Welcome to the group, Hillary. Sounds like an interesting change for you these last 6 months, not only in job but up the coast in CA.
Having changed jobs 4 times in the last decade, I experienced the same loss of community and network. New leadership jobs can be very isolating, because you have so few immediate and obvious peers. Sure you have a new group of employees and board members, but they really aren't peers (and don't necessarily want to pal around with you). In each case, however, I did attempt to accept the challenge to find my new peers and professional community, both locally and virtually. These people may be leaders of similar sized organizations and non-profits, you may find them through the local chamber of commerce or United Way members, and don't need to be library people.
And, of course, there are all of us here in the virtual LLAMA New Directors Discussion Community! Welcome and feel free to start a separate discussion thread on a topic of your choice, or even to ask a simple question. We're here for each other.
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Erik Nordberg
Dean of Libraries
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
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Original Message:
Sent: Jan 08, 2020 10:25 PM
From: Hillary Theyer
Subject: Introduction
Hello Everyone,
I got my first Library Director job in 2011, was proudly Director for Torrance Public Library for eight and a half years, and have joined because as of August, 2019 I am a Library Director in a completely new system, environment, and area of the state. I'm the Director for Monterey County Free Libraries, Monterey County California. Moving agencies, areas, and types of governing body (moved from City to County) means many things I thought I had down cold, I'm learning all over again. Rural, County, 16 branches and 3 bookmobiles (instead of 3 branches), different funding mechanisms, different umbrella organization means a lot of what was comfortable is now ... not.
This is also my first leadership job that I didn't promote to, so I came with no relationships built. That alone was a challenge. I miss my mentors, just sent a card to one saying that I missed being able to walk into his office, sit down, and hash something out. That's invaluable.
Hillary Theyer