1. Call To Order: The meeting was called to order at 10:00 a.m. having been delayed one hour due to snow. A quorum was determined.

Present: Trustees Present: Amory Peck, Nina Cox, Jan Hunter,
Absent: Donna-Lee Elke (due to road conditions, Ms. Elke participated in part of the discussion via conference call)
Director: Joan Airoldi
Staff: Jeff Lazenby, Geoff Fitzpatrick, Sigrid Brorson, Aubri Keleman, Robin Barker, Christina Read, Sally Crouse,
Public: Janet Boyhan, awaiting re-appointment by the County Council that evening.
2. Public Comment: There were no public comments.

3. Minutes:
Dec. 19, 2006
Regular Board Meeting:
The minutes of the December 19, 2006 Regular Board Meeting were reviewed.

Ms. Hunter moved to approve the minutes of the December 19, 2006 Board Meeting. Seconded, carried.

4. Financial Report and Resolutions:

A. Expenditures: Mr. Lazenby reported the expenditures:

December 2006 payroll: $242,560.58.
December 2006 first set of claims: $145,972.78.
December 2006 second set of claims: $39,083.04.
January 2007 first set of claims: $87,840.52.

Ms. Cox moved to approve the expenditure claims and accept the financial report. Seconded, carried.

4. Financial Report and Resolutions:

B. Resolutions: Mr. Lazenby reintroduced the following resolutions from the December meeting:

12/19/06-31: In the Matter of Transferring Funds within the 2006 Budget
12/19/06-32: In the Matter of an Interfund Transfer

It was moved by Ms. Cox to approve resolutions 12/19/06-31 & 32. Seconded, carried.

Mr. Lazenby introduced the following resolutions:

01/16/07-01: In the Matter of Supplementing the 2007 Budget
Mr. Lazenby explained this resolution will be reserved until later in the meeting when the property tax levy is addressed.
01/16/07-02: In the Matter of Transferring Funds within the 2007 Budget
This resolution pays for open purchase orders from 2006 for which we are invoiced in 2007.
It was moved by Ms. Hunter to approve Resolution 01/16/07-02. Seconded, carried.

5. Report on 2006 Property Tax Levy for 2007 Taxes and Recommendation: Mr. Lazenby reported he was informed by the County Assessor that we will receive over $255,000 from new construction rather than the previously quoted $228,000. Resolution 01/16/07-01 supplements the 2007 budget with $31,073.32 due to these new figures.

Mr. Lazenby also reported on his research on the impact of our lower levy rate for 2007. If WCLS had been at the usual rate of $0.50 the library would have received $6,705,197.96 instead of the $5,026,299.84 at the $0.375 levy rate. The difference is $1,678,898.12. In the past several years, the library has maintained a levy rate in the range of $.46-.49 per thousand so it was not necessary to go to the voters for a levy lid lift until this drop happened.

It was moved by Ms. Hunter to approve resolution 01/16/07-01. Seconded, carried.

6. Cobra Administrative Fee Ms. Read explained to the Trustees that the law allows a 2% administrative fee to be charged to anyone using the Cobra plan through work. In the past, the Library has not collected the fee. Ms. Read believes it should be collected because maintaining the Cobra accounts does require some work from the accounting department and this should not be a taxpayer responsibility. The fee would amount to about $7 per month per Cobra account. We currently have two people on Cobra and the amount was included as part of the 2007 payment rate amount.

Ms. Cox commented that under our present budget circumstances it makes sense to collect the fee.

Moved by Ms. Hunter to begin charging the Cobra administrative fee. Seconded, carried.

7. Nomination of Officers for 2007 Ms. Elke joined the meeting via conference call.

Ms. Peck called for the nomination of officers for 2007.

Ms. Peck was nominated for Chair by Ms. Cox; seconded.
Ms. Cox was nominated for Vice Chair by Ms. Peck; seconded.
Ms. Boyhan was nominated for Secretary by Ms. Cox; seconded.
The slate was carried unanimously.

Ms. Peck asked to be notified if anyone desired to alter their committee service. Ms. Boyhan said she would like to move to Advocacy and Ms. Elke said she would like to move to Finance. Since this is a direct swap, there was no discussion. Ms. Peck said they can start on their new committees in February.

8. Policy Recommendation: Acquisition, Ownership, and Occupancy of Whatcom County Library District Facilities Policy—First draft—from the Facilities Committee

Since Ms. Elke did not attend the meeting in person, she had contributed her thoughts regarding this policy in an email which was included in the discussion. Ms. Elke continued her conference call participation.

In the discussion about the first several paragraphs of part A of the policy, the Trustees suggested Ms. Airoldi consult Deborra Garrett about the difference between interlocal agreements and exchange of services and to determine when each should be used.

Following several language clarifications, Ms. Airoldi was directed to bring a second draft of this policy to the February board meeting.

Ms. Peck invited a discussion of the idea behind this policy, namely the ownership of buildings and land by the Library district.

Ms. Cox stated the opinion that we need to write a policy that allows flexibility so we can do what we need to do, but limited as little as possible.

Ms. Hunter introduced the concept of providing equitable service. Some of the areas in our district may need a little help. She admitted that when she first became a trustee she was against owning buildings and land but is reconsidering her opinion and thinks it may be necessary.

Ms. Airoldi pointed out that the population growth over the last ten years is a big part of the changing needs in our communities.

The Trustees discussed possible timetables for a levy lid lift as well as a capital facilities bond. Educating the public must be a part of this process if the vote is to be successful. Ms. Keleman suggested doing a library card campaign before bringing anything to the ballot. Ms. Cox suggested considering the help of consultants.

