MINUTES

Board of Trustees Regular Meeting

Thursday, August 9, 2001

Traverse Area District Library

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

            The meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m. by Vice President Mesch, who presided until Brown arrived.  Present were Mesch, Welch, Schermerhorn, Lawrence, Maxson and Quick.  Brown arrived at 5:49 p.m.  Also present were Judson (Counsel), McGuire, Schneider and Carpenter (Staff). 

 

            Motion by Maxson, supported by Schermerhorn to amend the agenda to include under item 2 approval of minutes of the July 19^th Special Meeting; and to include as item 5.d., authorization of the purchase of equipment for tctv2.  Carried.

 

            Motion by Maxson, supported by Welch to approve the minutes from the Regular Meeting of June 14, 2001.  Carried.  Motion by Maxson, supported by Welch to approve the minutes from the Special Meeting and Study Session of July 19, 2001.  Carried.

 

            McGuire reported that Christopher Spear of the Youth Services Department was recently elected member-at-large of the Youth Services Division of the Michigan Library Association.  McGuire also encouraged trustees to become active in the MLA.

 

            Quick said that the report from the Facilities and Services Committee would be combined with agenda item 5.b. regarding facility locations.  He asked that item 5.b. be moved to 5.a., as he needed to leave early.  Mesch agreed to the change.

 

            Maxson reported that the Finance Committee had met to review the audit with the auditor and to review the budget, specifically the Professional Fees line item.  The financial report for June was included in the meeting packets.  Maxson said that committee had discussed with staff the variance in the Professional Fees line item, which was primarily due to installation of Groupwise, and had come to an agreement as to how to deal with this item.  The item will remain over budget, so a budget adjustment will need to be made later in the year, but staff has agreed to monitor it so that the variance will not increase.

 

            Mesch reported that the Personnel Committee had met the previous Monday.  The committee has been given the task of setting up procedures for evaluation of administrative staff.  They will need several more meetings to accomplish this task.

            Schermerhorn said that the Personnel and Policy Committees are composed of the same trustees, and they had discussed the possibility of combining the two committees, as there seems to be a good deal of overlap.  Judson said that he would need to look at the by-laws but that probably this could be accomplished in some way.  Schermerhorn said that one of the things the Policy Committee wants to look at is the by-laws, as they haven’t been revised in many years and there are some things that need to be updated.

 

            There were no other committee reports

 

            Maxson conveyed apologies from Peninsula Community Library for their absence.  They were hosting a special program so were unable to send a representative to the TADL Board Meeting.  There were no other  Member Library representatives present.

 

            E. Kage reported for the Friends of the Library that they have several events coming up.  They will have a Children’s Used Book Sale in conjunction with the Summer Reading Club party on August 11.  The annual Almost Rare Book Sale is planned for September 15 and 16.  Their annual membership drive starts at the beginning of September.  Poet’s Night Out is coming in November.  The Friends are in the process of setting up various committees for operation of their store.  They hope to receive a grant from Fifth Third Bank to help fund their anniversary activities in 2002.  

 

Dale Vanderwal presented the 2000 audit. (At this point Brown arrived and took over the meeting.)  The audit was qualified due to previously noted deficiencies in accounting for the Library’s book collection.  The deficiency was noted too late to be corrected for all of 2000.  However, it appears that significant progress has been made in correcting this.  Vanderwal reviewed other highlights of the audit and the auditors’ recommendations.  Motion by Welch, supported by Maxson to accept the audit as presented.  Carried.

 

Steve Shugart, Northwest Michigan Council of Governments, addressed the Board regarding their agreement to take over from United Way the agreement for maintenance of the Northwest Michigan Information and Referral System.  McGuire gave a brief background of the project.  Motion by Welch, supported by Lawrence to enter into an agreement with the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments for maintenance of the Northwest Michigan Information and Referral System.  Following a suggestion from Quick, Welch and Lawrence amended their motion to include at the end “subject to approval by Counsel as to form.”  Motion carried as amended.

 

Motion by Quick, supported by Welch to adopt the revised “Library Facility, Branch and Site Location Guidelines” the accompanying application for a branch library.  Quick reviewed the changes that he had made in the application after the July Study Session.  Brown, Maxson and Quick emphasized that both the “Guidelines” and the application are tools to be used for evaluation of the need for expansion of services.  Motion carried.

 

Motion by Maxson, supported by Welch to enter into a licensing agreement with the Friends of the Library for use of the library clock logo.  Carried.

 

Motion by Welch, supported by Lawrence to authorize the payment of $31,903.23 plus shipping and handling to Storage Computer Corporation and payment of $8,537.00 to City Animation for the purchase of equipment for tctv2.  Carried.

 

The meeting was opened for public comment.  C. and D. Bailey expressed their appreciation for the existence of the Long Lake Reading Center.  C. Thorson told the Board that the Friends of the Kingsley Public Library is now a functioning organization and expects to have a representative at each TADL Board meeting.

 

Brown passed around several thank-you’s he had received for the staff holiday dinner last December.

 

There was no further public comment.  The meeting was adjourned at 6:49 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Victoria Carpenter, Recording Secretary

Douglas Brown, President