Board Orientation Information

This page is intended for the 2022-2026 BMPL Gallery, Library, Archives & Museum (GLAM) Board members appointed in December 2022. Community members are welcome to review this page as well, as the information on the page includes the legislation and primer materials that our Board receives and informs their decisions.

Meetings of the Board

The first Board meeting is scheduled for 2:00 pm on Thursday, January 19th in the L.E. Shore Boardroom. This meeting will also be live-streamed on Facebook and will be added to our YouTube page following the meeting.

Other Orientation Meetings:

BMPL Board Orientation | January 19 @ 9:30am | L.E. Shore Boardroom
Council Orientation about BMPL | January 30 | Council Chambers or Livestream
OLBA Bootcamp| February 4 @ 9:00am | Virtual Meeting
Council / Board Orientation| February 6 @ 1:00pm | Council Chambers

Future Meetings of the Board:
The BMPL Board schedules 10 meetings per year on the 3rd Thursday of the month. At the first Board Meeting of the 2023-2026 Board, the members selected to start meetings at 1:00 pm for this 4-year term. We typically do not meet in August or December. All Ontario Library Boards are required to meet a minimum of 7 times annually, per legislation, so if a quorum will not be met, the Chair may determine, based on the business at hand, not to reschedule a meeting.

Included in the Accordions Below

Enclosed in the accordions below are several areas that will assist you in understanding the obligations of the Board, what needs are currently known and exist, and resources to you and the Board as a whole.

Legal Requirements and Information
Your CEO, Jennifer Murley, is your primary resource. It is important to note that the information on this page is for information. This does not mean you must read and understand all of it, but rather know it is important and where to find the information. As your sole staffer, your CEO will ensure the Board is up to date on all legislative requirements and made aware of all matters of risk to the organization.

BMPL Governance
Legislative Information
BMPL Financials
External Organizations of Interest

Legacy Document
The previous Board developed the Blue Mountains Public Library Legacy Document as a hand-off document between the 2018-2022 Board and the 2022-2026 Board. This information was made available in October 2022 so that all interested candidates would have access to understand what this term would include as needs and priorities.

This document is comprised of three areas found below in the accordions:

Key Documents for Review
Key Advocacy Efforts
Legacy Discussions: An Environmental Scan

