REGULAR MEETING OF THE MEMBERSHIP OF
THE DUPAGE LIBRARY SYSTEM
August 15, 2002

I. ROLL CALL OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The regular meeting of the DLS membership was held at the West Chicago Public Library, 118 West Washington Street, West Chicago, Illinois, and was called to order at 7:00 p.m. Sec. Peterson called the roll with the following board members present to establish a quorum: Don Brant, Marti Guarin, Laurie Kagann, Robert Kepka, Mary Peterson, Jackie Plourde, Barbara Siegman, John Slusser, Marguerite Treest, and Joyce Whitehead. Dir. Brown arrived at 7:02 p.m.

DLS staff members attending were Shirley May Byrnes, Carol Hamacher, Pam Kramer, Jane Plass, and Phylis Wagner. Karen Rybacki arrived at 7:30 p.m.

Also present were Rick Swanson, DLS Auditor, Melody Coleman, West Chicago Public Library Director, Tanya Berley, West Chicago Trustee, and Neil Kelley, Illinois State Library Consultant.

II. PUBLIC COMMENT

Pres. Kepka welcomed and introduced Neil Kelley, who will be the DLS Consultant from the Illinois State Library for the next two years. He thanked Melody Coleman, Director of the West Chicago Public Library, for hosting this meeting. Rick Swanson attended this evening to present the DLS financial report later on in the meeting.

Sec. Peterson, as representative for the West Chicago Public Library, introduced us to Melody Coleman, the library director, and Tanya Berley, one of the trustees who wishes to run for election to the DLS Board. Melody was pleased to have the DLS Board meet at West Chicago, and mentioned that everyone was welcome to tour the building after the meeting.

III. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA

V.P. Plourde motioned, and Dir. Siegman seconded, that:

THE AGENDA BE ADOPTED.

Agenda adopted.

Motion carried unanimously.

IV. APPROVAL OF JUNE AND JULY 2002 REGULAR MEETING MINUTES

Dir. Kagann motioned, and Dir. Slusser seconded, that:

THE JUNE REGULAR MEETING MINUTES BE APPROVED.

June minutes approved.

Motion carried unanimously.

Dir. Whitehead motioned, and Dir. Slusser seconded, that:

THE JULY SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES BE APPROVED.

July minutes approved.

Dirs. Plourde, Siegman, Guarin, and Peterson abstained, and motion carried.

V. FINANCIAL REPORT FOR JUNE 30, JULY AND AUGUST 2002

A. June 30, July and August 2002 Bills

 

Treas. Treest reported that the total amount for bills for the month of June 2002 was $133,549.02. For the month of July 2002, the total amount was $172,764.33.

Treas. Treest moved and V.P. Plourde seconded that:

THE JUNE AND JULY BILLS BE FILED FOR AUDIT SINCE THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN PAID, AND THE PAYMENT OF THE AUGUST 2002 BILLS IN THE AMOUNT OF $112,028.27 WITH CHECKS NUMBERED 55980 TO 56046 BE APPROVED AS PRESENTED.

June and July, bills filed for audit and August bills approved.

Motion carried unanimously.

B. Annual Audit

 

The annual audit was distributed to the board members. Rick Swanson from Weber & Associates went over the figures with everyone and answered questions. He suggested that a separate account be set up for the Capital Projects fund so interest could be earned on that money. Again, Rick Swanson complimented Carol and her staff for their accurate record keeping, which allowed the audit to be done in a timely manner.

 

Dir. Kagann motioned, and Dir. Whitehead seconded, that:

THE ANNUAL AUDIT BE ACCEPTED.

Annual report accepted

Motion carried unanimously.

VI. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Board meeting date: It was pointed out that the April 2003 Board meeting date was set on Holy Thursday and the start of Passover. The Board agreed to change the April 17, 2003 Board meeting date to April 24, 2003.

Planning Committee: Jackie would like to set a meeting date prior to the September Board meeting for the Planning Committee to begin looking at setting up the Boundary-Free Task Force, bylaw changes, and other issues, which have been assigned to this committee. The date chosen for this meeting is Monday, September 9 at 6 p.m. Because of the construction at the DLS site, the location for that meeting will be determined later and will be stated on the agenda.

Internet program: In the audit on the combined balance sheet for the expendable trust funds, there is an account for an Internet program. The reason for this fund has not been found, so money has not been added to that account. It has been suggested that the board dissolve that fund and move the money to another account.

NR cards: All DLS public libraries have decided to participate in the non-resident card program. The list of libraries with effective dates and fee method are posted on the DLS website under system news - legislation.

Annual Report: Information on what needs to be in the system annual report will be available from the Illinois State Library next week. The deadline for this report is September 30.

Secretary of State Visit: The Jesse White visit for August was canceled, and a new date has not been scheduled.

China trip: A table was set up before the meeting with the two photo albums and souvenirs that Exec. Dir. Byrnes brought back from China. After the meeting, she was available to talk about her trip.

VII. COMMUNICATIONS

A. Report of the President

Pres. Kepka reported that soon after the July meeting, the contractor asked to change the completion date to 11 days later. Since the contract had already been approved and this was a reasonable request, he authorized approval of this change.

