Board of Somerset County Library Trustees
Regular Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, October 8, 2024 at 4:00pm Princess Anne Library & Zoom
Present: Ann Smith, President; Beth Holmes-Mayson, Vice President; Tim Spillane, Treasurer; Board Members: Lynn Lang, Karen Riggin, 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; Ashley Gilson, Teen Services Coordinator; Adrianna Warfield, 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 August 14, 2024 Approve financial reports for the period from July 1, 2023 - August 31, 2024 Approve financial reports for the period from July 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
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
Branch Highlights: In August, we had our Summer Reading Finale on the deck of the library. There were snow cones, face painting, tie dye, music and more. Our student worker participating in the Shoreway to College program completed his hours of service. He helped with summer reading programs, inventory, and maintaining the overall organization of the library. We participated in the annual Crab Derby Parade and won "Best Float." During the months of August and September, multiple staff members participated in various outreach events around the community such as National Night Out and the Somerset County Public Schools Open House events. In September, staff participated in a friendly competition in honor of Library Card Sign Up Month. Whichever staff member issued the most library cards would receive a special prize. Various decorations and in-house displays for National Camping Month, Read a Romance Month, Local History, Back to School, Library Card Sign Up Month, Fall Vibes, Yoga Month and Hispanic Heritage Month were placed in the Adult, Teen, and Children's sections.
Staff Development: Over the past two months, staff participated in a range of training courses covering topics such as AI, Mental Health, Safety, and De-escalation training.
Community Partnerships: Social Services was visiting weekly to assist the public with any government aid they may require. The Housing and Community Resource Coordinator from the City of Crisfield was joining us monthly to provide access to local resources for the community. We still had two Navigators provided by the Lower Shore Health Alliance Program coming weekly to provide the public with insurance assistance. The Somerset County Health Department continued to provide free COVID-19 test kits for the community and had occasionally been restocking the pantry.
Future Happenings: Staff members were looking forward to participating in the Crisfield Chamber Halloween Parade on October 26th and our 3rd Annual Fall Festival in November.
Princess Anne: Presented by Danielle Craige, Library Services Manager
Branch Highlights: In August and September, the library featured several different book displays featuring yoga, Library Card Sign-Up Month, and the One Maryland One Book. Staff attended outreach events such as Open House and National Night Out in August. Throughout September we had hosted a contest for circulation staff to see who can sign-up the most library cards for Library Card Sign-Up Month. Laurie celebrated her first full year as a member of our staff on September 11th and was very happy to be a part of our team. There had been some minor updates to our Daily Task list and Closing Procedures to reflect things that need to be checked and maintained in the Children's Room. Meeting Room bookings had increased in frequency, and we continued to utilize our Maryland Room as a secondary meeting space.
Community Partnerships: The Somerset County Arts Council continued to hold an art gallery in our meeting room; in September the gallery featured photography from April Dawn Reese. The library was still receiving COVID test kits from the Somerset County Health Department regularly. During the school year, we had the Adult Education program using our Meeting/Maryland Room as a classroom space for individuals looking to get their GED.
Future Happenings: With Halloween fast approaching staff would be attending Trunk or Treat events around the county. Our Halloween Block Party was coming up! It would be on October 31st from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. We would have carnival games, snow cones, popcorn and more!
Administrative Report
Presented by: Ed Goyda, Director; Jaime Bradshaw, Assistant Director; Ashley Gilson, Teen Services Coordinator; Adrianna Warfield, Children's Services Coordinator
Core Services
Corbin Arts Collection: We had placed a (free) order with Art Resources Transfer for the art book collection in Corbin Gallery.
Fall Festival: The Crisfield Library Fall Festival would be on Saturday, November 9th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. As of the board meeting, we had 22 vendors registered and were waiting for more to respond. We had also received many monetary donations from local businesses this year, and we would begin to recognize them on our social media platforms. The library would be offering free coffee & cocoa in the morning as well as hotdogs, chips & drinks for lunch, all free of charge. We would also have a hayride, face painting, music, and more.
Inventory: Inventory had been completed in Crisfield and Princess Anne.
Program Updates: The leaders of Block of the Month were no longer interested in hosting this program but were happy to continue Quilters, Stitchers & More each month. Senior Moments seemed to have run its course, but with offering more crafts, bingo & handcrafting, the audience still had plenty of options.
Holly would begin running a knitting program in November.