The BMPL Board is responsible for establishing their own policies and By-Laws. These are reviewed at the onset of the term, with question and answer period as needed. Annually at the May Board Meeting a section of policies are reviewed annually. These Governance policies are slated for the first year of the Term. Previous Board's have found that this gap between review for questions - conduct business - review for edit gave a good understanding of the documents in a practical sense, and therefore assisted in an informed revision period.
All of the By-Laws, Policies and Plans are available on our website, but only the Governance Policies and System Policies & Plans are of relevance to the Board specifically. Members may review these documents and bring any questions to a Board Meeting where we can add discussion and Q&A to any new business of a meeting.
Two documents which were of focus at the Board orientation were:
1. POL-BLG.2022.05 BMPL Board Job Description; and
2. POL-BLG.2018.99 Agenda and Multi-year Agendas.
BMPL as a Public Library Board in Ontario is governed by the Public Libraries Act, RSO, 1990 c.P.44. This Act is less than 16 pages and is a strong document which has held the test of time, keeping public libraries independent from becoming a municipal/county department, and maintaining that our public library boards are independent bodies. This document refers to three types of libraries: municipal, county and union. When reading this document, please note that we are a Municipally appointed library, serving the community of the Town of the Blue Mountains. There are slight nuances between these three types of systems, so all information the other two (that about county or union systems) is not relevant and therefore can be skipped in your review. The Ministry also produced a document called Understanding the PLA [MTCS]. This has not been updated recently, but the content is the same EXCEPT:
1. the qualification to be a member of the Board is now a citizen or permanent resident; and
2. the Board must now only have 7 board meetings in a year.
There are several other provincial legislations which we must abide by. They are linked below, but it is not a requirement to read the following legislation. These will be discussed in our early meetings or will be overviewed in the Council joint orientation.
- Municipal Conflict of Interest Act. In our joint orientation with Council, the Integrity Commissioner and/or TBM legal representatives will review the aspects of this document.
- Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA). This is another important document to the organization. The CEO is the "Head" as it related to MFIPPA and is responsible for maintaining BMPL is in compliance as well as receiving and handling all Freedom of Information Requests.
- Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). The organization is required to follow AODA. Additionally, there is a brief primer which Board members must receive on the Act as you will establish and amend policy for BMPL. This document will be presented by the CEO in a meeting prior to the May policy revision period.
- Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA). BMPL must adhere to ONCA as we have since applied for CRA status as a charity and must adhere to ONCA if our application is accepted. Those Public Library Boards with charitable status established prior to ONCA ratification are grandfathered and do not have this stipulation.
- 2021 Audited Financial Statements (156 KB) and Year in Review
- 2020 Audited Financial Statements (163 KB) Year in Review and Year in Review Print Summary
- 2019 Audited Financial Statements (199 KB) and Year in Review
- 2018 Audited Financial Statements (79 KB) and Year in Review
- 2017 Audited Financial Statements (118 KB) and Year in Review
- 2016 Audited Financial Statements (47 KB)
There are a number of external organizations which BMPL and the Board has as resources.
- Ontario Library Boards Association (OLBA). The OLBA is a member division of the Ontario Library Association (OLA). The BMPL Board and our individual directors are members of this association. OLBA provides training, resources and advocacy for Boards and annually recruits for membership to their Board. The annual OLBA Bootcamp occurs on the Saturday of the OLA Super Conference. This year that event is virtual on February 4, 2023 and is a fantastic learning opportunity. The OLBA also creates the Cut to the Chase document and offers ongoing webinars and training through the LearnHQ portal. With your OLBA login, most of these are free or available through the BMPL Board budget.
- Federation of Ontario Public Libraries (FOPL). FOPL, or the Federation as some refer to it, is a member organization which BMPL is a member. FOPL advocates for public libraries across the province, including annual advocacy with municipalities and the province. Your CEO is the Small/Medium Public Library CEO Representative and Vice Chair of the FOPL Board.
- Ontario Library Association (OLA). The OLA is made up of 7 divisions one of which is OLBA and another is the Ontario Public Library Association (OPLA) for staff. Your CEO is the current president of the OLA.
- Ontario Library Service (OLS). The OLS is the agency arm of the Ministry of Tourism Culture & Sport (MTCS). MTCS funds this agency to support public libraries across Ontario with resources, purchasing power, and training.
Strategic Plan 2022-2026
The BMPL Board has developed a number of documents which will inform the incoming Board’s activities. Primary of these is the Strategic Plan 2022-2026 which was developed over 14 months and based on extensive community consultation.
Falling out of that plan are the Annual Action Plans. The BMPL Board developed our 2022 Action Plan which includes the achievements to date. It has also developed the 2023 Action Plan, which was approved by the incoming Board. These plans include the key areas of administration, operations and governance which the BMPL team, inclusive of the Board, believe are next steps on the road to achieving the strategic directions.
Memorandum of Understanding (2018)
In 2018, TBM (Town of the Blue Mountains) and the BMPL Board developed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which outlines the roles and responsibilities of each body. It includes schedules for relationships and expectations between BMPL and the various TBM Departments in such areas as finance, HR, shared resources, IT, facility use and maintenance.
Funding Agreement (2022-2024)
Effective in 2022, the TBM Council approved a new funding agreement with BMPL. It provides 6% of the previous year’s TBM tax levy to fund the Board-approved budget and reserves. This agreement stands for three years with an automatic renewal option.
Building Conditions Report
In 2018, a study was completed by TBM of all of its facilities, including the L. E. Shore library (LES) in Thornbury and Craigleith Heritage Depot (CHD). This study focused on infrastructure needs and the resulting Building Conditions Report provided a basic maintenance and repair schedule to be completed over the next twenty years. The BMPL CEO identified additional needs which, if acted upon, would prevent major issues in the future. Some headway was made on the infrastructure issues, but the planned investments of 2020 and 2021 were delayed due to costs of the pandemic.
Updated Gap Analysis Feasibility Study
As discussed in the Building Conditions Report section, the ongoing maintenance, repair and renovations of our 28-year-old L.E. Shore facility and historic Craigleith Heritage Depot railway building is an ongoing process. The Updated Gap Analysis Feasibility Study is a compendium to the Building Conditions Report which addresses our usage of the spaces and needs to meet ongoing service model advancements. This document was originally presented in 2019 to Council but has been updated in 2022 for areas of needs which are outstanding.
Year in Review
After publishing a print Annual Report entitled the Year in Review, the Board moved to a video version for the 2020 fiscal. This format was widely accepted with great uptake. It was again completed for 2021. These are available on the BMPL website, on the YouTube channel and promoted in our many social media forums, newsletters, and through Council.
Advocacy is one of the pillars of focus for any strong Board, and the BMPL GLAM (Gallery, Library, Archives and Museum) Board is no different. Below are the four areas of advocacy that have been ongoing and will rollover into the 2023 year.
Key Supporter Initiative
The Board, realizing that advocacy is a community-wide initiative, moved away from being a board of seven people advocating alone, to begin to design a “brigade” of key supporters who could assist us in the mission to keep our GLAM strong and supported. At the May 2022 annual planning meeting, the Board began looking at how to develop Key Supporters. This information will be made available to this Board so you can begin this term with some of the research and considerations of the past four or more years.
Expansion of East End
Our community was clear that the Craigleith Heritage Depot, while fantastic as a museum, is not meeting needs as their community library branch. Council has heard this and the cry for improved services to the East end and is looking at a campus on County Road 19 which could include a library branch and other municipal services. While the campus project is in its infancy stage, much of the BMPL work on needs has been completed and is ready to be folded in. The BMPL Board will need to advocate for us to remain in that plan as the new Council sets directions for the East End Campus.
Renovation of Craigleith Heritage Depot
Many of the CHD needs are being addressed in 2022. The primary need remaining with the current structure will be the implementation of a museum-quality HVAC and hermetic system. However, if the East End Campus does not occur, the CHD facility will need to be further evaluated to determine how best to provide library services to the area.
Retrofit of L.E. Shore
While we are advocating for the East End hub or campus, we must also remember that LES is one of the main community centres of the West End of the municipality. The 28-year-old building, while an award-winning facility in 1995, is becoming dated and in need of ongoing renovations and repairs. These are the responsibility of the TBM, as it is their facility. Interior furnishings can be requested of Council via taxation or be included in our own budgets, when funds are available.