B. Report from the Illinois State Library (ISL)

Neil Kelley reported on the state budget. The state library took and internalized two very large reductions in the budget during the last fiscal year and absorbed those so that the per capita grants for the systems and libraries were funded. Those two reductions came to just about 2 million dollars. The ISL book budget is now less than it was since 1987. Staff at that time was 147 and has since been reduced to 93. The state is offering an early retirement incentive, and several of the ISL employees are eligible to take advantage of this offer. It is not known how many of them will retire between now and December 31, but there is a hiring freeze so these employees would not be replaced.

There will be five categories for competitive grants, and these will be announced soon. They will be posted on the ISL website and can be downloaded. Everyone is encouraged to look at them. ISL is doing as much as they can to make as many dollars available to libraries.

Dir. Wilkins was able to return the public library and school per capita amounts back to their legislative intents so the public library grants will be at $1.25 per capita and the school grants will be at $.75 per capita. The public library per capita application form has been reviewed and should be completed this week. This is ahead of last year, and ISL hopes to get these turned around and the money out to the library community as soon as possible.

The passwords for Every Library in Illinois (ELI) have been sent out to each of the libraries, so they can make updates and changes on their library’s information. There is a cooperative effort between the State Library, the ILLINET Network Library, the Illinois State Library Advisory Committee, and the Reference Services Forum of ILA for a 24/7 reference service. On Wednesday, September 18 from 10-12 p.m, there will be a videoconference with a panel of speakers discussing the incorporation of cultural and racial diversity programs in libraries.

Dir Wilkins has made sure ISL will be able to offer PDR Electronic Library, FirstSearch, Novelist, and NewsIllinois at no cost to the libraries in Illinois. Even though there have been cuts in the budget, Illinois is very fortunate because some states have severely cut their state libraries due to the current economic downturn.

C. Legislative Report – None 

D. Correspondence – Available upon request.

 

VIII. REPORT OF STANDING COMMITTEES - None

IX. UNFINISHED BUSINESS

A. Building Update

Carol Hamacher brought pictures of the progress so the Board members could get some idea of what has been done at the DLS headquarters. Carol stated that she checked the contractor’s references after the July Board meeting. Local projects done by them were the Kane County Forest Preserve, City of Elgin, and City of Geneva Fire Station. Carol talked with Pres. Kepka and they agreed the company was reputable. Since the project started, Carol has been pleased with their work and how quickly things are getting done. The parking lot was taken over by heavy equipment, mounds of dirt and gravel so that it has been a challenge at times to get into the building, but the staff has been handling the inconvenience well. The noise has been minimal. It has been discovered that the pillars by the front door are supported by layers of bricks, which probably is the cause for the large crack in the pillar. The work done to eliminate the noise problem inside the building has been minimal, but it has made a big difference already.

A $20,000 contingency fund was included as part of the project. It doesn’t appear that it will be needed, so we would like to have some additional work done. Quotes have been requested for replacing the concrete pad outside shipping and receiving to repair cracks and level it off, creating a speed bump in the parking lot because others have been using it as a thoroughfare, replacing the shipping and receiving doors, which are rusting through, etc.

The only neighbor who called was the one east and directly behind the building. She asked if we could do something about the water that runs off the parking lot into her back yard. Carol explained the work being done should take care of that problem.

B. CE Calendar

Each Board member received a copy of CE Calendar FY2002-2003. One of the programs Pam Kramer pointed out is that DLS was able to hire a teacher to teach library conversational Spanish. This program will begin September 23, 2002 and consists of 10 two-hour sessions over a period of 12 weeks. Pam explained the book contains all that DLS had on the calendar as of August 5. Four training sessions and two workshops have already been added. Trustee and board training will also be available; Denise Zielinski is working on that.

X. NEW BUSINESS

A. Exploring the Future: Seven Strategic Conversations That Could Transform Your Organization

Exec. Dir. Byrnes and Pam spent 2½ days in Springfield meeting with other directors and system staff who plan continuing education programs for their members. There were discussions based on the book titled Exploring the Future: Seven Strategic Conversations That Could Transform Your Organization. The book was written for non-profit associations and has a lot of applicability to the kinds of things we do. Listed on the green sheet given to the Board this evening are the seven major issues that associations, libraries, and library systems need to begin to deal with. This is about environmental scanning. What’s out there? How do we meet the future? What kind of things do we need to do? One of the messages from this meeting, is "We have to become a learning culture." Teachers have to become learners. This is a reminder that a one-shot CE workshop usually does not have a lasting affect. The workshops that DLS presents are really just introductory programs, and the Spanish class is the closest we will come to long-term change. The Board is encouraged to look at the sheet and think about the brief summaries on it. After the new Board has been elected, possibly there could be ten minute conversations added to each Board meeting to get more background and to begin thinking and talking about these issues.

Dir. Brant mentioned that Bensenville recently closed the library and had a staff-in-service day. This year they rented a bus and took a trip to Springfield to visit the Illinois State Library. They were given a tour of the library, and Dir. Brant was quite impressed with the facility.

V.P. Plourde mentioned she was quite impressed with the invitations sent to the public libraries and their trustees requesting them to join the DLS Board.

XI. ADJOURNMENT

Sec. Peterson motioned, and Dir. Brant seconded, that:

THE MEETING BE ADJOURNED.

Motion carried unanimously.

The meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m.

Respectfully submitted.

_____________________________
Mary Peterson, Secretary

   X    Minutes approved as read

         Minutes approved as amended

_______________________________
Robert J. Kepka, President