Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-11-18 Library Board of Trustees Minutes Approved Board of Trustees’ Meeting Minutes November 18, 2024 9:00 am Board of Trustees Attendees: Courtney Orrock, John Shafer, Alethea Fleming, Jhana Shimizu Absent: Briana Alzola Lindquist Library Attendees: Michelle Hanna, Trish Wilson, Jeff Vogel Absent: Sydney Brady, Diana Farnsworth, Stacy Paull Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 9:04 a.m. by Courtney. Approval of Minutes Minutes from October 2024 meeting were approved. Motion for approval by Alethea, second by Jhana. Manager Updates Jeff • The new Teamster rep (Derek) came in to introduce himself and took a tour around the Library with Cheri and Jim. • Jeff is meeting with Regency NW, the Architect, and Brandon from COA Facilities to talk through the teen space project. Regency reports that they are ready to start when we are done shifting books. Jeff will be heavily involved in this project from start to finish. • Due to the teen area remodel, the non-fiction section is being relocated to the window wells by the study carrels. Brandon and his team will be building the shelving for this. Since we are emptying the entire teen area, including furniture, we plan to rent a storage pod for the duration of the project. • The Marketing team is working on signage to direct patrons to new locations of the books. • Staff Day is this Friday. Most Skagit Libraries will be in attendance at the Burlington Library. • The LMT 2025 planning meeting focused on budgets, programs, and future plans. Jeff will present a digest of the meeting to the Board at the next meeting. • The October WDLC meeting in Seattle was helpful. New leadership in the group has led to a desire for everyone to be more involved. They will be creating a governing board to make decisions. They hope to collaborate with larger systems like King County and Sno-Isle. • The Trespass ordinance is being re-written by a collaboration of departments and will be presented to council at the November 25th meeting. • Question from the Board: is this ordinance for city buildings only or does it apply to all buildings in the city (such as McDonald’s, etc.)? Jeff will follow up on this for our next meeting. • Rhonda (finance) made a new working budget document for all department heads to input and view their budgets. So far it is very clear and easy to use. • Library budget overview: our budget is essentially flat again. Personnel and benefits are going up as expected and the Travel/Training budget is reduced because the librarians will not be attending an out- of-state conference next year. • The annual Skagit County financial contribution to APL is around $14,500 for this year. • Consortium update: the City of Mount Vernon lawyer drafted a new consortium agreement but Darcy (COA attorney) has not reviewed it yet. APL migration is anticipated to happen in early 2026 along with the Mount Vernon Library. All other libraries who have not already switched ILS systems are anticipated to migrate in 2025. • Library home page: Trish will ask the marketing folks to restore the catalog login quick link on the home page. It was removed inadvertently. • The Library will be closed Thanksgiving weekend and Christmas weekend. Trish • The most recent Wednesday adult program used the OWL with Zoom and it was very successful. We look forward to using it more often. • We received the $4,000 grant that Trish applied for. It will be used to “train the trainer” on tech help and allow us to purchase additional supplies for tech assistance, such as a laptop or iPad. • Teen construction: Tech Services has been moving teen books recently, with Manga moving upstairs near the graphic novels and some other books being moved into storage (but still listed in the catalog and accessible by staff upon request). • The Seed Library has been taken down until late winter. It will return to a new location after the remodel is completed. • Program Updates: o The Halloween programs were very successful. o Winter Party: December 10th, 4 p.m. Volunteers from the Board are welcome. o December 11 the Arts Commission/Senior Center/Library are presenting “Take a Bite out of Grandpa”, a fun gingerbread cookie decorating event similar to “Paint your Grandma” a few months ago. o Adult Programs next year may start at 7 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. based on a recent survey conducted of our participants. We may try it for the first quarter and see how it goes. Partnership Updates • Foundation o The Foundation is meeting tomorrow. The October meeting was cancelled. o The Hoopla budget was discussed. The Foundation has approved $40,000 for 2025 but if usage continues to climb they may have to limit uses or decrease items per month. Further discussion will be needed. • Friends of the Library o The Friends will be holding a $7 bag sale on December 7th from 10-3 in the lobby. o They have applied for SV Co-op’s 4% Friday program. o Giving Tuesday is coming up December 3rd. o The annual appeal letter has generated $12,000 so far from 172 people. o The new Treasurer is Mary Fisher, replacing the recently retired Hal Rooks. o The 2025 budget was approved. o The FriendShop leadership is using SignUpGenie to schedule shifts in the FriendShop. o Community Outreach: there is interest in creating more Little Libraries around sites owned by the Housing Authority. Kiwanis would build the boxes. o The 2025 Officers are: ▪ Peter Allen, President ▪ Rachelle Kierluff, Vice President ▪ Mary Fisher, Treasurer ▪ Nancy Fisher-Allison, Secretary ▪ Chris Bensen, Corresponding Secretary New Business • We thank John Shafer for his excellent service to the Board during his term. He will retire from the Library Board of Trustees at the end of December but continue on the Foundation Board. Mike Vanquickenborne will be joining the Board January 1 st. • There will be no Board of Trustees meeting in December. We will resume in January 2025. The regular meeting was adjourned by Courtney at 10:02 a.m. The Board entered into Executive Session to conduct the Director’s evaluation. The next meeting is January 13th at 9 a.m. in the Community Meeting Room. There will be no meeting in December 2024.