THE DUPAGE LIBRARY SYSTEM
MEETING OF THE BOARD
November 20, 2003

 

 

  1. ROLL CALL OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS/RECOGNITION OF GUESTS

    The regular meeting of the DLS Board held at the DuPage Library System Center, 127 South First Street, Geneva, Illinois was called to order at 7 p.m. Pres. Plourde asked the Secretary to call the roll with the following board members present to establish a quorum: Stephen Fulton, Richard Gill, Karen Hannah, Robert Kepka, Hallé Mikyska, Pattie Piotrowski, Jackie Plourde, Carolyn Roys, Marguerite L. Treest, and Joyce Whitehead. Board member Robert Wagner was an excused absence.

    DLS staff members attending were: Shirley May Byrnes, Claudia Sheets, Pamela Kramer, Jane Plass, Denise Zielinski, and Phylis Wagner. Also attending was Neil Kelley, DLS Illinois State Library Consultant.

  2. PUBLIC COMMENT

    1. Family Reading Night

      Pamela Kramer read the book Grown-ups get to do all the Driving by William Steig in celebration of Family Reading Night.

  3. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA

    V. P. Kepka moved and Dir. Gill seconded, that:

    THE AGENDA BE ADOPTED.  Agenda adopted.

    Motion carried unanimously.

  4. APPROVAL OF THE MEETING MINUTES

    1. October 20, 2003 Annual Meeting

      2. The DLS Annual Meeting Minutes will be voted on at the next annual meeting.

    2. October 20, 2003 Board Meeting

      Treas. Treest moved and Dir. Hannah seconded, that:

      THE OCTOBER 20, 2003 BOARD MEETING
      MINUTES BE APPROVED.

      		   Agenda adopted.

      Motion carried unanimously.

  5. FINANCIAL REPORT

    1. November 2003 Bills

      Treas. Treest presented the financial report. Treas. Treest moved that:

      THE NOVEMBER BILLS IN THE AMOUNT OF $147,079.41 BE PAID.

      		 November bills approved.

      Motion carried unanimously.

    2. December 2003 Bills

      Because there will not be a meeting in December, Treas. Treest moved and V.P. Kepka seconded that:

      THE DECEMBER BILLS BE PAID SUBJECT TO
      CONFIRMATION AT THE JANUARY MEETING.

      		 December bills to be paid.

      Motion carried unanimously.

  6. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT

    Holiday party: The DLS Annual Holiday Party is being held on Friday, December 19, from 12-3 p.m. Please fill out the bottom part of your invitation or let Phylis know by email if you plan to attend.

    Orientation for new board members: The orientation for the new DLS Board members is set for Monday, December 8 from 1-4:30 p.m. and includes a tour of the building. All Board members are welcome to attend.

    Advocacy flyer: In the handouts is a graphic that Denise Zielinski developed. It illustrates the statement that, when talking to legislators, ten trustees are worth one librarian, and ten friends, i.e., people other than library staff or trustees, are worth ten trustees. It shows the need to get patrons to talk to their legislators.

    FY04 Library Grant Appropriations: The handout headed FY04 Library Grant Appropriations to the Secretary of State was handed out at the October 30 meeting of the System Presidents and Directors. It shows where the budget is now and what grant funds should be available.

    OCLC funds: Jean Wilkins reported at the November 7 ILSDO meeting that an 8% fee was assessed against an OCLC trust account that ISL manages. The money in the account, however, is not state funds. It is payments by Illinois libraries that use OCLC, i.e., local funds. ISL has met with an attorney in the Secretary of State’s Office and is working to get the $166,000 back.

    DLS budget news: DLS has not received any more system funds. However, the Voices of Vision (VOV) grant has been received in full. It is a slightly larger amount than what was received in the past few years. The money that was used to operate the talking book center (TBC) at River Bend was reallocated to the other TBCs since the River Bend center has been closed.

    The ABCs and 123s of Legislative Advocacy: As part of our ongoing advocacy training, we are holding our second basic advocacy program on Friday, December 5. Lynn Stainbrook, Director, Warren Newport Library in Gurnee, is returning to share her expertise in developing legislative relationships. Attorney Kip Kolkmeier, lobbyist for the Illinois Library Association, will share tips and insights into lobbying. If you were unable to attend this program last year, you are urged to consider it this year. Please register through our website.

    Library Community Foundation: The Board previously approved investment of our scholarship fund in the Library Community Foundation. The annual administrative fee is 1.5% of the funds in our account. Last week, we received notification that the Foundation is instituting a partnership fee of $600 per year beginning January 1, 2004. The scholarship was only $250. As a result of this new fee, we will be looking at other options. This will be a January agenda item.

    Library closing: Earlier this month, Denise received the news that Van Kampen Funds closed its library on Friday, November 20. Action on this matter will take place at the January Board meeting.

    Office reallocation: Now that the inside of our facility is being repaired and painted, the space on the main floor is being reallocated. The larger office on the second floor will be converted into another small meeting room.

    Jaime Ramirez: Jaime Ramirez has been an employee of VOV and DLS for 2 ½ years. He is also a member of the United States Army Reserves. His unit has been activated and is heading to Baghdad in early January. The activation is for 18-24 months. We will be looking for a part time temporary van driver who can also help with other duties around the building. For now, VOV is going to try to use existing staff to cover his duties there.

    Other staff news: Jane Plass and Eric Bain installed a software upgrade for the MAGIC libraries after they closed on November 19.

