Ad-Team Meeting Minutes for October 2001

Date:  Oct. 3, 2001

Present: Jim Welch, Anne Fischer, Anne Hsieh; Karen Marriott, Donna Morris, Scott Carter (Chair), Judy Walden (minute taker), Kay Bauman, Todd Olberding; Don Updegrove

New Construction Manager, Todd Olberding was introduced by Donna Morris.

Emergency Operating Plan – Ric Rea. Ric has talked to each administrator about assignments in the Emergency Operating Plan. Copies were distributed for each of us review and be prepared to discuss at the next Ad Team meeting. One suggestion is to add some sort of online data and systems protection and recovery.

Continuing review of the proposed travel and retirement policies – Anne Hsieh. After discussion and questions, the revisions were approved by the Ad Team.

Food for Fines – Scott and Judy. Food for fines is ready to go week of Oct. 15-21. Publicity is in place, Gazette ad and others to run and radio time set up. Posters and boxes expected from the food bank any time. A recent refinement is the decision to accept appropriate food items from one week before Oct. 15 to one week after Oct. 15 from customers who mistakenly come in ready to donate – items in hand. Staff will be thoroughly briefed. Fact sheets have been prepared and will be distributed to staff.

We will be prepared to give report on result to Ad Team and Oct. Commission. Judy, Donna and Denyvetta will be in New York for Family Place training during Food For Fines week.

Standing Reports
Kay Bauman reported that the ODL report is finished and asked who wants a copy. Donna Morris and Judy Walden will share one.
Treats at this meeting were provided by Planning as a Customer Service Month activity.
Materials Services reported that the collection analysis report is not quite ready and will be sent out electronically as soon as it is – copies to libraries and Judy and Donna also.

Date:  Oct. 10, 2001

Members Present: Not recorded

Discussed plans for the Invisible Man Celebration. A grant will be submitted to fund events. OKC Community Foundation will be given opportunity to fund part.

Ralph Ellison Library is being considered as a literary landmark. FOLUSA (Friends of Libraries USA) and FOLIO (Friends of Libraries in Oklahoma) have sponsored this type of project. Scott and Dana will work on promotions budget – the grant is due Friday.
The Emergency Operating Plan was reviewed. There was a proposal for staff ID cards in light of tightening security everywhere. These can replace name tags – serve double duty.

Scott opened discussion about a key chain library card. Automation told of previous investigations into this, issues and answers. Decision was to refer this to Tech Group.

Heidi Port presented a potential process for planing the Downtown Library Grand Opening events, as requested by Norm Maas. It was noted there would need to be many people involved in this process, including people from Friends, the Endowment, the Mayor’s office and the Manager of the Downtown Library.

Date:  Oct. 24, 2001

Present: Norm Maas, Ric Rea, Jim Welch, Todd Olberding, Donna Morris, Kay Bauman, Anne Hsieh, Judy Walden, Ernestine Clark, Dana Morrow, Scott Carter – chair, Karen Marriott.

Memo to staff regarding identified business using meeting rooms to conduct business – Judy Walden. Judy distributed copies of a memo to staff regarding some business that have been using meeting rooms to recruit clients – copy attached.

Video Conferencing – Norm Maas. Norm distributed a copy of an article that appeared in the Daily Oklahoman, Fri. Oct. 19, 2001 – Business section “Look To Future”. This article is about the planned Video conference center in the Oklahoma Health Center Resarch Park. We need to make sure that the new Library Learning Center will be wired to accommodate any future use we might have. Jim Welch assured that it will, given that video conferencing can take place over high-speed Internet. It would require special software. A video conference is staff intensive – needs someone in charge, coordinating the process. It would probably take a year to plan a video conference. Infrastructure will be there via fiber and copper. Norm requested that Donna, Jim and others meet with architects to make sure we have what we need in wiring. Anne Hsieh stated that we need to decide fees for groups who want to use the facillities. Norm has a draft agreement that the consortium has provided. We need to come to some agreement with them for sharing costs of the learning center.

