lbm20110727MUSKEGO PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD Minutes (Approved – 8/25/2011)
DATE: Wednesday, July 27, 2011
PLACE: Muskego Public Library
S73 W16663 Janesville Road - Meeting Room #6
Muskego, WI 53150
1. Call to order – President Huebner called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM.
2.Roll call – Present were board members - Joseph Boschert, Josephine De-Vito Scalzo, Sylvia Eckenode, Kert
Harenda, Kim Huebner, Aaron Robertson, Tina Schaefer, and Anni Schleicher. Also present was Jane Genzel
(Library Director).
3.Pledge of Allegiance—Recited
4.Statement of public notice—Given in accordance with the Open Meeting Law on July23, 2010, per Director Genzel.
5.Approval of minutes—K. Harenda motioned to approve, A. Robertson seconded. Approved minutes of June 29,
2011.
6.Next meeting scheduled—Thursday, August 25, 2011
7.President’s Message—The Mayor suggested to President Huebner that she give a short message to the Library
Board at each meeting to explain what the Board will be doing or to share research. This week she discussed the
way Library Board meetings have been running with the goal in the future being to “tighten them up”. When
agenda items can’t be discussed on a particular day due to time constraints, they will be listed under the “Future
Business” heading on the next agenda. There will also be a monthly calendar of agenda items which will align with
the long-range plan once that’s in place. The goal will be to keep the meetings at an hour and a half and limiting
individual comments to five minutes of talking time per issue. Agenda items not covered will be added to the
“Future Business” section of the next agenda if approved by the Library Board. There was discussion about this, and
the President mentioned this is not a policy but a suggestion. Also, Joseph would like to discuss the idea of a
“consent agenda” at a future meeting.
8.Treasurer’s Report—
•A. Robertson reported Muskego Public Library expenses of $75,532.06 for the period June 11-July 8, 2011, and
motioned to approve. ________________, seconded. There was discussion of the timeline of how vouchers are
approved by the Library Board. Concerns were raised about how the Board approves the expenses after the
checks are already cut. It was suggested that the Finance Director be consulted to see if the timeline could be
adjusted. After discussion, the Muskego Public Library expenses were approved 8-0.
•A. Robertson reported WCFLS expenses of $1636.25 for the period June 11-July 8, 2011, and motioned to
approve. It was seconded by A. Schleicher. Approved 8-0.
9.Communications – (guest comments, comment forms and incident reports)
a.Communications: Director Genzel communicated that a youngster had a bicycle was stolen on July 7, 2011,
from the Library grounds, and the police were notified. The child’s parent came into the library to thank us
for calling the police and mentioned that his children don’t always lock their bikes. The parent and child left
before the squad car arrived, stating that they would get their bicycle documentation from home and go to
the police department. The library contacted the police department to tell them that. The library followed
proper procedures for this incident.
b.Discussion about when Communications would be open to all Library Board members in addition to the
Library Director. This was recommended that this would be added to the end of the agenda under a
“Miscellaneous” category at the end of the meeting.
10.New Business—
a.Refilling library aide position. Director Genzel suggested that this position be refilled. A current staff
member was promoted to the vacant Librarian I position, and now this Library Aide position must be filled.
After approval by the Library Board, Director Genzel will also have to seek approval from the Finance
Committee on August 9th. There was already funding available for this position. There was discussion. J.
Boschert motioned that the item be deferred to a later time for more discussion, ______________
seconded.The Board voted, with 4 members voting in favor of deferring this item to a later time and 4
voting against deferring this item to another meeting. The Board requested additional data for the next
meeting to justify filling this position.
b.Discussion of conceal carry law. The Board directed that Director Genzel find out information from the
Mayor about what the City of Muskego plans to do in regards to the concealed carry law. If there will be
regulations covering all City buildings, then this policy would cover the Library building as well. There was
also a suggestion that it’s likely all Waukesha County System Libraries would also have consistent policies
regarding this law.
c.Revision of Library Board Policy 3.5.4. This was a discussion of the refilling of the Library Board Secretary,
which has been a difficult position to fill. The Library Board consulted with the Mayor, and it’s common in
the City that a staff member take minutes. This would be a permanent Library staff responsibility and would
allow Library Board members to freely discuss issues without being encumbered. The staff member would
receive overtime pay or comp time. President Huebner read the proposed revision of the policy. There was
discussion. Jane was asked to bring a revised section of the policy to the next meeting, taking into account
the Library Board’s points.
