Regular Meeting of the Library Board of Trustees
January 15, 2008
MINUTES

Anyone requiring these minutes in an alternate format, such as large type, Braille or an audiotape, please contact the Library at 384-3150.

Location:
Central Services Building, 5205 Northwest Dr., Bellingham, WA 98226.
(Note: “Library” refers to the Whatcom County Library System-WCLS.)

1. Call To Order:
The meeting was called to order at 9:00 a.m. by Chair Amory Peck. A quorum was determined.

Roll Call:
Trustees: Amory Peck, Nina Cox, Jan Hunter, Janet Boyhan, Tom Burton
Director: Joan Airoldi
Staff: Jeff Lazenby, Geoff Fitzpatrick, Sally Crouse, Lizz Roberts, Mary Matter, Mike Kusick, Robin Barker, Christina Read, Sigrid Brorson, Lisa Salisbury

Welcome Ms. Peck introduced the new trustee, Tom Burton, noting that he is a Friend of the Blaine Library and also his history of community involvement.

At Ms. Peck’s suggestion, introductions included a word of advice from each trustee and brief description of job responsibilities from each staff present.

3. Minutes:
The minutes of the December 18, 2007 regular board meeting were reviewed. Ms. Peck commented that the wording at the conclusion of agenda item #8 required some kind of segue to separate Ms. Marshall’s greetings to the Board from agenda item #8.

Moved by Ms. Cox to approve the minutes of the December 18, 2007 regular Board meeting as adjusted according to Ms. Peck’s request. Seconded, carried.

4. Financial Report and Resolutions

4a. Expenditures:
Mr. Lazenby reported the December and January expenditures:
December 2007 payroll Nos. 5439-5600: $274,595.59.
December 2007 second set of claims Nos. 1-81: $48,229.99.
December 2007 allowed claims Nos. 1-220: $61,688.94.
January 2008 first set of claims: not available

The January 2008 first set of claims were not ready because of the early date of this Board meeting and will be reported at the February Board meeting instead.

Ms. Cox remarked that she appreciates the way she is receiving the claims for review via email. The new procedure is saving paper and providing her with additional time to review the material.

Ms. Cox moved to approve the December payroll and claims as presented. Seconded, carried.

4b. Resolutions:
There were no resolutions to present. Mr. Lazenby commented that WCLS accounting is more efficient because of the new accounting software which should help reduce the number of resolutions.

4c. Budget Report:
Mr. Lazenby reported that financial reports for 2007 are in process. He and Ms. Cox are hoping to schedule a financial committee meeting prior to the February Board meeting.

Ms. Airoldi asked Mr. Lazenby for a preview of his report on WCLS expenditures for 2007. He estimates that the library spent 95% of the projected expenditures for 2007. This means the amount taken from the fund balance will be less than what was anticipated.

The trustees offered congratulations to WCLS staff for cost saving efforts.

Turning to a new topic, Mr. Lazenby informed the trustees of his preparation of a “boiler plate” professional services contract. He said he has been researching what other organizations use and has developed a template that can be tailored for each situation. It has been sent to Deborra Garrett for legal review. He was asked to bring a copy to the February meeting.

5. Report on 2007 Property Tax Levy for 2008 Taxes and Recommendation:
Mr. Lazenby reported on the 2007 property tax levy for 2008 taxes and reviewed the way the law governs annual property tax increases for library districts. The library’s property tax collection is allowed an annual increase of 1% plus new construction. The 2007 levy rate was $0.37 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. For the 2008 budget, it was estimated that the rate might drop as low as $0.30 but the actual levy rate for 2008 taxes is $0.35.

For 2008, the actual amount the library will receive from new construction is $187,206. Additionally, $18,224 in State assessed utilities and $20,896 in refund amount will be collected.

Excluding the refund amount, for 2008 the library will receive $4,019 more in property tax collection than what was budgeted which is a very close margin.

The statutory maximum the library is allowed to collect from property taxes is set at a levy rate of $0.50/$1,000. If the library had collected the maximum rate on the total assessed value for this year it would result in approximately $7.5 million in property tax collection for the library. At the current rate of $0.35 the total will be $5.3 million. Other library districts surveyed have commonly gone to the voters for a levy lid lift when their levy rate has reached somewhere between $0.30 and $0.35.

