Library Board Approved Minutes - September 2, 2021

DeForest Area Public Library Regular Library Board Minutes
Thursday, September 2, 2021 at 6:00 p.m.

  1. Call to Order and Roll Call
    • The meeting was called to order at 6:02 p.m.by President Van Iten
    • Present: Englesby, Gorres, Landgraf, Lawrence, Van Iten, and Zeimet
    • Absent: Runez
    • Also present: Library Director Berg
  2. Approval of Agenda
    • Motion to approve as presented: Zeimet
    • Second: Landgraf
    • Discussion: None.
    • Action: All approved.
  3. Approval of Minutes of August 5th meeting
    • Motion to approve the minutes: Englesby
    • Second: Gorres
    • Discussion: None
    • Action: All approved with Zeimet abstaining.
  4. Public Presentations / Communications
    • Assistant Director Tollefson sent information about discounts offered by local business during National Library Card Sign-up month. If you show your card at a participating business you will get a discount.
  5. Approval of Bills – Berg had emailed out the bill run prior to the meeting
    • Motion to Approve the Bills: Landgraf
    • Second: Zeimet
    • Discussion: Berg noted this is a rather small bill run compared to last month. Most of the utility bills made it into this month’s bill run so there shouldn’t be a lot of stragglers next month. Most of this month’s bill run is for books.
    • Action: All Approved
  6. Reports
    1. Director's - Library staff has started the daunting task of cleaning and organizing the storage area. It will be a long-term task. There is a whole lot of stuff in storage much of which needs to be used, given away, or thrown out. Pelliteri will be coming for a big data shred on the 16th. Years of library bills, payroll, and other financial records will be going away. The records retention schedule of the library and State of Wisconsin will be used to determine what can be gotten rid of. Plans are underway for a Fall / Harvest Festival. The library did one last year which was well-received. The same formula will be used this year and expanded upon.
    2. President's - None.
    3. Village Update - Landgraf noted that there were many street projects underway. The work on North Street was ramping up and on Jefferson Street to North Towne Drive. Mohawk, Highway V/ CV won’t be addressed until 2023. Steve Fahlgren will be finished after January 31, 2022. The village board is looking at hiring two positions. A CFO and a CEO. The process has started with the hiring of a firm to help with the search.
  7. Old Business
    1. Continued discussion about the strategic planning process and survey.
      • The survey closed on September 1st. There were 120 responses. A couple of staff members and Berg are going to take a deep dive into the data and see if we can make the data more meaningful by seeing what responses came from particular age groups. After aggregating the data they will see if there are any clear themes about the future direction for the library. They hope to have that information for the library board meeting in October.
    2. 2022 Budget
      • Based on email exchanges with Village Administrator, Steve Fahlgren, Berg has been working on a budget with an overall 2.5% increase. Taking the 2021 bottom line of the library budget and added 2.5 % that is the number Berg is attempting to tie down to. Not knowing insurance numbers for health, dental, Life, Long-term disability, as well as general liability and property insurance makes it difficult to show a budget right now with. Berg has been told insurance numbers should be available at the end of next week, after which Berg should be able to show the board a more plausible budget. Berg asked if the board was comfortable with using a 2.5% increase to formulate the budget. Once that budget is created she will share it with Fahlgren and bring it to the library board for approval in October.
  8. New Business
    1. Discussion and Possible Approval of the Dane County Library Service Agreement for the Extension of Library Services with the DeForest Area Public Library.
      • Berg noted that this contract is entered into every year with Dane County. This year’s payment is the same as the previous year’s since so many libraries weren’t open during much of 2020 and even when they were open, circulation was low compared to pre-pandemic levels.
      • Motion to approve: Englesby
      • Second: Zeimet
      • Action: All approved.
  9. Future Agenda Items
    1. Develop and approve Long Range Plan
    2. 2022 Budget
  10. Adjournment
    • Motion to Adjourn: Landgraf
    • Second: Gorres
    • Action: All approved.

Meeting was adjourned at 6:25 p.m. Next meeting October 7th, 2021.

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