Library meeting

I attended the Columbia Falls Library Association (CFLA) meeting on March 24th as a visitor and was appalled at the behavior of a group of people who were admittedly invited by the president of ImagineIf Foundation to attend the meeting.

Apparently the invitees were there for the sole purpose of forcing a vote authorizing payment of $62,500 from the CFLA to the ImagineIf Foundation. Not only were the invited attendees not expected by the CFLA, the invitees clearly knew nothing about the CFLA.

They did not know the CFLA is a private nonprofit and that it doesn’t have to give money to anyone that asks for it. The invitees announced they were members of the CFLA by virtue of simply showing up, took a vote to authorize spending the funds of the CFLA, lectured the CFLA on fiduciary responsibility, and then accused the CFLA of hostility.

Very few organizations will make a $62,500 decision without discussion or due diligence and especially based on a letter read to them at a meeting rather than provided in writing, and without hearing reasonable answers to specific questions.   

As a long-time supporter of libraries, I applaud the CFLA for its demonstration of true fiduciary responsibility through its due diligence process, for the courage to stand up to obvious bullying by the ImagineIf Foundation president, and for holding the ImagineIf Library system and the ImagineIf Board of Trustees accountable for their failure to use a special allocation of $100,000 in tax dollars made in 2013 by the Flathead County Commissioners to replace “ancient and dangerous shelving” at the Columbia Falls Branch Library.

As a taxpayer, I expect accountability. As a donor, I contribute to organizations I can trust.

Marge Fisher

Whitefish