THE DUPAGE LIBRARY SYSTEM
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MINUTES
April 24, 2003
ROLL CALL OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The regular meeting of the DLS membership held at the Aurora Public Library – Eola Branch, Aurora, Illinois was called to order at 7:00 p.m. In Sec. Whitehead’s absence, President Kepka called the roll. The following board members were present to establish a quorum: Tanya Berley, Don Brant, Steve Fulton, Marti Guarin, Karen Hannah, Laurie Kagann, Robert Kepka, and Marguerite Treest. Board members with excused absences were Jackie Plourde, Joyce Whitehead, and John Slusser.
DLS staff members attending were Shirley May Byrnes, Claudia Sheets, Jane Plass, Denise Zielinski, Karen Odean, and Phylis Wagner.
Also present were guests Kevin Davis, Assistant Director of the Aurora Public Libraries, Aurora Public Library trustee Ray Hughes, and Candy Van Tine, Eola branch reference librarian.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Pres. Kepka introduced Kevin Davis, Assistant Director of the Aurora Public Libraries. Kevin welcomed everyone to the Eola Branch Library. Eva Luckinbill, the Director of the Aurora Public Libraries, and Pam Truemper, Eola Branch Manager, were unable to attend, but sent their regards. Kevin introduced Aurora Public Library trustee Ray Hughes and Candy Van Tine, Eola branch reference librarian. Pres. Kepka thanked everyone from the Aurora Public Library for allowing DLS to hold the Board Meeting at their facility.
ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA
Treas. Treest moved and Dir. Fulton seconded that:
| THE AGENDA BE ADOPTED. | Agenda adopted. |
Motion carried unanimously.
APPROVAL OF MARCH 20, 2003 REGULAR MEETING MINUTES
There was some confusion as to when the DLS Bylaws ballot should be returned. It was agreed that the date of May 12 on the ballot is the deadline.
Dir. Hannah moved and Dir. Brant seconded that:
|
THE MARCH 20, 2003 REGULAR MINUTES BE APPROVED. |
March minutes approved. |
Motion carried unanimously.
FINANCIAL REPORT
Treas. Treest presented the financial report.
Dir. Kagann moved and Dir. Guarin seconded that:
|
THE PAYMENT OF THE APRIL 2003 BILLS IN THE AMOUNT OF $133,528.42. |
April bills approved. |
Motion carried unanimously.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
FY04 DLS Budget: The staff is working on the system area and per capita grant application, which is due to ISL on or before Friday, June 13. Since our June board meeting falls after that date, the plan is to have the application available for a vote at the May 15 meeting. A draft of the application will be in the mail to you on May 2, and it was suggested that the Operations Committee meet the week of May 5 to go over it. It was agreed that the Operations Committee will meet on Wednesday, May 7 at 6 p.m. at DLS.
At the direction of ISL, the budget is being prepared based on the amount we received for FY03. The Governor’s budget message included his intention to charge a 5% administrative fee on special interest funds. Unfortunately, this includes Live & Learn (L&L) funds. Since half of the per capita grants for library systems comes from L&L funds, this would have an impact on us. The proposal has to be approved by both houses of the legislature.
Our health insurance contract renews on May 1. It was learned at the end of March that to stay with the same plan, the increase would be almost 38% overall. Alternatives were discussed. It was decided to go with a plan that doubles the co-pays for prescription drugs and reduces the increase to less than 31%. The full staff was alerted to this change on April 14 and informed that, if our per capita grant is reduced, the employees might once again be asked to pick up part of the cost.
The Board requested a copy of the Blue Cross Blue Shield sheet listing all the alternatives available. There was some discussion of other possible plans. Because of the uncertainty of the budget next year, Pres. Kepka suggested that we get feed back from the employees and find out if it is reasonable for DLS to move to one of the other plans, such as Alternate Plans 106 or 103. It was decided to bring this issue to the Operations Committee on May 7, and Dir. Fulton was requested to act as a consultant for the discussion about health insurance.
DLS Legislative Advocacy Committee: This Committee has been an active one. They met April 24 and developed a fall schedule of advocacy activities. The training subcommittee will meet in May to plan the events. It was felt that there is a need for trustees and library staff to know more about universal library issues such as, privacy, intellectual freedom, LSTA and the USA PATRIOT Act. To reach more people, two dates were set for learning more about issues. The first session will be Wednesday, October 1 from 9:30 to noon, and it will be repeated the following evening, Thursday, October 2 from 6-8:30 p.m. giving trustees and library staff more opportunities to attend. A fall legislative breakfast was set after these sessions on Monday, November 3. It was felt that legislators might be more available in the fall, and their constituents would know about the broader issues to discuss them. The cycle would start again on Friday, December 5 when the basic advocacy training would be repeated and lead to a DLS legislative breakfast in January or February.
IL Advocacy Day: The Committee debriefed on this year’s Illinois Advocacy Day held April 9. Those who traveled to Springfield the night before and saw legislators from 8:30-10:30 found this was the best time to find legislators in their offices and available to meet with them. The informational session held the night before helped people get an early morning start. The bubble hammers continued to be a popular give away item for staff as well as legislators.
Card Campaign: This is a reminder to those of you acting as contact for a legislator to get card #5 to your legislators in May. The message this month deals with service to the blind and print-disabled individuals. The Voices of Vision staff will provide local stories to the DLS advocates. It is the intention that all of the messages be personalized with stories and/or facts from the legislator’s community.
