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AADL Board of Trustees Meeting - December 18th, 2017

When: December 18, 2017 at Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

Watch the December 2017 Meeting of the AADL Board of Trustees. Select an agenda item below to jump to that point in the transcript. 
For more information, please see the Board Packet for this meeting.

117-184 I. CALL TO ORDER
17-185 II. ATTENDANCE
17-186 III. VOTE FOR CLOSED SESSION FOR DISCUSSION OF REAL ESTATE (Item of action) Roll call vote
17-187 IV. RECESS TO CLOSED SESSION FOR DISCUSSION OF REAL ESTATE
17-188 V. RECONVENE REGULAR MEETING AT 7:00PM
17-189 VI. APPROVAL OF AGENDA (Item of action)
17-190 VII. CONSENT AGENDA (Item of action)
CA-1 Approval of Minutes of November 13, 2017
CA-2 Approval of November 2017 Disbursements
17-191 VIII. CITIZENS’ COMMENTS
17-192 IX. FINANCIAL REPORTS Bill Cooper, Finance Manager
17-193 X. COMMITTEE REPORTS
17-194 A. BUDGET & FINANCE COMMITTEE
17-195 B. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
17-196 XI. DIRECTOR’S REPORT Josie B. Parker, Director
17-197 XII. OLD BUSINESS
17-146 A. BRIDGEPORT CONSULTING, LLC Sarah Raful Whinston
16-154 B. AADL STRATEGIC PLAN GOAL 3.3: REIMAGINE THE ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY’S DOWNTOWN PRESENCE (Item of discussion)
16-154 C. AADL STRATEGIC PLAN GOAL 4.3: IMPLEMENT THE NEW WEB PRESENCE - UPDATE Eli Neiburger, Deputy Director
17-198 XIII. NEW BUSINESS
17-199 A. AUDITOR’S REPORT Tracey Kasparek, Rehmann
17-200 B. RESOLUTION TO ACCEPT THE 2016-2017 FINANCIAL AUDIT (Item of action)
17-201 C. RESOLUTION OF THANKS TO DEBBIE GALLAGHER UPON HER RETIREMENT (Item of action)
17-202 D. RESOLUTION OF THANKS TO RACHEL YANIKOGLU UPON HER RETIREMENT (Item of action)
17-203 XIV. CITIZENS’ COMMENTS
17-204 XV. ADJOURNMENT

Transcript

  • [00:00:01.74] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So we are back here reconvening. We're at the point of approving the agenda, I believe. So let the meeting start with a motion. correct?
  • [00:00:10.97] JIM LEIJA: Yeah, I would like to motion a-- [INAUDIBLE] is it a new business. That's right?
  • [00:00:24.21] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: You're talking about--
  • [00:00:24.87] JIM LEIJA: Developing new business.
  • [00:00:25.80] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: For a closed session?
  • [00:00:27.20] JIM LEIJA: Yeah.
  • [00:00:28.35] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: We usually do that as one of the very last things, so yes, it must be.
  • [00:00:32.69] JIM LEIJA: I'd like to add an agenda item to vote for a closed session for the session of real estate.
  • [00:00:41.48] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK. In January?
  • [00:00:42.48] JIM LEIJA: In January.
  • [00:00:44.08] [INAUDIBLE].
  • [00:00:45.82] JIM LEIJA: Yes. And then so I move to do that.
  • [00:00:51.35] COLLEEN SHERMAN: And I can second, but then we approve it at the end of the meeting?
  • [00:00:54.76] JIM LEIJA: We're just adding agenda items.
  • [00:00:56.48] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Oh, I get it.
  • [00:00:58.15] OK. I second.
  • [00:00:59.60] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: And then do you want to add another agenda item?
  • [00:01:02.89] JIM LEIJA: We have to vote on [INAUDIBLE].
  • [00:01:04.25] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Oh, yeah. OK. All in favor?
  • [00:01:08.13] MULTIPLE: Aye.
  • [00:01:10.56] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Opposed? All right.
  • [00:01:14.13] JIM LEIJA: And then I would also like to add the agenda item, in new business discussion of our 2018 meeting schedule.
