Board of Somerset County Library Trustees
Regular Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, June 14, 2023 at 4:00pm Princess Anne Library & Zoom
Present: Ann Smith, President; Beth Holmes-Mayson, Vice President; Tim Spillane, Treasurer; Board Members: Janet Smith, Jennifer Timmons; Ed Goyda, Library Director; Jaime Bradshaw, Assistant Director; Danielle Craige, Princess Anne Library Services Manager; Caprice Harris, Crisfield Library Services Manager; Nora Hoffman, Bookkeeper/Admin. Assistant
Absent: Karen Riggin & Lynn Lang, Board Members; Karen Earp, Children's Services Coordinator
Call Meeting to Order
President Ann Smith called the meeting to order at 4:00pm.
Consent Agenda
Approve minutes from the regular meeting of April 12, 2023 Approve financial reports for the period from July 1, 2022 – April 30, 2023 Approve financial reports for the period from July 1, 2022 – May 31, 2023
President Smith asked for a motion to approve the Consent Agenda. Motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Beth Holmes-Mayson, and unanimously approved.
Branch Highlights
Crisfield: Presented by Caprice Harris, Library Services Manager
In April, the library welcomed a volunteer who completed 30 hours of service and helped with material maintenance, and the overall organization of the library. In May, we gained a new employee who was working diligently during her shifts on various tasks throughout the library. Staff members worked on the annual inventory process. Various in-house displays were created for Earth Day, Easter, Star Wars Day, Mother's Day, and Mental Health Awareness Month in the adult, teen and children's sections. These displays were photographed and added to the Library's Facebook page.
In May, all staff members participated in the annual 2023 MLA Conference. Adrianna, Ashley, Caprice, Jaime, and Lorna participated in the spring 2023 SLRC Conference.
The library had a new Outreach Worker provided by the Lower Shore Health Alliance Program that came weekly on Wednesdays to discuss and provide the public with insurance assistance. The Insurance
Navigator still was visiting once per week. We would be partnering with It Takes A Village again this year with the Shore Way To College program. They would be providing us with a student worker for 5 weeks to gain work experience. The Somerset County Health Department continued to provide free COVID-19 test kits for the community and restocks the Community Food Pantry as needed.
Princess Anne: Presented by Danielle Craige, Library Services Manager
The library was decorated for the Summer Reading program. The Flower Power project provided us with beautiful flower banners and garlands to decorate our branch with as well. Staff did a full shift of the Adult Fiction and Adult Non-Fiction collections to accommodate incoming items. The majority of our staff attended the Maryland Library Association Conference in Cambridge in the beginning of May and some of our full-time staff members attended the SLRC Conference at the end of May. One new member of staff, Zainab, attended the Judy Center's annual Spring Fling event, did a wonderful job, and enjoyed participating in an outreach event. Community members and groups continued to utilize our meeting room space on a regular basis.
The Somerset County Health Department began bringing fresh vegetables in to the Princess Anne branch weekly at the beginning of June. The Health Department was still providing the branch with plenty of COVID test kits. The Community Food Pantry was frequently visited by members of the community and restocked regularly.
We hosted a table at the Princess Anne Street Fest in the beginning of June. The Summer Reading Kickoff was on June 17th and there were performers and programs lined up all summer long for a successful Summer Reading Program.
Administrative Report
Presented by: Ed Goyda, Director; Jaime Bradshaw, Assistant Director
Core Services
Craft Programs: We had begun offering two craft sessions for monthly crafts in both branches. The afternoon sessions were not well attended at either branch in May, however, more patrons signed up for the afternoons in June.
Digital Maryland: The library had been working on cleaning up some back-end issues on the Digital Maryland collection and there was one last batch still in processing.
Jennings Evans Collection: Jana Rehak, Eddie Somers, and Jen Evans approached us about a digitization of Jennings Evans' Smith Island historical documents. It was a relatively small collection and would be hosted separately from the main Digital Maryland collection.
Programming & Booklets: The July-August booklet was published and the fall programming meeting was held on June 9th.
Community Outreach
Laptop Grants: Laptops arrived in Crisfield on June 15th and were distributed on June 17th. Princess Anne elected to handle their own distribution.
Maryland Food Bank: The Food Bank would be using the Crisfield Library parking lot for their Mobile Market in July. They would be providing groceries for approximately 100 community members. The library would help with advertising, and distribution, if there is extra staff on the day they visit. Visits to Manokin Manor also began in June and other possible locations were being considered.
Outreach Programs: Visits to the Somerset County Development Center began in May. Gabe and Jaime visited the Tawes Nursing Home and the Development Center on May 18th with 43 patrons served between both locations.
Student Cards: The first batch of data was received from the School District on April 22nd. They anticipated delivering another batch before the end of the school year.
Violet Project: Jaime attended the State Library Resource Center conference and learned about the Violet Project, which was created by a certified OB/GYN and the Division Director of Gynecologic Specialties at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. They created a reliable and accessible platform for young people to take control of the sexual and reproductive health. Jaime reached out to the organization to discuss a possible partnership with them which would allow our libraries to obtain free feminine hygiene products and resources for patrons.
Wraparound Maryland: The organization stopped by the Princess Anne branch and invited us to the grand opening of their new thrift store which took place in June.
Internal Development
Alarm Engineering: We contracted with Alarm Engineering to add cameras in Crisfield (front entrance, deck, and mid-library) and Princess Anne (parking lot). Installation was scheduled for the end of June.
