INDIANHEAD FEDERATED LIBRARY SYSTEM Board of Trustees September 27, 2017 M I N U T E S The Board of Trustees of the Indianhead Federated Library System met on Wednesday, September 27, 2017 at Indianhead Federated Library System, 1538 Truax Boulevard, Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Mike Norman called the meeting to order at 12:31 pm. QUORUM AND CERTIFICATION OF COMPLIANCE WITH OPEN MEETINGS LAW: Joanne Gardner established that a quorum was present and certified that the meeting had been properly noticed in compliance with the open meeting law. BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Judy Achterhof (St. Croix County); Steve Anderson (St. Croix County); Mary Ellen Brue (St. Croix County); Sue Duerkop (Polk County); Pat Eggert (Dunn County); Mary Fayerweather (Pepin County); Marilyn Holte (Chippewa County); Kate Isakson (Polk County); Lyle Lieffring (Rusk County); Ron McLaughlin (Price County); Robert Mercord (Pierce County); Mike Norman (Pierce County); Louie Okey (Barron County); Jackie Pavelski (Eau Claire County); Linda Thompson (Barron County); Jim Tripp (Dunn County). BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: Jan Daus (Eau Claire County); Robert Eierman (Resource Library); Chuck Hull (Chippewa County); Mildred Larson (Eau Claire County). OTHERS PRESENT: John Thompson (Director); Juli Button (Business Manager); Rebecca Kilde (PR & Communications Coordinator); Joanne Gardner (Administrative Associate/Recorder); Christy Rundquist (Advisory Council Representative Pepin County). APPROVE AGENDA: MOTION #42 (17) : To approve the September 27, 2017 Agenda as presented. Lieffring/Isakson PUBLIC COMMENTS: There were no public comments. - 1 -
ANNOUNCEMENTS/CORRESPONDENCE/INTRODUCTIONS: Norman passed around a copy of his new book Haunted Heartland 2 nd Edition. Leah Langby, Library Development & Youth Services Coordinator, has been awarded the 2017 Wisconsin Library Association Librarian of the Year for her outstanding contributions to libraries and librarianship. There was a round of applause for Langby. (Brue arrived at 12:34 pm.) Langby will receive her award at an evening honors reception at the Wisconsin Library Association conference. IFLS will also do something locally. MINUTES: MOTION #43 (17) : To approve the Board of Trustees minutes dated July 26, 2017 (Doc. #036-17). Holte/Eggert FINANCIAL REPORTS: MOTION #44 (17) : To approve the July/August 2017 Check Registers (Doc. #037-17). Lieffring/Brue MOTION #45 (17) : To approve the July/August 2017 Financial Reports (Doc. #038-17). Brue/Okey Achterhof inquired about payroll expenses differences between 2016 and this year. Button noted the difference can be the timing of health insurance payments. In addition, employer cost for health insurance was much less as staff switched to a less expensive health plan. Another question was related to the Electronic Periodicals. Flipster is an online magazine subscription service. DIRECTOR S REPORT OF AGENDA ITEMS AND MONTHLY ACTIVITIES: Thompson noted that we seem to be back into the cycle of director openings. Plum City remains open after their initial search. They do have an interim director in place and continue to advertise. Frederic s initial search failed and so the director position was reposted and they continue to search. The Prescott Director is retiring. The director at Bloomer accepted a position in Eau Claire at the Resource Library. The Sand Creek director is retiring early next year. Counties are entering the cycle of getting their county library plans updated. Thompson assisted Barron County with a presentation to the County Board. Eau Claire County s plan is due next year for renewal and Thompson has been working with Pamela Westby, Eau Claire - 2 -
Library Director, to do a presentation to the County Board there. St. Croix County continues to work on their funding situation. The County recently approved funding at 70% for Hudson and the other libraries at 100%. Hudson filed a resolution of opposition. Thompson noted that in addition to the funding situation, The Hudson joint library was not funded at a level that met the exemption of the county tax levy. Thompson noted that Somerset received an anonymous $500,000 matching grant for a new building. That donation arose out of a conversation with a fundraising consultant. They believe they can raise a couple million dollars for the project. New Richmond will hopefully be signing an agreement for land purchase and begin the building project there. PERSONNEL COMMITTEE REPORT: The Personnel Committee met this morning and discussed wage and benefit recommendations for IFLS in 2018. Anderson noted there are two motions to consider from the Personnel Committee. The first motion recommended is a 3% raise for all staff. There would be no changes to benefits. The Personnel Committee unanimously recommended approval of this recommendation. The committee then went into closed session to review the Director s salary. They reviewed statistics and discussed comparables with other systems. In consideration of the Director s years of service, numerous outstanding evaluations, and contributions to statewide library projects, the committee unanimously recommended approval of a 5% wage increase to the Board. MOTION #46 (17) : To approve a 3% wage increase for all IFLS Staff for 2018. Lieffring/Brue MOTION #47 (17) : To approve a 5% wage increase for the IFLS Director for 2018. Brue/L. Thompson Thompson thanked Board Members. 2017 REVISED AND 2018 IFLS AND MORE BUDGET: MOTION #48 (17) : To approve the 2017 Revised and 2018 IFLS and MORE Budget (Doc. #040-17). Okey/Holte Thompson noted the biggest piece income-wise, was the loss of LSTA dollars for system technology projects, and the funds available for focusing on projects with statewide impact will now be spent on ongoing technology projects rather than innovation. - 3 -
