MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING
ELISHA D. SMITH PUBLIC LIBRARY TRUSTEES
October 16, 2008
Call to order at 4:30 p.m. by President Fuchs
Present: Derouin, Eisen, Enos, Fuchs, Nebel, Stanke, Werley, Wicihowski
Also present: Director Saecker, K. Seefeldt (Administrative Assistant), Kelly Randerson (Community Foundation Accountant/Donor Relations Officer), Terri Towle (Community Foundation VP Finance & Administration)
Public Comment
Eisen praised Director Saecker for assuming the position of President of the Fox Cities Book Festival. He also shared recent local newspaper articles featuring our library. Fuchs shared a congratulatory letter he received from Elizabeth Burmaster, State Superintendent of Schools, regarding our achievement as Library of the Year.
Authorization of Bills
1. Motion to authorize payment of the October list of bills from the 2008 budget by Enos, seconded by Eisen and carried unanimously.
Eisen requested that a draft list of bills be sent via e-mail to Board members the day prior to the monthly Board meeting. Werley inquired if payments from the City's salaries, wages, and utility accounts could be included in the agenda's Consent Business rather than appearing on the list of bills. Director Saecker stated that we are following the state's recommended procedures for approval of these expenditures.
Consent Business
2. Approve minutes from the Library Board meeting of September 18, 2008.
Motion
Motion to approve the minutes from the Library Board meeting of September 18, 2008 by Eisen seconded by Nebel, and carried unanimously.
Director's Report/Information Items
3. Community Foundation. Terri Towle and Kelly Randerson from the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley were introduced. Terri Towle gave a brief history of the Community Foundation and summarized important changes to the Foundation's investment program that are now taking place. Spend-down fund assets, such as our Memorial Fund, will now be pooled in one of three portfolios: short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term. These portfolios will be professionally managed and are designed to meet the expected timeframe for making grants from the spend-down fund. A new investment strategy designed to manage risk while providing stability and growth for the fund assets in their endowment portfolio is being implemented. Colonial Consulting of New York will act as the Foundation's investment advisor. Colonials' Brian Crawford has been invited to speak about this investment strategy on Wednesday, November 12 at 10:30 a.m. at the Foundation's office. Board members were invited to attend. Towle and Randerson addressed their grant application process and answered additional questions from the Board.
Wicihowski left the meeting at 5:18 p.m.
Towle and Randerson left the meeting at 5:21 p.m.
4. Statistics. Monthly statistics continue to be amazing. Lending was up 37.1% overall from last year. We anticipate that the new self-check machines will alleviate this additional workload for staff.
5. HAPLR. Hennen's American Public Library Ratings were released for 2008. This set of ratings is based on federal data from 2005. Menasha rated the highest in the Fox Valley.
6. Children's Services Changes. Marge Loch-Wouters' resignation will be effective in mid-November. Her long-time assistant, Kathy Beson, will be our interim Children's Department Head after Marge leaves. Werley expressed a desire to have the position open to all candidates. Taking into consideration anticipated budget cuts for 2009, Director Saecker stated that she intended to move capable staff into the key positions that would be opening up as a result of Marge's departure. She asked Board members to wait until she had final budget figures for 2009 from the Mayor before a final decision is made on filling the position of Children's Department Head.
7. Marketing the Library. In an effort to help Board members understand our process of public relations, Marge Loch-Wouters prepared a report on how her department promotes library programs and events. Director Saecker noted that everything we do here is promotional in nature: customer service, information we offer, and our collections.
8. Food For Fines. We will once again be joining Neenah Public Library in offering Food for Fines November 1-9. All food items are donated to the Neenah-Menasha Chapter of the American Red Cross.
9. Sculpture Installation. Drew Schmidt, an art student from UW-Green Bay and a native of Menasha, will display his senior sculpting project adjacent to our building on Racine Street for one month.
10. Staff Evaluations. Staff evaluations will be conducted during October and November. The Personnel Committee will be working on the Director's evaluation, which is scheduled to be completed by the Board in December. Director Saecker was asked to briefly review changes that were made in personnel policies and procedures in the past year as a means of updating new board members.
Discussion/Action Items
11. Self-Check Machines. Director Saecker informed the Board that 3M has now offered a lower quote of $29,000 for two self-check machines. While that price is still slightly higher than that offered by LAT, she recommended that the Board selecte 3M's offer due to the fact that all of our equipment is 3M and machine compatibility with our existing system should not be an issue.
Motion
Motion to approve the purchase of two self-check machines from 3M for not more than $30,000 by Werley, seconded by Enos and carried unanimously.
12. Investment Committee. Discussion pertaining to our investments ensued. Enos stated that she felt the Community Foundation made a wise choice to initiate changes in its investment program and that it would be reasonable to keep our investments with them for now. Nebel stated that he favored changing our investment strategies. He advocated for working directly with local investors and noted that he explored that possibility with local investment firms who may agree to manage our funds without assessing management fees. Nebel was reminded that our bylaws prohibit individual board members from acting on behalf of the library without the expressed consent of the full board. Eisen stated that it is the responsibility of our Investment Committee to monitor our investment strategies and to make recommendations for changes in our investment plan to the full Board. Fuchs asked if there were any restrictions in our agreement with Community Foundation that would prohibit us from moving our funds to another investment firm. Director Saecker will follow up on this with staff from Community Foundation.
Motion
Motion to instruct the Investment Committee to monitor the investment transition at Community Foundation, to keep up-to-date with changes and to provide monthly reports to the Board by Eisen, seconded by Werley and carried unanimously.
13. Library Policy Regarding Aide III Positions Working 20 Hours or More. Director Saecker recommended an addition to existing personnel policies Chapter VII, Section D, Part 2 which would state that part-time regular hourly employees, including temporary employees, aides, custodial and assistants, working a minimum of 1040 hours (or 20 hours per week) would be eligible for leaves and fringe benefits as defined under the appropriate headings. Employees working fewer than 1040 hours would not be eligible for paid leaves or health insurance. She also noted that the term "Clerk" should be updated to "Librarian Assistant" within that section. Werley stated that temporary hourly employees should not be eligible for these benefits.
Motion
Motion to approve changes to personnel policies Chapter VII, Section D, Part 2 as presented, striking "temporary employees," by Werley, seconded by Derouin, and carried unanimously.
Stanke left the meeting at 6:05 p.m.
14. Trustee Essentials #3. Werley summarized chapter 3 "Bylaws - Organizing the Board for Effective Action." Enos volunteered to review chapter 4 "Effective Board Meetings and Trustee Participation" at the November meeting.
Adjournment
Motion to adjourn the meeting at 6:12 p.m. by Werley, seconded by Nebel, and carried unanimously.
Future meeting dates
The next regular board meeting will be held in the Gegan Room on Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 4:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Paul Eisen, Secretary
Kris Seefeldt, Recording Secretary