Library Services Meetings: The adjustment to having two Library Services Managers has gone extremely well. Caprice, Dani, and Jaime were having regular meetings to discuss circulation, staff, and new initiatives. Policy reviews would begin soon.
Maryland Blueprint: Work had started on the Statewide Futures Blueprint. The interim report from the April meeting was included in the packet.
Multi-Function Printers: The new Xeroxes were installed.
Name Tags: First-name-only name tags were ordered for staff to prevent patrons from learning staff last names due to issues to be discussed under governance.
Professional Development: A list of staff development was provided.
Youth Services
Programs: Homeschool STEM was still getting good participation, although numbers decreased as the weather got nicer. There had been low to no participation in other in-library programs. Summer programs performances were scheduled for Tuesdays at 11am in Princess Anne and 2pm in Crisfield. Summer STEM was scheduled on Wednesdays at 2pm in Crisfield and Thursdays at 2pm in Princess Anne. The Summer Reading Kickoff would be on June 17 at both branches simultaneously.
Outreach: We were still visiting GHYC close to weekly on Tuesday afternoons and would go to see them on Thursday mornings during their summer camp. June was our last Girl Scout Program for the year, and they would resume in October. We had visited Crisfield Head Start once a month for story time. Visits were made to schools to advertise the Summer Reading Program, including Special Education family night at Somerset Technical High School, transition night at Princess Anne elementary, field day and awards day at Greenwood, and the awards assembly at Deal Island. We were scheduled to visit all of the pre-k 3 & 4 and kindergarten classes at Princess Anne Elementary and Woodson in June
Partnerships: We had planned another 4H rocketry series in October for the home school kids. The MPT monthly family learning series continued. Karen participated in their new initiative, ELMA - early learning media ambassadors. We had planned a joint series with the Judy Center for Hatchlings and Mother Goose on the Loose, which would begin in September. We offered a joint event called "World of Work" in June in Princess Anne and it is scheduled for August in Crisfield. The purpose of this event was to introduce children to careers in their local communities.
The Crisfield High School would be taking a walking field trip to the Crisfield Library where Ashley would give them a tour. Lorna had also agreed to discuss our 3D printers and Maker Space services with the classes.
In May, Ashley visited Somerset County Intermediate School and performed countless presentations regarding teen programming, student cards, Summer Reading, and student resources. She also visited Crisfield High School, set up an information table, and attended their after school book club. She was looking forward to working with their Media Specialist more closely this fall. She was also in contact with Washington High School, and though she was unable to visit in the spring, she was hopeful for the new school year. During these visits, she received good feedback and suggestions from students for programming in the future.
We applied for an LSTA grant for $10,810 with the Maryland State Library Agency to support further expansion of homeschool/afterschool STEM, including school outreach, as "Let's Collaborate," with funds from this grant supporting acquisition of classroom packs to scale up to expected class sizes of 30 per session.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the Administrative Report. Motion was made by Beth Holmes-Mayson, seconded by Janet Smith, and unanimously approved.
Governance
Advisory - Budget (Income): The State finalized their FY24 budget and our funding increased by 1.8% from $323,612 to $329,348. Figures from the County were forthcoming.
Advisory - Budget (Staffing): Governor Moore's initiative to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour effective October 1, 2023, a 13% increase, was adopted. The previous timeline for the State was to raise it to $14 per hour on January 1, 2024 and $15 per hour on January 1, 2025. We had two employees (the pages) under the $14 threshold and an additional six under $15. We were waiting for details from the County on FY24 COLA.
Advisory - David Fisher Trust: The house was sold and PNC is in the process of closing out the estate.
Advisory - Ewell School: The Board of Education was holding a public meeting on June 14th at 6pm to discuss the future of the school.
Advisory - Rules of Conduct / Sexual Harassment of Library Staff: There were multiple serious incident of patrons sexually harassing staff, bordering on stalking, in the past few months. Mr. Goyda detailed these recent incidents.
Advisory - Strategic Plan: The general survey had over 50 responses, and the second of three activity samplings are underway.
Advisory - Time to Care Act: The Maryland Time to Care Act implementation had been delayed until October 1, 2024. We would have at least three options: default to the State plan, self-administer a plan, and contract for a plan.
In July, there would be a Statewide Human Resources meeting with Christine Walter from FiveL - who performed the HR Audit several years ago - that was originally intended to discuss ADA requirements but had discussion of Time to Care requirements added to it.
Leave Time Rollover: Mr. Goyda requested to rollover vacation time in excess of the regular cap again, following the same model that we've used the past two years.
A motion to accept the vacation rollover was made by Ann Smith, seconded by Jennifer Timmons, and unanimously approved.
Executive Session
President Smith asked for a motion to enter executive session at 4:40pm. Motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Beth Holmes-Mayson, and roll call was taken.
Advisory - Probationary Employees: Jennifer Walker and Shannon Cropper did not complete their probationary periods.
Appointment of Sherri Richardson, Library Assistant, Princess Anne, Appointment of Tyiona Blue, Library Assistant, Crisfield, and Retirement of Angie Schoendienst, Library Assistant, Princess Anne:
A motion to accept the appointments and retirement was made by Beth Holmes-Mayson, seconded by Tim Spillane, and unanimously approved.
President Smith made a motion to exit executive session at 4:45pm, seconded by Jennifer Timmons, and roll call was taken.
Adjournment
President Smith asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Janet Smith, and the motion was unanimously approved. The meeting adjourned at 4:46pm.
Respectfully submitted, Nora Hoffman Somerset County Library Bookkeeper/Admin. Assistant