Public Services Managers Minutes - February 08, 2024

Aspen UX Testing—Testing packets passed out. Can start testing any time. Larger libraries have 3 tests and smaller libraries have 2 tests. After the testing is done there is a manager survey to complete and return to Tricia. UX Testing information is due to Tricia the week of February 26^th.

Literary Voices/National Library Week—We want to promote both upcoming events, Literary Voices and National Library Week in our libraries. Expect high profile media coverage for Literary Voices. National Library Worker Day is April 9, and we are looking at doing something for staff for that day.

Budget:

·        Overall reminder, any increase in budget from the previous year are added as discretionary (with a few exceptions)

·        5160 and 5161- Please make sure that you have a spreadsheet that details how you are planning on spending your programming budget and turn that into your RD when you turn in your budget spreadsheet. We may be making some changes with 5160 and 5161 but we are still talking with the BUS office about that, so we will have more info soon. Right now, please focus on thinking of your location’s program spending at this time. Makerspace funds will be staying in programming so please be sure that you are including that in your budget planning if you have an MLS Studio. If you are asking for a higher budget than last year, please make sure that you are putting those in as discretionary. The budget you had from last year would be the base, the difference in what you are asking would be discretionary, so if you decided you needed $6000 for your budget this year and you only have $5000 last year, then the $5000 would be base and the $1000 would be discretionary.

·        Water budget- This upcoming fiscal year will see a change; bottles of water will now be purchased from the individual location’s supply budget line. This does not change the purpose of the water or what you can use it for, bottled water is for presenters at programs and for interview candidates. The most additional cost you can add to your supply budget is $84, that is a case a month around $7 a case.

·        5204 base budget $500 for those incidental things that might break over the course of the year but are over the $50 supply budget limit.

·        All furniture requests, whether 1330 or 5204, are submitted as discretionary.

·        Remember to put in your Chamber dues in 5137 as base.

·        In 5136 last year we had money set aside for Chamber events, after the conversation in the meeting today, the RDs will discuss and get back to you about whether we will add that this year.

·        5136- Add $150 for training opportunities that might come up during the year, this is also discretionary.

·        All conference requests are submitted as discretionary (registration and travel expenses). We will be sending out the amounts for you to enter for conferences soon, so you do not need to try and find amounts yourself. If there are conferences that are not a part of the list that we send out, please ask your RD about them before they are added to your budget request. OES will be budgeting for the ALSC conference, this will be similar to how we’ve worked with YALSA Conferences the last few years, closer to time OES will send out a request for those who are interested in attending and then a determination will be made on who we will send based on that response. Our understanding at this time is that the YALSA Conference will not be held this coming year. When you are budgeting for conferences, please remember that each location is still responsible for keeping their location operating during the conference please do not budget to send more staff to a conference than what you can afford to have out of the building and keeping the building open. You can only budget for one staff person to a national conference (ALA, TLA) and 3 for OLA.

·        5141- Licenses & Certification (notary)- Do any of your notaries need their license renewed? If you would like an additional notary, please speak with your RD. 

·        Maintenance- Please let your RD know what projects and larger things you want to have MTC do this coming year. The RDs will meet with Steve again in March and share the list for budget purposes. Please get your list of MTC things to your RD by the end of February.

·        IT- Tim sent out an email, please make sure that you are completing their forms with the IT requests for the upcoming year.

·        MAC- MAC will be having a meeting with Larry soon and they will let us know how they will be taking location’s requests for MAC budget after that meeting, so stay tuned.

·        SEC- In order to help SEC plan for the budget appropriately this year, please think of any events/programs that you might have that would need additional security, whether that is for an after-hours event or if you are a location that doesn’t normally have security and will need it. SEC wants to help with guards when needed but we do need to plan on it. Please let Dennis know directly if you will need additional security so that he can work that into his budget.

·        Last year we did a lot of additions to the budget between the preliminary budget and the final budget. Many of these things were small expenses that were forgotten about when the initial spreadsheets were turned in. This year Larry is not going to allow those small additions, we will only be adding bigger ticket items to the budget after the preliminary budget is submitted. Please be getting with your staff and ensuring that you are thinking about everything that you might want to do in the upcoming fiscal year and add it to the preliminary budget.

·        Overall, it is important for your RD to understand your budget requests. Remember that we have questions that we will be asked about the budget requests that you make so it helps us and you out if we actually know what your plans are.  

Experience Passes—Please remind guests that the experience passes need to be returned to the loaning library. Check to make sure guests do not already have an experience pass checked out. If a pass from another location is returned to your library, please route them back to the owning library in an interoffice envelope and notify the owning library that it is being routed to them.

Program Planning—Staff need to have their programs completed 3 months ahead. This includes ordering supplies, getting all paperwork for presenters completed and encumbering any funds for the program. The cutoff date for getting programs in the INFO magazine for June/July issues is April 19.

Meeting Rooms— Managers were asked to what extent do you set up for a guest when they reserve a meeting room. Almost all make sure the number of tables and chairs are in the room before the meeting. Cables are provided as needed with the HDMI cable being the most common.  There will be more discussion on what should be the minimum service that each library should provide guests, including set up and what cables are needed.