Library Board Approved Minutes - October 7, 2021

DeForest Area Public Library Regular Library Board Minutes
Thursday, October 7, 2021 at 6:00 p.m.

1. Call to Order and Roll Call
   • The meeting was called to order at 6:01 p.m.by President Van Iten
   • Present: Englesby, Gorres, Landgraf, Lawrence, Runez, Van Iten, and Zeimet
   • Absent:
   • Also present: Library Director Berg
2. Approval of Agenda
   • Motion to approve as presented: Zeimet
   • Second: Runez
   • Discussion: None.
   • Action: All approved.
3. Approval of Minutes of the September 2nd, meeting
   • Motion to approve the minutes: Lawrence
   • Second: Zeimet
   • Discussion: None
   • Action: All approved.
4. Public Presentations / Communications
   • Berg noted Big Truck Story Time was coming up which involved big village trucks. The library will be Participating at the Trick or Treat at Harvest Intermediate School. There will be a Halloween party at the library on October 30th. Library Staff will be participating at the STEAM Showcase and the Middle School.
5. Approval of Bills – Berg had emailed out the bill run prior to the meeting
   • Motion to Approve the Bills: Runez
   • Second: Zeimet
   • Discussion: Berg noted this is large bill run for a change. All the utility bills are being paid in this run. There are lots of bills for books because the fall publishers’ lists are being shipped now.
   • Action: All Approved
6. Reports
   1. Director's - Berg mentioned that the large Pelleteri bill was for shredding about 22 boxes of old paper files from about 1988 to 2015. All of which had been gone through to remove binder clips and make sure that nothing of historical interest was being shredded. The Fall Harvest Festival was a big hit again this year. The weather cooperated and we had around 300 people come through. A good time was had by all. Plans are underway for a rather large event on November 13th to celebrate Dinovember. An animatronic T-Rex and a couple of friends will be here. The Milwaukee Public Museum will also be doing a couple of hands on programs. Dinosaurs will be taking over the library.
   2. President's - None.
   3. Village Update - Landgraf noted that the village board was working on the budget. Things are still very preliminary. Departments were coming forward with asks. Reese at Parks & Rec is looking for a pickle ball court. There is talk about making the street where the Farmer’s Market is into grass. The search of an administrator will be underway soon. The Finance Director search is currently underway. Landgraf noted that children age 10-16 have little to do in the village so there is some talk about a swimming pool or skate park have also been of interest as are good trails for bikes.
7. Old Business
   1. Continued discussion about the strategic planning process and survey.
      • Berg, Tollefson, and Svetlik reviewed the aggregated data as well as the raw data. Four major themes arose. Library Staff is the greatest asset of the library, followed by books (which still seem to be the library’s brand),and programming. Communication seemed to be an overarching issue. People didn’t know that the library does – or used to pre-pandemic—a number of the things they are suggesting. It’s a balancing act between getting information out again and again so it sticks, but not too often so that it is ignored. These four buckets should allow for the creation of a strategic plan. The raw data includes suggestions that can help fill in the details.
   2. 2022 Budget
      • Berg shared a budget with a 1.91% increase on the operating portion of the budget. Increases in the wage line acknowledges the data in the survey by trying to retain good staff members who can go and work at Woodman’s for $15 an hour and McDonald’s at $14/hour. We start people at $10 an hour. No hourly staff member is making even $12 an hour. Many of our staff are long-term employees some of whom may be retiring in the not-too-distant future. The library won’t be able to recruit new staff members at the current wages. This increase will start to move wages into line with other local businesses. Other increases are for materials and automation. We would be adding Hoopla which is a service that has video, audio books, and e books. This also addresses something raised in the survey.
        • Berg was unable to share the document so discussed the line items and emailed out the document after the meeting. The proposed budget is a 1.91% increase on the operating budget excluding the building maintenance portion of budget.
        • Action: The board gave a thumbs up to moving this draft on the village.
8. New Business
   1. None.
9. Future Agenda Items
   1. Develop and approve Long Range Plan
   2. 2022 Budget
10. Adjournment
    • Motion to Adjourn: Englesby
    • Second: Zeimet.
    • Action: All approved.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:03 p.m. Next meeting November 4th, 2021.

Back to Library Board