october 2010 Board Minutes

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St. Charles City-County Library District
Board of Trustees
Minutes
October 11, 2010

The St. Charles City-County Library District Board of Trustees met at 7:00 pm on Monday, October 11, 2010at the Corporate Parkway Branch, 1200 Corporate Parkway, Wentzville, Missouri.

Board Members present:

Mr. Gary Heggs
Mr. Greg Dohrman
Ms Myra Crook
Mr. John Thoelke
Dr. Jerry Cook
Ms. Kathleen Todd

Board Members absent:

Ms. Debbie Haupt
Ms. Lisa Pelikan
Ms. Mary Reese

Library Staff present:

Mr. Carl Sandstedt, Director
Ms. Betty Murr, Deputy Director
Ms. Denise Mandle, Human Resources Coordinator
Mr. Richard Schultz, Coordinator of Finance and Support Services
Mr. Frank Noto, IT Coordinator
Ms. Kristin Williams, Planning and Development Coordinator
Ms. Maggie Preiss, Children’s Resources and Marketing Coordinator
Ms. Sara Nielsen, Adult Programming and Community Branches
Mr. Jim Brown, Branch Manager, Spencer Road
Ms. Ann King, Branch Manager, Kathryn Linnemann
Ms. Asia Gross, Branch Manager, McClay Road
Ms. Diana Tucker, Branch Manager, Corporate Parkway
Ms. Keri Cascio, Branch Manager, Kisker Road
Ms. Martha Radginski, Branch Manager, Middendorf-Kredell
Ms. Jesse Isley, Children’s Librarian, Corporate Parkway Branch
Mr. Brad Smith, Information Resource Manager—Non-Profit Services, Spencer RoadBranch

President Greg Dohrman called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m.with the Pledge of Allegiance. Six members responded to roll call. Mr. Dohrman opened the floor for public comments. There were two requests from the public.

Mr. Harold Wismann addressed the Board and staff, congratulating the District on a job well done! Mr. Wismann is a “snow-bird” and visits the McClay Roadbranch and libraries in Sarasota, Florida. He says that the McClay Roadbranch staff are helpful, courteous, organized, and there is no waiting at the checkout. He does not get this same level of service in Sarasota.

Next, Mr. Wismann pointed out the fact that the District has a major revenue source in allowing advertisements on our website.

Lastly, Mr. Wismann suggested modernizing the District’s browser to HTML5.

Mr. Douglas Howard communicated his disdain for the recent changes to the periodical section at the Middendorf-Kredell branch. Since the periodicals have been moved, the noise level has drastically increased as well as the traffic in the now “former” periodical section, which is now the new Teen/YA area.

Ms. Radginski, Branch Manager at Middendorf-Kredell, addressed some of Mr. Howard’s concerns. She indicated that they are trying to create a more comfortable area with better lighting. Ms. Radginski indicated that she will analyze ideas that will help accomplish the District’s goals as well as take into consideration Mr. Howard’s concerns.

MINUTES

MOTION: Mr. Thoelke moved to approve the minutes of the September 13^th meeting as well as the Closed Session meeting on September 13^th. Dr. Cook seconded. Motion passed six affirmative, zero negative, zero abstentions, three absent.

REPORTS

Financial Report

The current financial report is included in the packet sent to each Board member’s home. Mr. Schultz provided a few highlights:

Cash on hand is $4.7 million.
Over 90% of our income will not be sent to us until January, 2011.
Budgeted revenue for FY11 has been adjusted to reflect the approved tax rate of $.2065.
There are currently no line items exceeding their line-item budget by more than 2%.

Mr. Schultz was asked about the Spencer Roadconstruction project. He indicated that the project is on budget at this time; however, we will need to add monies to the budget later to support the project. First, a budget needs to be determined for furnishings, etc.

If there are any questions, please contact Mr. Schultz at the Administrative Office, ext. 1571.

Director’s Report

Mr. Sandstedt opted to pass on any additional comments to his Hotline report. He did point out that one of the semi-finalist candidates for the Director position is from the Gwinnett County area in Georgia. This system is most similar to our system in that it has experienced similar population growth while operating on half the budget. Martha Radginiski, Branch Manager at Middendorf-Kredell, visited three branches in the Gwinnett County system, and is in the process of preparing a report on her visit.

Special Report—Development

Kristin Williams, Planning and Development Coordinator

The Foundation update is in the Handout Packet received at the meeting tonight.

