MINUTES

Board of Trustees Regular Meeting

Thursday, September 12, 2002

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.  Present were Quick, Lawrence, Maxson, Mesch and Luyt.  Brown arrived at 5:45 p.m.  Welch was absent.  Also present were Judson (Counsel), McGuire, Nowinski and Schneider (Staff).

 

            Motion by Maxson, supported by Luyt to amend the agenda to include as New Business Item e. “Declaration of various items as surplus.”  Carried

 

Motion by Lawrence, supported by Maxson to approve the minutes from the Regular Meeting of July 18, 2002.  Carried.

 

McGuire reported that the day before he and Schneider had met with all of the department heads and requested that in their scheduling they reduce staff hours in each department by 5% to try to reduce the deficit in the Personnel line item.  McGuire and Schneider will keep an eye on the financial reports as the end of the year gets closer to see if the reduction is helping.  The goal is to make the reductions in such a way that the deficit is reduced without affecting public service.

 

McGuire and Christopher Spear went to Lansing in late August for Michigan Library Association training.  McGuire will be going back down on Monday, September 16, for his first Public Libraries Division meeting, Spear will be going the following Friday for a Youth Services Division meeting, and Brown will be going in the near future for a Trustees Roundtable meeting.

 

In response to a question from Maxson, McGuire said that he had been in contact with Noreen Broering from the Village of Fife Lake, and they decided to wait until after the feasibility study report to meet to discuss the village’s vision for the future of Fife Lake Public Library.

 

Quick reported that the Facilities and Services Committee had met with Mark Morrow of the Breton Group on September 5 prior to Morrow’s report to the Long Lake community on the results of the feasibility study.  Morrow will be making reports to Kingsley on September 19, to Fife Lake on October 1 and to Blair Township on October 8.  He will report to the TADL Board at the December regular meeting.

 

Quick also reported that the committee would be meeting within a couple of weeks to review parking data and options and a couple of other issues.  After that meeting the committee hopes to have some parking recommendations for the Board.

 

            Maxson reported that the Finance Committee had met to review the status of the finances through July and to help prepare the budget for next year.  A financial report for July was included in the meeting packets.  Maxson pointed out that although revenues for the year are now projected to be about $100,000 more than originally budgeted, the budget still shows a projected deficit for the year of about $66,000.  That concerns the committee and is probably what prompted McGuire’s earlier remarks about what is being done to reduce staff hours.  The committee and staff are continuing to work on this.  McGuire and Schneider responded to various questions and concerns from the trustees about the state of the budget.

 

            Mesch reported for the Personnel Committee that McGuire’s planning calendar and mission statement and the organizational chart had been faxed or emailed to the trustees and asked that they all look at these items to be sure they meet their expectations.  The committee expects that by the next regular meeting they will have the planning calendar and mission statement and monthly expectations from the Director and staff.  The next step with the organizational chart is to review all job descriptions and revise and update them as necessary.  Brown thanked the Personnel Committee for all the work they’ve been doing.

 

            Lawrence reported that the Policy Committee had met to discuss the current Internet policy.   Counsel and staff felt that the current policy was adequate, so the committee will not consider revising it at the present time.  The committee has a draft of the policy on charges for out-of-district requests for research.  The policy was specifically aimed at genealogy research, but the committee is considering whether to extend it to other research as well.  They next plan to review all of the existing policies to determine if any need to be updated.

 

            E. Woodbury, trustee of Peninsula Community Library, reported that PCL had recently mailed out their quarterly newsletter to about 2800 addresses.  The Friends will be meeting on September 18 to discuss the allocation of funds raised in the past year.  PCL is developing a Youth Friends program to partner adult mentors with Old Mission Elementary School students.

 

            M. TerBeek showed some pictures of the Long Lake Reading Room and reported that they had 94 kids involved in their summer reading program.  She thanked the TADL Friends for the grant that enabled them to do craft programs and other activities.  She brought along two young patrons, Tessa and Molly, who talked about why a Long Lake Branch Library is needed.

 

            C. Downey, trustee of Fife Lake Public Library, reported that they had raised $820 on their home tour in August and $482 on their quilt raffle/book sale/bake sale on July 4^th.  Their Friends group has recently mailed in their 501(c)3 application.  In July the FLPL Board voted to present their own building plan instead of the Breton Group’s plan when the Breton Group did the feasibility study interviews for the Fife Lake community.

 

            McGuire reported that the rotating DVD collection has been started at all of the member and branch libraries and is very popular.

 

            E. Kage reported that September is a very busy month for the Friends.  U.S. Poet Laureate will be in town on September 14.  Tickets for his program are almost sold out.  On the 21^st and 22^nd, the Friends will hold their annual Almost-Rare Book Sale, which they expect to be bigger and better than ever.  The treasurer of the Friends recently resigned and they are in the process of recruiting someone for that job and would be happy to take suggestions of names.  The Gift Shop is doing very well and receives new merchandise almost daily.

 

            G. Travis of the Friends of the Kingsley Public Library reported that they made about $1500 on their first-ever garden walk in June.  They will be having a craft sale in November.  They are awaiting the Breton Group report with their fingers crossed that it will show substantial report for a new library building in Kingsley.

 

            McGuire reported that Counsel is still working on the issue of the elevator in the Sixth Street facility.  Staff is continuing to monitor this until it’s ready to come back to the Board for a final report and action, if necessary.  The hope is that this can be resolved by the end of the year.

 

            Motion by Maxson, supported by Lawrence to transfer $15,975 from the General Fund to the Debt Retirement Fund.  Carried.

 

            Motion by Luyt, supported by Mesch to enter into a revised agreement with the Grand Traverse-Leelanau-Antrim Bar Association to add morning hours to the operation of the Grand Traverse County Law Library for six months beginning January 2, 2003, with a review at the end of that time for possible continuance of the additional hours.  Following brief discussion and at Brown’s suggestion, Luyt and Mesch agreed to amend the motion to make it contingent on approval by the Bar Association.  Motion carried as amended.

 

            Motion by Lawrence, supported by Maxson to adopt the revised pay scale for library pages as proposed.  Following discussion of the COLA provisions in the proposed pay structure, Lawrence and Maxson withdrew their motion.  Motion by Quick, supported by Luyt and others to adopt the new pay rate scale as proposed for the individuals listed in the proposal as pages and to refer the pay rate structure to the Finance and Personnel Committees for further review.  Carried.

 

            McGuire introduced and Schneider briefly reviewed the first draft of the proposed budget.  They are still working on it and will have a final draft ready for the public hearing which will be on September 26 if the motion is approved at this meeting.  Brown asked that staff prepare for the next meeting a history and review of the funding of the member libraries as well as a comparison of TADL’s revenues and expenses with other Class VI libraries.

 

            Motion by Lawrence, supported by Maxson to set a public hearing on the 2003 Budget for Thursday, September 26, 2002, beginning at 5:30 p.m.  Carried.  The Finance Committee will meet with staff prior to September 20 to arrive at a budget to be available for review by the public before the public hearing.  A Special Meeting will be held after the public hearing to adopt the 2003 budget.

 

            Motion by Maxson, supported by Luyt to declare as surplus the items listed on the “Inventory Control Form TADL Auction 2002.”  Carried.

 

The meeting was opened for public comment.  There was none.  The meeting was adjourned at 6:58 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Kelly Maxwell                         

Recording Secretary

 

Douglas Brown

President

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