Present: Leslie Schoenherr, President; Dee Magnoni, Vice President; Cathy Lee, Treasurer; Linda Horn, Tom Jewell, Paul Kissman, MBLC; Sunny Vandermark; Metrowest
Meeting called to order @ 2:40
Motion to accept: Magnoni/Schoenherr
Jeanne Smyth was scheduled to speak but was not present at the meeting. She will speak at the May meeting.
The Board discussed minor salary and benefit cost increases including health insurance and life insurance/disability.
The October 2005 budget revision zeroed out line items for library materials, computer software and hardware but expenditures were made in these line items before the budget was changed.
Cost saving suggestions include: a less expensive Internet Service Provider, decrease the continuing education line item because it is not possible to line up all of the speakers, reduce funding for the summer reading program, reduce advisory and technical assistance, and reduce delivery.
Due to these budget revisions, there is a chance that there will not be enough money to fund all of the online databases. The budget may have to be squeezed further.
The proposed state budget does not provide much additional funding for Regional library systems. According to Sunny, the increase will help fund delivery, but there will be a shortfall for online databases. Tom Jewell explained that the legislators prefer voting for local aid more than for additional money for the regional systems.
The contract addendum was returned by Eastern Connection with modifications in early April. Eastern Connection removed language such as that deliveries must be made between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and penalties for not picking up all of the bins. Sunny is trying to speak with the president of Eastern Connection to find out why Eastern Connection removed language. Eastern Connection is having problems with the bin-sorting part of this contract.
Tom Jewell and Sunny both agreed that Eastern Connection may not be interested in keeping the contract with Metrowest. Since January, the number of bins picked up was over the limit in the contract once but under the limit several times. Tom suggested holding back payments for the under the limit weeks less the over the limit week to help get Eastern Connection to come to terms with Metrowest about the contract.
Sunny gave an update. Becky Schreiber is the consultant for this project and she wants to start the strategic planning process with a pre=planning meeting. There will be fewer focus sessions than were originally planned. The planning meeting will be sometime around 4/24. The two-day meeting will be in mid to late June. According to Leslie, Becky is a high-energy person who can get a lot of work done quickly.
Beth Gallway prepared the five-page report about the 2006 Metrowest Professional Development / Continuing Education Survey. It also served as a promotional device for the Workshops to Go. One survey result was that 58% of respondents were previously unaware of Metrowest’s Workshops to Go service but 82% of them are interested in the service. Only 34% of the responses were from school libraries but they make up 67% of the Metrowest’s membership.
Certification of school libraries took six months to make sure they have the correct staff. Six libraries did not receive certification. Several libraries have provisional certification and have extensions until September. Public schools need library teacher certification. Private schools need a librarian with a master’s degree in library science.
Sunny also reported about the conference she attended about outcome based evaluation training. Outcome based evaluation will help Metrowest measure the effectiveness of the continuing education courses it provides.
Paul Kissman gave an update about the LSTA grants. The MBLC received 86 applications requesting over $1.6 million for the March 9 grant round. Last year the MBLC received 91 applications. Fifteen libraries were accepted into the Equal Access training program. After the libraries complete the training, $75,000 in LSTA funds is available to these libraries. Presently these libraries have requested $170,331 more than the budgeted amount. Final decisions on grant awards will be made by the State Advisory Council on Libraries (SACL) on July 6.
A second building construction grant was awarded to Cambridge giving Cambridge a total of $10.6 million in construction. Although there is a waiting list of 34 libraries, Cambridge was able to get an award because three other libraries had to bail out. New money is needed to make further grants.
Meeting adjourned @ 4:05
NEXT EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING: May 10, 2006
Respectively Submitted
Bobbie Myles, Clerk
On March 10, 2006 the Metrowest/Minuteman Library Network Delivery Committee met with Rob Maier and Paul Kissman to discuss our delivery issues. It was an opportunity to provide Rob details on the time library staff spend on delivery, the cost to libraries and to Metrowest. Susan McAlister from MLN discussed procedures that MLN had undertaken to try to reduce the volume of delivery. We did not reach any startling conclusions. It was helpful to have the conversation.
Metrowest is undertaking its semi-annual delivery survey this week. Judy has asked libraries to tell us the number of bins left behind, in addition to the number delivered and the number of items. It will be several weeks before we have the results. Carol Mitchitson sent me a spreadsheet of the pickup/delivery totals. We have gone over the 1750 threshold two times according to their figures.
The EDCO group met at Metrowest on March 17th. It is a good opportunity for school librarians to meet with vendors. And for Metrowest to get a chance to see a number of our school members. EDCO also used our space on April 5th for a workshop led by an EDCO presenter.
Beth, Rita and I attended PLA. Both Judy and Carol were able to go to the exhibits. There was general enthusiasm for the conference. The MBLC and Simmons hosted a reception on March 23rd which I attended. And the BPL had a conference wide reception on March 24th.
The Budget Committee met on March 27th to discuss possible revisions to the FY2006 budget. I have included the materials sent to the Budget Committee for your information.
Presidents, Administrators and Liaisons had a meeting at SEMLS on March 29th. We spent most of the time discussing the MBLC legislative Agenda and the impact of potential budget increases. These meetings are an opportunity for the Presidents to hear what is happening in the other regions.
I attended the Digital Commonwealth meeting at Worcester Public Library on March 30th. The attendees approved by-laws, a preliminary fee structure, a governance board, and heard a very informative presentation by Roy Tennant of the California Digital Library Project. The Digital Commonwealth is going to be a very exciting endeavor.
The Statewide Delivery Committee met again on April 3rd. We had presentations from Carolyn Noah from CMRLS on how they do their sorting, and Patience Jackson on space needs for delivery. We talked about delivery volume in the other regions/networks and how each is dealing with the issues.
The MLA Legislative Day took place on April 5th. There was a pretty good turnout of librarians and an excellent turn out of legislators. The legislative message seems pretty clear this year.
I wrote letters to all of the Friends groups who contributed to the Metrowest legislative Breakfasts. After paying the bills we had $300 that we are sending to MLA to help support Legislative Day. Thank you to Maryellen Loud, Robbins Library Director for sending the letters to Friends Groups requesting help in funding the breakfasts..
I attended the MBLC meeting at the Worcester Public Library on April 6th. There was an opportunity for attendees to tour the Worcester Talking Book facility after the meeting.
I am one of three people from Massachusetts attending a two day workshop on Outcome Based Evaluation (OBE) in Washington DC on April 10-11. The focus will be on Outcomes for Continuing Education. Since this is a major focus of Metrowest service it seemed like an excellent opportunity to learn a new skill.
A brief report based on results of the Recent Professional Development/Continuing Education survey is included for your information. I will discuss the results at the Board meeting. Beth compiled the results and developed the Brief Report with some editing from me. Thank you Beth!
This afternoon the Regional Reference Committee is meeting to take one more review of the Database Survey that we plan to implement after the April vacation. This will allow us to collect information from our members that will feed into the MBLC RFP process just being started.
See you all on Wednesday April 12th at 2:30 pm.