Jim said we do need to equipment the building with cable and decide points of access. Several points of access were identified by the group: basement, first floor – computer lab, coffee shop and perhaps the atrium, second floor, third floor and all classrooms on fourth floor.
It was mentioned that we probably need a satellite dish also.

Norm distributed a second newspaper article about a statue of Ralph Ellison planned for the Ralph Ellison Library. No one knows anything about this – except perhaps Denyvetta who was not at the meeting. Norm requested that Judy and Denyvetta get with new Ellison manager, Darcus Smith, to have her contact the planners of this project and be involved.

Grants – Norm. There was a general discussion about how grants are handled at MLS. Grants come to through many avenues, ODL sends to Norm. Ernestine assured that a copy of all grants and subsequent reports are supposed to be sent to Development Office and, for the most part, this has been done. One exception is the Gates grant that was administered by Donna and Automation. They will get a copy to Development. Norm asked that a reminder memo go out to all with procedures for making sure Development Office has a master file of all grants. Also, develop a procedure for proof reading grants – with checklists of what each reader is supposed to be monitoring. Anne Hsieh needs to proof budget portions. We need a log of all grants in force and deadlines.
DN Library floor plans – Norm distributed copies. Discussion of storage spaces ensued. Donna and Allison are working on updated floor plans and will get copies to us very soon. Then we need an ad hoc committee to meet to be sure storage is adequate.

Reports:

Maintenance - Todd Olberding. Todd presented a report for Don Updegrove who was not present. Del City Library will be closed Oct. 29th – Nor. 1st for removal of the residue on walls from moisture. It is not mold. Marshall Environmental Management, Inc. will perform a moisture evaluation for us. Ralph Ellison library had fire just before closing on Friday the 19th. Employee, Denzed Mitchell put out the fire and had the building evacuated. Repairs are planned. We are working to resolve outstanding issues regarding our fire alarm system at several libraries. Ric Rea, Don Updegrove and Todd Olberding attended an emergency planning seminar on Oct. 19th. A follow-up meeting is to be scheduled to discuss what may need to be implemented and how.
Norm instructed us to tell Managers that if a fire, break-in or other serious event occurs at a library, immediately after calling 911 or appropriate emergency number, they are to call Norm, as well as Maintenance and other administrators. Give them his cell phone number.

PR – Scott. Scott reported that more than 7000 pounds of food has been collected by libraries during food for fines week. Belle Isle had the most with about 1000 pounds. According to Automation, we forgave approximately $10,000.00 in fines.

Norm reported that he had a complaint from a customer that the Edmond Library flag is tattered. In light of Sept. 11th, we probably need to be more diligent about our flags. We need to put into the budget money for several flags for each library that has a flag pole.

Scott – On Nov. 5th, we will launch our new WEB site. A flyer is being distributed this day. Employees may preview Thursday – 25th. There will be TV ads starting the 5th about it. Teresa Goggins did a wonderful job, helped by the WEB committee. Send any suggestions to Teresa. We have a new WEB address that we will be advertising – metrolibrary.org. The old address as well as several others will also work but this is the one we will publicize.

Finance – Anne Hsieh. Anne reported that contract individuals who consult and provide programs for us will need to begin filling out a W9 form. This is an IRS requirement that has not been enforced in the past but is becoming more important due to the Sept. 11th catastrophe.

Due to time constraints, it was agreed that we will give remaining reports till next week. Norm asked that we devote the majority of the meeting time to discussion of the Family Place training.

Friends – Ernnestine. Ernestine distributed a copy of the 2002 Friend membership form and informed us that we can become a member of both special friends groups (Village Special Friends and Ralph Ellison Special Friends) in addition to the MLS friends by paying $17.00 annual dues instead of $10.00. This will assure us that we receive invitations to special friends’ events such as the Ralph Ellison Friends honoring Denyvetta Davis for her years of service.

Date:  Oct. 31, 2001

Members Present: Norm Maas, Ric Rea, Dana Morrow, Anne Hsieh, Jim Welch, Anne Fischer – part, Don Updegrove, Scott Carter – chair, Ernestine Clark, Judy Walden, Donna Morris, Todd Olberding, Karen Marriott, Kay Bauman, Denyvetta Davis.

