Board of Somerset County Library Trustees
Regular Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, April 13th, 2022 at 4:00pm Crisfield Library
Present: Ann Smith, President; Beth Holmes-Mayson, Vice President; Tim Spillane, Treasurer; Board Members: Lynn Lang, Lois Outten, Karen Riggin, Jennifer Timmons; Janet Smith, Associate Board Member; Ed Goyda, Library Director; Jaime Bradshaw, Assistant Director; Troy Gale, Princess Anne Branch Manager; Nora Hoffman, Administrative Assistant; Karen Earp, Children's Services
Coordinator.
Call Meeting to Order
President Ann Smith called the meeting to order at 4:01 p.m.
Consent Agenda
Approve minutes from the regular meeting of February 9, 2022 Approve financial reports for the period from July 1, 2021 to February 28, 2022 Approve financial reports for the period from July 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022
President Smith asked for a motion to approve the consent agenda. The motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Lois Outten, and unanimously approved.
Branch Highlights
Crisfield: Jaime Bradshaw, Branch Manager
Ms. Bradshaw reported that March, in particular, was a busy month concerning general traffic and program attendance at the Crisfield Library. She stated that there had been an increase in programming across all age groups. The staff at the Crisfield Library had been weeding collections and had also made a few changes in layout. The "Teen Space" was now in the back of the library, creating a better defined space for the teens, while still allowing staff to have sight lines and camera views. Ms. Bradshaw announced that the library had become more active on many media platforms, and that there had been continual growth on many of the sites. A few analytics include the large following on Facebook of 1,355, Instagram: 115, Pinterest: 681and Twitter: 43.
In March, Teen Services Coordinator Ashley Gilson and Ms. Bradshaw participated in the 2022 Southeast Collaborative Online Conference. Library Assistant Caprice Harris and Ms. Bradshaw also participated in a Women's Leadership Forum which included various workshops, resources, and connections concerning women in leadership and finances.
Ms. Bradshaw stated that the library would be having a table (weather permitting) promoting the library's general services along with our Wellness Made Easy collection at the Spring Walk Event hosted by the Somerset County Health Department. She also reported that staff was looking forward to the MLA Conference in May as it would be the first in-person training in quite some time. She added that the Crisfield Library would be the venue for this year's Crisfield High School Prom Event!
Princess Anne: Troy Gale, Branch Manager
Mr. Gale reported that during the month of February, the Princess Anne branch had a small decline in library activity, but activity increased in March. In March, the library's meeting room was cleaned out in order to safely increase patron attendance. He also mentioned that adult program attendance was still averaging ten patrons per program. In March, the Princess Anne Library attended a One-Stop Shop Event providing library promotional materials. He noted that the library has a plethora of the at-home test kits available as there had been a rapid decline in demand.
Mr. Gale announced that the library would house GED classes this spring. The Princess Anne Library, and they would also host a table at Street Fest on May 7th.
Children's Services
Karen Earp, Children's Services Coordinator
Ms. Earp reported that STEM for homeschoolers on Tuesdays in Princess Anne and on Thursdays in Crisfield have had core groups. There would be no homeschool programs during the summer, however, STEM would be offered weekly at both branches. She was also considering adding sign-ups next fall to ensure that she would have enough materials to accommodate larger groups.
Ms. Earp had been offering weekly after school programs in Princess Anne, with zero in attendance, and in Crisfield, with typically five or more children. She discussed that she would be moving the Princess Anne program to Mondays in the fall. On Saturdays, there had been a passive craft once a month that, so far, had not been popular. Ms. Earp stated she relates the unpopularity to the fact that the library still offers monthly craft kits.
Ms. Earp had been doing a series of programs for a Princess Anne Girl Scout troop, designed to meet the requirements for their STEM badges. She reported that they had completed Cybersecurity Awareness and started Coding for Good, which should be completed by the end of the school year. She had also been going to Greenwood, Woodson, and Deal Island elementary schools once a month to do an after-school STEM program. These visits would continue until the end of the school year.
Summer Reading planning and preparation was fully underway. This year's theme was Oceans of Possibilities, and the kick-off event was scheduled June 21 st
, with the finale August 9th.
Library Director7apos;s Report
Mr. Goyda presented his Director's Report for February and March 2022.
Core Services
Collection Maintenance: Mr. Goyda discussed that routine removal of books that hadn't been used in three years was underway, to be followed by some shifting of collections. Princess Anne Adult Fiction in particular was overflowing, and there was room to move Large Print over to accommodate.
Digital Maryland: Mr. Goyda reported that the online collection was now over 700 items. The first half of the collection was almost finished, and the rest would be scanned shortly. Digitization of the Scorchy's Corner DVDs had also begun as there are patron reports of issues with the DVDs and no new copies available.
Living and Dying with COVID-19: The Maryland Stories: Mr. Goyda reported that the library still had zero entries, which is about par for the State. He would begin targeting recruitment later this month.
