Joint Library Board Agenda &

Minutes of the Meeting of the Kimberly-Little Chute Public Library Board January 28, 2010 The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by President Moes at the James J. Siebers Memorial Library in Kimberly. PRESENT: Margi Fuller, Jim Moes, Judy Stangel, Marcia Trentlage, Cyndi Vander Pas. EXCUSED: Sarah Dollevoet, Jason Leicht. OTHERS PRESENT: Beth Carpenter, Jill Hasseler. Trentlage moved, seconded by Stangel, to approve the minutes of the December 3, 2009 meeting. Motion carried. Vander Pas moved, seconded by Fuller, to approve the invoices for November and December, 2009. Motion carried. Rose Vander Velden joined the meeting at 6:05 p.m. The November and December, 2009 financial and statistics reports were discussed. Carpenter informed the board that the library may not be able to continue its subscription for the Wall Street Journal, as the newspaper had nearly doubled its annual subscription rate. The board expressed concern about losing access to this title and suggested options for securing a reduced rate. Carpenter will explore the options to see if the subscriptions can be saved. DIRECTOR’S REPORT Karen Vandenberg’s official retirement date is set for February 18, 2010. We will be short-staffed for a 3 week period, as Vandenberg will receive a payout for unused PTO. One of the summer students has expressed interest in serving as a temporary substitute to cover necessary hours during that period. Kathy Tomasovic has decided end her position as youth services librarian. Her last day will be March 19, though no official letter of resignation has been received at this time. A staff meeting was held January 20th, during which Carpenter presented her “State of the Library Address.” The Address was intended to share the director’s vision of where things stand and what the library will be working toward in the future. It also defined a starting point for expected behavior, work ethics, and level of commitment for the staff. The Friends of the Library (FOLKS) have dedicated $1200 for Fox Cities Reads and Fox Cities Book Festival expenses. The next FOLKS 3rd Thursday program will be “Naked Stories – Dressed Up” along with their annual meeting on Thursday, February 18 at 6 p.m. in Little Chute. The presentation will be made by The Unpolished Gems, a Fox Valley writers group. Fox Cities Reads was launched on January 20th at the Copper Leaf Hotel in Appleton. The title selected for 2010 is “Whistling in the Dark” by Wisconsin author Lesley Kagen. Kagen will make a presentation for us at the Kimberly library on Friday, April 16th at 9:30 a.m. Carpenter has been attending Fox Cities Book Festival board meetings and shared a letter from Festival President, Barbara Wentzel regarding fundraising for the Festival. Carpenter has been developing a new Festival web site on her personal time, which she hopes will go live in the next few weeks. The site will be found at www.foxcitiesbookfestival.org. The library will host several authors during the Festival this year: Beth Kephart (Wed, Apr 14, 6p.m., LIT), Kao Kalia Yang (Thur, Apr 15, 10a.m. LIT), James Campbell (Thur, Apr 15, 7p.m. LIT), and Lesley Kagen. Library staff had the privilege of being part of an effort to help a Little Chute family in need in December. Staff contributed furniture, food, hats, mittens, blankets, games, Christmas presents, and gift cards for local businesses. Carpenter helped deliver the items with other village personnel. It was a wonderful experience, and staff hopes to be able to support projects like this in the future. OWLS will be hosting a workshop for trustees on March 15, 4 to 8 p.m. at the Winneconne Public Library. Board members were encouraged to attend. YOUTH SERVICES REPORT Hasseler reported that storytime sessions will begin February 2nd. No registration is required. There will be a Family Game Night at Kimberly on February 2nd. Author Chris Crutcher will be at Kimberly High School in February and the youth librarians will attend a presentation or two. Wii gaming is being offered Tuesdays after school and is alternating locations each week. A volunteer is running this program for the library. Preparation for summer library program is underway, and performers are being lined up. OLD BUSINESS Carpenter reported an error in the recently approved Meeting Room Policy. Under #2 in the policy, it read, “The rooms may be reserved no more than sixty (90) days in advance…” and should read, “The rooms may be reserved no more than ninety (90) days in advance…” Stangel moved, seconded by Vander Velden, to