Foundation:

Imagine Campaign is over 43% of its goal.
The Foundation received $1000 from Build-A-Bear to support the Early Literacy Kits.
A sample of the rediscover Your Library brochure is included in the packet. Buy A Brick mailers have been sent as well as a sample to each branch.
Ms. Williams has arranged a meeting with the VP at Charter in regard to the possibility of supporting the computer lab at the new Spencer Roadbranch.
A flyer is included in the packet for a Rock ‘n Roll Tribute to Carl Sandstedt. This is a tribute to Mr. Sandstedt as he departs the District for retirement. There is no cost, but donations will be accepted. Please contact Ms. Williams for more details or to RSVP.
Two new Board members have been added to the Foundation Board. Kim Bakker is the Director of Community Affairs at SSM Network; Steve McKinstry is a financial advisor with Morgan Keegan.

Friends:

There is a Membership Meeting on Thursday, October 14.
The annual Book Fair has been scheduled for June 3-5, 2011at the St. CharlesConvention Center.
A copy of the Friends of the Library newsletter is included in the packet.

Mark Your Calendar:

(re)Discover Your Library luncheon is October 27^th.
Library Legends Recognition Event is November 12^th from 7-9 pmat Kathryn Linnemann.
Rock ‘n Roll Tribute to Carl is December 2^nd.
Library Foundation Trivia Night is March 26, 2011.

Branch Manager’s Report

Diana Tucker, Corporate Parkway Branch

Welcome to the Corporate Parkway Branch of the Library! The last time that the Board met at this branch was in January, 2007. There have been some changes since then, and Ms. Tucker took this opportunity to highlight the changes and invite the Board members to take a look around at them.

The reference desk has been shrunk to allow for more open space. The staff implements “roving reference”, which also encourages customer service as well.
The circulation desk has been shrunk and moved back to that it is not right in your face as you enter the branch.
Patron-accessible reserves are as you enter the branch.
There are two new study rooms.
The changes created more storage space so that additional meeting space could be accessed for meetings instead of using it for storage.
The staff will be doing curbside service soon, and there will be new cabinetry soon, update seating and displays.

Ms. Tucker took the opportunity to welcome Jesse Isley, the new Children’s Librarian at Corporate Parkway!

Special Report—IRM Report

Brad Smith, Non-Profit Services

Brad Smith presented new resources available through the FoundationCenter. Mr. Smith introduced GRANTspace.org, an informational search resource which allows one to search on demand by subject, skill set, training events, training courses, and specific documents. The site also presents webinars for free on any session that has been held. All of the information is available from any computer that has internet access.

Mr. Smith also pointed out the challenge measuring the return on investment of cooperating collections. It is difficult to gather information and compare/contrast information on the usefulness of the resources provided by cooperating collections.

Special Report—Materials Usage

The Materials Usage Statistics report is prepared by Audrey Banger in IT; Betty Murr, Deputy Director, presented the report.

Chart A—Number of items checked out for FY10, FY09, and FY08. The report is separated by material type: adult, juvenile; books, media, and periodicals. A key point that Mr. Sandstedt highlighted was the large growth in eMedia from FY08 (9,777) to FY10 (42,388).

Chart B—Number of items checked out, Book Trends, from FY08 through FY10. Book trends are divided into non-fiction, fiction, large print, and paperbacks. Each category represents a percentage of the total books checked out for each fiscal year.

Chart C—Number of items checked out, Media Trends, from FY08 through FY10. Media trends are divided into four groups: cassettes, CDs, DVDs, and videos. Again, like book trends, each type of media represents a percentage of the total media checked out during each fiscal year.

Adult statistics measure patrons aged middle school through adult years; and juvenile statistics measure patrons birth through 5 years.

Statistics

Betty Murr, Deputy Director

Highlights from the September and year-to-date report are as follows:

Overall, circulation was down only .97% to last year. A couple of reasons to consider are the fact that PC Usage is not figured into the current circulation figures, and Kisker Road branch was closed for two weeks this year for renovation.
Web figures are up 7.06% year-to-date.
For September alone, eMedia’s circulation is 5290 (vs. 2838 last year), an increase of almost 74%!
Online renewals, year-to-date, have increased 28% and has the highest circulation of all “branches” at 535,770.

Activities Report

Maggie Preiss, Children’s Resources and Marketing

The October programs are in the Handout packet received at tonight’s meeting. Ms. Preiss circulated the Activities Report for September.