  7. COMMUNICATION

    1. Report of the President

      Pres. Plourde reported on the System Presidents & Directors meeting she attended with Exec. Dir. Byrnes at the Illinois State Library in Springfield on October 30. She gave a brief report. Pres. Plourde is working on the committee list, and it will be available before the January meeting.

    2. Report from the Illinois State Library (ISL) - Neil Kelley

      Neil Kelley informed the Board members that he has added them to ISL Announce. If you do not wish to receive the announcements, please let him know.

      Many libraries do not have trained staff to do cataloging. ISL has funded three cataloging maintenance centers (CMCs) to cleanup records in the OCLC batchloading process. The CMCs are contemplating the possibility of offering original cataloging for libraries around the state for a cost-recovery fee. To find out how much interest there is and to maximize the benefits, a survey is being conducted.

      ISLMA has a new award called the Monarch Award, named after the Monarch butterfly, which is the state insect. It is the Children’s Choice Award for grades K-3.

      ISL will continue to monitor the financial situation. The projections already show that there will be a $2 billion revenue shortfall for FY2005.

    3. Legislative Report

      Illinois is in jeopardy of losing some of its federal LSTA funds because of the reductions in state funding. Other states have already faced this situation.

    4. Correspondence

      In the correspondence file, there are letters from Representative Bellock and her aide, Mary O’Connor, who attended the legislative breakfast on November 3. In the article file, there are several articles about our legislative breakfast. They are due to calls made primarily by Lynn Elam, director of the Messenger Public Library, and Laurie Kagann, librarian at Sun Publications.

  8. REPORT OF STANDING COMMITTEES

    1. Executive Committee

      The minutes from the Executive Committee held on Tuesday, November 18, were distributed to the board members. The evaluation of the Executive Director will be discussed later during closed session.

  9. UNFINISHED BUSINESS - None

  10. NEW BUSINESS

    1. Section 125

      DLS is thinking of offering a Section 125 to its employees. Section 125 allows the employee to participate in a flexible spending account (FSA) for health care and dependent care. The money is deducted from pay checks on a pre-tax basis. The additional savings for DLS would be that we would pay less into FICA. Claudia Sheets distributed a packet of draft documents to implement the plan. She gave a summary of the plan with proposed options and answered questions.

      There would be three types of accounts:

      Ø Premium only, for the employee portion of the medical, dental and supplemental life insurance premium.

      Ø FSA - Health Care - Expenses that are not covered by the medical and dental health plans, but which the IRS has historically considered deductible for income tax purposes

      Ø FSA - Dependent Care

      The enrollment period would be from December 1-December 30. Claudia would act as administrator of this plan and is requesting the Board’s approval to go forward and offer this benefit.

      V.P. Kepka moved, and Dir. Roys seconded, that:

      DLS OFFER SECTION 125 AS A BENEFIT TO DLS EMPLOYEES. Section 125 approved.

      Motion carried with Dir. Fulton as a nay vote.

    2. Income and Benefits for Activated U.S. Army Reservist

      Jamie Ramirez, a DLS & VOV employee and an U.S. Army Reservist, has been called to active duty for the next 18 to 24 months. At the end of his duty, a comparable position at DLS will be available to him if one exists, and he will retain his seniority and related benefits. His activation letter points out that there are employers that continue benefits to an employee that has been called to active duty. They may also pay the difference between the military salary and the civilian salary.

      Dir. Roys moved, and Treas. Treest seconded, that:

      DLS PAY THE DIFFERENCE IN SALARY UPON RECEIPT OF A COPY OF HIS PAY STUB AND IF THERE IS A DIFFERENCE, AND CONTINUE TO PROVIDE OTHER BENEFITS.

      		 Benefits approved for reservist.

      Motion carried unanimously.

      At 8:18 p.m., in accordance with 5ILS 120/2(c)(1) and 5ILS 120/2.06(3)(c), V.P. Kepka moved and Dir. Gill seconded that:

      THE MEETING GO INTO CLOSED SESSION TO
      REVIEW THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REGARDING THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S EVALUATION AND TO REVIEW CLOSED SESSION MINUTES.

      		 Closed session approved.

      Motion carried unanimously.

  11. CLOSED SESSION

    1. Review of Closed Session Minutes

      The directors reviewed the minutes of previous closed sessions. The following were opened: 5/15/1997, 9/25/2000, 10/4/2000, 10/12/2000, 5/15/2003, and 10/20/2003

      At 8:52 p.m., Treas. Treest moved and Dir. Hannah seconded, that:

      THE MEETING MOVE BACK INTO OPEN SESSION. Meeting reconvened.

      Motion carried unanimously.

    2. Evaluation of Executive Director

      V.P. Kepka moved and Dir. Hannah seconded that:

      THE DLS BOARD APPROVED THE EXECUTIVE
      DIRECTOR’S EVALUATION AND THE RECOMMENDED COMPENSATION FOR THE YEAR 2004.

      		 Board approved evaluation.

      Motion carried unanimously.

      President Plourde announced that the DuPage Library System Executive Director’s Goals for 2004 will be an agenda item for the January 15, 2004 Board meeting.

  12. ADJOURNMENT

    At 9:00 p.m., Dir. Hannah moved and Dir. Roys seconded that:

    THE MEETING BE ADJOURNED.  Meeting adjourned.

    Motion carried unanimously.

 

Respectfully submitted.

 

_______________________________ 

Joyce Whitehead, Secretary

 

 

  X  Minutes approved as read

     Minutes approved as amended

 

 

 

_______________________________

Jackie Plourde, President