Thompson noted that going into 2017, there was a sense that LSTA funds would disappear. Money was placed in reserves from Uncommitted Carryover to cover the loss of LSTA funds. The revenue reflects an increase in state funding for 2017. This is equal to what the system lost in system technology funds. The biggest change is in technology expenses which have been moved into a shared budget with Wisconsin Valley Library Service and reflected on Line 45. IFLS and WVLS are sharing servers and staff. Some funds will also be moving into a shared contingency fund. This will not have a huge impact on the budget. In the long run, it will build infrastructure. Most other line items are in line with general increases. Delivery is anticipating a 3-5% increase. This year the fuel surcharge has been relatively stable. Line 42 reflects some support from IFLS for the support of catalog projects for the MORE consortium. MORE wants to ensure they have a clean database with good records. MORE launched a new program for cataloging of unique items. MORE Directors Council approved their budget in July 2017. Button noted that the bottom line of the 2018 Budget is shown on Line 130 with an Uncommitted Carryover at the end of 2018 at $5,144. In addition, there is $264,000 (Line 149) in IFLS Reserve Funds and $224,000 in MORE Reserve Funds. Thompson noted that 2019 should reflect a bump in revenue from State Aids. It should be double the increase IFLS receives in 2018. IFLS LONG RANGE PLAN/STATE PLAN: Systems are required by the State to file a System Plan and Certification of Intent to Comply. This plan is based on the long range process IFLS conducted three years ago and is due to be revised during 2018. Feedback was solicited from the advisory committee members and member library directors for suggested service improvement needs. Thompson didn t receive any feedback. IFLS is in compliance with the requirements on system services. The plan also shows the partnership created with Wisconsin Valley Library System. MOTION #49 (17) : To approve the IFLS Long Range Plan and State Plan (Doc. #041-17). Lieffring/Pavelski Thompson was asked if anything was brought into the plan from the public library system redesign process. Thompson noted that the redesign process is ongoing and he doesn t anticipate any changes in the 2018 plan. Thompson is meeting with the advisory committee in October and will discuss the planning process for 2018. The plan includes collaborative activities with other libraries, systems and organizations and the estimated cost benefit realized. - 4 -
Board members discussed the needs for consulting services and training which have increased due to significant turnover in library and staff positions in the past few years. Administration of libraries continues to increase in complexity and the pool of candidates seems to be diminishing. Thompson noted that Altoona Public Library only had 3 candidates apply for the directorship. Additionally, some libraries have hired directors with no experience in libraries. The New Director Boot Camp which draws attendance statewide included 7 directors out of 24 from IFLS. Wisconsin is competing with the Minnesota market. Two to three of Thompson s colleagues accepted positions in Minnesota. Chippewa Valley Technical College began offering a two year online program for library staff to become certified. Both library minor programs at UW-Eau Claire and UW-River Falls have been discontinued. Thompson explained the certification level requirements for being properly certified to run a public library. 2018 RESOURCE LIBRARY AGREEMENT: MOTION #50 (17) : To approve the 2018 Resource Library Agreement (Doc. #042-17). Duerkop/Brue The Resource Library Board has reviewed and signed the agreement already. PUBLIC LIBRARY SYSTEM REDESIGN UPDATE: Thompson went to Rice Lake and gave a presentation of the Public Library System Redesign Update (PLSR) which attendance included three directors from Northern Waters, Trustee Linda Thompson, and five directors from IFLS. Thompson also went to Ashland and did the PLSR presentation to five individuals. Thompson provided a summary of the latest toolkit. It included the Steering Committee Outcomes, Workgroup Recommendations, and principles of structure to help guide the decision-making process. The goal is to achieve efficiencies of systems, minimize fiscal impact, and improve the level of services. The guiding principle is to attain equitable access and service. The current timeline is to hand off the PLSR recommendations from the Steering Committee to the Department of Administration in mid-2018. Each workgroup will provide an update at the Wisconsin Library Association (WLA) conference on October 19-20, 2017. All information has been documented and posted to the PLSR website. Feedback is always welcomed. The PLSR Steering Committee will be available in the WLA Conference Exhibit Hall on October 25-26 th. - 5 -