  • [00:01:24.88] LINH SONG: In January?
  • [00:01:27.79] JIM LEIJA: We need to discuss the meeting schedule for 2018.
  • [00:01:30.96] LINH SONG: Yes. I second.
  • [00:01:33.71] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Are we all in favor?
  • [00:01:36.06] JOSIE PARKER: For that, I would ask that we [INAUDIBLE] back to the audit presentation.
  • [00:01:39.53] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah. Opposed? All right. So now the agenda has been slightly amended to include two additional items. So as it stands, is there a motion to improve the agenda?
  • [00:01:57.22] JIM LEIJA: Second.
  • [00:01:58.69] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: All those in favor?
  • [00:02:00.13] MULTIPLE: Aye.
  • [00:02:01.58] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Opposed? OK. Great. So that brings us back here to the consent agenda.
  • [00:02:11.55] JIM LEIJA: I move to approve the consent agenda.
  • [00:02:15.45] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Second. All in favor?
  • [00:02:18.43] MULTIPLE: Aye.
  • [00:02:19.83] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Opposed? OK. Citizens' comments, Karen?
  • [00:02:24.77] KAREN WILSON: I have not received any.
  • [00:02:26.69] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK. Well, if you change your mind, you can always talk at the end of the week. Financial reports. Oh, there you are.
  • [00:02:39.00] BILL COOPER: Good evening, everyone. You have my report in front of you. As of November 30, 2017, we have collected $15,054,972, or 96.5% of our budgeted tax receipts for the year. And we are currently year to date under budget by $962,542. Are there any questions?
  • [00:03:08.07] ED SUROVELL: Is that under projected budget?
  • [00:03:11.22] BILL COOPER: Yes.
  • [00:03:11.95] ED SUROVELL: OK. So with the 3.5% not yet collected, that's the $960,000 that would make it full budget?
  • [00:03:23.46] BILL COOPER: That's correct.
  • [00:03:32.32] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Any other questions? Thank you very much. That brings us fittingly to budget and finance.
  • [00:03:43.08] JIM LEIJA: The budget and finance committee met to review the findings of the audit, which will be presented this evening. And I do believe we will be presented with a clean opinion, most importantly. We also had another agenda item to carry on the conversation about the financial model behind the press at the AADL.
  • [00:04:08.49] The action step, as I recall, is to look at what the benchmark might be for other programs like this to see what kinds of licensing agreements are being made with others. We're not sure what we're going to find, because this is a relatively new type of initiative in the industry. But that is the next step, to look at comparable licensing agreements.
  • [00:04:37.29] As people will recall from our discussion as a full board, there was some conversation around the current licensing agreement with authors that contract with the library. Essentially, the library doesn't hold any copyright or receive any kind of fiduciary benefit from the publication and sale of these books, which is, in general, fine until perhaps someone writes Harry Potter. And then maybe we would like to benefit from that.
  • [00:05:07.20] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: And then it still might be fine--
  • [00:05:08.35] JIM LEIJA: And still might be fine
  • [00:05:08.65] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: --according to some of us.
  • [00:05:09.59] JIM LEIJA: So we're doing our research with the staff to understand. It would actually be absolutely fine in either case.
  • [00:05:18.97] We're doing our research to just dig a little deeper into how these arrangements are made with other peer organizations. That is all that I have to report from the B&F committee.
  • [00:05:32.42] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Any questions? I know there was interest in discussing that last bit, although perhaps the people who were most interested in it were on the committee anyhow and had got to discuss it. But any further questions?
  • [00:05:46.66] LINH SONG: We discussed it.
  • [00:05:48.68] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Great.
  • [00:05:48.95] JIM LEIJA: I was one of those interested parties, so I had many of my questions answered.
  • [00:05:53.09] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Great. Well, then, let's move onto the executive committee. So the executive committee has met twice since we were last together. The first time we met on November 30, with John Cavana.
  • [00:06:06.35] JOSIE PARKER: Cavanagh.
