Payroll and Personnel Checklist
- Property and other assets
- Transfer Assets
- Obtain Insurance
- Maintenance, Repair, and Utility Costs
- Depreciation of Assets
- Assets Checklist
- The Library Board and its Duties
- Create and adopt an action plan
- Support library staff
- Adopt bylaws for the board
- Hire legal counsel
- Purchase errors and omissions insurance
- Begin work on a long range plan
- Begin adopting policies
- Adopt resolutions and a budget
- Election of board members
- Board Checklist
- Public relations and library services
- Keep the public informed
- Design a new logo and look
- Plan for new services
- Public Relations Checklist
- Reporting Requirements
- IRS Reporting
- Department of Administration Reporting
- Auditing the Library's Accountings
- Depreciate Assets
- Montana Department of Revenue Reporting
- Montana Department of Labor and Industry Reporting
- Montana Public Employees Retirement Administration
- Create an annual report for the library
- Montana State Library Reporting
- Reporting Checklist
- Conclusion
- Appendices