Family Place – Judy Walden. A 20-min video about Family Place libraries and the core program, the Parent/Child workshop, was shown. Judy distributed information pieces about the Family Place initiative and draft plans for implementing at MLS. Discussion ensued. Target for beginning first series of Parent/Child workshops at a library is February. Activities/components will include putting bibliographies and pathfinders on the WEB page – as well as print; child development training for librarians – Dana already has identified training available; we will begin with one site, one program and then expand; appoint a standing committee to help plan. Norm stated that we will never be staffed like the Middle Country Public Library and will not be adding a lot of staff even after the future millage election.

Naming of Rooms – Ernestine Clark. We are going out for a one-million-dollar fundraising endeavor. One possible vehicle is to sell privilege of naming rooms in the new Downtown Lib. Learning Center. Ernestine distributed a list of discussion points. Discussion ensued. We will need to decide what will be named. A naming policy needs to be developed – assigned to Ernestine. It was suggested that we choose room names and sell sponsorships – The Laura Ingalls Wilder room sponsored by ____________. Everyone send in suggested names to Ernestine who will bring a compiled list for Ad Team consideration next week.

Safety Issues – Denyvetta Davis. Denyvetta reported that OKC had training – through the OKC Office of Emergency Management, John Clark, Director - for staff on safe mail handling - anthrax safety. It was reported that the Oklahoma City County Health Dept. has conducted 341 tests, all negative. Training on safe mail handling can be counted toward the required safety training. Ad Team agreed we need to pursue this training for MLS staff. Denyvetta will do this.

Main DN Elevator – Judy Walden. Judy reported that last Thurs. or Friday, the DN elevator stopped between the 3rd and 4th floors with an employee on it. Staff could not find a key to the outer door of the elevator so tried to call the elevator company - no response. Judy called 911 inquiring if police had universal elevator door keys. They switched her to the Fire Dept. Fire Dept. came and extricated the employee. Before allowing her to exit the elevator, they located the stop button on top of the elevator carriage and pushed it. They said the elevator could start up again while someone is coming out if the power is not deactivated. Judy was concerned that if staff have access to a key to the elevator door, and don’t know to push the stop button before a trapped employee exits the carriage, an accident could occur. Resolution: post the correct phone number to the elevator company inside the elevator as well as 911. Make sure emergency numbers are posted in strategic in all buildings.

Mail Databases – Scott. Scott reported that we are in the process of building a master database for direct mail. This will include customers, friends, and influential people to receive general mail-outs. Anyone who has mail lists needs to send a copy to Scott. It needs to be a coded list so that we can have special lists printed for target populations. Scott, Jim, Dana and Ernestine will meet to develop a P&P for the database.

Topping Off Ceremony – Norm. The topping off ceremony for the new Downtown library will be Monday the 5th at 11:30 at the construction site. Invitations have been sent.

Staff email to staff assn. President regarding staff leave for events – Ric. Ric distributed a copy of an email sent by an employee to staff assn. President regarding inequities in granting employees leave to attend library-sponsored functions. Ric will draft a policy/procedure regarding this for Ad Team to review. Judy will help.

Reports:

Buildings and Maintenance - Don Updegrove, Todd Olberding. Don praised Todd Olberding for his help with building problems. The restoration of the Ralph Ellison lounge area is proceeding. The substance on the walls of the Del City Library is not coming off very well. We are in the process of finding a new chemical to do the job. Todd wants everybody to understand that he is here to support what we do. He is receptive to everything. Health and Safety issues will be flagged immediately.

PR – Scott Carter. Food for Fines latest report – picked up over 8000 pounds. Scott distributed copies of the magazine that replaces the Events Calendar – it incorporates the events calendar. The next goal is to start mailing it to the community. Jeanne produces the magazine. She needs to attend some of the programmers meetings.

Norm shared an email from a customer who had a positive reaction to seeing a library TV ad.

Meeting adjourned. Next meeting Nov. 7th – Anne Fischer is chair, Scott Carter is minute taker for November.