THE DUPAGE LIBRARY SYSTEM
MEETING OF THE BOARD
OCTOBER 20, 2003
The regular meeting of the DLS board held at the System Center, 127 South First Street, Geneva, Illinois was called to order at 7:40 p.m. Pres. Kepka asked Sec. Whitehead to call the roll with the following board members present to establish a quorum: Steve Fulton, Richard Gill, Karen Hannah, Robert Kepka, Hallé Mikyska, Pattie Piotrowski, Jackie Plourde, Carolyn Roys, Marguerite L. Treest, Robert Wagner, and Joyce Whitehead.
DLS staff members attending were Shirley May Byrnes, Pam Kramer, Jane Plass, Karen Odean, Claudia Sheets, Denise Zielinski, and Phylis Wagner.
Guests present: Laurie Kagann, Sun Publications; Jeanne Hintz, Geneva Public Library District; and Sandy Whitmer, Bartlett Public Library District.
ELECTION OF BOARD OFFICERS FY03/04
Pres. Kepka has served as President of the Board for three years. According to the Board’s bylaws, it makes him ineligible to serve as president this year. On behalf of the DLS Board and staff, Exec. Dir. Byrnes presented him with a certificate for his past three years of service as president.
Pres. Kepka asked for nominations for President.
Treas. Treest nominated and Sec. Whitehead seconded:
| JACKIE PLOURDE FOR PRESIDENT | J. Plourde elected President |
The vote was unanimous.
V.P. Plourde nominated and Treas. Treest seconded:
| ROBERT KEPKA FOR VICE PRESIDENT | R. Kepka elected Vice President |
The vote was unanimous.
Pres. Kepka nominated, and V.P. Plourde seconded:
| MARGUERITE TREEST FOR TREASURER | M. Treest elected Treasurer |
The vote was unanimous.
Dir. Hannah nominated, and Treas. Treest seconded:
| JOYCE WHITEHEAD FOR SECRETARY | J. Whitehead elected Secretary |
The vote was unanimous.
Pres. Plourde asked who would like to serve as the at-large member on the Executive Committee, and Directors Mikyska and Fulton volunteered. Pres. Plourde stated that she would decide later.
PUBLIC COMMENT
None
ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA
V.P. Kepka moved, and Dir. Hannah seconded, that:
| THE AGENDA BE ADOPTED. | Agenda adopted. |
Motion carried unanimously.
APPROVAL OF SEPTEMBER 18, 2003 MEETING MINUTES
Dir. Fulton motioned, and V.P. Kepka seconded, that:
|
THE SEPTEMBER BOARD MEETING MINUTES BE APPROVED. |
Minutes approved. |
Motion carried unanimously.
FINANCIAL REPORT FOR OCTOBER 2003
Treas. Treest presented the financial report. Treas. Treest moved and V.P. Kepka seconded that:
|
THE PAYMENT OF THE OCTOBER BILLS IN THE AMOUNT OF $136,930.94 BE APPROVED FOR PAYMENT. |
October bills approved for payment. |
Motion carried.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
DLS Board email list: All board members were requested to fill out and sign the Board email form they received. This signed form gives DLS permission to add their name to the closed email list for DLS Board members only. The new Board members also received a list of the other DLS email lists. To subscribe to any of these lists, go to the DLS website and fill out the form.
OCLC Study: All members received a copy of the results of a study that OCLC did on libraries. Jan Ison, the system director at Lincoln Trail, provided a copy of it for the October 4 System Director & President’s Roundtable meeting. It is a nationwide study and has a lot of interesting statistics in it. It also discusses the impact on the economy that libraries have. One of the things Kepka found interesting was that there are more libraries than there are professional librarians. This means that there are many libraries in this country operating without a professional on staff.
ISL Report: Neil Kelley was unable to come tonight, and he did not send a report.
Approved Minutes: As part of our cost saving efforts, we are no longer sending a print copy of approved minutes to our members. Instead, they are notified by email when they are available on the DLS website. To further save paper, we did not print them for Board members and include them in the last mailing. If you prefer that we send you a print copy, please let Phylis know.
DLS Committees: The Board President will appoint members for the three committees: Operations, Planning and Executive. The Board members were asked to let the president know on which committee they would like to serve.