Smith Island Local History: We had five people in attendance for Dr. Jana Rehak's presentation on September 28 - flooding on the island was a factor - but the presentation did surface another potential source for primary genealogical sources.
Yoga: Patrons had seemed to enjoy the yoga DVD series so far. The sessions were taking place weekly on Tuesdays.
Community Outreach
Delmarva Shorebirds: Adri, Ashley, and Jaime attended the Shorebirds Summer Reading Finale on August 18. Jaime had a meeting with the Community Relations Manager and the Assistant General Manager to discuss further partnership opportunities. Their mascot, Sherman, may be able to attend the Crisfield Library Fall Festival.
Extension Advisory Committee: Jaime had joined the Extension Advisory Committee for the University of Maryland Extension Office Somerset County. The purpose of the council was to advise on the needs of the community and how various programs can help support the needs of the community.
Stars of Somerset: The Awards Ceremony at Somers Cover Marina was held August 15. The Library won Somerset County's Favorite Place to take your Kids, and Crisfield Library won Somerset County's Favorite Venue.
Outreach Events: A list of events was provided.
Community Partnership
Quilt Square: We had damage (suspected vandalism) to the quilt square in Princess Anne on August 26. It's been patched and we're waiting on the Arts Council to touch up the paint.
Tiny Art Show: The Tiny Art Show was underway through the month of October.
Internal Development
Adult Services and Reference Division: Jaime had joined this statewide group that meets quarterly to discuss program initiatives.
Audit: Work on the audit was ongoing and expected to wrap up by the end of the month. The presentation was scheduled to take place at the December board meeting.
Bicycle Locks: We had added "circulating" (for on-site use) bicycle locks due to a rash of theft of unsecured bicycles in Princess Anne.
ESRL CEO: New ESRL CEO Lori Milach visited Crisfield and Princess Anne on October 3. (Ewell had been on the agenda, but there were flooding issues.)
Ewell Technology: We were still having issues with ESRL's networking equipment. They were planning to replace the entire unit as soon as a new one was configured.
Fisher Trust: The Community Foundation would run an article on the Fisher Trust in an upcoming newsletter.
Internet Outage: We had a statewide library Internet outage that started the afternoon of Sunday,
September 29, from an underground explosion in Baltimore, a few blocks from Enoch Pratt Library. We switched the front desk computers over to wireless hotspots and were more or less functional on everything except the patron PCs by late Monday morning. ("More or less" includes things like printing being done by saving documents to flash drives and walking to the printer.) The more commonly used links to patron resources (catalog, Overdrive, Programs to Go) were linked from the Facebook page. Email was restored by Monday evening. (Despite the email not being hosted by ESRL, the delivery instructions are.) The Internet connection began to come back online late Tuesday evening, and we were back to normal Wednesday morning. Ed was interviewed by the Hagerstown Herald (Daily Times / Delmarva Now) during the incident.
Library Card Signup Month: Caprice and Dani had been running a staff contest for the most new card registrations during the month of September.
Patron Laptops: ESRL had upgraded the patron laptops with (essentially) the same hardware that was used for the desktops to prevent slowness caused by the security software.
Princess Anne HVAC: Work to replace the air conditioning unit in the main area (and also the last remaining area that was on the boiler) began September 17.
Timeclock: A function had been added to the timeclock to track the 90* (98) day expiration of comp time.
Workforce, Business, and Career Community of Practice: Gabe & Jaime had joined this statewide group in efforts to build programming around workforce & career initiatives. Jaime attended the first two sessions discussing & planning Career Success Month that would take place in January & February 2025. The theme this year would be "Uplift & Upskill" focusing on workforce & career growth and development.
Professional Development: A list of professional development was provided.
Children's Services
Current Programs: Mother Goose, STEAM, and Lego Club were doing well with attendance. Mother Goose had recently increased in attendance at the Crisfield branch. In September, Family Paint Night and Crafternoons began at both branches and started with good attendance.
Outreach: Adrianna, Ashley, Caprice, Dani, Gabe, Jaime, Laurie and Meagen attended community events in August including the National Night Out, Sheriff's Community Day, Homeschool Meet & Greet, Open Houses, and Delmarva Shorebirds Summer Reading Finale. During these events, they promoted programs for all ages and distributed library swag to attendees. Adrianna also continued to do monthly Storytimes at the Crisfield Head Start and Princess Anne Kidz in His Hands Daycare.