Some questions and concerns raised include: perceptions of what is happening with other systems; concern about losing local connections; perceptions about job loss; and opportunities of retraining and doing things differently. Several board members were awed by the groundwork and efforts being put forth into the PLSR process. Compliments were extended to Thompson for his work and involvement in this process. (Achterhof left at 2:10 pm.) REPORTS: Staff Reports: Staff reports were include in the board meeting packet. In-depth Staff Report Rebecca Kilde, PR & Communication Coordinator: Kilde has been on the job at IFLS for almost a month. Her goal is to help librarians and staff at IFLS by contributing her solid graphic design and communication skills. Kilde surveyed the libraries and received a 60% response rate. She shared what she s learned in her print report. Based on the information received, Kilde will prioritize print design and advocacy support for the libraries and make Facebook a more useful communication tool. Kilde also plans to update the knowledge base on the IFLS website to be more user friendly and effective. Current projects also include working on new MORE materials for their update; updating the IFLS poster; working on a Friends of the Library packet; and taking over designing slides for the website and updates to the Facebook page. Kilde took over the library card order and placed a library card order for libraries. Kilde has the great fortune of sharing office space with Anne Hamland of Wisconsin Valley Library System. There has been a great exchange of ideas. Kilde created and passed around a graphic she designed for libraries to use during their Food for Fines programs. Libraries were very receptive. To help communicate with legislators, Kilde plans to create Infographics again this year. Advisory Council Report Christy Rundquist, Pepin County: Rundquist noted the value of IFLS to member libraries. Courier is a big piece of what libraries need and appreciate. In addition, IFLS provides materials and support. Phone calls to Thompson always get answered as he is well versed and is able to provide resources quickly and easily. Rundquist participated in a Community Engagement Grant put out by IFLS. Each community who participated needed to identify a need or project. Communities that participated included: Eau Claire, River Falls, Ellsworth, Pepin, and Altoona. Rundquist noted that over the previous year, many long-time Pepin residents had great history and died and local history stories were lost. - 6 -
It inspired Rundquist to participate in the Community Engagement Grant. IFLS provided three workshops and Leah Langby was instrumental in setting up workshops on how to get community involved in a project. Rundquist held a roundtable conversation and invited 24 people in the community asking them to share information about the community. With the assistance of conversation starters, stories were recalled. Rundquist then invited students in the community to partner up with the story tellers to provide illustrations. The stories and illustrations were combined into a book with 16 stories about the Pepin community. There was also a DVD created which was lightly edited from the discussions. (Mercord left 2.25 pm.) After publication of the book, Rundquist held a gathering of the contributors who were given a book as a thank you gift. There are some extra books and DVD s which are being sold for $25 and $15 respectively. Rundquist noted that this project and book are a tangible result of the services IFLS provides to libraries. Rundquist is hopeful to do this again next year and maybe include greater school involvement. Board Member Reports: Pavelski noted that Books on the Bus with the Eau Claire Transit has been very well received. Lieffring announced that the Bruce Area Library has hired Diane Weber as the Library Director. Brue noted that Baldwin Public Library will be celebrating their 75 th Anniversary in October. Mercord stated that Prescott Library Director Jane Enright is retiring and they will be holding a party for her Thursday afternoon. (Fayerweather and L. Thompson left at 2:38 pm.) WISCONSIN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION (WLA) CONFERENCE: The WLA Conference will be held at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells on October 17-20, 2017. IFLS is able pay up to $125 for two trustees to attend. APPOINT NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE: Brue, Okey, and Holte volunteered to serve on the Nominations Committee which will meet via conference call in January 2018 to come up with a slate of candidates for elections. - 7 -
Motion to adjourn at 2:42 pm by Lieffring/Okey ADJOURNMENT: Joanne Gardner, Recorder/Administrative Associate These minutes of the Board of Trustees are approved: Presiding Officer as printed. with corrections noted. Dated - 8 -