Library Board Approved Minutes - January 7, 2021

DeForest Area Public Library Regular Library Board Minutes
Thursday, January 7, 2021 at 4:00 p.m.

1. Call to Order and Roll Call
   • The meeting was called to order at 4 p.m. by President Van Iten.
   • Present: Englesby, Gorres, Lawrence, Lowery, Van Iten, and Zeimet
   • Absent: Runez was unable to attend.
   • Also present: Library Director Berg
2. Approval of Agenda
   • Motion to approve as presented: Lawrence
   • Second: Englesby
   • Action: All approved
3. Approval of Minutes of December 3rd, meeting.
   • Motion to approve minutes: Zeimet
   • Second: Lowery
   • Discussion: None
   • Action: All approved
4. Public Presentations / Communications
   • Berg updated the board on what she had learned about the Deerfield patron who had sent a communication to the board previously.
5. Approval of Bills – Berg had emailed out the bill run prior to the meeting
   • Motion to Approve the Bills: Gorres
   • Second: Englesby
   • Discussion: Berg noted that a lot of book orders are starting to come in again this month. This month’s bill run includes the annual buying of 6 computers to keep the replacement cycle going. It also includes purchasing of chairs that keeps that replacement cycle going. The new snow shovels replace some really awful, old, shovels. Even with the village providing snow clearing there are times when staff has to clear paths. She responded to a question about Adams Publishing that we were paying for ads in the DeForest Times Tribune for the holidays and that their billing tended to lag.
   • Action: All Approved
6. Reports
   1. Director's - Berg reported that staff made it through all the December programming and then took a break over the holidays. The library continued being open its regular hours and very occasionally it is actually busy with people, although the library has yet to hit the 30 person capacity limit. It looks like circulation for the month of December is less than 2% below December, 2019 numbers. Berg said appears, because the daily running total came up with over 16,000. South Central published their December numbers and were in the 14,000 range. Then an email came out saying “Oops!” so we’ll see what number we finally land on.
      
      Berg received notice that her certification was due to expire at the end of January. DPI could have given more of a heads up. Fortunately, Berg had 4 years of CEUs all ready to go but the SCLS validator forgot to sign one of the years. This certification will be good for 5 years which, Berg said, might be a good time to not recertify. The new janitors are doing a great job and five days a week so things feel a lot cleaner. The self-check unit purchased with some CARES money should be installed next week. In order to get data to it, Berg had to figure out the patch panels in the basement. Jess and she spent an afternoon mapping all the data jacks in the library. If that documents exists somewhere, it couldn’t be found.
   2. President's - None.
   3. Village Update - Lowery noted that Judd Blau had stepped down as president and that Jane Cahill Wolfgram would be acting president until the spring election. Blau is now the Public Services Director for the village. A housing study is being done in the village checking the housing stock. Meetings were going to continue using Zoom until April. Sunnybrook playground is getting accessible playground equipment.
7. Old Business
   1. Discussion and possible approval of the 2021 budget.
      • The village budget was finalized with the library’s final line a few dollars less than the submitted draft. $996,210.88 compared to $996,199.00 in the village budget. Berg took a few dollars away from a couple of line items to align the library number with the villages.
      •  
      • Motion to approve the 2021 Budget: Englesby
      •  
      • Second: Zeimet
      •  
      • Discussion: It was noted that this was a “happy budget”.
      •  
      • Action: All approved
      •  
8. New Business
   1. Discussion and possible approval of adding an additional holiday to align with Village of DeForest employee handbook.
      • Berg noted that the Village of DeForest now has Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a paid holiday. Berg supports granting the employees the additional holiday time. She has mixed feelings about closing the library on that day since Dr. King was all about education and giving people access. The day was originally about community service and the library best serves the community by being open. In the past we have had book displays and small programs and run appropriate movies. Some of which will still be possible. The board approved the holiday as an additional personal holiday but thought the library should be open.
      • Motion to approve the additional holiday: Englesby
      • Second: Gorres.
      • Discussion: After discussion the board approved the holiday as an additional personal holiday with the library being open for education and community service opportunities.
      • Action: All approved
9. Future Agenda Items
   1. Authorize President to Sign Annual Report if timing requires it.
   2. Annual Report
10. Adjournment
    • Motion to Adjourn: Zeimet
    • Second: Lowery
    • Action: All approved.

Meeting was adjourned at 4:35 p.m. Next meeting February 4th, 2021.

Back to Library Board