Tiny Art: During Open House, staff dropped off our Tiny Art kits to the schools who distributed them to families and/or painted them during art class. Their masterpieces were being displayed at both branches and we were continuing to get more in to display.
Upcoming Changes: Starting in November, STEAM would be moved to 5 pm to allow public school students to attend. The Princess Anne children's program would also be moved to Tuesdays due to the results from the patron survey taken during the summer.
Upcoming Events: October was full of outreach all themed towards Halloween. Staff would be going to a few elementary schools for trunk or treat events. The library would be attending the Crisfield Kids Halloween Parade and hosting our Halloween Block Party at the Princess Anne Library. The Princess Anne Police Department would be providing and cooking hotdogs for the block party and would also have a candy trunk.
Teen Services
Current Programs: Teen hangout, Gaming and Roblox were continuing to do well. Crisfield attendance was slightly higher than Princess Anne. The passive craft programs we recently started had decent attendance and we would be continuing these programs.
Programs and Outreach: Ashley and Gabe attended open house at Crisfield High School and Laurie attended Washington High School. Ashley had made a connection with Somerset Intermediates Community School Liaison, Stephanie O'Hara. She was new to the school and was very excited to be working with us. She had invited us to participate in outreach events at the middle school. Ashley had attended two of those outreach events and both had good attendance. Ashley had a table at the Parent/Teacher Conferences where there was also a meeting to discuss running an after-school club.
Community Partnerships: Our tiny art show was now on display in Crisfield and Princess Anne. We had a lot of participation already and were expecting more to be dropped off. They would be displayed until November 1st.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the Administrative Report. Motion was made by Beth Holmes-Mayson, seconded by Jennifer Timmons, and unanimously approved.
Governance
Advisory - Citizens for Maryland Libraries Annual Conference: CML's Annual Conference would be held on Saturday, November 2, at the Bowie Branch of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System. This year the program would feature Lisa Varga, Library Journal's 2024 Librarian of the Year. Her topic would be "Preserving Freedom: Librarians as Guardians Against Censorship."
Audit Related Policy Clarifications:
Financial Procedures - Reimbursement Reports: The reimbursement report section of the Financial Procedures was lacking a written procedure for mileage requests, despite that use of the form being much more common than the documented Lodging and Meals & Incidentals. We needed a brief addition of "Mileage – documentation stating the destination and purpose and verifying the accuracy of the requested mileage to be reimbursed."
Vacation Accrual: The auditors pointed out that the current phrasing ("The maximum accrual is 500 hours, to be reset at the end of the fiscal year.") doesn't quite specify that it was being reset to 500 hours and not to zero, which was how they initially read it. We were asking for a small edit to "The maximum accrual that can be carried over at the end of the fiscal year is 500 hours."
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the policy revisions. Motion was made by Lynn Lang, seconded by Tim Spillane and unanimously approved.
Beth Holmes-Mayson - Term Renewal: Beth's first term would expire October 15. We needed a vote to recommend appointment to a full term to the County Commissioners.
President Smith asked for a nomination to recommend Beth's appointment to a full term. Motion was made by Lynn Lang, seconded by Tim Spillane and unanimously approved.
Dress Code: A proposed revision to the dress code, mostly to provide clarity, was included in the packet.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the dress code revision. Motion was made by Janet Smith, seconded by Beth Holmes-Mayson and unanimously approved.
Granny Square Tree Project: President Smith presented information on the Princess Anne Granny Square Tree Project which would take place from Thanksgiving through the first week in January.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the Library's participation in the project. Motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Janet Smith and unanimously approved.
2025 Board Meeting Schedule: A proposed 2025 Board Meeting Schedule was included in the packet.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the board meeting schedule. Motion was made by Jennifer Timmons, seconded by Lynn Lang and unanimously approved.
2025 Holiday Schedule: A proposed 2025 Holiday Schedule was included in the packet. Following conversation with Ewell staff earlier in the week, Mr. Goyda requested an adjustment to the printed document to move Staff Day from Columbus Day to Tuesday, August 19, due to the lack of an afternoon boat back to the island on Mondays.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the holiday schedule. Motion was made by Janet Smith 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 Beth Holmes-Mayson and unanimously approved. The meeting adjourned at 4:41pm.
Respectfully submitted, Nora Hoffman Somerset County Library Bookkeeper/Admin. Assistant