Mr. Lazenby reported that Richard N. Little has signed on for the funding options study. Mr. Little has 27 years of experience in Whatcom County as an attorney and in government relations. He plans to attend a library board meeting in March or April. One of the projects Mr. Lazenby is working on with Mr. Little is the selection of the Ad Hoc Citizen’s Advisory Committee. The recruitment period has been extended.

Since the funding options study has already been budgeted, it was decided no action from the Board was needed at this time.

6. Nomination of WCLS Library Board Officers for 2008:
Ms. Peck invited nominations from the floor for the annual election of officers and the following slate was put forward for action at the February Board meeting:

Chair: Amory Peck
Vice Chair: Jan Hunter
Secretary: Janet Boyhan

7. 2008 Board Committee Job Descriptions and Assignments:
Trustees considered the Board Committees draft job descriptions compiled as part of their evaluation process in 2007. Ms. Crouse made note of changes and suggestions and will update.

Ms. Peck polled the trustees for their preferences regarding service on the Board committees. The following committee assignments were made and are considered active at this time:
Advocacy: Jan Hunter, Janet Boyhan
Facilities: Nina Cox, Jan Hunter
Finance: Nina Cox, Tom Burton
Personnel: Janet Boyhan, Tom Burton
Policy: Amory Peck, Nina Cox
WCL Foundation Representative: Jan Hunter

8. Customer Service Policy Statement:
Ms. Airoldi introduced a new WCLS Customer Service Policy statement.

Ms. Peck said she and Ms. Airoldi have discussed whether it is appropriate to call this a “policy.” She believes customer service is intrinsic to other WCLS policies and calling it a policy statement seems accurate.

Discussion followed about the fact that if it is to be called a policy it should be voted on by the Board which also gives it additional weight.

Ms. Boyhan observed that the statement is a pledge. It is about what WCLS wants to do to show pride and an expression of the fact WCLS treats “customers” well as a priority. The suggestion was made to re-work this document and consider it a pledge rather than policy statement.

It was agreed by consensus to call this document a “Customer Service Pledge.” It was also agreed that it is not necessary to add any expectations on the part of library users to the document such as the Conduct Policy. It was decided that, as a pledge rather than a policy, it is not necessary to be voted on by the Board.

9. 2007 Library Statistics:
Robin Barker presented a handout of 2007 library circulation statistics. Ms. Peck introduced Ms. Barker to new trustee Tom Burton as the librarian in charge of Collection Management. Mr. Burton thanked Ms. Barker for all the books she has bought over the years that he has enjoyed so much. Ms. Barker shared the credit with her team of selectors.

Ms. Barker told the Board that statistics are one way library service can be measured.
Some of the trends revealed by these statistics are:
• Total circulation has increased 69% since 1996
• Use of the library is changing. A smaller percentage of the circulation is for adult print books while use of recorded books is up significantly.
• DVD circulation is going up. Media circulation has increased between 2001 and 2007 from 15.7 to 25.8% of total circulation.
• A lot more BPL materials are coming this way because now the first available copy simply goes to the patron at the top of the queue no matter which library the patron or the materials are from.

Ms. Barker explained the history of the materials exchange between the two libraries and will present additional statistics at the February meeting.

Ms. Airoldi commented that the way we seamlessly share materials with BPL is very good for our patrons due to the size and diversity of the two collections.

10. Labor Management Partnership Report:
Ms. Airoldi handed out a copy of the Labor Management Partnership purpose and principles recently agreed upon and signed by Christina Read of Human Resources, Vinnie O’Connor, the AFSCME Council 2 Union Representative, Patty Macheras, the President of the Local, and herself. The group is now meeting regularly to respond to issues that are not contract related in the hope of improved communication and proactive mutual problem solving.
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11. Interlibrary Loan Annual Statistics:
Mike Kusick and Mary Matter, interlibrary loan staff, were introduced. Mr. Kusick prepared handouts of charts documenting activity from 1991 to 2007.

Mr. Kusick reviewed the charts explaining items, requests received, and requests filled. The requests not filled are sent on to other libraries through the OCLC system (a computer system linking libraries for the purpose of interlibrary loan requests).

Ms. Hunter asked if staff track what people are asking for as a collection building mechanism. Ms. Barker explained how we make the choice of whether to purchase an item or borrow it through the ILL system.

Ms. Matter commented that about half of the requests now are for media, ie. books on tape, DVDs, etc.

Mr. Kusick pointed out the bar graphs showing the number of requests received and requests filled.

