Ad-Team Meeting Minutes for July 16, 2008

Meeting Date: July 16, 2008

Present: Jim Welch, Chair, Candace McDaniel, Kim Terry, Kay Bauman, Donna Morris, Patrick Williams, Denyvetta Davis, Todd Olberding, Lloyd Lovely, Ric Rea

Excused: Ernestine Clark, Karen Marriott, Anne Fisher, Dana Morrow

NEW ITEMS

A MOMENT OF SILENCE IN HONOR OF DON EDWARDS – Jim requested that the Ad Team take a moment of silence and reflection for Dana Morrow and her family after the recent loss of her father. Donna reported that the Ad Team is sending flowers to the church for the funeral and to Dana for her return to work.

LEE B. BRAWNER SCHOLARSHIP – Donna reported on the changes to the Lee B. Brawner Scholarship policy. The first change is that the available amount for reimbursement was doubled. It will now be $150 per undergraduate hour or $200 per graduate hour for a maximum of 18 credits per fiscal year. The second change is that intersession classes are now eligible for reimbursement. Donna plans to send an e-mail to all correspondents announcing these changes. She also mentioned that although there have long been requests for the scholarship to be available to part-time employees, the fund is not currently large enough to support that change. The changes will be effective retroactively to July 1, 2008.

ALA – Denyvetta reported on one of the workshops she attended at ALA called Stretching Existing Staff: New Service Delivery Models. Some suggestions from the workshop included reducing work in the back room, such as eliminating a double count of cash drawers unless the discrepancy is greater than $10, and changing scheduling, such as assigning librarians to public floor zones during peak hours only and making them otherwise available on an on-call basis. Denyvetta also passed around some examples of this year’s winners of Coretta Scott King Book Awards, of which she was a juror.

REPORTS

DEVELOPMENT – Lloyd reported that Ernestine is meeting with the Library Endowment Trust Finance Committee to review fund managers.

MAINTENANCE – Patrick reported that Maintenance has been busy preparing the temporary Ralph Ellison Library location.

Maintenance’s mail pickup location has moved from SW 5th Street and Hudson to Portland and Reno. They are still working out the kinks and expect to smooth out service soon.

HUMAN RESOURCES – Ric reported that there are currently twelve job openings in the System. Denyvetta reported that she expects one opening at The Village Library will be filled shortly and Kay said the same for an opening in Planning.

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS – Kim reported that MAC is still trying to get caught up. She expects the September issue of ShelfLife will be out early.

MATERIALS SELECTION & OUTREACH – Donna reported on Karen’s behalf that Karen was recently working with many others to integrate Ralph Ellison’s reference collection into the regular collection. They managed to accomplish this in just one day.

OUTREACH – Donna reported that Emily Williams and Lisa Wood from Outreach would be at the Commission meeting July 17 to present information about Summer Reading’s Library Night at the Ballpark event. The Team discussed Summer Reading and Patrick reported that a new state law requires children going into third grade whose reading abilities are not up to grade level to take an “accredited” summer reading course that lasts three to four weeks.

LIBRARY OPERATIONS & PLANNING – Kay reported that the Policies & Procedures committee met July 15. They hope to have new Policies & Procedures to Donna in the next few days and after her input will e-mail them to the Ad Team for review. The policies under review are SH 120 Hours: Overtime; Breaks; Meal Periods and SH 120.1 Administrative Procedures: Wages and Hours; Overtime Pay and AM 111 Fee Schedule. These policies will need Ad Team’s input before the Finance Committee meeting August 12.

Stuart Williamson sent an e-mail requesting supervisors let Planning know what they are doing to implement MLS’ Strategic Plan. Kay reiterated how important it is for Planning to have an idea of even the smallest things employees are doing so that she can supply this information to the Commission.

Kay was recently at Southern Oaks Library to pick out some of their furniture for the temporary Ralph Ellison location. She will be calling on other locations to check if they have surplus furniture that could be useful in the temporary facility.