Orientation for new members: An orientation for new board members held. A tour of the building can be arranged before the start of the November meeting or as part of the orientation. The orientation takes three hours, and dates suggested were the afternoon of Monday, December 8 or Tuesday, December 9. Please let Shirley May which date is best for you.
Executive Director’s evaluation: A copy of the 2003 goals are in the handouts, and the evaluation needs to be scheduled. In the past, it has been conducted by the Executive Committee on a date prior to the November meeting, and the results presented in a closed session at the November meeting. The 2004 goals will be finalized in January.
DLS budget: The revised budget is due to ISL by October 31. The Board approved the revisions last month. The new board members received the information in their handouts.
Tellabs update: As reported in the October Executive Director’s report, Georgene Jarecki, the Tellabs Corporate librarian, was laid off. Her supervisor, Mary Beth Kasten, Manager Business Skills Training, is anxious to maintain Tellabs membership status and asked what the minimum requirements are. As a result, Mary Beth has arranged to keep the library open 15 hours a week and is sending someone to our next ILL training program.
Membership criteria: At the present time, our membership criteria are the minimum ones that appear in the Illinois Administrative Code. Several other systems have stricter requirements and a developmental category. The staff suggests that we strengthen the DLS criteria and add the developmental category. What has happened at Tellabs, and recently at a public library, points out the need to do this.
Legislative breakfast: DLS is holding a fall legislative breakfast on Monday, November 3 at the new 95th Street Library in Naperville. We have received a very nice response from our legislators, and many of them or their aides plan to attend. It is the morning before the General Assembly starts the veto session, so the timing is great. This event is for all DLS members including staff, trustees, local officials, and Friends of the library. This is a good opportunity for constituents to talk to their legislators and voice their concerns on how the budget cuts are affecting libraries and the legislators’ constituents.
Library System News: Alliance Library System (ALS) has hired a new Executive Director. Valerie Wilford, the current director, is retiring the end of this year. The new director is Kitty Pope from Calgary Public Library, Calgary, Alberta, Canada where she was Assistant Director and Manager of Customer Services. The River Bend, Northern Illinois, and Heritage Trail Library Systems have voted to merge. The director for this new system will be announced October 21.
Email information pass throughs: As a result of keeping our members and the public library trustees informed of legislative issues, we forward many of the legislative alerts that come to us from the American Library Association Washington Office (ALAWON for short). An objection to this practice was received, and Exec. Dir. Byrnes has been in contact with DLS lawyer Roger Ritzman. Mr. Ritzman stated that it is perfectly legal for us to forward information on issues of interest to libraries, and he will send DLS a letter to that effect.
COMMUNICATIONS
Kepka reported on the ILSDO Presidents Roundtable meeting held on
October 4. Everyone there talked about the cuts they made in response to
reduced funds. For the most part, each library system cut things that
had no immediate impact to the services they provided. The cuts taken
were within the system, such as freezing salaries, cutting staff, etc.
It was painful to hear everyone’s comments, but also uplifting to hear
that they continued to realize the first mission of library systems is
to provide services to their customers. The worse cut was probably in
the Alliance system where delivery service was reduced to twice a week.
They are the largest geographic library system in Illinois covering over
14,000 square miles.
None.
This was covered in the Executive Director’s report.
A. Facility Maintenance Update
Claudia Sheets presented an update on the repairs to the building.
NEW BUSINESS - None
At 8:10 p.m., V. P. Kepka moved and Dir. Hannah seconded, that:
| THE MEETING GO INTO CLOSED SESSION AS PER 5ILCS 120/2(c)(1). |
Motion carried unanimously.
The closed session began at 8:13 p.m.
At 8:20 p.m., V.P. Kepka motioned and Dir. Fulton second that,
| THE MEETING RETURN TO OPEN SESSION. |
Pres. Plourde reported that the Board was updated on personnel issues.
Pres. Plourde flipped a coin to determine the at-large member for the Executive Committee. Dir. Fulton won the toss.
ADJOURNMENT
The regular meeting adjourned at 8:26 p.m.
Respectfully submitted.
_______________________________ Joyce Whitehead, Secretary
X Minutes approved as read
Minutes approved as amended
_______________________________
Jackie Plourde, President