Community Events:

Pat Kern (KL) will visit Null Elementary for Parent/Teacher Conferences.
Denise Ulett (MK) will represent the District at the St. Charles County Senior Fair.
Jesse Isley (CP) visits Duello Elementary for their Title 1 Family Reading Night.
There are four ECRR (Every Child Ready to Read) Workshops this month along with an ECRR Ft. Zumwalt Teen Parent class at Spencer Road.
Teen Read Week, “Books with Beat”, is October 17-23.

Upcoming Author Events:

Pizza & Angels with Father Dominic is on Saturday, October 16 at the Middendorf-Kredell branch; there are currently 136 people registered for this event.
Jon Clinch is on Wednesday, October 20 at McClay Roadbranch.
“Ask the Authors” event, a panel of local authors who give advice on how to get published, is October 23 at Kisker Roadbranch.
Teen Author Panel is November 13.

OLD BUSINESS

Formal Agenda

11-01 Spencer RoadBranch Replacement

There is no action needed at this time. Please visit the website for any updates.

11-03 Director Search Committee

There is no formal report at this time. Ms. Crook did suggest a closed session meeting after tonight’s Board Meeting to discuss a couple of topics.

Preliminary Agenda

11-13 Director’s Transition Dialogue—Evaluation

Mr. Sandstedt suggested next Monday as a possible date for his “evaluation”; Ms. Crook declined, indicating that she could not attend at that time due to prior plans to be out of town. Mr. Dohrman recommended the evaluation meeting take place once the new Director has been selected, some time prior to the new Director starting and Mr. Sandstedt’s retirement. The first half of November seems the best time, prior to the November Board meeting on November 8.

NEW BUSINESS

Preliminary Agenda

11-17 Policy #E524 Special Placement—Persons with Disabilities

This policy is in the very early stages, but is proposed as a result of a letter received from the parent of a minor with disabilities that worked in a branch within the District.

The policy to be considered allows the District to work cooperatively with approved, accredited agencies to employ persons with disabilities. With the policy, the person with the disability remains an employee of the agency while working at the library. The list of approved agencies still needs to be compiled; however, Mr. Sandstedt did recommend BCI, formerly BooneCenter.

Formal Agenda

11-18 Addendum (including naming rights) to Cooperative Agreement for Consumer Health Information with BJC

Ms. Williams, Planning and Development Coordinator included a copy of the original agreement with BJC as well as the addendum in the Board packet. The addendum references the original contract. The addendum is not the final version.

The important factor in the addendum to the contract is the financial commitment by BJC. Firstly, the addendum adds SitemanCancerCenteras a separate entity from BJC (Barnes-JewishSt. PetersHospital). Also, the addendum formalizes the change from Consumer Health payments to naming rights payments. The actual program agreement remains the same. The naming rights payments are for each entity: BJC, ProgressWestHealthCareCenter, and SitemanCancerCenter, to each contribute $5000 for 5 years, a total of $25,000 per partner, for a grand total contribution of $75,000 for naming rights of the meeting room at Middendorf-Kredell branch as well as two meeting rooms at the new Spencer Roadbranch.

There is no formal action needed at this time. The consensus of the Board supports the addendum as it is presented this evening.

MOTION: Ms. Crook moved to adjourn the open session and, pursuant to MO Revised Statutes 610.021 regarding Personnel discussions, move into a closed session. Mr. Thoelke seconded. Motion passed by a roll call vote with six affirmative, zero negative, zero abstentions, and three absent. All in attendance voted “yes” to enter into the closed session.

The Board discussed developments in the Director Search process. A selected finalist has accepted another position and withdrawn his application. The Board agreed it is preferable to have three finalists, so that another candidate should be invited. The Board then agreed on who to invite. Mr. Dohrman will follow up with the search consultants.

MOTION: Mr. Thoelke moved to adjourn the closed session. Ms. Crook seconded. Motion passed by a roll call vote with six affirmatives, zero negatives, zero abstentions, and three absent. All in attendance voted “yes” to adjourn the closed session.

MOTION: Mr. Heggs moved to adjourn the open session. Ms. Todd seconded. Motion passed six affirmative, zero negative, zero abstentions, and three absent.

The meeting adjourned at 9:05 pm.

Respectfully submitted

April C. Wootten

Recording Secretary

Approved:

Secretary Board of Trustees Date

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