Board of Somerset County Library Trustees
Regular Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, August 9, 2023 at 4:00pm Crisfield Library & Zoom
Present: Ann Smith, President; Beth Holmes-Mayson, Vice President; Tim Spillane, Treasurer; Board Members: Lynn Lang, Janet Smith, Jennifer Timmons, Karen Riggin; Ed Goyda, Library Director; Jaime Bradshaw, Assistant Director; Danielle Craige, Princess Anne Library Services Manager; Caprice Harris, Crisfield Library Services 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 14, 2023 Approve financial reports for the period from July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023 Approve financial reports for the period from July 1, 2022 – July 31, 2023
President Smith asked for a motion to approve the Consent Agenda. Motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Janet Smith, and unanimously approved.
Branch Highlights
Crisfield: Presented by Caprice Harris, Library Services Manager
In June, several staff members worked on various tasks throughout the library such as inventory, reorganizing parts of the library, and collection maintenance. In July, we welcomed a student provided to us through It Takes a Village who had gracefully been working on every task assigned to her. She had helped staff finish the annual inventory process and maintain the overall organization of the library.
There had been a major increase in attendance that summer. Staff had been assisting new patrons with local history, trending items, and additional resources provided by the library. Various summer, beach- themed, and local history displays had been created and displayed throughout the library, and had been photographed and added to the Library's Facebook page.
In June, we partnered with the City of Crisfield as a distribution center to give out 500 laptops to eligible households on a first-come, first-served basis. The Somerset County Health Department had continued to provide free COVID-19 test kits for the community and had restocked the Community Food Pantry as needed.
Princess Anne: Presented by Danielle Craige, Library Services Manager
The Summer Reading performances had been a hit with the community. Many new faces had been coming in regularly with a variety of needs, from wanting library cards to a place to cool off. Staff had been regularly taking Niche Academy webinars and classes to improve their skills. In June, all staff members had taken courses on de-escalation and conflict resolution in the workplace. New shelf reading logs had been implemented, and staff had been doing a great job at keeping up with the rotating sections.
Ewell: Presented by Ed Goyda, Director
Anita Kitching had called on August 2 about the building being accessible again after the roofing, but also reported construction debris, lack of power to the staff computer, and an "invasion" of fiddler crabs due to the doors being left propped open. Mr. Goyda went over on August 3 and discover that we also had no phone, water, or Internet and that "invasion" was accurate.
The water issue was temporary due to work on a waterline leak before the library on Smith Island Road. The building was powered, but the backup battery on the staff computer had fully discharged and was removed from service. The Verizon connection was also unrepairable, but the parts of the network that were still using the DSL Line were moved over to Starlink.
While roofing was complete, there was sizable mold damage to ceilings, construction debris, and fiddler crabs throughout the non-library parts of the building.
Administrative Report
Presented by: Ed Goyda, Director; Jaime Bradshaw, Assistant Director; Karen Earp, Children's Services Coordinator
Core Services
Jennings Evans Collection: Digitization of Jennings Evans's documents had been completed. Work on the metadata was underway before transferring the files to Digital Maryland.
One Maryland, One Book: This year's selection for One Maryland, One Book was There There by Tommy Orange, which the Princess Anne book discussion group had already read. Instead, we had scheduled Dr. Ashley Minner Jones to discuss the reservation of East Baltimore during the group's regular September meeting time.
Community Outreach
Lower Shore Health Insurance Assistance Program: The FY24 contract had been signed. The five- day-per-week outreach worker had been cut from their budget; however, there was an insurance navigator onsite roughly one day per week in Princess Anne, and twice in Crisfield. The Library would start advertising availability soon and had plans to promote open enrollment events that would be held in both branches in November & December.
Manokin Manor: Gabe Stuckey and Ms. Bradshaw visited Manokin Manor for the first time on June 13 with 24 attendees; they also visited July 18, along with Ms. Craige, with 30 attendees. The Library was intending to make these visits monthly, resembling outreach to Tawes Nursing Home and the
Developmental Center.
School Open Houses: The school open houses were all scheduled for August 31, from 1:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. We were working on scheduling to cover as many as possible.
Skipjack Festival: We would be providing a STEM craft for the Skipjack festival on Labor Day weekend. Karen would be there on Sunday.
Stars of Somerset: The library was awarded Best Community Outreach. The celebration and awards would be held Thursday, August 10, from 4:30 - 8:00 at Somers Cove Marina.
Tiny Art Show: In June, we constructed 190 tiny art kits as a Program to Go across all age groups. This community art project was sponsored by the Somerset County Arts Council. The premise was for patrons to use the tools provided to create a miniature masterpiece to be displayed in the libraries. We also made an additional 30 kits to take with us to our monthly visit at the Developmental Center. We were still collecting them and had started to display them. The display would be kept up through mid-September.
Community Partnership
Cooling Centers: Once again, our mainland branches were listed as cooling centers for Somerset County. A press release was sent out by the Health Department the last week of July.
Maryland Food Bank: The Maryland Food Bank used the Crisfield Library parking lot for their Mobile Market in July. They had 96 families that shopped for 300 individuals. The truck had 2,411 pounds of food, and for the first time, the truck was completely emptied. They would be returning in late September.