The new policy AL 320 Rules of Conduct approved at the June Commission meeting is available on the Intranet. Kay has asked Stacy Schrank to set up training sessions for all staff to discuss the changes and how to implement them. Kay, Linda Hyams, Denyvetta and managers will facilitate the meetings. Kim reported that brochures about the new Rules of Conduct would be available in early August.

Kim suggested a website, noodlestream.com, for Planning to look into for online training. Kay said that Stacy has been researching options.

Kay reported that she is setting up meetings with Wright management.

Kay will be out of the office all next week.

LIBRARY OPERATIONS – Denyvetta reported that Library Operations has been working to clean out the workroom at Ralph Ellison in time for the move. Kay reported that there was a fire in the dumpster at Southern Oaks the day she was there. There was no damage to property other than the dumpster.

LIBRARY OPERATIONS (HEADQUARTERS) – Candace reported that she is taking reservations from many new customers. The Urban Renewal Authority will hold a board meeting and press conference at the Downtown Library on August 20 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the 46th Star Room. The press conference will include presentation of a 6’ by 6’ model of the new Devon building.

The Downtown Library will again be an entertainment venue for Opening Night this year.

CONSTRUCTION – Todd reported that the Commission would vote whether to award the contract for Construction of the Service Center at the July 17 meeting.

On July 15, Todd made a presentation to the Friends about the new Service Center. There was discussion of what will happen to their current space. The Library System will sell the building. Lloyd will handle this process.

Ralph Ellison bids came in July 15. The bids were approximately $100,000 above estimates. Interest money from the bonds will be used to cover the difference. Todd is optimistic the City of Oklahoma City Council will approve the Ralph Ellison bid at their July 27 meeting. Otherwise, he hopes the City Council will approve it at its meeting the second week of August.

Prospects look good for MLS to receive a donation of space to create a driveway on the west side of the Northwest Library site. The donor will also possibly pay half the cost of paving the area. After paving, the area would become a city street maintained by the City of Oklahoma City.

The Southern Oaks building program is due to the city August 1. Projects planned for Southern Oaks include re-carpeting, leveling the floor, expansion, and replacement of mechanical and electrical systems. Denyvetta mentioned that Randy Wayland is particularly interested in expanding the children’s area.

ADMINISTRATION/COMMISSION – Donna reported that Del City is working on a community center renovation and Melissa Weathers is a voting member of the renovation committee. The committee will take a year to determine the community’s needs and will have a report for the city council by July 1, 2009.

Mayor Mick Cornett appointed a new commissioner and the city council approved the appointment at its meeting July 15. Cynthia Mitas will replace Marguerite Ross on the Commission. Mitas is a management consultant at Francis Tuttle and previously served on the Stillwater Public Library board. The City Council also recently approved Dr. Ann Caine’s replacement. Brenda Palmer is a former special education teacher and current full-time mom.

Donna and others conducted a due process hearing on July 10 at The Village Library for a customer who the System had banned from the library. In response to the hearing, Donna is consulting with lawyer Bill Comstock regarding suspension of privileges.

Donna, Kay and Todd met with the Edmond Mayor, Edmond City Manager, Assistant City Manager, Edmond City Council members, and Jeff Scherer of MS&R Architecture and Interior Design on July 15 to continue discussion about a second Edmond library. The Edmond Library currently circulates three times the national average. The group is exploring where a second library might be located, based on where current users live and where the city of Edmond may be expanding in decades to come.

FINANCE & SUPPORT – Lloyd reported that he is setting up another meeting about re-carpeting The Village Library.

IT – Jim reported on Anne’s behalf that she is working on quotes for the electrical work at the new Ralph Ellison Library. Anne is trying to get Cox to waive its 30-working-day policy for the Ralph Ellison project so that work can begin sooner.

Meeting adjourned at 10:55 a.m.