Minutes of the Previous Meeting

The Boulder City Library District Board of Trustees normally meets on the third Wednesday of every month, at 7:00 PM, in the Board room of the Boulder City Library. Any change will be noted in the agenda for that meeting.

MEMBERS PRESENT: Amy Carvalho, Doug Haag (left at 8:26), William Littler, Valerie McNay, and Gary Berger. Also present 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 7:03 p.m.

CONSENT AGENDA: Doug Haag moved and Valerie McNay seconded approval of the Consent Agenda, the minutes of the regular meeting on September 16, $10,742.14 in vouchers for the previous month, submitted prior to and at the meeting, $522.34 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 SEPTEMBER 16, 2009.
3. EXPENSES FROM PREVIOUS MONTHS.

STAFF REPORTS: Director's monthly library status report.

1. Lynn handed out a change page for the bills including invoices received over the last week.
2. Doug asked about last year's total expenditures, and those numbers come from the county. Staff cost was down because we were short on staff due to retirements and other leavings.
3. Doug also asked for an additional set of numbers from Lynn. She said she's meeting with Mark Gammet from the county next week about how to make the numbers she gets from him more readable for everyone.
4. Amy asked about the year end numbers from last year. She pointed out that a large part of the budget goes toward salaries, and that last year we were over budget in salaries. And we're already over this year and she just wants to make sure we keep an eye on it. Last year's problem was mostly paying out vacation and overtime for people who left. That was unexpected and not budgeted for. And for this year, it's that we've been training new staff members so they were working extra hours. Now that they've been trained this should cut down a little.
5. Amy's also concerned about the electricity and water use.
6. Amy asked about dates for the January programs. Both will be held on January 21, with one program in the afternoon and the second that evening. Lynn will have more information on these later.
7. Doug asked if the RFID tagging project was something that the Trustees could help with. There was a little bit of discussion about who to ask.
8. Gary asked about Tuesday Night Talks with a Ranger. The only cost for us is to type the information into the calendar, and make a few signs. Gary's concerned that the National Park Service has been or will try to push some of their costs onto us. He pointed out that they used to have these talks at the Alan Bible Visitor's Center and stopped because of the cost.
9. Amy asked about the database that we've dropped. It was the Literature Resource Center Database from Gale. The primary audience for this was high school students and they have other resources they're using. They weren't using this one.

REPORTS/DISCUSSION/ACTION:

1. DISCUSSION OF DIRECTOR EVALUATION IN SEPTEMBER, 2009:

   Lynn left the room for the discussion of employee opinions.

   Amy was disappointed in the results of the survey. The results were more negative than positive. She wants to make sure that the staff evaluation is only used as part of the evaluation, not all of it. Gary points out that staff members evaluating a boss judge on things that the boss' supervisor might not care about. This makes staff evaluations less useful, but it is still feedback. Amy feels that the staff was part of hiring process and should have a say in the evaluation, but not be the final voice.

   There was discussion about Lynn's performance.

   Bill is concerned that the evaluation won't be ready next month and will probably stretch into December. Gary's thinking that if all the board members come up with a list of things bad and good to discuss next month. Amy thinks the board's thoughts should be based on the job description and goals since that is what Lynn's understanding of the job is based on.

   Gary moved that the self evaluation form be used as a template for all board members to put their opinions and personal thoughts under each of those items, and they rank her using Superior, Excellent, Good, Unsatisfactory, and note if there are any interpersonal skills that the board wants to address, for Amy to consolidate.

   Valerie proposed a friendly amendment, to see the board use Excellent, Good, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement, to be consistent with the staff evaluation.

   Motion died for lack of a second.

   Lynn returned.

   Lynn asked if anyone had questions of comments about her self evaluation.

