BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Minutes of the Regular Meeting
March 21, 2006

The regular meeting of the Des Plaines Public Library Board of Trustees was held in the second floor conference room on Tuesday, March 21, 2006. Vice President William Grice called the meeting to order at 7:00PM.

ROLL CALL.

Roll call indicated the following board members were present: Eldon Burk, Susan Burrows, William Grice, Jerry Mahony, Rhys Read, Elaine Tejcek, Susan Weinberg.

Members Absent: Mary Ellicson, Noreen Lake.

Also Present: Sandra Norlin, Martha Sloan, Hector Marino, Carol Kidd, Sue D’Hondt.

CONSIDERATION OF THE AGENDA.

MOTION by Rhys Read, seconded by Susan Burrows, to accept the agenda, as written. VOTE: AYES: All. NAYS: None. MOTION CARRIED.

PUBLIC COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS.

Sue D’Hondt reported that the Friends will hold their spring booksale March 24 – 26.

CITY COUNCIL COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE – Alderman Carla Brookman.

Alderman Brookman was not in attendance.

CONSENT AGENDA

MOTION by Susan Weinberg, seconded by Elaine Tejcek, to accept the Consent Agenda, as written. VOTE: AYES: All. NAYS: None. MOTION CARRIED.

MOTION by Susan Weinberg, seconded by Elaine Tejcek, to approve the Financial Reports for February 2006, as presented. VOTE: AYES: All. NAYS: None. MOTION CARRIED.

Following monthly reports to be reviewed and placed on file for audit:

MOTION by Susan Weinberg, seconded by Elaine Tejcek, to approve, subject to audit, expenditures authorized by the Library Director and Board Representatives for library Warrant Registers as follows:

ROLL CALL VOTE: AYES: Burk, Burrows, Grice, Mahony, Read, Tejcek, Weinberg. NAYS: None. MOTION CARRIED.

MOTION by Susan Weinberg, seconded by Elaine Tejcek, to approve, subject to audit, expenditures for salaries made by the Library Director as follows:

ROLL CALL VOTE: AYES: Burk, Burrows, Grice, Mahony, Read, Tejcek, Weinberg. NAYS: None. MOTION CARRIED.

DIRECTOR’S REPORT

I have received no official requests for confidential information since the last report.

PERSONNEL

New Employees for February/March 2006 are Evan Gallien, Part-time Page, Circulation Services; Russell Murrell, Part-time Monitor, Building and Security Services.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT

Bob Blanchard, Hector Marino, Corky Mayo, and I represented the library at the annual Library Advocacy Day at the State Capitol in Springfield on March 1. Over 600 library supporters met with legislators and participated in a march and rally at the Capitol building.

Heidi Krueger, Hector Marino, Chris Posinger, David Whittingham, and I will attend the biennial conference of the Public Library Association in Boston March 22-25. Hector’s expenses will be covered by OCLC because of his presentation on Web Junction, an OCLC product.

The topic of the All-Staff meeting on March 8 was Health and Wellness. Madeline May, Des Plaines Community Health Nurse was the featured speaker. She provided information about her work as a community nurse and general information on disease prevention for the staff.

PATRON SERVICES

I am pleased to report increases in all areas of library use. People checked out 5.5% more items this February than last, increased their use of online reference sources by 51%, the use of meeting rooms by 30%, and used the library’s computers over 10,000 times. Of the items circulated, 69% of the youth collection was print and 44% of the adult materials was print. Patrons used the self-check machines to circulate 21% of the items from the main library. We have 237 more registered card holders than last year at this time.

OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

I attended the Library Advocacy Day event (previously mentioned) on 3/1, participated in the Library Trends Discussion on 3/2, the 2006/2007 Budget meeting for CCS on 3/3, the Chamber of Commerce Board Meeting on 3/7, the Library Cable Network Executive Committee meeting on 3/9, hosted a women library director’s luncheon on 3/9, attended the National Sunshine Week teleconference on 3/13, chaired the CCS Executive Committee meeting on 3/13, attended the SLURP (area library director’s group) meeting on 3/16, the NSLS Annual Banquet on 3/17, and a Chamber of Commerce Scholarship Committee meeting on 3/20. I will attend the PLA conference in Boston from 3/22 through 3/25.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

The Board discussed ideas for their column in the library newsletter Foreword. It was decided that Eldon Burk would write about how he uses and enjoys audio books for the June issue, that Elaine Tejcek would write about services available at the library for school children for the September issue, and each board member would write about how they use the library’s services during the holiday season for the December issue of Foreword.