approve the Meeting Room Policy as amended. Motion carried. NEW BUSINESS Carpenter presented information about issues with current staffing levels and challenges that will be faced with two staff members leaving. The main challenges include: director is the only full-time position but is split between two locations, so neither location ends up having a full-time person present for support; director doesn’t have contact with all staff on a weekly basis; it is very difficult to gather full staff (or even small segments) for meetings or training sessions; supervisors aren’t being fully utilized; youth librarian job share isn’t working well; support for youth services for two locations is not sufficient at present and needs to be addressed or programming may need to be cut; 9 staff members will have 60 hours of PTO in 2010 which will cause scheduling difficulties; staff is spread too thin – scheduling needs to be addressed in order to allow PTO to be used and in order to have staff available to help with new programming and services. Carpenter presented three tables of organization and options for addressing staffing issues. The data showed how the staff is organized at present, what her goal is for the future, and a compromise to address issues in a realistic manner this year. Carpenter also presented data on the impact the compromise option would have on the 2010 and 2011 budgets. The compromise would include hiring a ¾-time youth librarian, allocating hours from retiring supervisor to existing supervisors, dismissing pages, and recruiting additional volunteer assistance. Discussion followed. Carpenter also recommended that open hours be examined. Staff is spread too thin on the current schedule, and there is little flexibility to allow for additional assistance for the director or for staff to take off PTO hours. Additional assistance may be needed in Little Chute during after school hours, as current problems are difficult to address with only 2 people working in the evenings. Carpenter examined patron activity levels for several sample months in 2009 and offered some possibilities. Discussion about open hours followed. Concern was expressed over limiting student access to either location on any given day. Moes moved, seconded by Vander Pas, to postpone any decisions until the board had more time to examine information shared by Carpenter and to meet on February 11th at 6 p.m. in Kimberly to discuss staffing issues and open hours. Motion carried. Carpenter shared information about problems taking place in Little Chute with children and teens after school and in the evenings. Staff is consistently giving warnings about inappropriate behavior, language, or activities; adult patrons are being harassed; the civic wing door locks have been tampered with; a door to the building was damaged. Several people have been asked to leave the building and one has been banned twice for a two-week period. Carpenter researched existing policies from public libraries nationwide and presented the following for review and approval: Library Use Policy, Safe Child Policy, Rules of Conduct, and Security Policy. The board discussed the Safe Child Policy. Trentlage moved, seconded by Fuller, to approve the Safe Child Policy with amendments to points 1, 2, and 5(d), and deletion of 5(c). Motion carried. The board discussed the Rules of Conduct. Fuller moved, seconded by Trentlage, to approve the Rules of Conduct with amendments to paragraph 2 under “Policy” and “Rules” points 1, 13, and 16. Motion carried. The board discussed the Security Policy. Trentlage moved, seconded by Vander Pas, to approve the Security Policy with amendments to paragraph 3 and “Policy” points 3, 4(a), 4(c), 5, 5(d), 5(f)ii, 5(g), and 5(h). Motion carried. The board discussed the Library Use Policy. Fuller moved, seconded by Stangel, to approve the Library Use Policy. Motion carried. Carpenter also presented examples of supporting documentation for board review: Security Incident Report, sample banning letter for adults, sample banning letter for minors. The board recommended minor changes to the banning letters in order to match the approved policies. Carpenter will make the required changes. The approved policies will be posted on the library web site, and Carpenter will work with staff on implementing them at both locations. Discussion of staff and board survey results was tabled for the next meeting. Fuller moved, seconded by Trentlage, to adjourn the meeting at 8:20 p.m. Motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Beth A. Carpenter Recording Secretary