  • [00:06:06.93] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Cavanagh. OK. I need to mess his name up at every board meeting. That's required. So he presented us with the survey that we gave to the public the last time we conducted an Epic-MRA survey.
  • [00:06:22.30] And we went through that with him question by question and evaluated whether the questions we asked during the last time made sense to ask this time. We talked about how we're reevaluating the presence of the library, and we want to ask questions related to that. Whereas the last time we talked more about Westgate and what features people wanted to see there and communications.
  • [00:06:45.89] And he took all of our feedback and has prepared for us something which is stapled on your desks. It's in the ephemera packet, if you have the board packet online. And so we'll talk about this when we get to the 3.3 section of the agenda.
  • [00:07:05.06] But I just want to make sure that you know that this is here. And then we met again a week ago tonight to discuss the director's evaluation process. And we received all the information from Sarah, who is here tonight. And she is going to present that to you, so I won't go into detail about that. Any questions?
  • [00:07:28.25] LINH SONG: We should probably say that the survey is not the final.
  • [00:07:33.40] JOSIE PARKER: And it's not posted online because it's a draft.
  • [00:07:35.69] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Oh, I'm sorry.
  • [00:07:36.65] JOSIE PARKER: That's all right.
  • [00:07:37.34] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Sorry to the five people who are watching online, but this is not in your online packet yet. But you'll see it eventually. Great. So we'll discuss this draft later on. Great. So let's move on to the director's report.
  • [00:07:57.82] JOSIE PARKER: Thank you. So the first slide is going to be about the five-star library for 10 years in a row. And I just want to say as the director of a library that's achieved this, the thanks truly goes to the folks who work at the library and all the levels of all the work that happens.
  • [00:08:21.87] You can't pull this off for 10 years in a row without a lot of commitment and consistency and a lot of talent and enthusiasm and creativity. And that's what we have here, and it's pretty remarkable. And it's a pure pleasure if you're in my job. And I want to publicly make that statement that I feel so, so proud of that.
  • [00:08:45.83] Also, we acknowledge this evening those who have served as governing board members of the library from before it was a district to today-- and a reception upstairs-- and how important it is to knowledge and understand those persons who've been in those positions have made sure the library had the support and funding from the community and were that voice and that messenger out. That is critical. So it takes all of it.
  • [00:09:12.90] The Friends of the Library the Lady's Library Association, the people who come in weekly, the people who come in monthly, the people who come in once a year, the people never come in but who gladly pay to have a great public library in their community are all to be thanked for this-- so amazing. This map shows you those 13 libraries that have achieved five stars for 10 years. Only 13 out of the thousands in America were able to do this, and we're one of them.
  • [00:09:39.18] And it's just a great thrill, and we're pleased. I do want to comment that the West Bloomfield Public Library was a four-star library in Michigan this year. And the Richland-- did I get it right, Richland-- Public Library was five star in Michigan last year. It's the one time we had a partner.
  • [00:10:02.23] And this year they're four stars. So we're so pleased for them as well. So in Michigan, there are libraries every year that join us on this list, but just not where we are on this list. So thank you all.
  • [00:10:15.52] Thank you very much. It's wonderful, to the public, whoever is watching. This is bigger news, really, first for the ones of us who are at work every day at the library. We're going to be launching a new website and a new-- what most people call the catalog, a new catalog.
  • [00:10:31.56] In the industry, it's an ILS system, but to most of the folks who use the library it's a catalog. In January, January 2. So this is a handout that's been given out at the desks. The board members all have received one.
  • [00:10:46.43] And we're posting information about this on social media and on the library website to make sure everyone knows what's happening when, what they can expect to see going on with their card, and the closures around this. We will be closing on the 30th, the 31st, and the 1st. We will not have a website on those three days. There will not be a catalog.
  • [00:11:09.45] So the library really will not be open. And it's not happened in 10 years, so I want to make sure that we all know that's going to happen. And then on January 2, it all comes back open, and it's up. Right, Eli?
  • [00:11:26.18] ELI NEIBURGER: Yep.
  • [00:11:26.62] [LAUGHING]
  • [00:11:27.94] JOSIE PARKER: So a lot of work has gone into this. It's going to be great. It's going to be amazing. We spent over a year planning the website and three years planning the new catalog system. Thank you. Go ahead.
