Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Tom Bunger
President Steve Moberly called the work session to order at 5:46pm.
Steve Moberly stated that he wants a draft of all agendas sent to him before every Board packet goes out. Steve encouraged the Board to send e-mails to him, or call him, if they have suggestions or changes for scheduled meetings.
Discussion followed regarding Trustees personal information on the website. Randy confirmed he agrees to e-mails being on the website and doesn't mind his being on. Penny confirmed she was okay with it. Linda stated that she is fine with her personal address on the website, but she doesn't want her work address on the website or her work phone number on it. Fred stated he was fine with his e-mail address, but not his phone number. At the end of the discussion there was a consensus when all Board agreed to having their e-mail information on the website, and a general Trustees e-mail account posted.
There was discussion on communication with staff. The Board agreed that Trustees should be able to talk to any staff wanting to talk to Trustees, and the staff as well as public should be able to communicate their ideas and thoughts to Trustees. There was a consensus among the Board that things can still go through Sue (staff who choose to, or public who do not have electronic e-mail can hand deliver or mail things to Sue), but staff also can send individually to the Board themselves.
There was discussion on communication with the media (notices, interviews, and responses), communication with public web comments, the director's schedule, and monthly reports to the Board. Steve reminded Cindy that any press release issued in the name of the library, or Board, need to be sent to the Trustees, especially since the Trustees should know what the library is saying to the public. Steve encouraged Cindy to let him know whenever she plans out-of-town trips or when she is going to be gone a week or two from the library.
Cindy reported that Steve Backs has done a template for department reports and managers report monthly to Administration. Cindy stated that we are trying to condense the reports, so that we avoid duplicating things to the Trustees, such as information in the quarterly reports that staff prepare.
Cindy Gray reported that she and Bonnie Estell met with Sophia Travis, from the County Council, today. Sophia informed Cindy that she feels like they will vote on Monday for this, as this is why they called the public session. The County Council meeting is at 4:30.
Discussion followed regarding the Board's opinion of the vote, how they can encourage the LCPF, how they can encourage the community to support it, how Board members will approach their county council members, how we should make library buttons encouraging the community to "invest in their library", and how we should post information to our website regarding the return on the community investment relating to our library services.
Bonnie presented financial reports, and told the Board that she is open to what information they want and will report on it.
Discussion followed and questions relating to the check register, the expenditure summary, comparisons on revenues and providing a narrative of something out of the ordinary that appears on the check register.
Cindy announced that this is a follow-up of information on a previous Board meeting meeting discussion. After Cindy stated Bonnie had researched this, Bonnie stated that it gets difficult when you have too much money to invest, which is probably why we set up a Foundation before to help with investing money for the library. Bonnie reported that the library can invest in 1 state bank, if that is the way it is given to us. We cannot invest our own money in stock. The Monroe Bank is 4.43%, as is listed in the investment list in the Board packet. Vectren is 2.3% over last 5 years. Scudder is a mute point right now, because we had to withdraw on a mutual fund.
Discussion followed regarding why we shouldn't spend the money we are considering investing.
Cindy Gray announced that we received a donation from an individual, as a memorial, to work with a local designer in town. The designer is Laura Shively. Cindy reported that Laura brought in a proposal with several different landscaping styles. She will bring back cost proposals for us soon. Laura's emphasis is on low maintenance ideas. She feels it can be a low maintenance type and add color. Cindy stated that since the time of the donation, she has had someone else approach her with a $10,000 gift to add to this.
Brief discussion followed regarding weeds at the Ellettsville Branch, and how to maintain the landscaping.
Cindy stated that she thinks it is important to maintain consistency and why things are done the way they are, and stated that she thinks there is enough flexibility in Laura's plan, that we could add to it, and let organizations know about it, and possibly help to maintain it. Cindy asked if the Board wanted us to pursue this. The Board agreed for Cindy to proceed.
Cindy went over the section with the Board.
Discussion followed regarding reclassifications and re-evaluating positions.
Steve Moberly asked if any staff would like to make a comment before the Board moved on to the next agenda item.
Stephanie Holman spoke, on behalf of her past experiences as the President of the Staff Association for two years. Stephanie stated that classifications are sometimes hard to deal with, and that it is important that managers are involved. Stephanie stated that the Staff Association does understand the director's rights, but some of the reclassifications have left the Staff Association wondering if they should have been open positions for people to compete for.
Stephanie concluded by stating she thinks there are still misunderstandings of why we do some of the things that we do. When the director decides someone should be lowered in a position, staff are concerned about what it means to pay structures and it becomes worrisome to staff. Staff understand management rights allow movement, and trust those decisions are made for the benefit of the library, but the assurance that salary will be protected is important to staff.
Discussion among the Board continued regarding making classifications more clear and giving more opportunity for someone to apply for something they are interested in, making sure staff are not lowered in pay, making sure staff are given more responsibilities if pay grade has changed upwards, and reviewing positions.
At the end of discussion, Steve asked that this action item appear on the next Board meeting agenda.
Cindy Gray presented information on ETC Institute's proposal of $46,000 and Sara Laughlin's contract proposal of $10,400. Cindy stated that Tom Bunger has been given both contracts to review. Steve Moberly asked Tom if he had any comments. Tom replied no.
Discussion followed.
Cindy Gray presented a list of index libraries and stated that this is just a suggestion that has occurred in other places I have been. Cindy stated that you want to pick libraries you consistently compare to and the libraries on this list are libraries we typically look at. We tried to pull similar budgets, similar service populations, similar services, staffing levels, and typically pick people slightly above you and slightly below you. These are some who came out of public library annual report on the national level. The state level is online at the state library.
Discussion continued.
Steve Moberly asked if there was any public or staff who wanted to make any comments about this agenda item.
Stephanie Holman replied that she thinks it would be great to communicate with staff as well. Stephanie stated she would like to add one more comment about classification, and indicated that the staff is new to hiring practice and are trying to understand it. Stephanie concluded with the comment "It isn't that we aren't happy with our positions or the need to be fiscally responsible."
The work session ended in discussion relating to the 2007 budget; and the operating fund monthly revenue report.
The meeting adjourned at 7:38pm.
Contact
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Updated:
June 27, 2007
° http://www.monroe.lib.in.us/board/200705wrk.html
