February 2009 Library Board Minutes

Call to order at 4:35 p.m. by Secretary Paul Eisen

Present: Derouin, Eisen, Werley, Wicihowski

Absent: Enos, Fuchs, Nebel, Stanke

Also present: Director Saecker and K. Seefeldt (Administrative Assistant)

 

1.     Motion to authorize payment of the December list of bills from the 2008 budget and

2.     Motion to authorize payment of the February list of bills from the 2009 budget by Werley, seconded by Wicihowski, and carried unanimously.

 

3.     Approve minutes from the Board meeting of January 15, 2009.

Motion to approve minutes from the Board meeting of January 15, 2009 as presented by Derouin, seconded by Wicihowski, and carried unanimously.

 

4.     Statistics.  Lending continues to be strong. Circulation increased 15.9% overall over January 2008. We continue to see a significant increase in lending of books, magazines, CD-Books and DVDs. Our website and blog figures broke 70,000 visits in January. 

5.     Donations. We received our first online donations via PayPal and the website in 2008. Cheri Authement donated $250 and Theodore Eisch donated $75. 

6.     Congratulations Kris. Administrative Assistant Kris Seefeldt will be celebrating her 25^th years as a Menasha Public Library employee in March. 

7.     Vandals. We have been having issues with teenage patrons. We will continue to enforce a strict code of conduct. Police are aware of the situation and are doing periodic walkthroughs to help alleviate problems.

8.     New Website. We launched a new web site in early February. We are now able to have rotating information on the front page, more featured events, larger fonts and more space for images. 

9.     New Staff. Vanessa Taylir, our new teen librarian, began work on February 2. We have also hired Ana Acosta as a part-time reference librarian. As a native Spanish speaker, Ana will be beneficial in helping to meet the needs of our community.

10. Library Year. Board members received a schedule of library events for 2009.

11. Staff Meetings. Staff meetings for 2009 are scheduled to be held on February 18, May 19, and August 13. A staff retreat will be scheduled in October. Dir. Saecker tentatively plans to schedule a speaker who will address time management.

12. Winnefox Services. Board members were given information from Winnefox detailing the services provided to our library in 2008. 

13. Net Lender Payment. Winnefox will be paying our library $1,710.41 for being a net-lender on the shared circulation system. We are the second largest lender in Winnefox. The payment will be deposited into our WALS fund and will be spent on technology.

 

 

14. EOEP. Director Saecker presented an Emergency Operations and Evacuation Plan for the Board’s approval. We now have maps posted throughout the building to inform staff and patrons where to go in case of an emergency. Each staff member will receive a copy of the plan. Some have been assigned to act as coordinators in case of an evacuation. Eisen noted that the library’s fire alarms only sound internally to alert staff and patrons. They are not connected directly to the City’s Fire Department. Staff will be instructed to call the Fire Department for assistance in case of an emergency.

Motion to approve the Emergency Operations and Evacuation Plan as presented by Werley, seconded by Derouin, and carried unanimously.  

15. Trustee Essentials #5.   This item was tabled until the Board’s April meeting.

 

Items that will be included on the March agenda include 1) the annual report from the Community Foundation and 2) requesting input from the Board on whether they prefer to return to a 4:00 p.m. start time for their monthly meetings.

 

Motion to adjourn the meeting at 5:03 p.m. by Wicihowski, seconded by Derouin, and carried unanimously.

 

The next regular board meeting will be held in the Gegan Room on Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 4:30 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Paul Eisen, Secretary

Kris Seefeldt, Recording Secretary