Fraser Valley Regional Library (FVRL) is a public library system shared by its 15 constituent municipal governments (“Members”) and is located to the east of Vancouver, British Columbia. FVRL had a problem. In late 2014, FVRL’s board dismissed the two top finance staff successively (director and manager). Some Members had lost confidence in the financial management of the organization. They also had begun to doubt they were receiving value for the money from FVRL, citing a lack of clarity and understanding in FVRL’s finances. Some of the Members were threatening to leave the regional library system and go it alone.

In this paper, we will show how FVRL turned the situation around. The development of a “Financial Management Policy” was central to the change, so we’ll focus on the role of this policy. We’ll examine FVRL’s experience through the lens of GFOA’s Financial Foundations for Thriving Communities.

• Publication date: August 2020
• Author: Shayne Kavanagh