Thomas Hausman: Candidate Profile

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Note: Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted. Jump to:BioQA Bio City: AntiochWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Antioch Library Board Age: 74Family: Wife: Kathryn plus two adult daughtersOccupation: Retired high school teacherEducation: BA and Ma from Marquette University,Milwaukee, WI.Civic involvement: Antioch Rotary (member and past president), PML Comunnity Theatre (member and past president for 43 years), pavilion superintendent for 25 years at the Lake Co. Fair, Antioch Public Library District trustee for eight years, member and past president of the Northeastern Illinois Rose Society.Elected offices held: The current Vice President of the Antioch Public Libray District plus the ones mentioned above in various community organizations.Questions Answers Why are you running for this office, whether for re-election or election the first time? Is there a particular issue that motivates you, and if so, what is it?I feel it is a part of my civic duty to serve my community. Having my college degrees in English and having taught literature , I feel that I am capable of serving as. Library trustee. Having also served as the treasurer for the Antioch Rotary, the PML Theatre,and our teacher's asscociation that I'm capable to monitor the library's finances.If you are an incumbent, describe your main contributions. Tell us of important initiatives you've led. If you are a non-incumbent, tell us what contributions you would make.As a board, we reduced the interest on our building bonds saving the taxpayers over $100,000 over the life of the loan, we have opened our doors to all groups wishing to use our meeting rooms, and have updated our access to all forms of electronics devices for information and communication.Do you have a library card? How long have you had it? How often do you use it?Yes: for many years. Even have one where we vacation in Northern Wisconsin each year. I use it weekly for books and dvdsSpace is an issue at many libraries. If that's the case at your library, would your solution be to expand the physical plant or make room by doing away with parts of the collection that technology has made less critical? Explain.As space grows tighter, our libary has a planned second floor expansion when we feel it is important to go to the public for their consent to go ahead with the project. We have also rearranged some areas and have updated other areas. We recently updated our computer labs as one example.What impact have economic and technological changes had on libraries? How does a library remain relevant? How should its role in the community change?We are as up to date in all areas of technological change. We monitor closely our budget and pay our employees a competitive package of pay and benefits. We believe that we have a happy patron base judging from the comments we receive each month.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?As always, freedome of speech is important to me. We have a public library and it needs to be accessible to all our patrons. Keeping our building and resources up to date is important to us as well as the community. We are a forward thinking board and I hope the voters will re-elect the incumbents who serve with no compensation. It is our way to help our neighbors.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Pope FrancisWhat's the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?To be the best I could be.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?Not giving up on anything.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?Speech and English. They are what I ended up teaching. Speaking effectively was important in my occupation and in my community life.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?The Golden Rule.