JACKSON-GEORGE REGIONAL LIBRARY SYSTEM

www.jgrls.org

MONTHLY MANAGER’S MEETING

Pascagoula Public Library

July 14, 2010

1:30 –Branch Managers

2:30-All Managers Meeting

1. CALL TO ORDER / ROLL CALL

2. DIRECTOR – Hewlett

a. 2010 MLA Conference (October 20-22, 2010)

b. LSTA Grants

c. PUF Form Follow Up

d. Cancelled Storytime or YS Programs

e. Checking Book Drop After Hours

f. Hours for Exempt Staff/Professionals

g. Managing the Schedule

h. Reader-to-Reader Program (Helen Barlow/Rebecca Wheeler)

i. Article and book by Marilyn Johnson

3. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF

a. Administrative Asst/Personnel Asst - Winters

· Personal Social Networking Policy

· Public Computer Survey

· Evaluations and Merit Pay Committee Report

b. Assistant Director – St. Amant

· Utilities

c. Business Manager – Wells

· PERS

· State Health Insurance

d. Public Relations – Bridges

· August Promotions

· Go Green Program and Electric Meter Check-out

d. Staff Development and Training – Parton

· Children with Adults at Public Computers

· Expired Cards/Computer Use/Fines

e. Youth Services Coordinator

· SRP Wrap-Up Meeting

4. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM BRANCH MANAGERS

a. Gautier Public Library - West

5. ANNOUNCEMENTS

· Regional Board Meeting, Tuesday, July 27, 2010, Pascagoula Public Library Board Room, 1:00 p.m.

· Branch Manager’s Meeting – Wednesday, July 28, 2010, Pascagoula Public Library, 1:30 p.m.

· Managers Meeting – Wednesday, August 11, 2010, Pascagoula Public Library, 1:30 p.m.

6. ADJOURNMENT

JACKSON-GEORGE REGIONAL LIBRARY SYSTEM

Manager’s Meeting Minutes

July 14, 2010

1:30 –Branch Managers

2:30-All Managers Meeting

Pascagoula Public Library

1. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL — Carol Hewlett, Cynthia Winters, Amy Sherman-Oliver, Karen Wells, Faith Kelleher, Alisa St. Amant, Jeanne Jones, Janis Zuleeg, Rebecca Wheeler, Helen Barlow, Lori Smith, Jo Anne West, Dana Woods, Rex Bridges, Bethany Carlisle and Yvonne Parton.

2. DIRECTOR—Hewlett

a. 2010 MLA Conference – The 2010 MLA Conference will be in Vicksburg October 20-22, 2010. Let Carol know if you are interested in going. Rex and Bethany are who I have heard from so far that are going to attend. Yvonne is interested, but will wait until the program is on the MLA website.

b. LSTA Grants – Alisa has almost completed the LSTA grant application for the genealogy department.

c. PUF Form Follow-Up – Please be aware that this is an in-house document and it is only to be filled out by the staff and not the customer. Copies of the PUF form should also not be given to a customer.

d. Cancelled Storytime or YS Programs – If you have to cancel storytime and/or a YS program, Bethany needs to be notified. She may be able to take care of it herself or have an alternate suggestion.

e. Checking Book Drop After Hours – If any exempt staff member is going by the library to check the book drop after hours they need to be paid for at least 1 hour since it is job related. It would be better to find another solution so that a staff member, exempt or non-exempt, isn’t in the building by themselves.

f. Hours for Exempt Staff/Professionals – Exempt staff are considered professionals and not hourly employees.

g. Managing the Schedule – Please try to solve your scheduling problems in-house or with another branch before asking for a floater, especially on Friday and Saturday.

h. Reader-to-Reader Program (Barlow/Wheeler) – This is a program to get books to rural libraries, i.e., East Central and Lucedale. Helen and Becky investigated the program and this year they will be receiving mystery writers books that can be shared with the rest of the system.

i. Article and Book by Marilyn Johnson (copy on file) – Carol distributed an article by Marilyn Johnson entitled “Public libraries: We destroy them at our peril” that would be a useful read for staff and customers concerning the cutting of public library funds. She is also the author of “This Book is Overdue!”

3. ADDITIONAL REPORTS FROM ADMINISTRATION STAFF

· Administrative Assistant/Personnel Assistant – Winters: A social networking policy was distributed (copy on file) for the managers and administrative staff to review before it is presented to the Board. An on-line copy will be sent by Cindy to all managers and any additions or changes need to be sent to her by July 22, 2010. A copy of a required MLC public computer survey was distributed (copy on file) to branch managers and customers will be asked to complete the weeks of August 16-28, 2010. Please have your staff encourage customers to fill it out and return it to the survey box. If you need a survey box, please contact Rex. New performance evaluations and procedures will be coming within the next year as explained in the branch managers meeting previously held. Cindy will get with Carol and the admin staff for their input also.

· Assistant Director – St. Amant: Please work with your custodians to make sure that your branch is doing everything possible about problems that could cause high utility bills, such as checking for any leaks, toilet running, etc.