Community Partnership
COVID Rapid Tests: Mr. Goyda stated that the library had continued to serve as a distribution site for rapid tests, although public interest had dropped massively.
Historic/Iconic Buildings Exhibition: Mr. Goyda mentioned that the library would be partnering with the Arts Council to host an exhibit in the Princess Anne meeting room May 7 to June 1.
Internal Development
ARPA Grants - Wi-Fi expansion: Mr. Goyda stated that the equipment had been installed in Princess Anne. The Crisfield installation, due to weather, was delayed until April 26. Ewell's installation would take place later this spring.
Email: ESRL had been having on-going issues with the email server rejecting emails from less common domains. Library emails were also being sent to the Junk folder by Yahoo. Mr. Goyda stated that ESRL was working on it, but it was going to be a long-term process.
Legislative Day: The directors held virtual meetings with Delegate Otto and Senator Carozza on February 17 and 23, respectively.
Maryland Library Association: Registrations had been submitted for the MLA Conference on May 4 - 6. The Library would be closed May 5, with the majority of staff in attendance in Cambridge and a few doing in-house professional development in Princess Anne.
Princess Anne Facility Studies: Becker Morgan Group had completed the facility studies. Mr. Goyda provided copies of the study to the board members.
Regional Master Facilities Plan: ESRL's contractor, HBM Architects, was continuing work on Master Facilities Plans for the eight Eastern Shore counties and St. Mary's.
Energy Audit: The County was conducting an energy audit of all County-owned facilities with ARPA funds.
Salary Survey: Carroll County had selected Frank & Associates to perform the statewide salary survey.
President Smith asked for a motion to approve the director's report. The motion was made by Karen Riggin, seconded by Tim Spillane, and unanimously approved.
Governance
Auditor Approval for FY22: Mr. Goyda stated that a confirmation to the State Library Agency was needed for our audit firm for FY22. TGM Group had been bought by UHY, who had retained the principals.
President Smith asked for a motion to approve UHY as the auditor for FY22. Beth Holmes-Mayson made the motion, seconded by Lois Outten and the motion was unanimously approved.
Leave Time Rollovers: Mr. Goyda requested that the excess of the regular vacation cap be rolled over again, following the same model that we had used the past two years. He further explained that remaining vacation balances would be transferred into personal time off, which would not be a liability to the library.
President Smith asked for a motion to approve the leave time rollovers. The motion was made by Beth Holmes-Mayson, seconded by Tim Spillane, and unanimously approved.
Princess Anne Flower Power Project: President Smith presented the Princess Anne Flower Project that was being sponsored by Main Street Princess Anne. She explained that a committee was working on a project to hang large, fiber-crafted flower banners throughout town and had requested use of the Library as one of the locations. There was brief discussion about the maintenance and upkeep of the banner, however, President Smith assured everyone that the banner would be taken care of by the committee members.
President Smith made the motion to accept that the banner may be displayed on the Princess Anne
Library's exterior. The motion was seconded by Tim Spillane and was unanimously approved.
Advisory - HB008/SB0275 Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program: Mr. Goyda reported that the House and Senate had passed, and overridden the veto of, the Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program, which created a 0.75% payroll tax (0.375% each from employer and employee) to create a fund to insure employees for short-term medical and family (chiefly, childbirth) leave. Once in effect, this would likely remove the need for our paid parental leave policy since the State would be providing the benefit. It would also likely impact sick time accumulation, which was ultimately, via the retirement system, a liability of the State.
Advisory - HB685/SB448 Libraries - Funding: The five-year funding bills for the libraries and the regional resource centers had passed both the House and Senate, near unanimously. However, while the Senate Bill passed with the requested 4% annual increases, the House cut it to 20 cents per capita (roughly 1%) and added 7 mandated services. Following reconciliation, the increase was adjusted to 40 cents per capita. Given that the legislature had also given itself the ability to add to the governor's recommended budget, there would likely be on-going lobbying.
Advisory - HB1225 Harford County Public Library Collective Bargaining: Mr. Goyda explained that a bill to allow for collective bargaining at the Harford County Library was amended to apply to all libraries and then died in committee. He stated that particular bill was rather hostile to management. The legislature had slated it for summer study, there was a better version that was passed for Howard County, and the Attorney General had already issued an opinion that there was no current restriction on collective bargaining and hence no need for the bills.
Resignation of Oliver Okinyih, Library Assistant : Mr. Goyda stated that Oliver Okinyih resigned from the Library Assistant position in Princess Anne. He discussed that this was anticipated when Trina Hayward was hired and that there was sufficient coverage to fill the hours without a new hire.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the resignation of Oliver Okinyih. The motion was made by Karen Riggin, seconded by Lois Outten, and unanimously approved.
Adjournment
President Smith made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 4:41 p.m. The motion was seconded by Karen Riggin and was unanimously approved.
Respectfully Submitted, Jaime K. Bradshaw Assistant Director