IFLS Board of Trustees #020(15)
INDIANHEAD FEDERATED LIBRARY SYSTEM
Board of Trustees
March 25, 2015
M I N U T E S
The Board of Trustees of the Indianhead Federated Library System met on Wednesday,
March 25, 2015 at Indianhead Federated Library System, 1538 Truax Boulevard, Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Mike Norman called the meeting to order at 1:08 pm.
QUORUM AND CERTIFICATION OF COMPLIANCE
WITH OPEN MEETINGS LAW:
Joanne Gardner established that a quorum was present and certified that the meeting had been properly noticed in compliance with the open meeting law.
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:
Judy Achterhof (St. Croix County); Steve Anderson (St. Croix County); Mary Ellen Brue (St. Croix County); Jan Daus (Eau Claire County); Sue Duerkop (Polk County); Pat Eggert (Dunn County); Robert Fraser (Eau Claire County); Marilyn Holte (Chippewa County); Lyle Lieffring (Rusk County); Ron McLaughlin (Price County); Robert Mercord (Pierce County); Mike Norman (Pierce County); Louie Okey (Barron County); Jackie Pavelski (Eau Claire County); Jean Schlieve (Eau Claire County); Linda Thompson (Barron County); Larry Willkom (Chippewa County).
BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT:
Warren Nelson (Polk County); Gyneth Slygh (Pepin County); Jim Tripp (Dunn County).
OTHERS PRESENT:
John Thompson (Director); Juli Button (Business Manager); Joanne Gardner (Administrative Associate/Recorder).
APPROVE AGENDA:
MOTION #16(15): To approve the March 25, 2015 Agenda as presented. Okey/Fraser
RESULT: Carried.
CITIZEN COMMENTS:
There were no citizen comments.
ANNOUNCEMENTS/CORRESPONDENCE/INTRODUCTIONS:
There were no announcements or correspondence.
MINUTES:
MOTION #17(15): To approve the Board of Trustees minutes dated January 28, 2015
(Doc. #008-15). Lieffring/Fraser
RESULT: Carried.
MOTION #18(15): To acknowledge receipt of the Director Evaluation Committee minutes dated January 29, 2015 (Doc. #007-15). Daus/Mercord
RESULT: Carried.
FINANCIAL REPORTS:
MOTION #19(15): To approve the December 2014 Check Register (Doc. #010-15). Holte/Eggert
RESULT: Carried.
Questions were asked about CenturyLink and AT&T.
MOTION #20(15): To approve the January-February 2015 Check Register (Doc. #011-15). McLaughlin/Mercord
RESULT: Carried.
Questions were asked about Innovative Interfaces for Maintenance, Encore, and Decision Center.
MOTION #21(15): To approve the December 2014 Financial Reports (Doc. #012-15). Pavelski/Daus
RESULT: Carried.
Button noted that page one is the balance sheet that lists both 2013 and 2014 assets and liabilities. There has been very little change from 2013 to 2014. The state aids amount was the same.
Button pointed out that the Current Year Income Less Expenses is $27,032 for IFLS and $82 for MORE. IFLS had budgeted to spend over the current-year revenue. Year-end numbers reflect that IFLS did not have to and there was actually $41,534 of uncommitted funds and MORE had $76,561 of uncommitted funds. These savings can be attributed to technology income, web design contracts with WILS, salaries and payroll expenses, unused dental, staff development, delivery service, telephone charges, building and overhead expenses, system vehicle expenses.
MOTION #22(15): To approve the January-February 2015 Financial Reports
(Doc. #013-15). Holte/Brue
RESULT: Carried.
It was noted that there was a $75,000 savings in a Freegal subscription that MORE voted not to renew.
IFLS INVESTMENT REPORT AND
REVIEW OF THE INVESTMENT POLICY:
MOTION #23(15): To approve the IFLS Investment Report and Investment Policy (Doc. #014-15). Brue/Fraser
RESULT: Carried.
