MINUTES

OCPL Board of Trustees’ Meeting
January 10, 2007
Central Library
Board Room
4:00 p.m.

ATTENDING: H. Bonner, , S. Jones, J. Kianka, D. Lankes, R. Strauss, J. Suddaby, K. Wojslaw   
ABSENT: H. J. Hubert, P. Mautino

ALSO PRESENT: J. M. Latham, S. Jensen,  K. McCaffrey, E. Loftus, G. Cox, D. Milcarek, D. Bendig, K. Park, J. Kalkbrenner, P. Infantine

Ms. Wojslaw called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m.

WELCOME: Ms. Wojslaw welcomed everyone.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Mr. Lankes moved for approval of the minutes of the December 13, 2006 meeting.  

Mr. Strauss seconded, the motion carried unanimously.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT

  Ms. Latham reported on the following significant events:

• Met with Linda Littlejohn concerning the south side initiative, particularly as it applies to Beauchamp. Ms. Latham mentioned that Ms. Littlejohn would be able to  get SU athletes to do the posters. They also discussed partnering with the staff at the Shomberg research library in NYC.
• Met with Sarah Merrick concerning the Westside Community initiative to ensure Mundy Branch is included in the potential partnerships they are developing.
• Ms. Latham and Ms. Loftus will be meeting with Lynn Shepard Scott to pursue some staffing alternatives for Mundy.
•  Going to NYC with Ms. Park and Ms. Dobkowski from Mundy Branch regarding a family literacy grant.
• A/TS department and the Central Processing Center have merged in order to share staff and resources and reduce redundancy.
• Acquisitions department has also been launched this week, with Jane Kalkbrenner as the new head.
• First Systems Meet of the year was held on January 9^th.  Mary Beth Farr from NYS Library was present. The next system-wide meeting will be the retreat held in June.
• OCPL Staff Development Day is January 11^th. 204 staff members have signed up.

Old Business

a) Polaris

The finished contract for Ms. Latham’s approval will be available on January 12^th. The target date for the signing of the contract is January 16^th.

b) KS & R

They have finished their surveys. Their last focus group meeting was with the member directors. They are putting together a synopsis of the focus groups and an analysis of the telephone survey. They will be giving a formal presentation at the February Board meeting.

New Business

a) Ossie Golden/Trustees’ Award

The recipient(s) have been determined. The award ceremony will be held on Tuesday, February 6^th.

b) Staff Development Plan

Ms. McCaffrey reviewed her handout to the Board. She explained that the continuing education committee will begin by identifying core competencies for various job titles and doing needs assessment.  They will incorporate supervisor input and information from performance evaluations. Other tentative plans include a database of in-house experts, improved training and mentoring for new employees, and a leadership “cohort” for current employees.  This would be a group that would move through a series of programs aimed at teaching them about state and local government and the budget process, among other things.

COMMUNICATIONS

Finance: Mr. Kianka is meeting with Ms. Jensen regarding the various accounts.

Government Relations: Mr. Strauss reported on the committee’s accomplishments for 2006 and their goals for 2007. The nest meeting is scheduled for January 16^th, 9:00 at the Soule Branch Library. Mr. Strauss introduced Pat Infantine as the newest member.

Management, Recruitment & Development:  Ms. Jones mentioned the Committee didn’t meet in December. They will continue to meet in 2007 at the same time and location as in 2006.

OCSL

Ms. Infantine explained that the member directors did have their focus group meeting with KS& R.  There were nine representatives from the member libraries.  They asked very good questions and had very good follow-ups to the questions. She is looking forward to seeing the results of that report. Ms. Infantine commented that OCSL felt the Systems Meet went very well and was very valuable. They particularly liked various committee reports. OCSL is anxious to hear the outcome of the contract negotiations for the ILS, because most of the association libraries have to have their budgets finalized by the end of February to submit for their school budget propositions.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Ms. Wojslaw read six items from the board retreat minutes that she would like to accomplish:

1. Services, Automation/ILS - She would like to see partnerships, which Ms. Latham is doing.  Anything that we can do to improve our services with and without partnerships. The memorandum of understanding is important and ties in directly with our services. She would like to see a bookmobile.
2. Finance - Multi-year process to ensure adequate sustainable funding for the library.
3. Facility - Clean, safe facilities to adequately and creatively meet the needs of the community and the staff.
4. Organizational Development – need a sustainable and adaptable organization that allows the library to thrive. The Staff Development Plan is very important.
5. Technology – The best that can be used to enhance the delivery of services.
6. Communications – Both internal and external communications to get the message out to everyone about what we do and how we do it.

Ms. Wojslaw would like these topics to be touched upon at the Board meetings. While the library is making progress, she would like to see a concerted effort to make it more cohesive. 

OCPL ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Mr. Strauss stated at their last meeting they approved changes in their bylaws. They will be going to quarterly meetings; officers will serve only for one year and they are looking at doing trustee-training workshops not on advisory council meeting nights.

One trustee-training workshop will be in September and possibly in May.

Ms. Latham mentioned that the OCPL Board could look into  amending the OCPL bylaws to say an officer of the advisory council can serve on the OCPL Board. This would assure a representation of the members would be on this Board.

OTHER

Ms. Cox inquired if the Board would prefer to receive their packets electronically. The Board agreed, with a hard copy available at the meeting.

ADJOURNMENT

Mr. Lankes moved to adjourn the meeting. 
Ms. Wojslaw adjourned the meeting at 5:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Gail M. Cox
Administrative Aide