MINUTES

Board of Trustees Regular Meeting

Thursday, March 9, 2000

Traverse Area District Library

(minutes are unofficial until approved by the Board of Trustees)

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            The meeting was called to order at 5:40 p.m. by President Welch.  Present were Welch, Maxson, Mesch, Brown, Lawrence and Schermerhorn.  Senger was absent.  Also present were Judson (Counsel), McGuire, Vreeland, Nowinski, Schneider and Buchanan (Staff).

 

            Motion by Maxson, supported by Brown to amend the agenda to include as Item d. under New Business:  Consideration of adopting a “Statement of Assurances” for an Arts Council Mini-grant.  Carried.

 

            In a Special Order of Business, McGuire presented the Director’s Report for 1999, written copies of which were included in the meeting packets.  Maxson commended McGuire on the report and Welch thanked McGuire and the staff for a good year.

 

            Motion by Brown, supported by Lawrence to approve the minutes of the Regular Meeting of January 13, 2000.  Carried.

 

            Welch welcomed new City-appointed trustee Robert Schermerhorn.

 

            McGuire brought to the trustees’ attention a copy in the meeting packets of Senate Bill 936 (s-4) regarding restriction of access to computers by minors in libraries.  The bill recently passed the Senate and is sitting in committee in the House.  TADL appears to be in compliance with the bill as passed by the Senate.

 

            Schneider and McGuire recently met with representatives from the libraries in Benzie County, who are interested in forming a district library.

 

            Blair Township has expressed interest in looking into the possibility of locating a branch library in that township.

 

            McGuire thanked the League of Women Voters for sponsoring a reception immediately preceding the meeting for League members and employees, trustees and Friends of all of the TADL branches and members to get acquainted with each other.

 

            McGuire mentioned a copy in the meeting packets of an article in the journal Public Libraries regarding the relationship between the League of Women Voters and libraries.  The LWV-Grand Traverse was one of the chapters cited in the article.

 

            Martha Vreeland will be retiring on March 17.  She will be honored with a party from 4-7 that day.  She will be greatly missed.  Welch expressed the Board’s appreciation for Martha’s many years of service to the Library.

 

            Maxson reported that financial reports for 1999 year-end and for January 2000 were included in the meeting packets.  The Finance Committee had some concerns about overages in a number of line items and the expense portion of the budget as a whole.  These concerns have been addressed with McGuire and Schneider, and it is expected that the overages will not occur again this year.  Welch noted that because of higher revenues than expected, the budget ended up on the positive side in spite of the overages in expenses.

 

            There were no other committee reports.

 

            J. Gray, Fife Lake Public Library, reported that in January they experienced a 27% increase over the previous January, and 28% in February.  They will be coordinating with TADL for their Summer Reading Club.  They are planning a home tour in August, a book and white elephant sale in July and are currently selling Spartan coupon books to benefit their building fund.  They have been offered 1.3 acres of land in the village of Fife Lake to build a library in a planned subdivision if they can obtain the necessary zoning variances.  Gray talked about their building plans and asked that the TADL Board consider passing a resolution in support of their efforts, which would help them when they apply for grants. 

 

            J. Anderson, Interlochen Public Library, reported that IPL started their renovations in January and are almost done.  They are closed for the weekend to finish the carpeting.  She thanked S. Bonhag for the technology department’s help in moving their computers and invited the TADL Board to have a meeting at the newly-renovated IPL in late spring or early summer.

 

            J. Maxson, Peninsula Community Library, mentioned some of the advantages of being associated with TADL:  help with technology, easy access to TADL’s larger collection, rotating collections of various types of items, and one of the biggest advantages has been Martha Vreeland, who has really taken good care of the member libraries.

 

            There was no Old Business on the agenda.

 

            Welch reviewed the current committee appointments.  He said that the Building Committee and Carnegie Committee have completed their functions and are no longer needed. 

Judson asked that the Building Committee not be discontinued yet, as there are still some design items in dispute.  Welch appointed trustees to fill the various committee vacancies according to the expressed interests of the trustees.  Motion by Brown, supported by Lawrence to affirm the appointments of Trustees to various committees as made by the Board President.  Carried.   A list of the committee assignments is attached to these minutes.

 

            Motion by Maxson, supported by Mesch to close the Library on Sunday, April 23.  Carried.

 

            At Welch’s request, McGuire summarized for the new trustees the policy on disposal of surplus materials.  Motion by Brown, supported by Mesch to declare as surplus one high-speed cassette duplicator and one dot matrix printer and to authorize the Director to dispose of them according to policy.  Carried.

 

            Following a brief explanation by B. Nowinski of the purpose of the grant application, motion by Maxson, supported by Lawrence to adopt a Statement of Assurances for an Arts Council Mini-Grant application.  Carried.

 

            The meeting was opened for public comment.  There was none at this point.

 

            Welch again expressed the Board’s appreciation to Martha Vreeland and thanked the League of Women Voters for the reception.

           

            B. Parker, League of Women Voters, expressed the appreciation of the LWV’s Library Committee for Vreeland’s work with them and wished her a happy retirement.

 

There was no further public comment.  The meeting was adjourned at 6:17 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Dawn Buchanan, Recording Secretary

John Welch, President

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