   Valerie is concerned about the staff turnover and building morale. Lynn is trying to be here and be available to help cover where there's a hole in the schedule. Having a nearly full staff instead of being down five people is helping a lot. The substitutes are helping with this as well. There are a couple of times where we are a little lighter, but as a whole it's better. The courier delivery has been the main thing to work around and that's just shifted again. Lynn said that she's considered passing scheduling around to various staff members so that they can experience it. Valerie said it's ok to delegate it. Amy asked if Lynn feels that she deals with that democratically. Lynn said that there is a formal request process based on first come gets the time off. She lets the staff know ahead of time when vacation times are filling up. If there's a time that no one else can be off, but if the person can find someone else to fill in for them she'll approve it.

   Valerie senses that there's less dead weight and people are being more productive. Lynn said that she's getting the feel that there were some people who were hiding in their office, and they're now out and about in the building helping out.

   Valerie really likes the idea of the weeding project and that it's probably long overdue. Valerie also said that she was sad to see that the Spanish collection wasn't being used and will no longer be added to. She understands that if they're not being used, then there's not a demand for them. But it did make her sad.

   Valerie asked about staff meetings and how they're going. Lynn said that she's happy with them. They've gone from trying to fit everything into an hour to staff meetings being about half an hour. Lynn thinks that using memos to communicate is helping. Amy said that the staff evaluation said that there was a feeling that the memos were cold. And was wondering if more face to face communication would help with that., and suggested that Lynn reiterate what the main mode of communication is and that there's never a time when everyone is here to talk to all at once. Amy said that while Lynn feels that she's open and available, but that staff feels the door being closed cuts off. Lynn explained that her door is not fully closed, but is usually mostly closed to cut off the sound from the library. Lynn said that she tries to stop by and check in with people to ask how things are going. Valerie said that she thinks we've got a great staff here and wonders about more 'pats on the back' and positive reinforcement. Amy said again, that perhaps it needs to be reiterated that memos are the main source of communication. Valerie said that there's a sense that the staff is afraid to approach Lynn. Lynn admitted that over the summer she was less approachable because she was so busy with all of extra things she was dealing with and being so short of staff.

   Amy announced that the discussion will continue again next month and that they'll give the final evaluation in December. All the Trustees will grade Lynn on the bullet points in her self evaluation and Amy will consolidate them.

   Lynn asked if there would be an opportunity for rebuttal after the formal evaluation, Amy said yes. Lynn will then be allowed to do a written rebuttal for the January meeting.

2. DISCUSSION AND DECISION REGARDING THE PART-TIME CLOSING OF THE LIBRARY DURING THE RFID PROJECT:

   Amy would like more details. Lynn's of two minds about this. We have less foot traffic in the evenings than any other time of day. But mornings are also lower traffic. The main impact then would be story-times, but that those could be moved to the meeting rooms with outside access. There are no story-times scheduled in December so that would just be November.

   We would have a couple of teams working when we were closed, and one team working while we're open. The estimate was that 2 3-man teams each working 20 hours a week (a total of 40 hours a week) would take about 8 weeks. Lynn's asking for 7 weeks.

   There won't be a change in the staff cost because we'd be using staff who are scheduled to be here anyway. Amy asked if the limit of 2 teams was an equipment issue. It is, another setup would cost about $10,000. One of the setups would be mobile out in the stacks, and the other one will be working in the backroom.

   The start date for the project would be November 9th because we will be trained on November 5th. The vast majority of the collection must be done by December 31st.

   Gary Berger moved to close the library until noon daily until completion of the RFID project. Bill Littler seconded. Motion carried.

3. DISCUSSION AND DECISION CONCERNING REIMBURSEMENT OF TRAVEL FEES FOR INTERVIEW EXPENSES OF YOUTH SERVICES LIBRARIAN CANDIDATES: Two of the candidates came in from out of state to interview. All candidates were told upfront that there was no money set aside for interview travel or moving expenses. The two candidates from out of state did ask about reimbursement. Lynn said that she would ask.

   There was concern about setting a precedent. Interview candidates for positions, except for Director, haven't been reimbursed before.

   Doug Haag moved to deny travel reimbursement to be consistent with what they were told before. Valerie McNay seconded. Motion carried.

PUBLIC COMMENT:None present.

ADJOURNMENT:The meeting was adjourned at 9:10

Minutes prepared by Deanna Duffy, Reference and Electronic Services Librarian.