IFLS budgeted to make $2,000 on interest income in 2014. The year-end total came in at $2,142.
Arrangements have been made with Bank Mutual to obtain a Letter of Collateral for a small monthly fee. Interest rates were adjusted from .09 to .34 percent. A majority of IFLS funds are kept in the Select Investor Account which offers more flexibility.
Button noted that the only thing that came from the Audit was that a Collateral Letter needed to be offsite and that arrangement has been made. The auditors have begun preliminary work on the 2014 audit. The auditors will be in the office on May 6-7th and will make a presentation at the May Board meeting.
DIRECTOR’S REPORT OF AGENDA ITEMS
AND MONTHLY ACTIVITIES:
With the recent staff reorganization, Thompson is proposing that for future board meetings, Board members will receive the agenda and documentation via a PDF document instead of IFLS printing and mailing documents. Documents will be projected at the meeting as they are displayed today.
It takes several hours of staff time to prepare and copy meeting documents and there is the postage cost to mail packets. Thompson would like to move forward with this starting with the May meeting.
IFLS will work with the setup to ensure optimal viewing of documents by Board members at the meeting. Complex documents such as the Annual Report and Audit would be handed out at the meeting.
Although Board members appreciate the hard copies they agreed to receive future meeting documentation electronically. Willkom wanted the Board packet mailed.
Linda Donaldson, Director of the Hudson Area Joint Library plans to retire later this spring. Thompson met with the new Stanley Director. She has already re-arranged the library. Lori Pickard is the new Director at Dresser. She formerly worked at the Frederic library.
COLAND is pursuing an initiative to redesign library systems that are now in place. COLAND has met with the State Superintendent and the roadmap and concepts look good. At COLAND’s last meeting the roadmap timeline was redesigned. They are trying to figure out how to implement pieces of the roadmap that involve little or no money. The LEAN Study Group and COLAND will meet to chart out the redesigned roadmap. Thompson will keep the Board informed.
The Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries (WAPL) will hold their annual conference in Wisconsin Rapids on May 7th and 8th. Thursday is a full day of programs including several for library trustees’ and friends.
Norman is Chair of the Wisconsin Library Trustee and Friends unit of WLA. Norman has helped to organize some good programs including: Library Advocacy for Changing Times and Beyond Book Sales-How to Build a Better Library Friends Organization.
Norman noted that there is a registration fee for the conference, but perhaps attendance could be funded from your local friends group or library.
Thompson touched base on the various libraries working on building projects. The architect for New Richmond did a presentation on redesigning the old middle school site which came with a price tag of $24 million dollars. The building project in Rice Lake has stalled as discussions on where to locate the library. In Osceola they have created a website which details a discovery center and community facility. They plan to wait until April as the village hall portion is on the ballot. Colfax will hold an Advisory Referendum in April to decide how and if to proceed. Milltown is still regrouping the fundraising campaign. There may be something happening in Turtle Lake. Rigdeland (located in Dunn County) has purchased a building for a branch library. They approached Menomonie, Colfax, Boyceville, Sand Creek, and Barron. They are interested in being a branch library because they want to become part of MORE.
LIBRARY LEGISLATION UPDATE:
Thompson reported that the Governor’s proposed budget maintains the current funding level of system aids for 2016 and 2017. The budget does include funding to maintain BadgerLink at the current levels. BadgerLink is a collection of statewide databases available for all residents of the State of Wisconsin and available through libraries and schools. It includes HeritageQuest and Novelist products as well. BadgerLink provides a wide range of resources including a portion designed for kids and students and job training resources.
A subcommittee of the WLA Library Development and Legislative Committee is working on draft language about making it clearer about the appropriate release of library records for the purpose of assisting in the return of items and collection of amounts due to the library. Some libraries are doing this already. The subcommittee wants to ensure the language is clear about the appropriate release of library records.
