June 2019

Meinders Library Board Meeting

6/4/19

  1. Call to Order
  2. Community Concerns
  3. Minutes from prior meeting
  4. Financial Report
  5. Director’s Report
  6. Statistics/Metrics Report
  7. Old Business
    1. Literacy program
    2. Branding update
    3. Driving community visibility of Library
      1. Parade prep
      2. Other ideas
  1. New Business
    1. Policy Review
    2. Director Review
    3. New Members
  2. Announcements
  3. Adjourn

 

Meinders Library

May 7, 2019 Board Minutes

Meeting was called to order at 5:18 pm. Members present Kyle Caskey, Evan Schiller, Pat Weets, Amy Nelson, Jody Wacker, Sharon Peterson, and Monica Sullivan. Absent: Justin Schroyer.

Community concerns- none

Motion by Evan, second by Sharon to approve minutes from April Meeting.

Financial Report: Jody shared that we are doing just fine. $7,500 of State Farm monies have been spent. PAFL donated $1,075.15 to cover Camp Read/MN book purchases.  Jody has also purchased the previously approved furniture for the conference room, school/programming space, charging table, etc. This is not reflected yet in the financial report. 75% of our budget has been spent so we are on target for meeting our budget for 2018-2019. Motion by Pat second by Evan to approve. Approved.

Director’s Report: We need to settle on logo/branding. The blog has been updated and we have launched Twitter and Instagram accounts. Emily was just on the radio.

Looking at April metrics we keep making progress toward our goals.

Old Business: Literacy Program: Amy sent an email to Toni Baartman and Kristin Brockberg. The nearest program is in Marshall. Per Mr. Enerson, the board has decided to move forward and prioritize Adult Basic Education instead of an adult literacy program. Amy plans to follow up again at the September board meeting. Branding: Overwhelmingly, version 3 seems to be the favorite brand version with version 1 being the second favorite. Pat moves to approve version 3, Sharon seconded. Motion approved. We are looking at giving the informational flyer to new patrons and patrons who renew library cards (1000), 100 to babies born at PCMC, 150 new students, educators at start of new year. The Chamber of Commerce has about 50 new families/50 people who ask for more information. Rack cards will be created for that. Other items: Thank you cards, letter head, quarterly flyers, name tags. Projected cost $1500. Looking at 10,000 bookmarks needed. We would also put together a rack card sized summary of the annual report to distribute to our stake holders. Next steps: inform John Draper of our choice, set items, and order them. We had a vigorous discussion about what we should hand out at Water Tower Festival Parade? Magnets? Stickers? Card for give away at library? Something that has some staying power. Banner?

Some thoughts: Be a star (starburst), Smarties, Roll, Get your Tootsies to the library, T-shirts

Pat Weeks, Sharon Peterson, Kyle Caskey, and Monica Sullivan can help with prep and the parade.

New Business: Policy Review: Motion by Monica, Second Pat to approve the corrected policy 103. Approved. Motion by Pat, second by Evan to approve Policy 104. Approved. Motion by Sharon, Second by Pat to approve 107. Approved.

We discussed implementing a more structured review cycle for policies:

  • 100/200 review during 2021
  • 300/400 review during 2019
  • 500/600/700 review during 2020

Jody will split individual policies into review groups and make a fresh copy for all.

Proposed 2019-2020 Budget: The Depart of Labor is making a pay equity adjustment for salaried workers planning on it being implemented January 2020. Some costs will be going up including automation and digital materials. Authority Files has been approved by the Plum Creek Advisory Council and will go to the Plum Creek Board. $514 cost to us (based on our book budget) which would be the clean-up cost plus one year of coverage. ($10,000 for Plum Creek to do initially, $1600 each year). This first year will be a significant cost, but will be more efficient in the future. We did agree to a 1% increase in our fees for audiobooks. Evan moved to approve the proposed budget as presented, Pat seconded. Approved

Staff Reviews: Jody recommended on a 3% pay increase across the board. Motion by Evan to approve, Second by Pat. Motion approved. At this point our full time employees are not receiving benefits. The feeling appeared to be that this is an issue that needs further discussion.

We will review Jody’s performance at the June meeting.

There was a brief discussion of what to do with the furniture that is being replaced. The consensus was first offer the pieces as surplus to the school. That which is not wanted by the school should then be offered for sale to other libraries.

Evan gave update on new Plum Creek Library Director. They are continuing the search and have someone on the job by July 1.

Meeting adjourned at 6:34 pm.

 

MEINDERS LIBRARY DIRECTOR’S REPORT

June 2019

  1. Programs
    1. Events:
      1. May 14 Granite Etching with Liz Rackl (32)
      2. May 18 Full STEAM Ahead (182)
    2. Upcoming Events:
      1. Summer Reading Program starts June
      2. Code Club for 8-18 year olds Mondays at 3:30pm
      3. June 12 @ 6:30pm Ventriloquist James Wedgwood
      4. June 19 from 2:00pm-5:00pm DIY Escape Room Workshop
      5. July 1 @10:30am Pint Size Polka
      6. July 15-19 Library Camp ages 8-12
      7. July 21 @ 3:00pm Twin Cities Sisters In Crime “Where History Meets Mystery”
  1. Branding: Waiting on Pipestone Star to complete promotional item drafts
  2. Social Media Presence: we are making headway with followers on all of our social media sites and have once again added a new one to the mix. We revived the goodreads account and cleaned out all the old books from when Heather used it predominantly to catalog our seasonal paper back picture books. We have created shelves that highlight authors we’ve hosted, book club books, Camp Read books, Community Read books, and recommended by shelves. We think this will help our patrons more easily “see” our collection.
  3. We have been approached by the St. Paul Friends of the Library to host a panel of Minnesota Book Award Nominees/Winners. We have secured the one speaker we hoped for—Shannon Gibney—to be on the panel. Others will follow. Gibney plans to speak at the library as well as the school. We will facilitate her visit with the English department.
  4. Emily and I will be presenting a break out session at the MLA Conference in September, as our proposal for a DIY Escape Room Workshop was accepted.
  5. We applied for a Monogram Foods grant for Code Club.
  6. I have been asked to speak about the library at the Pipestone Women’s Connection in July. This will be great outreach, as they typically have between 50 and 60 individuals present.
  7. Full STEAM Ahead Recap: we had an outstanding turnout, blowing by our last year’s attendance by 40 people. We saw so many new faces and received great feedback. While we were open an extra hour as requested last year, we had no new attendees in that last hour, and only about 20 who had been here for much of the day. Next year, we will go back to 10am-2pm.