Ms. Airoldi and Ms. Barker agree that ILL is one of the most important services that libraries provide. Last year Ms. Barker set up a system for patrons to request online items that WCLS doesn’t own. She showed trustees where to find the request form on the WCLS webpage (under “catalog” select “beyond the catalog” and click on the link at the bottom of the page). These requests are handled through email and an online system which is efficient.

Mr. Burton asked about the time devoted to processing the daily ILL requests. Mr. Kusick said he processed 91 requests yesterday in 22 minutes. For each item sent out we get $0.44 rebated from OCLC from our monthly fee.

The Trustees thanked staff for this presentation.

12. Committee Reports:
Policy: Ms. Cox reported the policy committee will meet in February before the Board meeting.

Facilities: Ms. Cox reported that no meeting had been held for quite a while and requested that a meeting be scheduled to bring the Trustees up to date.

Finance: Ms. Cox said the finance committee plans to meet in the near future but the date has not yet been scheduled.

Foundation: Ms. Hunter reported the Foundation Board met and discussed fundraising and is working on developing sound financial policies.

13. Community Relations Coordinator’s Report:
Ms. Roberts invited everyone to take a minute after the meeting to read some of the press clippings displayed on a nearby table.

A finished copy of the Strategic Plan was passed out, complete with all the branch inserts. Mr. Burton was introduced to this document and its purpose, as well as the identity project including the logo, tagline, colors, and manual.

Ms. Roberts and Ms. Airoldi gave special thanks to Ms. Boyhan for all the work she has done as part of the committee working on the identity project. Ms. Boyhan praised everyone on the committee for their efforts.

In the Community Relations area, Ms. Roberts reported on the plans for the Smartest Card (library card) Campaign using some American Library Association graphics. She displayed a Smartest Card Campaign poster which is available for display and will also be placed in the WTA busses for a period of one year. A newspaper insert is also planned which will include an application for a library card. It will be inserted into county copies of the Bellingham Herald as well as the Lynden Tribune, the Ferndale Record Journal, and the Shopper. She said she is also talking to the Northern Light, the All Point Bulletin, the Northwest Experience, the Whatcom Independent and the Foothills Gazette.

14. Library News:
Ms. Brorson handed out four pages of library news sent in by branch managers. One highlight from the last month was the grand opening of the new Sunday schedule at Everson which drew approximately 250 people in the first afternoon.
The afternoon was celebrated with local musicians and other activities.

Ms. Brorson also handed out a chart showing branch circulation which documented several statistics:
• circulation by branch over the last year and % change
• % change over the last seven years
• change in open hours for that branch over the last seven years

As an example of how this type of information is used, Ms. Brorson pointed out that Everson was chosen to be the test branch for Sunday open hours because of statistical information in addition to comments from the recent patron survey which indicated the Everson population supported the idea.

15. Director’s Report:
Ms. Airoldi’s written Director’s Report focused on:
• Going on the road and scheduling meetings with community groups to introduce the Strategic Plan.
• Meetings to jumpstart 2008 projects with our consultants
• The American Library Association’s Midwinter conference
• The top 10 library stories of 2007: they sound very much like all the same things we are dealing with—growing circulation, bandwidth nearing capacity, and funding needs.

Ms. Airoldi also introduced another topic to think about: the 2010 Olympics and any impact on branches that are located near border crossings; Blaine, Sumas, and Lynden. She asked that Trustees think about ways to plan to help the extra visitors or any other ways to prepare

Mr. Burton commented that he remembers how people thought Expo ’86 would have a big impact on the county but it didn’t. Expo was many months long. The Olympics only lasts 17 days.

16. Bouquets and Announcements:
The topic of the Board meeting calendar was introduced.
• Ms. Peck explained she will not be available to attend the February, June, or July meetings on the dates they are currently scheduled.
• Ms. Cox will gone in September
• Ms. Boyhan will also be gone in September
• Ms. Hunter said she may have a conflict with the July meeting
• Ms. Airoldi introduced the possibility of changing the meeting dates of some of the meetings.
Ms. Peck and Ms. Airoldi will suggest options.

Ms. Peck announced that Library Legislative Day is February 15th. Ms. Airoldi said she is hoping that some Friends of the Library will attend this year. Ms. Peck, Ms. Cox, and Ms. Boyhan said they plan to attend.

February 19, 2008 Board Meeting:
The February 19, 2008 Board Meeting will begin at 9:00 a.m. at the Ferndale Library.

17. Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 12:10 p.m.