MINUTES

Board of Trustees Regular Meeting

Thursday, June 26, 2003

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 President Mesch.  Present were Mesch, Lawrence, Maxson, Brown and Quick.  Welch and Luyt were absent.  Also present were Judson (Counsel), McGuire, Schneider and Maxwell (Staff). 

 

Motion by Brown, supported by Lawrence to approve the minutes from the Regular Meeting of May 8, 2003, and the Special Meeting of May 29, 2003.  Carried.

 

McGuire reported that the Library’s contribution to the Municipal Employees’ Retirement System of Michigan (pension fund) will increase from 8.5% of covered wages this year to 8.85% next year (2004).  Also, the premiums for vision insurance will increase about 23% for the plan year beginning July 1, 2003.

 

M. Braden sent a note thanking the Board for allowing the Library to sponsor her participation in Leadership Grand Traverse, from which she recently graduated.  Luyt also graduated from LGT.

 

McGuire reported that Schneider has been elected Chair Elect of the Public Libraries Division of the Michigan Library Association.  McGuire will be Chair of that division for the coming year.

 

The Supreme Court has upheld the Children’s Internet Protection Act.  The Board briefly discussed how this decision will impact TADL.  McGuire will work with Counsel and will keep the Board informed as regulations are released, and ultimately the Board will have to decide whether to install filters or turn down federal funding.  If the Board decides to install filters and the Member Libraries also decide to filter, probably TADL will fund and install the filters at all libraries for consistency across the district.  Whether this will affect the Law Library is uncertain at this point.

 

            Maxson reported that the Finance Committee had met twice since the last Board meeting to review the financial reports from April and May, which were included in the meeting packets for this meeting.  The reports are currently looking pretty good.  They will continue to monitor the budget and expenses.  Maxson met with the Auditor immediately prior to this meeting to review the audit.  The audit report was distributed to the trustees.  The committee would like the trustees to review the report, and the Board will go over it at the next Regular meeting with the Auditor.

 

There were no other committee reports, as none of the other committees had met. 

 

A written report from J. Ransom, Interlochen Public Library, was included in the meeting packets.

 

J. Maxson, Peninsula Community Library, reported that they have been really busy.  They have 50 children registered for their Summer Reading Club.  Their first SRC program featured Josh White, Jr., who will also be at Woodmere library on Saturday, July 5.  They recently had their eighth annual perennial exchange.  Sixty-nine people attended a program with local author Jerry Dennis.  PCL manned an aid station for the Bayshore Marathon and will be manning a souvenir tent at Cherry Festival.  She said it’s very helpful to the patrons to have PCL’s policies parallel those of TADL.  She appreciated being able to attend the recent TADL Board Study Session and also being asked for input on the new OPAC being developed by NuGen.

 

            C. Downey, Fife Lake Public Library, reported that so far they have over 100 children signed up for their Summer Reading Club.  The awards will be awarded at the end of the summer at the beach in conjunction with a celebration sponsored by a Fife Lake civic organization, FLASK.  The Library will be participating in Fife Lake’s 4^th of July parade with children dressed as their favorite book character.  Their annual home tour, which is their biggest fundraiser, will be August 10^th, with five homes currently registered.   Their circulation is really picking up.  They’re right on track with the timeline for planning a new library.  A group met last week to look at downsizing their plans.  They have a new person in their Friends group who will be helping them with grant-writing, in addition to other Friends activities.  Downey recently attended a Library of Michigan-sponsored workshop for library trustees, which she found very helpful.

 

            In the absence of a representative of the Friends, Schneider reported that he and Nowinski have been working with the Friends to get ready for the visit by author Calvin Trillin in October.  The Friends will be working with staff to solicit support from local businesses to help pay for expenses and to get the word out about the event.

 

            Motion by Quick, supported by Maxson to extend until June 26, 2004, the Board’s “Statement of Intent” to operate a branch library in Long Lake Township, which was originally adopted on December 13, 2001.  Carried.  McGuire gave a brief report on the progress of Long Lake Township’s building plans.

 

            Motion by Brown, supported by Maxson to continue with extended hours at the Grand Traverse County Law Library through the end of 2003.  Grace Rudd, Law Library Manager, and Wilson Brott, GTLA Bar Association President, addressed the Board in support of continuation of the extended hours.  Motion carried.

 

            Motion by Brown, supported by Lawrence to accept the revisions to the NuGen support agreement as proposed.  Following discussion, Brown and Lawrence withdrew the motion.  Motion by Quick, supported by Maxson to table this matter until the July Regular Meeting.  Carried.  McGuire will provide more background on the previous agreement, changes included in the next agreement, payments schedules, etc.

 

            Motion by Lawrence, supported by Quick to adopt the “Resolution on the USA PATRIOT Act and Related Measures that Infringe on the Rights of Library Users.”  Quick explained what had been done to revise the wording of the resolution since the appointment of an ad hoc committee to study the resolution and why this resolution is being proposed.  A roll call vote was requested, with the following results:

 

                                    Brown – yes                             Maxson – yes

                                    Lawrence – yes                        Mesch – yes

                                    Quick - yes

 

Motion carried.  The Library will be sponsoring a panel discussion on the USA PATRIOT Act on Thursday, July 31, 2003, at 6:00 p.m.  It will be an educational forum, with the panel made up of representatives of various agencies impacted by the Act.

 

            Motion by Lawrence, supported by Maxson to extend the agreement with the City of Traverse City for live broadcasts of City Commission meetings for a flat fee of $10,200.  Following comments by Judson regarding the relation of this item to the next, the motion was withdrawn by Lawrence and Maxson.

 

            Motion by Lawrence, supported by Quick to notify the Cherry Capital Cable Council of the Library’s intent to continue administering tctv2 through 2004 and to ask that the Council consider amending its agreement with the Library to include a 90-day cancellation notice rather than the current six months.  Carried.

 

            Motion by Brown, supported by Maxson to extend the Library’s agreement with the City of Traverse City for the live broadcasts of City Commission meetings for a flat fee of $10,200, contingent on Cherry Capital Cable Council’s commitment to the extension of its agreement with the Library.  Carried.

 

            Motion by Maxson, supported by Brown to enter into an “Agreement to Exercise Option” with the City of Traverse City for the sale of property located at 322 Sixth Street, Traverse City; and, further, to authorize payment from the capital projects fund to the City of Traverse City in the amount of $35,000 as partial reimbursement for roof repairs made to the building in 2002.  Following brief discussion, Maxson and Brown agreed to amend their motion by changing the last phrase to read “as reimbursement to the City of approximately one-half its cost of repairs made to the building in 2002.”  Motion carried as amended.

 

The meeting was opened for public comment.  There was none.   The meeting adjourned at 7:32 p.m.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Kelly Maxwell

Recording Secretary                

 

Shirley Mesch

President

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