January 24, 2023 - Board of Trustees | Menasha Public Library

ELISHA D. SMITH PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES
MEETING MINUTES
Elisha D. Smith Public Library
Gegan Room
January 24, 2023

Called to order at 4:03pm by Chair Halverson
Present: Trustee Eisenach, Chair Halverson, Secretary Lane, Trustee Turner, Superintendent of Schools VanderHeyden, Trustee Witt and Teen Rep. E. Lane
Absent: Trustee Franzoi, Vice Chairman Golz and Trustee Stojanovic
Also Present: Director Kopetsky, Programming Services Manager Moore-Nokes and Business Manager Dreyer

Public Comment/Communication
None

Consent Business
A motion was made by Turner, seconded by Witt to approve the Library Board of Trustees meeting minutes from December 27, 2022. Motion carried unanimously.

Authorization of Bills
A motion was made by VanderHeyden, seconded by Turner to authorize payment of the December (2) 2022 list of bills from the 2022 budget and the January 2023 list of bills from the 2023 budget. Motion carried unanimously.

Updates
Planning Process Update
EUA provided two renderings: one of the library entrance and one looking inside the building from the entrance. We will have the third rendering, a 3D model of the main floor spaces and cost estimate for the board retreat.

501(c)3 Update
A draft of the bylaws is being reviewed.

New Business
Director’s Report

SMITHworks finished the year with 2,566 drop-in users and an additional 300 attending programs. The space was open April – December. We are looking for volunteers to help in the makerspace. SMITHworks is closed this week for maintenance, cleaning, reorganization and to let the team catch their breath.
The Winter Reading program will be running January 9 through February 26. We partnered with Winnefox and the Wisconsin Herd for a sports theme. So far, we are running 50% over last year’s total (86 to 134).
The Library of Things should be debuting February 1.
Kopetsky met with the new director of the Boys & Girls Club in Menasha about opportunities to work together during the summer reading program.
We have completed the job description revisions of all non-management staff positions. Soon they will be distributed to the team for input. We found that we need to develop a formal job description for the primary makerspace staff person. After that, we will be working on the management team job descriptions. This will put us into a good position as we move into the city’s salary study.
We are looking at replacing our current meeting room scheduling software to organize and streamline our room reservation and program planning. We believe that will save staff time and increase the effectiveness of our communication with the community.
The Creative Writing group will be publishing a spiral bound book of short stories entitled 17 Secrets. Lakeside Publishing is sponsoring this program and the printing of the book.

December Statistics
Year end statistics are trending upwards but we have not gotten back to pre-COVID levels. DVD circulation has stabilized at a lower level.

2022 Budget Status
Trustees reviewed the 2022 budget status. The budget status does not reflect the 2021 carryover.

Retreat Topics
Trustees reviewed potential topics for the retreat on February 5.

(Eisenach left the meeting at 5:10pm.)

Staff Reports