(Break from 2:15-2:26 pm)
IFLS ANNUAL REPORT AND
STATEMENT OF COMPLIANCE:
MOTION #24(15): To approve the IFLS Annual Report and Statement of Compliance
(Doc. #016-15). Brue/Fraser
RESULT: Carried.
It was noted that the IFLS Annual Report and Statement of Compliance provided good narratives and shows the broad range of work the system does.
Norman noted that IFLS saves the member libraries a large amount of money every year in shared services, bulk purchases, and collaborative projects.
MEMBER LIBRARY COMPLIANCE ISSUES:
River Falls currently has a library board whose composition conflicts with statute. This should be corrected soon. If not, IFLS will create a compliance plan to correct it.
SYSTEM EFFECTIVENESS STATEMENTS
FROM MEMBER LIBRARIES:
The system didn’t receive any negative system effectiveness statements from member libraries. IFLS obtained 100% effective leadership for 2014.
The system did receive three positive comments which were included in the board meeting packet.
DIRECTOR EVALUATION COMMITTEE REPORT:
The Director Evaluation Committee finalized their work on the new director evaluation tool which will utilize Survey Monkey.
MOTION #25(15): To approve the Director Evaluation Committee’s Report. Holte/Eggert
RESULT: Carried.
Anderson reported that he reviewed the past three years’ efforts with the committee by reviewing the questionnaire responses that were sent to select trustees, librarians, and staff.
The new electronic process using Survey Monkey will eliminate the paper trail and the survey can be sent to all trustees, librarians, and staff. It will eliminate a selection process. The committee expects a higher return based on the ease of use of the electronic survey and by narrowing the questions to the surveyor’s knowledge of the director’s duties.
The committee recommends IFLS Board approval of using Survey Monkey for the director evaluation process. It is more streamlined, efficient, and quicker to analyze the survey results. An email would be sent to participants with a link to the survey. Results would be tallied automatically.
Thompson shared how the evaluation form appears on Survey Monkey as well how the results can be shared with the Personnel Committee in many different summary options.
It was not decided yet who would tabulate the survey results.
The committee also discussed the frequency of the Director Evaluation process. The thoughts are that it would be conducted annually during the first five years of hire, and then the Personnel Committee would have the option to conduct survey every other year.
IFLS STAFF REORGANIZATION:
Thompson reported that we were sorry to see Kathy O’Leary leave to take another job. Thompson met with a few staff to determine how to proceed with staffing. Based on no anticipated increase in state aid, it was determined not to rehire the position and instead redistribute job duties among staff.
Gus Falkenberg will assume website development and graphic design work while shifting his adult services to Maureen Welch. Leah Langby will oversee Director Certification seeing she already does the continuing education work. Joanne Gardner will assume backup on Interlibrary Loan duties and provide administrative support for the graphic design projects.
With some money-saving in 2015 due to not filling the position, funds will be reallocated for professional development for additional training if needed and for conferences. There will be some shifting of office spaces to accommodate the change in staff duties.
L. Thompson commented it was sad we couldn’t accommodate O’Leary but did appreciate the staff discussions about how best to reorganize among IFLS.
Willkom noted that as trustees, they handle broad decisions and policies. Items related to staffing, the Board should give confidence in the manager/director to handle what is best suited for IFLS.
BOARD SUMMER MEETING/LIBRARY VISIT:
Suggestions for the July meeting include: Amery, Balsam Lake, Baldwin, and Sand Creek.
(L. Thompson left at 3:10 pm.)
REPORTS:
Staff reports were provided in the meeting packet. The Board expressed appreciation with the lunch provided with IFLS staff.
Fraser noted that Eau Claire Street; which is in front of the library, will be redone into a plaza with additional parking.
ADJOURNMENT:
Motion to adjourn at 3:21 pm by Willkom/Anderson
______
Joanne Gardner, Recorder/Administrative Associate
These minutes of the Board of Trustees are approved: o as printed.
o with corrections noted.
______
Presiding Officer Dated
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