ELISHA D. SMITH PUBLIC LIBRARY TRUSTEES
AGENDA
4:30 p.m. Thursday, December 20, 2007
Gegan Room
(If Board Members cannot attend, please notify the Library Office)
CALL TO ORDER & ROLL CALL:
PUBLIC COMMENT:
AUTHORIZATION OF BILLS:
1. Lists of bills for December 2007.
CONSENT BUSINESS (Motion to approve all unless separate consideration requested):
2. Minutes. Minutes of Board meeting November 15, 2007.
3. Minutes. Minutes of Personnel Committee meeting November 26, 2007.
4. Minutes. Minutes of Long Range Planning Committee meeting November 14, 2007 - for record only, not approval.
INFORMATION ITEMS/DIRECTOR'S REPORT:
5. Statistics.
6. Donations.
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS:
7. Easter Sunday Closing
8. Donations to Fox Cities Reads and WLA Foundation
9. Additional Hours for Two Staff in 2008
10. Public Faxing
11. Premium Saturdays and Sundays
Adjourn into closed executive session pursuant to WI Statute 19.85(1)(c) for the purpose of considering promotion, compensation or performance evaluation of employees.
12. Salary Steps.
13. Performance Recognition Step.
14. Director Evaluation.
15. ADJOURN
UPCOMING MEETINGS & ACTIVITIES
(Including requests for business items for future meetings)
• Library Board Meeting - January 17, 2008 at 4:30 pm.
• Library Legislation Day - January 22, 2008
Menasha aldermen may attend meetings of this body. A quorum of the Common Council, Board of Public Works, Administration Committee, or Personnel Committee may attend this meeting. No official action of any of those bodies will be taken.
ELISHA D. SMITH PUBLIC LIBRARY
DIRECTOR'S REPORT - DECEMBER 2007
1. Bills. REQUESTED ACTION: Approval of bills as presented for December 2007.
CONSENSUS ACTION ITEMS:
2. Minutes. Minutes of Board meeting November 15, 2007. REQUESTED ACTION: Approval.
3. Minutes. Minutes of Personnel Committee meeting November 26, 2007. REQUESTED ACTION: Approval.
4. Minutes. Minutes of the Long Range Planning Committee meeting November 14, 2007. REQUESTED ACTION: Accept Report.
INFORMATION ITEMS:
5. Statistics. Our circulation statistics have fallen again. However, our reference questions were up and our programming continues to be very strong. We are doing everything right and I believe we are seeing settling after the high of our new building.
6. Donations. We received $100 from the Apple Knitters Guild this month that will be put towards purchasing knitting books. The teachers at Butte des Morts Elementary have given $100 in memory of Laurie Scheibel. We also received two memorial gifts. One is in memory of Patrick J. Clifford and the other in memory of Genevieve Nemick.
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS:
7. Easter Sunday Closing. When the Board approved closings for 2008, we were not sure we would be open on Sundays. Now that we will be, we need to add Easter Sunday as a closed day. REQUESTED ACTION: Approve Easter Sunday as a day the library will be closed in 2008.
8. Donations for Fox Cities Reads, Fox Cities Book Festival and WLA Foundation. The library is going to be participating in both Fox Cities Reads and the Fox Cities Book Festival in 2008. In both cases, we have staff members involved in the planning process. Both programs are sustained by the libraries and organizations who are participating. Additionally, the Wisconsin Library Association Foundation does good work for libraries around the state. The library donated $1000 to the Foundation a year ago. REQUESTED ACTION: Approve $500 for each of the programs to be taken from the Endowment Fund.
9. Additional Hours for Two Staff in 2008. In early 2007, we had someone retire from the Children's Department. Because we had certain retirement payouts, we could not use all of the available funds for new staff in 2007. Without the payouts in 2008, we can now use those funds to increase the hours of two positions. I suggest one Librarian II position in the Children's Department be increased from 18 hours per week to 20 hours per week. Also, I suggest one of our Aide positions in the Circulation Department be increased from 8 hours per week to 14. REQUESTED ACTION: Approve recommended increases in staff hours.
10. Public Faxing. We have had many requests for public faxing at the library. Joe believes that his staff can handle the extra duties of sending and receiving faxes. We need to change the library policy to reflect that we will now be offering public faxing. Additionally, we need to set the rate for the faxing. My recommendation after asking other libraries what they charge and looking at other faxing services is that for sending a fax we charge $2.00 for the first page sent and $1.00 for each additional page. For receiving, we can charge the same rate as our copiers, 10 cents per page. REQUESTED ACTION: Approve public faxing as a new service at the library and approve rates charged for sending and receiving.
11. Premium Saturdays and Sundays. The board has expressed concern over our offering premium pay on summer Saturdays and winter Sundays.
One clarification I need to make is that this is not overtime pay, but premium pay. The board has previously set summer Saturdays and winter Sundays as premium days where staff will receive time and a half no matter how many hours they work during the week. The premium hours are in addition to their regularly scheduled hours in a given week.
I firmly believe that we should continue to offer this benefit to our staff. First, the winter Sundays at a premium rate are standard in area libraries. To no longer offer this, would make us the sole library in the region without that benefit. It has been mentioned that perhaps we should lead the way to a new way of doing things in libraries, but I believe that not offering premium pay on Sundays makes us look backwards rather than progressive. The premium summer Saturdays are indeed unusual in libraries. We may be one of the only libraries who offer this. However, I would point out that the benefit only cost us $1600 in 2007.
I could see the library being forced to change this policy in a tight budget time where dropping Saturday premiums might be necessary. However, in this budget year we are not facing that situation. A major concern of ours has to be how to retain the quality employees we have and how to make our library of interest to new applicants. These benefits do that. I respectfully request that the benefits continue as they currently are.
12. Salary Steps. In 2008, we have several staff members moving ahead steps on the salary scale. These steps are not merit based, but are given for each year worked at the library. Employees who are part time receive steps on a pro-rated schedule. REQUESTED ACTION: Approve salary steps for staff.
13. Performance Recognition Step. This year we have one staff member eligible for Step 11 on the salary step schedule, which is a merit-based step. REQUESTED ACTION: Approve performance recognition step for eligible staff member.
14. Director Evaluation. The Personnel Committee will be evaluating the Director and recommending a level of compensation. REQUESTED ACTION: Approve evaluation and level of compensation for Director in 2008.
