Annual Reports 2023: 10 Officers & Trustees

The Officers & Trustees section is not difficult but there are a few very common mistakes. Remember, the information you enter this year should not conflict with a prior year's information, unless there has been some very justified issue. Please double check trustee term start and end dates against your last annual report.

TOOLS:

• Part 10 CHECKLIST to double check your work.

• Trustee Information Form provides a fillable form for all the information needed for your trustee on the Annual Report. Have everyone fill theirs out at a board meeting, or have new trustees fill them out, file them away, etc.

TIPS

• CHANGE 10.6 - Trustee Education questions have changed as of January 2024. Now that trustees are obligated to complete 2  hours of eligible education, you'll simply choose YES or NO if your board has completed the requirement. 
• List Trustees moving forward. The report wants to know who your trustees are February 1st and on, not who they were over the past year.
• There must be a record for each voting POSITION. Include an entry for a VACANT seat. If you have a hired independent treasurer, they are not voting and thus, would not be listed. However, your Finance Officer (voting) would be listed.
• Terms ending and beginning. If a trustee term is 3 years, that means they start in January on the first year, and end in December of the third year. For instance, January 2020 to December 2022. Please be careful putting in your term dates. Term information should not conflict with prior annual report data.
• Partial Terms. Trustees filling partial terms should put when that person actually started as the Term Starting date, and keep the end date of the original term.
  • On 10.13, select NO and add a note. The Note should either identify the previous trustee whose unexpired term is being filled, and  the beginning and ending date of the unexpired previous trustee’s term, OR, that the seat was vacant.
    • Example: Trustee is filling the remainder of [name]’s term, which was to run from beginning date to ending date.
• Oath of Office. For Public Libraries, not Association Libraries. If you are a Public Library, your trustees have to take an oath of office (see more below).