The New Canaan Library Board of Trustees on Tuesday evening bid bond farewell to Christian Le Bris, its president for the past two years whose steady head and hand are credited with helping to build consensus and, together with Library Director Lisa Oldham, strengthen the institution’s relationship with the town.
Immediate Past President of the New Canaan Library Board of Directors, Christian Le Bris, with Library Director Lisa Oldham, just after the board’s annual meeting, held July 14, 2015 in the Lamb Room. Credit: Michael Dinan
Le Bris in serving for the maximum of two consecutive 3-year terms on the board has been “invaluable to the library and instrumental in making it the wonderful institution that it is today,” new board President Alicia Wyckoff said during the library’s annual meeting, held in the Lamb Room.
“He has been a clear and effective representative of the library to the town. He has led the board with quiet strength and has governed by consensus, creating a governing body that fully supports the library and the library organization and its executive director. Chris is smart, level-headed, a consensus-builder and most importantly, he can really make you laugh.”
During the 30-minute meeting, board members and staff: updated attendees on the library’s finances—total support income of $2.8 million for the fiscal year ended June 30, mostly through the annual campaign, exceeding budget by 2 percent, with an endowment fund of $1.1 million and capital fund of $1.5 million; received an operational update from Oldham, including on personnel, programming, investments in technology and newly defined role’s (such as the very popular Reader’s Advisor); voted to amend a part of the library’s bylaws; and formally appointed new board members.
Le Bris said he’s had “absolute fun” serving on the board—something the immediate past president said he’d wanted to do since moving to town 31 years ago.
“This is a great organization, a real treasure for this town and we cannot work hard enough to make it a truly great success,” he said. “Going forward, the new library board that will take responsibility for our future at the board meeting later this evening is first-class and they will do a great job.”
New members include Bob Butman, Matthew Drapkin and John Murphy, Le Bris said. Those with recently expired terms include Kasja Sheibley, Christine Yordan and Shaun Higgins—each of whom he thanked individually for their dedication, expertise, diligence and service. Board members Martin McLaughlin, Sr. and Holly Parmelee were elected to second terms.
Though no great revelations were made on the library’s widely anticipated rebuilding project, Le Bris said the board is satisfied with the progress made so far by a capital campaign committee formed earlier this year after a fundraising feasibility study on the capital project had been completed.
“Last year, we reported that we had hired CCS Consulting to assess how much private money could be raised from the public in a capital campaign for the purpose of erecting a new building,” he said. “Building upon this information, the board authorized the charter of a capital campaign committee and voted trustee Lydee Hummel as the first chair of the campaign. This committee has worked hard this year to lay the infrastructure and groundwork for successful capital campaign. While many other steps remain to be completed before the campaign can be launched in earnest, we are satisfied we are satisfied with the progress made thus far.”