Board Meeting Dates: One of the handouts tonight is a list of possible dates for FY04 DLS Board meetings. These will be voted on at the May meeting, so check your calendars and let us know of any potential conflicts/problems. The normal October date falls during ILA conference, so it is suggested that date be changed to either Monday, October 20, or Thursday, October 23, of the following week. Exec. Dir. Byrnes requested that the summer meeting be held in July instead of August this year.
Collaborative Ventures: The Chicago Library System and Suburban Library System are talking about future collaboration. Exec. Dir. Byrnes met with Sarah Long, North Suburban Library System (NSLS) on April 15 to discuss possible collaborative ventures. From NSLS, the services discussed included NorthStarNet, foreign language standing orders, a Section 125 plan, and a marketing campaign. From DLS, the services included our networking groups, MAGIC for NSLS multitype members who wish to have an automated circulation system, website and email hosting, trustee training, advocacy, and a joint union list of serials. These possibilities are being discussed with our staffs.
Bylaws: The votes for the revised bylaws are slowly coming in, and the ballots received have approved them.
zILLANE: The response packets from the 12 regional systems have been received by the Illinois State Library, and the zILLANE teams are starting to meet. Jane Plass is serving on the Bibliographic Control Team. Exec. Dir. Byrnes has volunteered to serve on the team that will look at the recommendation to merge some of the LLSAPs to reduce them from six to two or three.
National Library Legislative Day: Those attending from DLS are Denise, Shirley May, Marti, and Marguerite.
Illinois Library System Directors Organization (ILSDO): The next meeting for ILSDO is April 29-30 at Lincoln Trail Library System in Champaign.
COMMUNICATIONS
Report of the President - None
Report from the Illinois State Library – Neil Kelley
There was an election earlier this month and 11 library referendum passed. This is very positive and successful given the situation we are in. There are 928 ILLINET member libraries that purchased NoveList. This was provided free previously, but this year, libraries were required to pay half the cost. More collaborative efforts like these will be offered in the future. ISL celebrated the 10th anniversary of ILLINET/OCLC/FirstSearch last week at the state library. This year is also the 10th anniversary of the Small Public Library Management Institute. ISL is hosting 54 public library directors at the University of Illinois in Springfield in June. This is the advanced class, so the attendees have already attended the basic class. The week after that, Bradley University in Peoria will host ISL’s 9th School and Public Library Institute.
Neil Kelley read a letter from Jean Wilkins regarding Gov. Blagojevich’s budget proposal. Based upon the budget document, special funds will be reduced by 5%. This will have a negative impact on the state library grant programs that are paid for by special funds. Of concern to us specifically are the Live & Learn and the Educate & Automate Fund programs. Should this action be approved, $945,000 of Live & Learn and $130,000 of Educate & Automate funding will be reduced from the various grant programs. The programs affected include system area per capita, public and school library per capita, blind and physically handicapped, technology, literacy, and the library construction grants. ISL will have some discretion on how a reduction is applied to each grant to achieve the overall total required. As further information is obtained, it will be shared with everyone.
The good news is ISL has developed five LSTA grant program offerings for this year. As soon as final approval is granted, they will be put on the website. These should be available on Friday, May 2. An announcement will be sent by email through ISL Announce.
Neil has been at North Suburban and DuPage Library Systems doing site visits to libraries and reviewing their grants.
The gray handout provides information on the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) reauthorization bill. Exec. Dir. Byrnes checked the status of the bills being monitored. Two of the bills the state library is interested in, SB229: Illinois State Library Fund and SB383: Illinois State Library Foundation, are both in their second reading.
Correspondence – Available upon request
NEW BUSINESS
DLS Vans
Claudia Sheets reported that both the 1998 and 1999 delivery vans are approaching 100,000 miles. She provided information on trade in values and the lowest bid. Money has been budgeted for new vans, so the Board was requested to approve the purchase of two new delivery vans.
Treas. Treest moved, and Dir. Fulton seconded, that:
| DLS PURCHASE TWO NEW DELIVERY VANS. | Approved the purchase of two delivery vans. |
Motion carried unanimously.
Pres. Kepka suggested that since we maintain three vans, they should be rotated regularly so that, in the future, only one van is replaced at a time.
There was discussion of the need to have a more visible DLS sign outside the building. Claudia is checking with the city of Geneva about limitations on size, lettering, lighting, placement, etc. for exterior signs.
Karen Odean reported on the Voices of Vision (VOV) budget amendment and FY2004 budget she is preparing. The Illinois State Library is closing one Talking Book Center, and centralizing the distribution of machines and servicing institutions. The closing of the center will give an additional 400 patrons to VOV along with the potential for further growth. Centralizing the distribution of machines and service to institutions will free up those employees to do other things, and some staff reorganization will be necessary. In the long range planning meeting April 10-11, procedures and schedules were discussed, as well as other things that need to be addressed. To offset these changes, Karen received a communication from Sharon Ruda, the Regional Librarian, stating that for the first time in many years, you can prepare a budget that includes an increase based on the new model of service, which involves a larger territory. There is also the need to replace essential equipment. However, they have to be prepared to receive the amount they had previously.
ADJOURNMENT
Pres. Kepka adjourned the meeting at 8:17 p.m. and invited anyone who wished to tour the library.
Respectfully submitted.
___________________________________
Joyce Whitehead, Secretary
X Minutes approved as read
Minutes approved as amended
___________________________________
Robert J. Kepka, President