Burlington Public Library Meeting Room

Minutes of the Burlington Public Library Board of Trustees.

The Burlington Public Library Board of Trustees met on Tuesday, November 23, 2004 in the Burlington Public Library meeting room. Present were Ed Johnson, Penny Torhorst, Pat Hoffman, Kay Pockat, Pat Hurley, Yvonne, Braunschweig and Jim Beardsley. Excused was: Barb Beere. Also present were Gayle Falk and Linda Bemdt, and Scott Johnson.

Gayle introduced Ruhama Kordatzky, our Children's Librarian, and she showed a short portion of the movie being shown to her Anime Club. She explained that Anime was Japanese animation that is very popular now with the junior high level students. It is a cartoon movie spoken in Japanese with English subtitles. It is also popular for the young artists interested in cartoon drawing. She said that 12 people attended the club's first meeting and 22 people attended the second. She will be showing this movie on Thursday, December 16th in the evening for this group.

Johnson called the meeting to order on 4:08. Minutes of the October 26, 2004 meeting were approved. Hurley moved and Hoffman seconded. Motion passed.

The November General Fund Bills, Prepaids and Reimbursements, and October General Fund Deposits were approved. Braunschweig moved and Hoffman seconded. Motion passed. There were no November Trust Fund Bills.

Committee Reports:

Personnel Committee: Hoffman reported that after the last meeting the Board went into closed session to discuss the Director's evaluation. Hoffman summed up the responses and composed a letter complimenting Falk on her work. Hoffman distributed a copy of the letter to all Board members, and also sent a copy to the Mayor.

Federated Library Report:

Falk had a contract from Lakeshores providing for reimbursements from the counties for serving county patrons, which needed to be signed by our Board President.

The county executive's original budget proposal cut the Mill Rate for reimbursement to libraries for serving Racine county patrons. At the Board's direction, Falk wrote a letter and sent it to the County Supervisors, asking them to not cut the Mill Rate. The Board eventually voted to preserve the Mill Rate at its current level.

Old Business:

HVAC Update – The sheet metal process is almost done, to be followed by installing the piping. This means the project is almost complete.

Lakeshores has extended the lease for another year for Packeteer.

New Business – Staff Appreciation. Falk asked for $100.00 in Friends money to purchase a Christmas gift for staff appreciation. Board members suggested raising the amount to $200. Hoffman moved and Braunschweig seconded. Motion passed.

Falk also requested $25.00 of Friends money for a gift for our permanent volunteer. Torhorst moved and Hoffman seconded. Motion passed.

Director's Report:

Gayle wanted to welcome, Scott Johnson, whose nomination to become our new Board member goes to the City Council December 7. He was already well known to many of the board members.

We have a CD coming due on December 14th. We will need to decide on that issue next month.

Tammy is working on getting the internet guidelines sign-up sheet available on the Internet. Once the online guidelines are in place, we will still have to sign adults up at the desk on the calendar but we won't have to have them sign a piece of paper. When they get to the internet station they will need to agree to the guidelines and then click on agree to reach the Internet. We will still need to sign up the children the same way we have always done, requiring a parental permission slip.

Falk reported that Tammy has a call scheduled with Sirsi next week to review our circulation numbers.

In the News:

There is an article about the Mill Rate, and one about the HAPLR report and our standing in that report.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, December 14th at 4:00 PM at the Burlington Public Library .The Board has expressed an interest in taking a tour of the library so we will do that at the next meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

James Beardsley
Aldermanic Representative