11. Sub-Committees—
a.Long Range Plan
i.Second reading – Before the second reading, President Huebner mentioned that library board
members should be listed at the beginning along with Jane Genzel as the Director and WCFLS head,
Tom Henan, because they all worked on this plan. In addition, there will be no introductory letter
and no emails, addresses, and phone numbers of the individual Board members. The roles of the
Library Board members will be included, however. In addition, page 37 will be shifted from the end
of the document to the very beginning, which will be page 3. On page 36, acknowledgements
should also be deleted because that will be in the front as well. A. Schleicher will make some
formatting changes as well. A. Schleicher suggested an addition on page 11 to explore the addition
of a drive-thru book return along with other conveniences to improve accessibility for patrons by
2012. A. Schleicher also suggested under 2.3.0 to increase the number of email addresses from
patrons to 18% each year. A. Schleicher mentioned that this would reduce the cost of mailing
notifications and help the library keep patrons apprised of upcoming events. Director Genzel
mentioned that we currently cannot utilize email addresses to promote upcoming library events,
but the Director will look into revising the current privacy statement to allow for this. A. Schleicher
also recommended changing 1.2.0 to include the idea that these expenditures wouldn’t just be
identified, but there would actually be a reduction in the expenditures in the overall budget by .5%.
ii.Public hearing and promotion— A. Schleicher discussed ideas related to this. She recommended
that we have a public hearing about the Long Range Plan at 6 p.m. before the next Library Board
meeting to allow for public input including a PowerPoint presentation led by two or three Board
members. Invitations to this event would be sent out, including to the Mayor to the City Council
members, and information regarding this Plan would also be made available online. A table in the
Library would be set up to promote this event and Library Staff would be informed, all with the
purpose to increase attendance. Information with a URL to the Long Range Plan could also be sent
out with late notices, and the media could also be notified to market this. Because of the special
program with Jacquelyn Mitchard at 7:30 PM on August 24th, the Library Board meeting would be
changed to Thursday, August 25th to allow for the public presentation at 6 p.m. before the Library
Board meeting at 7:00 PM. The Long Range Planning Subcommittee will meet before this date to
practice the presentation based on the PowerPoint created by A. Schleicher.
iii.Discussion of President’s Letter, Executive Summary and Goals—This was discussed during the
agenda item related to the second reading, which is outlined above.
b.Redefine sub-committee and member assignments—President Huebner asked if subcommittees are still
needed currently now that the Long Range Plan is completed. After discussion, it was recommended that
the Finance Subcommittee of A. Robertson and A. Schleicher remain in place. If subcommittees have final
reports to share, they should bring those to the next Library Board meeting.
c.Motion to adjourn: There was a motion to adjourn made by S. Eckenode at about 8:45 p.m. and to table
additional agenda items until the next Board meeting. There was not a second, so the motion failed.
12.Future Business—
a.Policy Writing— President Huebner distributed a packet with information about writing policies. She
mentioned that a lot of the policies will evolve from the Long Range plan. There are three types,
governance, planning, and operational. Some things can be changed, and some cannot.
i.What do we want to accomplish
ii.Why do we want to accomplish it
iii.How will we accomplish it—There was discussion about how the policies would be revised under
agenda item b-iii below.
iv.Steps to writing library policy—There are three steps: discussion, putting it together, and going through
specific procedures.
v.Checklist—There is a checklist to help with the writing of important policies.
b.Future readings of current Library Board Policy—
i.President Huebner suggested that in order to clarify misunderstandings with regard to current
library policies, there will be an assignment at the end of each board meeting to read over a
current library policy for the next meeting (in policy binder), and if there are issues to discuss, they
can be discussed at the next meeting.
ii.There was discussion how the how the policies will be revised after the Long Range plan is passed.
It was suggested that the policies would be discussed section by section for revision.
iii.J. Boschert made a motion to table items 12-c, 12-d, and 13-a until the next meeting. It was
seconded by K. Harenda. Board approved unanimously.
c.Monthly calendar to be established to align with the Long Range Plan regarding items to be discussed at
future board meetings.— This was tabled until next meeting
d.Library Director Evaluation—This was tabled until next meeting
13.Old Business—T. Schaefer asked that Old Business moved to the top at the agenda rather than at the bottom.
This is usually the case, but the Board had some issues that needed discussion first.
a.Summer hours/union contract question—This item was tabled. Director Genzel will email K. Harenda an
answer to this question instead.
b.Second reading of library policy 2011-3—
i.A. Schleicher made a motion to amend this policy to remove the sections, 3.5.4 and 3.6.3 from the
resolution and to proceed with the second reading of library policy 2011-3, approving sections 3.9.1 and
3.6.1 as written. K. Harenda seconded the amendment. The motion passed to amend the resolution
unanimously.
ii.A. Robertson moved to approve the amended resolution. K. Harenda seconded it. The resolution passed
unanimously.
14.Motion to adjourn—J. Boschert moved to adjourn, and S. Eckenode seconded it. Meeting was adjourned at
9:24 PM.
Submitted by Jane Genzel