Joint hiring of tech staff

I'm the director of a small, rural public library (2.2 FTE) and some local colleagues & I are looking into the possibility of jointly hiring an individual to provide technology-related services.

We're obviously too small to have a tech person in-house, hence the interest in forming a sort of informal cooperative to leverage our resources.

While there are many formal consortiums set up to provide tech services to members, I haven't come across any working models of this type of more informal approach.

Where we're struggling is with the logistics. There are a range of services that could be offered -- tech support, maintenance, web design, environmental scanning, tech recommendations, to name a few -- and different libraries will have different needs & financial resources over time.

What we're trying to avoid is straight billing per hour, since there would be little point in using that model as a group. How to provide fair compensation while still getting a good deal for the libraries?

So if you're a tech consultant or NPO that's part of a cooperative staffing arrangement, I'd love to learn more about the details. It may well be that there are just too many moving parts for this to be feasible, but I sure hope not!

Thanks.

Hi there--

Welcome to TechSoup! Your hiring model sounds really interesting and hopefully workable. If you haven't already, you might also try posting your question to a library and/or nonprofit related listserv such as NTEN.

--Megan

Hello. Where are you located?

Dear splib,

I don't have any direct experience with this type of arrangement, but I know of two mid-sized libraries in Washington who do. Whitman County Library and Neill Public Library jointly hired a single IT staffer several years ago, and joint-hire agreement was still in place last time I checked. , and I've heard nothing but good things from everyone involved. If you call Whitman County (877-733-3375), you might talk to the director Kristie Kirkpatrick. She's super-friendly and very active in the library profession. Or you could talk to James Morasch. James is the tech guy in question, and also easy to talk to.

Best,
Chris

hi splib,

this is a great question. as part of the MaintainIT Project of TechSoup, we've talked to libraries who have paid for one tech person to support multiple libraries. libraries who have been lucky enough to concoct such plans have reaped the benefits in costs--especially small libraries with extra tight budgets.

one librarian with whom i spoke was robin toms of the Jackson Parish Library in Louisiana. Six libraries shared one consultant; Robin's agreement with the shared tech person was initially 8 hours a month, and has now evolved to paying a flat fee for whatever she needs. she was quite happy with the arrangement, and would likely be happy to share her perspectives.

good luck, splib!

(stories like robin's are gathered in the MaintainIT Project's free Cookbooks.)

Ours and 4 other non-profits Exec. Director's have discussed this for a couple years and just recently applied for a grant to start doing this. The grant would help to pay a portion of the expense and a larger agency would pay a larger percentage of the cost, but it would be phases in over a few years (the percentage each agency would increase as the grant phases out). Our agency would probably provide the workspace for the IT person, but then we would pay a smaller percentage to offset that. Besides the Office Manager I'm the accidental techie for our non-profit so I am very excited about this venture. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try and help.
Good Luck and will let you know what happens with us!