October 2007 Work Session

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Attendance
Penny Austin, Linda Hunt, Stephen Moberly, Randy Paul, Fred Risinger and John Walsh.
Absent
Janice Stockton.
Staff
Phil Eskew, Bonnie Estell, Margaret Harter, Chris Jackson, Sara Laughlin, Dory Lynch, Paula Overtoom, Wendy Rubbin, Jane Ruddick, Sue Sater, Kathy Starks-Dyer, and Bara Swinson.
Others

Rita Lichtenberg, Antonia Matthew, Kathy Myer, and Jim Whitlatch.

Call to Order

President Steve Moberly called the meeting to order at 5:46pm in Program Room 2B.

Collective Bargaining

President Steve Moberly presented a highlighted report on last month's work session relating to collective bargaining.

Jim Whitlatch reported that he had taken the liberty, as library counsel, to consult with the Indianapolis-Marion County Library. Jim presented 2 different drafts of resolutions concerning employee organizations and went over both.

Discussion followed regarding the following topics:

  • Definition of supervisor
  • Who has authority with work scheduling
  • Should an election be conducted, or a resolution pass
  • What rights employees have if they want to join a union or not
  • Selection of employee organizations
  • Rights of recognized employee organizations
  • Use of official time
  • Percentage of staff who do want a union and who do not want a union

    • After discussion, Steve stated that Jim Whitlatch has further research to do, and will get back with us with more information at our November Board of Trustees work session. Randy Paul stated he would like collective bargaining to be added to the November regular board meeting agenda.

    Discussion followed. Steve repeated that Jim will continue to look into this matter more and Steve stated Sara Laughlin is also in touch with other public libraries, and we may be able to have other people from different libraries to our library and speak to us.

    Steve opened the floor to public comment.

    Dory Lynch spoke to the Board briefly about how she thinks delaying collective bargaining is a very bad idea, and stated she doesn't think the current resolution presented to the Board this evening will work for us.

    Kathy Myer, from AFSCME, spoke to the Board regarding union fees and elections.

    Bara Swinson stated she is wondering which staff will be required to pay money for a union, and who will not. Bara stated she thinks if a staff person wants a union, they should be willing to pay for it. Bara also stated that she doesn't feel it is right to have some staff pay, but all have good representation (even those not paying).

    Phil Eskew spoke on Fair Share and stated the Board can allow the union, when they draw up their constitution and by-laws, to ask for Fair Share or not. Phil stated they can take money out of the election.

    Bara spoke again saying she would like student representation to be defined since she has a lot of students working as pages.

    Chris Jackson stated he would like to understand what supervisors could be a part of the union and who could not.

    Bonnie Estell stated she doesn't think we need to push the vote on this matter. Bonnie suggested that we put it on agendas for a while, for discussion.

    Chris spoke again saying there really is a vacuum of information. Chris stated people have different ideas of what this will mean, but we need to have understanding of gray areas. Chris concluded his comment by stating he hopes everyone can reach a common level of what the union is for.

    Randy reminded the Board that he does not want to see collective bargaining delayed. He stated he is not trying to rush the vote, and knows we can have a dozen meetings, but he doesn't want to see this dragged out.

    Dory spoke again stating that she thinks the 2nd resolution presented is a delay.

    Strategic Planning Update

    Sara presented an update on strategic planning. Sara reported she had a recent conversation with Ron Vine at ETC, and there will be a longer timeline than what was originally suggested to by their proposal. Sara stated that she has a couple draft surveys coming from ETC on the 21st of the month. A strategic planning committee is being formed. Penny Austin, Steve Moberly, and John Walsh will represent the Board on the committee, and a small number of staff will be chosen as well as representatives from community organizations. The first meeting will be on October 23 at 5:45pm in Meeting Room 1A. Sara stated we will set dates after that at the October 23 meeting.

    At the end of the update, Sara reported that Randy and Penny had asked if our staff would open LInt to our Board of Trustees. The Department Managers discussed this in a recent managers meeting and no one objected. Sara stated she asked Paula in IS to give the Trustees information on how to connect to LInt.

    Linda Hunt reminded the Board that previous Board of Trustees discussed giving Trustees access to LInt, but they thought it was crossing a line.

    Brief discussion followed. Penny stated that Trustees don't really want to read everything on LInt, just mainly the Wikki pages that are informative.

    Announcements

    Steve announced the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce gave the library an award recently on education and training of future work force. The library also received a certificate from United Way for achieving 50% employee participation in community caring.

    Steve announced next week's Board meeting will be at the Ellettsville Branch.

    Adjournment

    The meeting adjourned at 7:13pm.