· Business Manager – Wells: As you know PERS is going from 7.5% to 9.00% on employees’ contributions July 1, 2010, but also anyone retiring after July 2010 will receive an extra 15 days if they have 30 years in the system. Effective January 1, 2011, employees will have to pay a portion of their health care if they remain with the lower deductible. There is no charge if the employee goes with the higher deductible. Changes to health insurance need to be addressed during open enrollment in October.

· Public Relations – Bridges: Promotions in August: Read Down Fines Continues in August: 1)    Read Down Fines – patrons will NOT be able to use this to pay for lost items.  It will be for overdue fines and replacement cards only.  Get rid of all of the old flyers on hand and replace with new ones, make sure all staff know, etc.  
GO! Green promotion & Electric Meter check-outs - Singing River Electric Grant Awarded!  JGRLS applied for the quarterly SRE community grant last month. The grant application was submitted by Rex Bridges and Alisa St. Amant. We were approved recently for a grant that will be used to purchase Kill A Watt electricity usage monitors. This devise enables anyone to easily make the decisions that can save money and reduce electrical consumption.  Anyone can easily measure appliance use by connecting the device between outlet and an appliance and reading the electrical consumption by the Kilowatt-hour on the large LCD display. Then, figure out the electrical expense by the day, month or year simply by multiplying consumption with local utility’s usage rate. It is hoped that by educating the public with using this meter they will discover new ways to save energy and save on their electric bill each month. This will also add to the services offered by our public libraries and offer the opportunity to improve lives of those who use it. The grant amount awarded was $672.00 for the total cost of the project. The public would be informed of the project by way of public announcements in the media, prominently featured on the library website, bookmarks and posters inside the library and smaller signs at area businesses and community centers. We will also include a “Going Green” promotion during this time with book and library materials displays at all branches.  This promotion should start in August 2010. You are HIGHLY encouraged to create a large GO! GREEN! book display! Fill it with books, how-to videos and blue book bags along with the Kill-a-Watt meters with “how-to” flyers!! A bookmark and maybe a bibliography for “Go Green” will also be available.

· Staff Development and Training – Parton: Please make sure that your staff is aware of what goes on in the public computer area especially if a child and parent are sitting together at a computer that is not filtered. If there is a child, it has to be filtered and the staff needs to explain that this is a federal law (CIPA) and that we have to abide by it to receive federal funds (E-Rate). Discussion was held concerning not renewing expired library cards if there is a fine balance, especially for those customers using the public computers because an expired library card is the only way that the Envisionware software blocks a customer from using the computers. Carol asked that the branch managers think it over and a decision will be decided during the August meeting.

**LE@Ds Microsoft Office: Using Templates in Word and Publisher 2007 (1:30 – 4:30)  Register by 7/6

MS Power Point 2007 (1:30 – 4:30)

LE@Ds Microsoft Office: Using Templates in Word and Publisher 2007 (9:00)*** (Continued from 6/17)

· Youth Service Coordinator – Carlisle: SRP is going well and a wrap up meeting to discuss how it went, positive and negative, will be on July 19 at the Moss Point Branch for YS personnel and branch managers. Lunch will also be served that day.

4. ADDITIONAL REPORTS FROM BRANCH MANAGERS

· Gautier Public Library – West: Ashley Seawright is now Mrs. Fields. She got married in Maryland on their family vacation over the July 4^th weekend. Summer Reading has been calm and good this year. Thank goodness for the Gautier convention Center next door. Our largest crowd was 140 for the Splash Day event June 23 when I had to be in PG for a managers’ meeting. We would not have survived without the teen volunteers and Bethany over seeing many of the details. The latest wave of volunteers are those who are required to work 8 hours of community service a month to get their mortgage or college tuition paid. Because of public using the outside water, we now have locks on the water faucets. The company who refinished the parking lot not only cut one of our hoses, but left the water on overnight. My e-mail will be changing soon to gamgr in preparation for the new Gautier Branch Manager and to stop all the medical junk e-mails. I have a countdown going until March 1 which will be my last day at JGRLS. The retirement letter will be submitted in August to give six months notice. This will be my last year to serve as the Team Leader of the Book It For A Cure team of the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer with the American Cancer Society. The kick off Breakfast is August 14 at the Imperial Palace at 7:30am. Please go ahead and send me your donations for the silent auction. The goal is to get all the items catalogued and photographed the last week of August in order to be up on-line very soon after Labor Day. One quilt is already made for the quilt raffle and Gina Morgan is already planning the bi-weekly bake sale at Pascagoula/HQ. Gautier Friends will have a potluck dinner sometime in August and will consider doing another week long book sale again this year. If the pattern stays true, the Gautier Mullet & Music Festival will be the weekend of Oct. 16 & 17.

5. ANNOUNCEMENTS

· Regional Board Meeting, Tuesday, July 27, 2010, Pascagoula Public Library Board Room, 1:00 p.m.

· Branch Manager’s Meeting – Wednesday, July 28, 2010, Pascagoula Public Library, 1:30 p.m.

· Managers Meeting – Wednesday, August 11, 2010, Pascagoula Public Library, 1:30 p.m.

6. ADJOURNMENT – The meeting adjourned at 4:45 p.m.