Board of Somerset County Library Trustees
Regular Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, August 10, 2022 at 4:00pm Princess Anne Library & Zoom
Present: Ann Smith, President; Beth Holmes-Mayson, Vice President; Tim Spillane, Treasurer; Board Members: Lynn Lang, Lois Outten, Karen Riggin, Jennifer Timmons; Associate Board Member: Janet Smith; Ed Goyda, Library Director; Jaime Bradshaw, Assistant Director; Troy Gale, Princess Anne
Branch Manager; Karen Earp, Children's Services Coordinator; Nora Hoffman, Bookkeeper/Admin.
Assistant
Call Meeting to Order
President Ann Smith called the meeting to order at 4:00pm.
Consent Agenda
Approve minutes from the regular meeting of June 8, 2022 Approve financial reports for the period from July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022 Approve financial reports for the period from July 1, 2021 – July 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
Princess Anne: Troy Gale, Branch Manager
For June and July, visits to the Princess Anne Library had increased, exceeding 3,000 patrons over the last two months. A large part of the increase was due to the Summer Reading Program and produce distribution from the Health Department. This had happened while adult program attendance had slightly decreased to about eight patrons per program. Quilters & Stitchers would continue under Jeanne Lawrence. Block of the Month would be taking a break until 2023 while members mourned the loss of Mrs. Gorely and restructured the program for the future.
Crisfield: Jaime Bradshaw, Assistant Director
This summer's program attendance had been phenomenal. Our overall program numbers for June and
July were as follows: 93 adult attendees in June and 91 in July, 30 teen attendees in June and 35 in July, and 163 family program attendees in June and 298 in July. Staff had been working on various projects such as relabeling the teen materials and material inventory. Teen Services Coordinator Ashley Gilson also created a book suggestion binder for the teen areas.
Its Takes a Village had a program, "Shore Way to College" to provide students entering the 10th, 11th and 12th grade with soft skill trainings for the workforce. They hosted their initial training at the library in June, and we hosted two students for five weeks this summer. They were a great asset and helped with various projects such as cleaning the shelves, relabeling, inventory, and program set up and clean up.
Youth Services Presentation
Children's Services Coordinator: Karen Earp
Summer Reading was almost over, with the final performance - the National Aquarium - on August 9. Ms. Earp worked with our Beanstack rep to create drawings for the grand prizes. The next steps were to send out surveys to participants and staff, then complete the state reports. Statistics would be shared with the Board in the August/September report. The most popular summer performer was Reptile Wonders and the best-attended summer STEM program was Little Bits.
Outreach: We participated in a few community events in June and July: Community Field Day and Street Fest on June 4 (Ms. Earp at Field Day and Youth Services Assistant Dani Craige at Street Fest) and the Juneteenth celebration in Princess Anne on June 18 (Ms. Earp).
Fall Plans included Homeschool STEM, Drama with Ms. Dani, Stories and STEM, and an Afterschool Tech & Craft.
Library Director7apos;s Report
Mr. Goyda presented his Director's Report for June and July.
Core Services
Collection HQ: ESRL had purchased the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion component as a standalone service. The links to review the reports were received August 3. At first glance, we were roughly on par for the Shore (17.3% vs. 17.7%), but we hadn't dived in deeper yet.
Ewell Trip: Staff traveled to the Ewell Library on June 24 to meet with Ewell staff, check up on collection maintenance, and deal with a few technological issues.
One Maryland One Book: The 2022 selection - What's Mine and Yours by Naima Coster - had been received. We would distribute to the book discussion groups first and proceed with public displays starting in mid-August.
Community Outreach
MACo: The directors group would have a booth at the Maryland Association of Counties conference in Ocean City, August 17 - 19.
Internal Development
Accessibility Page: We were in the process of deploying an accessibility page on the website listing resources for people with visual or auditory disabilities and social stories for people with autism.
Accessibility Resources: The Maryland Library for the Blind and Print Disabled had acquired the license to install JAWS screen-reading software on any or all public library computers in the state. We would coordinate with ESRL for installation.
LSTA Grants: We had received $20,000 (of a $22,262 request) for the makerspace upgrades. No funds were received to complete digitization of the Crisfield/County Times and Somerset Herald collections, but that task was less urgent and the potential funder pool wider.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the director's report. The motion was made by Jennifer Timmons, seconded by Tim Spillane, and unanimously approved.
Governance
Advisory - Audit: Work was underway on the audit. Rob Davis was at the library on August 1 and 2 and would return on August 12 to adjust the files as needed. UHY would begin on August 15.
Advisory - David Fisher Trust: We were notified by PNC Bank on August 4 that we were a beneficiary of the David Fisher Trust, which was dissolving after the April 30 passing of the Trust's beneficiary, Kendi Patterson.
Advisory - Jan Gorely Memorial: Jan Gorely's daughters, Erin and Gwen, had posted a GoFundMe to benefit the Library. We had also been receiving donations through the front desk in Princess Anne. They donated a quilt that Jan made - "Stitches on the Oregon Trail" - that we would have displayed in the Princess Anne meeting room.
Advisory - State Library Code: The State Library Agency's review committee would be working piecemeal to revise the State Code. The first two sections at hand were the Regulation for Building Life Long Learners Act - the fine-free bill - and the section regarding "Circulation Records," which was broader than the name suggests, but only in a generic sense.
