2004 Minutes

August 24, 2004 Minutes

 
Board of Trustees
Fargo Public Library
Minutes of August 24, 2004

Present: Betty Kerns, Helen Levitt, Prakash Mathew, Jean Rayl, and Herb Snyder
City Commissioner: Linda Coates, Mike Williams
Friends of the Fargo Public Library Liaison: Robert Mason
Director: Charles Pace
Staff Representative: Nancy Giere

Order of Agenda
Jean Rayl moved to approve the order of the agenda. Prakash Mathew seconded the motion; the motion carried.

Minutes

New Business

A. Discuss and decide date for board development workshop
Charles Pace will follow through with dates in January for a Friday afternoon and Saturday morning session.

Continuing Business

A. 2005 Budget update
The operating budget presented was realistic. Last year the staffing request had made a short list and was expected to be included this year. It was disappointing the additional staffing requests were not in the preliminary budget, although no other major changes were made. No funding was included in the preliminary budget for the Sullivan School conversion project.

Mike Williams presented an option to the board of using a small window of opportunity to include a short lived half cent sales tax to fund a building program. An eighteen month half cent sales tax would raise approximately $12 million. Fayetteville, Arkansas which is approximately the same size as Fargo passed such a tax recently with far over 60% of the vote.

Jean Rayl moved to include on the City Commission agenda dated Monday, August 30, 2004, to approve a half cent sales tax for eighteen months starting January 1, 2005 and ending June 30, 2006 for funding south side expansion and a main library building fund. Helen Levitt seconded the motion; the motion carried.

Staff Report
Nancy Giere reported we had approximately 1,600 people participate in the summer reading program. 110 completed book logs and over 600 paperback books were given away.

Two employees left the library. Bonnie Kern retired from the bookmobile. Her position will now handle the shuttle between sites. Cassie Wangen left the Childrens Room for a job in her career field.

The bookmobile is spending all day Monday at Northport. This schedule will continue all winter. The bookmobile is spending longer time at fewer stops to increase the life of the bookmobile.

Beth Postema reported on the Staff Development team plans to go to Corporate Adventure at Kathryn, ND this Friday. We will be working with a skeleton crew so most employees can attend the day of teambuilding and re-energizing.

In September, the Staff Development team has scheduled CPR and Defibrillator training.

Melisa Duncan reported on the Library Card Campaign which will kick off September 14, targeting area 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. H2M has put together a multimedia event starting with a press conference with the mayor at 1:00 p.m. September 14. All of Fargo schools with children in the targeted grades have partnered with us to present library card registrations to the children. When they have been completed, they can get a goody bag from the library and a newly designed library card. Cable One will continue with 30 second advertising promotions through the end of the year.

Directors Report
Work is continuing on the implantation of the ALEPH system. Everything appears to be on track for an October/November switch to the new system.

The summer reading program ended another successful year with over 1,600 children registered. Over 250 people, mostly teenagers, attended the Battle of the Bands on August 11.

Steve Hubbard attended a program on preservation and conservation of rare books. Jake Fejedelem has been working to redesign and update our web page. The library received approval to begin planning the implementation of a wireless network after the first of the year. It should be up and running early 2005.

More than 12,000 people used Southpointe during July. Almost 400 people attended the summer reading program wrap up program in which Elmo of Sesame Street Live made an appearance.

Statistical Reports
We added 874 new registered borrowers for the month of July, increasing our total to 51,280. Door counts increased 35% compared to the same time a year ago. More than 50,000 people used our facilities during the month of July. Program attendance for July was more than 3,000. Circulation increase 10% for the month and 12% year to date compared to last year. More than 531,000 items have circulated this year.

Friends of the Fargo Public Library Report
The Friends of the Fargo Public Library have a balance of $10,568 and 201 household members. Book Talk begins the second Thursday of the month at 10:00 a.m. 373 book bags have been ordered and over 300 have been sold. They are proving to be popular. There was a profit of $964 from the July book sale. The Friends will be changing printers for the newsletter and changing banks to State Bank and Trust.

One funding request for $600 came from a group interested in setting up a literacy corner in another organization. The by-laws of the Friends of the Fargo Public Library do not allow funding of outside organizations.

As a 501(c)3 corporation, the Friends of the Fargo Public Library can not lobby, but can educate and inform the public what the library has to offer.

Jean Rayl moved that the President of the Board appoints someone to chair a campaign committee to support the half cent sales tax measure. Helen Levitt seconded the motion; the motion carried.

Public Comment
There is no public comment at this time.

Next Board Meeting
The next board meeting will be held September 2, 2004 , at 7:30 a.m.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Monique Andresen