Stretching Across Somerset: Starting in September, we would be partnering with the Somerset County Health Department with their Stretching Across Somerset program. They would be providing a yoga instructor to teach once per month at each branch. This would take the place of Chair Yoga, as our previous instructor was unable to teach as of the end of August.
Internal Development
Alarm Engineering: Alarm Engineering had installed the new cameras in Crisfield and Princess Anne, although we were still awaiting the additional DVR for Crisfield.
Audit: Holloway & Marvel was on site July 24 & 25. UHY would begin the audit on August 14.
Branch Managers Summit: Caprice & Dani attended the full-day Branch Managers Summit in Annapolis on July 17.
Email: Given the on-going issues with ESRL's Zimbra server, we would be transitioning staff email over to Google Workspace in the near future.
Maryland Association of Public Library Administrators Strategic Plan: Work was underway on the MAPLA Strategic Plan, with the first meeting held July 26.
Maryland Blueprint: The report from the Statewide Futures Blueprint meetings was included in the packet.
Performance Evaluations: All performance evaluations for FY23 had been completed.
SLRC Circulation Conference: Caprice, Dani, & Jaime would be presenting "Unlocking the Secrets of
Customer Service Basics" at the SLRC Circulation Conference on August 23. Ashley, Gabe, Holly, Noah, and Tabi would be attending.
Youth Services
Summer Reading: Participation was higher this year than last, and we were seeing high attendance at many of our performances. As usual, Reptile Wonders had the biggest turnout.
Outreach: We visited the Garland Hayward Youth Center a few times during their summer camp and would set up weekly visits again when the school year starts. Karen offered Stories & STEM to all of the pre-K and kindergarten summer school students.
Partnerships: We were planning another rocketry series in October for the home school kids. Ms. Earp attended the PBS Kids Work it Out Wombats training. She would build this training into offerings this school year.
Judy Center: Based on an MSDE change, the Judy Center could no longer offer play dates outside of their schools. They also could no longer do storytimes for child care centers/home providers who were not fully licensed, and no one in Somerset County was fully licensed.
They were applying for a grant to help defray the damage that the MSDE change would likely create. We were creating portable storytime bins that will be rotated through child care providers in the county and creating storytime kits for "coaches" who would go to centers and homes to conduct storytimes. Karen Ms. Earp would cover all of the centers for storytime starting in September and a SELAC contract employee would cover the homes.
Play Pals in the libraries would run through the end of September. Starting in October, we would offer Daycare Storytime in the same time slot.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the Administrative Report. Motion was made by Karen Riggin, seconded by Lynn Lang, and unanimously approved.
Governance
Advisory - Fair Labor Standards Act: The July COLA from the County had pushed several employees over the FLSA salary threshold, which would reduce comp time from a 1.5x rate to 1x.
Advisory - David Fisher Trust: We were still waiting for PNC to distribute.
Advisory - Ewell School: The report on the state of the library was presented under Branch Highlights.
Advisory - Legislative: The legislative priorities for this year would be increasing SLRC's statutory funding, continuing to address collective bargaining legislation, and Freedom to Read legislation, as well as relatively simple corrections to the Regional Libraries Bill and the Building Lifelong Learners Act. Disruptive Patron behavior was not on the legislative agenda for this session.
Advisory - Regional Library Board: With the new legislation in place, the ESRL Board would be transitioning from eight Library Board representatives and the eight directors to eight Library Board representatives and three representatives of the public at the fall meeting.
Advisory - Rules of Conduct: The Policy Review Committee would hold its first meeting on August 11.
The Rules of Conduct and Borrowing policy were first on the slate.
Advisory - Strategic Plan: The general survey was at 95 responses, and the in-library usage samplings were complete. We were working on development of a list of interview requests and possibly one focus group (the homeschool parents).
Advisory - Time to Care Act: Christine Walter from FiveL was not able to shed much light on Time to Care Act implementation, essentially because the State had yet to set the rules.
Alcohol in Meeting Room - Confirmation: Mr. Goyda requested a confirmation of the email vote allowing alcohol (champagne) for a bridal shower in the Crisfield meeting room on August 19.
President Smith asked for a motion to confirm the alcohol in meeting room email vote. Motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Jennifer Timmons, and unanimously approved.
Board Term - Karen Riggin: Ms. Riggin's first term has expired.
President Smith asked for a motion to request that the County Commissioners reappoint Karen Riggin as a board member. The motion was made by Janet Smith, seconded by Beth Holmes-Mayson, and unanimously approved.
Budget - Confirmation: Mr, Goyda requested a confirmation of the email vote confirming the FY24 Budget on June 28 - 29.
President Smith asked for a motion to confirm the FY24 Budget email vote. Motion was made by Karen Riggin, seconded by Tim Spillane, and unanimously approved.
Budget - Amendment: Since the budget vote, we had received confirmation of two LSTA grants. The first was our Let's Collaborate STEM grant for $10,810. Mr. Goyda was coordinating the grant for the MAPLA Strategic Plan, and, due to the intricacies of access to the grant platform, $20,000 on that project would be passing through our books on the way from MSLA to MAPLA.
Mr. Goyda requested an amendment to include both grants on both the income and expense sides of the budget.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the budget amendment. The motion was made by Lynn Lang, seconded by Beth Holmes-Mayson, 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 5:02pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Nora Hoffman Somerset County Library Bookkeeper/Admin. Assistant