C onfirmation of Online Vote - FY23 Budget: We needed a confirmation of the June 24 online vote passing the FY23 budget. President Smith asked for a motion to accept the FY23 Budget. A motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Beth Holmes-Mayson, and unanimously approved.
Confirmation of Online Vote - Tuition Assistance for Ed Goyda: We needed a confirmation of the June 24 online vote allowing Mr. Goyda to use the tuition assistance program for funding towards a Masters in Science in Leadership and Management from Western Governors University. President Smith asked for a motion to approve the tuition assistance. The motion was made by Jennifer Timmons, seconded by Beth Holmes-Mayson, and unanimously approved.
Confirmation of Online Vote - Alcohol in Meeting Room: We needed a confirmation of the July 15 online vote allowing Ms. Bonnie Johnson to serve alcoholic beverages at a wedding event on August 20. President Smith asked for a motion to approve alcohol in the meeting room. The motion was made by Karen Riggin, seconded by Tim Spillane, and unanimously approved.
Budget Amendment - LSTA Grant: While not as sizable as last year's ARPA grants, Ed requested that we amend the budget to include the $20,000 in LSTA funding for the makerspace acquisitions. President Smith asked for a motion to approve the budget amendment - LSTA grant. The motion was made by Lois Outten, seconded by Lynn Lang, and unanimously approved.
Lois Outten Term Expiration: Lois's term expired September 20, and she had expressed her desire to not extend her time as:
Dear Ann, As we have previously discussed, my term on the Somerset County Library System Board of Directors will expire on September 19, 2022. Please be advised that I do not wish to extend my time on the board beyond that date. It has been an honor to serve on the board and I especially enjoyed my time serving as Treasurer. I hope I have made a positive contribution to the board and our community. When you begin searching for new board members, I will be happy to assist with the interview process.
Regards, Lois
President Smith asked for a motion to appoint Associate Trustee Janet Smith to the upcoming vacancy. Motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Lois Outten, and unanimously approved.
Meeting Room After-hours Policy: We had been reviewing the Meeting Room policy, with the goal to regain staff time for library functions that is currently being spent on after-hours meeting room monitoring.
There were two chief scenarios where we were losing functional time to monitoring time:
- The most prevalent was that employee schedules shift for meeting room coverage. For example, an employee working 2 pm - 10 pm to cover a meeting room booking rather than their normal 9-5 schedule. In this case, we could:
- 1. Be satisfied that the meeting room after-hours charge is compensating us for the loss of functional staff time, or
- 2. Offer a sufficient financial inducement to convince the employee to volunteer for a 9 am - 10 pm shift.
- 2. Employees working on a day that they would normally not and earning comp time that was later used during a regular shift.
Ed recommended that the relevant policy wasn't in the Meeting Room Policy, but the Employee Handbook, and that the Handbook should be modified to turn additional hours spent on meeting room coverage (and only on meeting room coverage) into an overtime matter rather than a comp time matter, offer some financial inducement to part-time employees to add meeting room coverage rather than shift to meeting room coverage, and be fair by offering part-time employees the same modification to their rate of pay that full-time employees.
There was some maneuvering needed to get this done in an equitable matter with different rules affecting full-time exempt, full-time nonexempt, and part-time workers.
The recommended language was:
5.4 Compensatory Time
The library recognizes that it is not required to give compensatory time to exempt employees but does so because it improves morale and facilitates increased productivity of its staff.
Compensatory time is granted to full time exempt staff who work in excess of a 40 hour work week on an hour for hour basis regardless of the number of hours worked. Non-exempt staff earn compensatory time at a rate of 1.5 hours per hour worked. Any compensatory time earned must be used by the end of the fiscal year (June 30). Part time employees and non-exempt staff are not eligible for compensatory time.
5.5 Overtime
Part-time employees Non-exempt employees who work more than 40 hours in a work week will receive overtime pay at the rate of 1.5 times the employee's regular rate of pay for the excess hours worked. Your supervisor must approve all hours worked above 40 hours before they are worked.
5.6 Exceptions for Meeting Room Coverage
All employees who exceed their regularly scheduled hours to provide after-hours meeting room coverage will receive financial compensation for doing so.
For full-time, exempt employees, such additional hours shall be paid as an extra above their minimum guaranteed regular salary, pursuant to 29 CFR § 541.604, equivalent to 1.5 times their average hourly rate in a 40 hour work week.
For full-time, non-exempt employees, such additional hours shall be compensated with overtime pay rather than compensatory time, and as such paid at 1.5 times their hourly rate.
For part-time employees working more than their regularly scheduled hours but less than 40 hours in a week, such time will be paid at 1.5 times their hourly rate. Hours above 40 will be paid regularly, with the required adjustment for overtime pay.
If, during a particular week, a part-time employee has additional hours due to a library need and due to meeting room coverage, the hours due to library need will be included first in wage calculations.
Mr. Goyda also recommended increasing the hourly fee and the after-hours hourly fee to $25 each and modifying the section regarding alcohol to ""Alcoholic beverage service and consumption by non-profit organizations or at private functions must be granted special permission by the Board of Trustees" in light of actual practice.
President Smith asked for a motion to approve the policy changes. Motion was made by Lois Outten, seconded by Karen Riggin, and unanimously approved.
Adjournment
President Smith asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Jennifer Timmons, and the motion was unanimously approved. The meeting adjourned at 4:57 pm.
Respectfully submitted, Troy Gale Somerset County Library Princess Anne, Branch Manager