Library Board Minutes for November 2011

November 16, 2011

MEMBERS PRESENT: Amy Carvalho, Gary Berger, Valerie McNay, Beth Molburg, and Ed Barrow.  Also present a guest from out of town, staff member Stanna Musick, Library Director Lynn Schofield-Dahl, and Reference and Electronic Services Librarian Deanna Duffy.

The regular meeting of the Library Board of Trustees was called to order at 7:02 p.m. by Chairman Amy Carvalho.

I. CONSENT AGENDA: Matters considered routine by the Board of Trustees and which may be enacted in one motion. Any item, however, may be discussed separately per Board member request. Any exceptions to the Consent Agenda must be stated prior to approval.

Gary questioned the use of Motion Carried versus Passed Unanimously in the minutes.  It was pointed out that the motion he was questioning did not pass unanimously because there was an abstention.

Beth Molburg moved, and Beth Molburg seconded approval of the Consent Agenda, the minutes of the regular meeting on October 19, $7,759.70  in vouchers for the previous month, submitted prior to and at the meeting, $42.02 in checkbook expenses for the previous month, submitted prior to and at the meeting. Motion carried.

1. ADOPTION OF AGENDA.

2. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF OCTOBER 19, 2011

3. EXPENSES FROM PREVIOUS MONTH.

II. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION: Items raised under this portion of the Agenda cannot be acted upon until notice provisions of Nevada’s Open Meeting Law have been completed. Therefore, any action on such items must be considered at a later meeting.

No comments from the public.

III. STAFF REPORTS:

1. Martha Ford from PBTK reported she will be unavailable on the normal day of the board meeting.  The December meeting will need to be moved so that someone can attend to present the audit.

2. Lynn distributed change pages with updated financial information.

3. Valerie commented on programming for the library and how advertising is done for those.  She thinks it’s great that the computer classes are being used.  There was also discussion about meeting room usage and if it’s possible /necessary to track attendance for those.

4. Lynn reported that she won’t have numbers for salaries and benefits from the county for a few more days, so that part of the financial spreadsheet is not current.  However, we are only at about 25% expended in this area and are 33% of the way through the year.

5. Valerie asked about the new tax levy rate and how that is going.  Lynn said that the money from that is just starting to come in, and that historically the bulk of that money comes in later in the year.

6. Valerie asked about the new debit card and how that is being used.  Lynn explained that the debit card purchases show up on the bill list as Visa Payment rather than an invoice number.  She also talked a little about the kinds of things it is being used for such as purchasing computer parts.

7. Stanna Musick talked about disc resurfacing.  The library bought a disc resurfacing machine a couple of years ago.  Stanna uses it to clean and repair cds and dvds.  There are pads and cleaners at various degrees of coarseness, that she uses to polish out scratches.  Stanna handed out a list of dvds and cds that have been saved since she started tracking.

V. REPORT/DISCUSSION/ACTION POSSIBLE:

1.  Report from the Policy Committee (Report only, no action required) – Gary Berger The committee met this month at the normal time and will meet on Dec 8th at 5pm.

They’re trying a time other than 5:30pm.  Gary said that as they are formulating these policies they are trying to meet all state and Federal rules and regulations, and put things in that have never been there before.  Amy pointed out that not everything needs to be explicitly spelled out.  Gary replied that they are going to leave some things a little loose for growth.  He thinks the committee will have something for the board to review after the first of the year.  He does not think what they will have will be linear or in any logical order, but it will be the sections they have completed.

1.  Discussion of Library Director Evaluation (Discussion, Action Required) – Amy Carvalho

Amy had requested that everyone do their evaluations of Lynn based on the form used last year.  Lynn sent her self evaluation to everyone.

Amy will consolidate all the board’s comments for Lynn, but they will not be included in the official evaluation.

Ed, as an outside observer,  commented there should be comments to explain the numbers.  Beth agreed with that.  Gary commented that while they are right, he did not feel the need to comment.  Valerie thinks Lynn is doing well and the concerns/comments she had last year have been addressed.

The board went through the evaluation form giving numeric values to the various criteria and goals.  Amy led discussion of the comments and goals.  She will compile all of this information for acceptance at the next meeting.

No action taken.  Item is tabled until next month.

1. Food for Fines (Discussion, Action Possible) – Lynn Schofield-Dahl

Lynn outlined this in her Director’s Report.  Lynn would like to offer patrons the option of paying up to $10 of their fines with nonperishable food rather than money.  One item would be equal to $1 up to $10.  Lynn would like to do this for all of December and possibly January.  The food would be donated to Emergency Aid.

Gary does not think this is the right time of year.  He sees that everyone else is doing canned food drives for Emergency Aid right now and he would like to see us do this some other time.  Lynn suggested National Library Week in April as an option, but pointed out that the reason it is being suggested now is that Emergency Aid really needs the food now.

Lynn said that she could talk to Emergency Aid about the library being a regular drop off spot for donations, but that idea was not met with positive response from the board.

Valerie moved that we support Lynn’s concept of Food for Fines over the holiday season to help Boulder City Emergency Aid.  Beth Molburg made a friendly amendment that Food for Fines run through the end of December. Beth Molburg seconded.  Motion carried.

VI. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION: Items raised under this portion of the Agenda cannot be acted upon until notice provisions of Nevada’s Open Meeting Law have been completed. Therefore, any action on such items must be considered at a later meeting.

The board meeting in December will be on December 14th, the second Wednesday of the month, instead of the 21^st which is the normal third Wednesday.

VII. ADJOURNMENT: Amy Carvalho adjourned the meeting at 8:55.