NEW BUSINESS

MOTION by Eldon Burk, seconded by Elaine Tejcek, to approve the Illinois Public Library Annual Report, as prepared. VOTE: AYES: All. NAYS: None. MOTION CARRIED.

Eldon Burk will attend the April 3 City Council meeting; Elaine Tejcek the April 17 meeting; and Rhys Read the May 1 meeting; Susan Weinberg the May 15 meeting.

Sandra Norlin advised the Board that it was time to review Library Policy Section A – General Policies and Section C – General Regulations. Sandra asked the Board if they wanted the Finance Committee to review the Financial Policies. The Board asked that the policies be reviewed by staff and that the staff recommendations be reported to the Management Committee for referral to the full board as a committee of the whole.

MOTION by Rhys Read, seconded by Susan Weinberg, to have staff review Library Policy Section A and Section C and forward their recommendations to the Management Committee and to either the Finance Committee or a Committee of the Whole for the financial policy review. VOTE: AYES: All. NAYS: None. MOTION CARRIED.

The Management Committee will meet on April 11 at 4:00 p.m.

MOTION by Susan Burrows, seconded by Susan Weinberg, to approve payment to Cooperative Computer Services in the amount of $5,477.60, which is in the best interest of the Des Plaines Public Library. VOTE: AYES: Burk, Burrows, Grice, Mahony, Read, Tejcek, Weinberg. NAYS: None. MOTION CARRIED.

MOTION by Susan Burrows, seconded by Susan Weinberg, to approve payment to College of DuPage for Consultation and Training for the LSTA Grant in the amount of $12,000.00, which is in the best interest of the Des Plaines Public Library. VOTE: AYES: Burk, Burrows, Grice, Mahony, Read, Tejcek, Weinberg. NAYS: None. MOTION CARRIED.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Susan Burrows reported that plans for the fourth annual Do the Dewey fundraiser are underway. The fundraiser will be held on Saturday, April 22, 2006. Susan stated that raffle tickets will be sold before the event for three of the major prizes.

Sandra Norlin reported that the sculpture commissioned by Joe Walters is completed and will be installed on April 17, 2006 in the Administrative front office.

Sandra Norlin reported that two line items in the 2006 budget were left out. The line items were Workers Compensation and RHS Plan Payout. These line items amounted to $8,500.00. The Board consensus was to overspend the line items and to adjust other library expenditures to cover this expense. The Board will vote to approve this decision at its April meeting.

OTHER

Elaine Tejcek brought in a newspaper article about the Mt. Prospect library having a children’s program where specially trained dogs are brought into the library so that children can read to the dogs without any inhibitions about their reading skills.

Sandra Norlin reported that the organization “Computers for Schools” is a not for profit organization. At the February meeting Sandra was asked to confirm this information.

Sandra Norlin stated that used library printers were being offered to community agencies, but that there was only one agency that showed interest in purchasing the printers at a reasonable price. Sandra stated that one of the library vendors offered to purchase three of the printers. William Grice stated that the Self-Help Closet and Pantry may be interested in printers. The Board agreed to allow the library to sell the printers to an outside organization if they were not able to sell the printers to not for profit organizations at a reasonable price.

EXECUTIVE SESSION

MOTION by Rhys Read, seconded by Susan Burrows, to enter into an Executive Session at 8:12 p.m. to discuss Probable or Imminent Litigation. Vote: Ayes: All. Nays: None. MOTION CARRIED.

Rhys Read left the meeting at 8:12 pm.

The regular session reconvened at 8:26 p.m. and was called to order by Vice President William Grice.

EXECUTIVE SESSION ACTION

MOTION by Eldon Burk, seconded by Jerry Mahony, to affirm the decision made in Executive Session to direct Sandra Norlin to proceed as directed by the Board. VOTE: AYES: All. NAYS: None. MOTION CARRIED.

MOTION by Susan Burrows, seconded by Elaine Tejcek, to adjourn the regular meeting. VOTE: AYES: All. NAYS: None. MOTION CARRIED.

The meeting adjourned at 8:46PM.

Minutes prepared by Carol Kidd.

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