Library Board of Trustees Minutes – September 18, 2019

Attention: This post is over 2 years old and the information may be out of date.Attention: This post is over 2 years old and the information may be out of date.

MINUTES
September 18, 2019 at 4:30pm
East Lansing Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting
3/4 Room
950 Abbot Road

1) Call to Order 4:33pm

2) Roll Call

All trustees were present. Also in attendance were City Council Liaison Erik Altmann, Friends Representative Sheila Taylor, Assistant Director/Head of Customer Experiences Brice Bush and Director Kristin Shelley.

3) Opening
A) Approval of July 17, 2019 Meeting Minutes

Cervenak moved.
Goddeeris seconded.
All in favor.
Motion carried.

B) Approval of Current Meeting Agenda

Wilkinson moved.
Synk seconded.
All in favor.
Motion carried.

4) Communications
A) Audience: None

B) Written Correspondence

Shelley shared that a donation was received in the amount of $4,500 for the teen after school program snacks. She also shared a thank you note received from Paula Koppisch.

5) Reports
A) City Council Liaison Report:
Altmann reported:

  • Tom Fehrenbach has been hired as the City’s Planning, Building and Development Director.
  • The electric scooter companies, Gotcha and Lime and are expected to deploy electric scooters in East Lansing next week.
  • The DDA is moving forward with an RFP for the Evergreen properties.

B) Friends of the East Lansing Public Library Report
Taylor reported:

  • First Friends meeting of FY20 will be held on 9/24/2019. Meetings thereafter will be held on the 4th Monday of the month.
  • A new Friends Board member has been added since Taylor last reported. She emphasized that they would welcome more members.
  • August income was $5,000 for the shop alone. Additional revenue will be added from eBay and Etsy sales.
  • Friends donated over $5,000 to the Library for the purchase of a commercial grade TV and protective enclosure for the Teen area.
  • The Friends formed a millage committee comprised of both board and non-board members. The committee has met twice. Zaagman requested that she be added to the email notification list for future meetings.

6) Old Business:  None

A)  Staffing Update

  • Shelley, Bush and Douglass interviewed several candidates for the vacant STEAM Educator.
  • The Library’s Youth Services Specialist accepted a position at the Delta Township District Library. Interviews to fill the position will take place over the next several weeks. Since Youth Services facilitates a significant amount of programming, two candidates will be hired for the position.
  • Two Pages and two Circulation Service Associates were hired.

B) Library Director Evaluation and Contract
Zaagman presented the FY19 Director evaluation

Cervenak moved to accept the FY19 Director evaluation as presented.
Goddeeris seconded.
All in favor.
Motion carried

Zaagman noted that although the Director contract automatically renews, it may contain language that needs to be updated. Zaagman and Wilkinson will meet with Shelley to review.  Zaagman invited any Board members who wish to participate in the meeting to attend.

7) New Business:  None

8) Library Reports
A) Financial Report
Shelley provided a written Financial Report.  Discussion included:

  • Penal fine revenues are significantly less in FY20
  • The periodicals budget is at 80% spent as yearly subscriptions are paid at the beginning of each fiscal year as are permit, license and assessment fees.

B) Director's Report
Shelley reported:

  • Bush, Shelley, DeShambo of DPW and Bill Campbell of Signature Ford met with Farber Specialty Vehicles in Ohio to discuss retrofitting a Ford Transit for the Pop-up Mobile Library.  Summer Reading programs were well attended and included Harris Nature Center, Ron the Bubble Man, Star Wars Storm Troopers for Family StoryTime and Abrams Planetarium.
  • 855 kids and 138 Junior (ages 0-3) registered for Summer Reading.
  • The National Night Out/Touch a Truck event was a success with approximately 600 in attendance.
  • The One Book, One Community author reception for Matthew Desmond author of this year’s title “Evicted” and the public conversation at the Hannah Community Center took place on August 25, 2019. Both events were well attended and received by the community.
  • Bush and Hawley attended the Research Institute for Public Libraries conference which focused on how to evaluate library programs using best practices in research methodology.
  • All new Library staff attended the City’s Active Shooter Training.
  • The Library debuted a Free Little Library at the Aquatic Center.
  • Shelley attended the Narcan bill signing and photo op with Governor Whitmer on August 21.

C) President’s Report: none

9) Announcements
A)Shelley announced:

East Lansing Welcomes the World.
The East Lansing Welcomes the World event will be held on Friday, September 20, 2019 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Library. There will be food, Karaoke, family activities and Sparty will make an appearance.

10) Adjournment
Goddeeris moved.
Cervenak seconded.
All in favor.
Motion carried.

Zaagman adjourned the meeting at 5:32 PM.

Board of Trustees
Amy Zaagman, President
Lance Wilkinson, Vice President
Diane Goddeeris, Secretary
Paul Cervenak
Polly Synk

City Council Liaison
Erik Altmann

Staff Liaison
Kristin Shelley