The Trustees and Ms. Airoldi are very appreciative of the Seattle, Sno-Isle, and Fort Vancouver Library Districts for all the information they have shared with us on these issues. They have saved us a lot of time and have been an immense help with these complicated policies and procedures.

Ms. Airoldi mentioned that, in regard to the Mt. Baker School Board negotiations, we will need to conduct a feasibility study on the land purchase. She plans to come to the February Board meeting with a cost estimate on that.

9. Calendar check & Director’s evaluation Finance Committee: Feb 6th @ 10:00
Facilities Committee: Jan 30th @ 9:00
Prepare Training: Jan 30th from 1:00 to 4:00
Strategic Planning: (rescheduled due to snow) Jan 31st from 12:00 to 3:00

Director’s Evaluation: Ms. Elke and Ms. Boyhan spoke to the Trustees about how and from whom comments evaluating the director should be solicited. Discussion followed. The consensus was for Ms. Read to draft an email to send to staff requesting comments. The comments will be read by the Personnel Committee. A calendar for the rest of the review process was worked out and will be published for the Board by Ms. Boyhan.

Ms. Elke ended her conference call. The Board took a 10 minute break

10. Strategic Planning Ms. Peck announced she and Ms. Elke will be making plans for what to do at the Strategic Planning meeting. She asked for ideas.

Ms. Airoldi said she is planning to use the Balanced Scorecard approach with the staff and has included a handout in the packet so people can read about the process. She said it has been taken on effectively by several libraries in Washington and the reports are positive. She also mentioned doing a staff survey. She handed out a resource called Designing an Effective Long-Range Planning Document.

Ms. Cox asked for a plan that is “not just words.”

Ms. Peck mentioned the need for a time of Board self-evaluation.

11. Committee Reports Advocacy: Ms. Boyhan said she really enjoyed doing her listening table. It was in Sumas. The comments were very much in line with the surveys.

Ms. Peck was featured in the Herald “Neighbors” section, with a photo of her on the Bookmobile.

Ms. Hunter’s reported on her experience at the Listening Table in Deming. She enjoyed talking to people from an interesting variety of ages. She was surprised how many fathers brought their children into the library (at a ration of about 5 to 1). Several people asked for Wednesday opening.

Ms. Peck asked for written reflections on the listening table experience for the March board meeting.

12. Reports from HR, IT Services, and Community Relations Human Resources Report: Ms. Read shared a written Recruiting Summary report for 2006 with the Trustees showing that 85% of the openings were in Public Services. She also commented that the draft of the Employee Handbook is progressing and is currently being reviewed by the Director’s Advisory Committee.

IT Services: Mr. Fitzpatrick told the Board the Library will be signing a contract to run fiber optic cable to the Everson Branch soon. In addition he will be taking steps to increase the bandwidth at the Maple Falls, Sumas, and Point Roberts branches. He has plans to lease a color copier for Central Services and to upgrade the black and white copier to a higher capacity. In addition, the Horizon system has been slightly upgraded.

As part of our inclement weather preparations, we will be adding answering machines at the branches that can be updated remotely so the branch managers can record closed branch messages from their homes.

Community Relations Report: Aubri Keleman (see written materials provided)

Press Related: Lots of positive articles coming out.
Annual Report: Ms. Keleman reviewed her considerations for inclusion in the annual report and invited feedback from the Trustees. She plans to:
• Show how well we are doing but how that is creating needs at the same time.
• Look toward the future
• Prepare to be proactive
The Library usually prints 200 annual reports to be used at legislative day, etc. Ms. Keleman recently saw a newsprint insert of an annual report in the Bellingham Herald. After researching how much it would cost, Ms. Keleman is suggesting two annual reports—one for the legislators giving full financial details and the insert with a more personal presentation of the information. The Herald could print 30,000 copies, and distribute 20,000, leaving 10,000 for us to distribute in another way.

The Whatcom County Library Foundation Annual meeting was very good. There are now six Board members. Ms. Keleman is talking to the Foundation about a project to collect stories from people about why they love the library. The Foundation is also considering sharing responsibility for the online bookstore from library discards. The Deming Friends have suggested the Foundation take over the online bookstore in order for profits from online book sales of library discards to be distributed fairly. This would not eliminate library discards being available to Friends for their own book sales. The Foundation has not yet made a decision about taking over the online bookstore. Friends are welcome to continue selling public donations online.

13. Library News The Deming and Maple Falls Libraries have requested capital funds from the state budget for their building projects.

14. Director’s Report Ms. Airoldi submitted a written Director’s Report including the following topics:

• Top 10 Library Stories of 2006: as reported in American Libraries Dec 2006
• American Library Association Conferences: Ms. Airoldi begins a two year term serving as secretary of the Intellectual Freedom Roundtable in January.
• WA State Library Planning Process is underway and there are opportunities to work for changes in legislation and LSTA allocations through this process
• Memberships in Professional Associations: Ms. Airoldi encouraged the Board to consider joining ALA and WLA in the future.

Ms. Peck announced that the WILL conference opens on the afternoon of Wed, Sept 26th and goes through Friday the 28th. For those who are interested, the IBB workshop will be held pre-conference on Wednesday afternoon and is planned for a three hour session.

12. Bouquets and Announcements Kudos to our training department: Traci Harpine, who was recently hired at WCC, spoke very highly of the training she received here as a PSA.

Ms. Peck read an email that Branch Manager Regan Robinson has received from a patron expressing appreciation for some of our databases. She read another email from a patron in Skagit County who uses the Bookmobile in Acme and appreciates the service we provide.

January 16, 2006 Board Meeting: The February 20, 2006 Board Meeting will begin at 9:00 a.m. at the Ferndale library.

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 1:10 p.m.