  • [00:11:38.40] And this is the fourth floor. Board room has been redecorated, redone. The UN model desks have been taken out, and we've re-carpeted and repainted. There's new lighting.
  • [00:11:54.66] There will be new sound and new video placed in that space for meetings. And you see it. As it's now configured, the curved wall remains at the back. Just because of the way it was built, it's too much trouble and too expensive to take it out.
  • [00:12:16.63] So it's left there. But otherwise that room is a great, big, open space now. So there is a program there this evening in that space. These are some of the comments that we thought you'd want to see.
  • [00:12:31.29] We had a wonderful program at Pittsfield. Dr. King, who was there, posed with a family who let us know that they had recently moved to Pittsfield Township, and that was their first time at the library. And they'll be back to get their cards for the whole family.
  • [00:12:49.63] So it was a really great picture. We're really happy about that. Rachel Yanikoglu, who we'll acknowledge later, retired after over 30 years at AADL. And we put up a Facebook retirement page, and Rachel got lots of love.
  • [00:13:07.95] And so these are photographs of Rachel on her last day. And there's a picture of the Bookmobile. Rachel drove it and managed the Bookmobile service here in its early years.
  • [00:13:19.34] This is a summary of some of the staff comments-- public comments, excuse me-- around the five-star. And I really can't read it from here. So was there one in particular?
  • [00:13:36.66] ELI NEIBURGER: Not in particular.
  • [00:13:37.45] JOSIE PARKER: OK. So all good, obviously. And this little fella was proud to show his library card. He is a student. He's super excited because of his field trip to the library.
  • [00:13:49.54] And he got his card, and he was so ready about that-- that one. And then this is someone who came to the bookshop and to the big sale. Took a picture of all of the books that he bought and how happy he is about the library and the bookshop, in particular.
  • [00:14:09.19] This is a person who is learning to crochet. And he has shared his experience with us and others in a very fun and happy way. He has a picture of this crochet.
  • [00:14:23.08] And there's a picture of Tiny Expo and all the crowds and all the people who were there. And it's a great place to get wonderful handmade items that will last for a very long time from local craftsmen and artisans in the public library, in the lobby. It's very cool.
  • [00:14:44.14] The Traverwood branch somehow made it back out in architectural circles a couple of months ago. And when it did, it was bounced back around. And we got some great feedback from our public about how much they love the architecture in Traverwood branch. So some things just keep coming.
  • [00:15:04.87] The tools collection-- I like this one. This is a patron who calls himself "Resistant Patriot." I can see that.
  • [00:15:13.69] "I appreciate AADL for expanding the library services to include toys, musical instruments, scientific tools, in addition to books, video, sound recordings, magazines, newspapers, digital information, and especially for promoting peace, justice, equality for all. Proud to be a patron." I thought that's a good one. That's my report. Thank you.
  • [00:15:39.04] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Great. Any questions for Josie? I was so sad to miss Tiny Expo. I don't think I've ever missed it before. I know others were there.
  • [00:15:47.67] LINH SONG: I was there. I had missed Colleen and Victoria. It was crowded, quite crowded.
  • [00:15:53.76] JOSIE PARKER: It was very crowded. It was very well attended. It was that snowy Saturday, but not too bad. People were here all downtown, and they were coming in the whole time. I think, from what I understand, the craftspersons and artisans were very pleased. And the folks who came in were pleased at the variety of what was available. So that's always a good sign when people tell you that they felt like they got a lot of opportunity because it wasn't a lot of one type of thing.
  • [00:16:29.64] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Do we jury that at all?
  • [00:16:32.24] JOSIE PARKER: We do. Yes, we do. We jury. We try to make sure that there's a variety and that it's quality. And some people come back almost every year. And then there are all new vendors every year as well.
  • [00:16:47.04] VICTORIA GREEN: And it was a great event and super energizing. And I think the staff did a great job with a tough location for it. Because it is hard, I think, to get all that activity into a space that we have to use for something else every day. So thank you to everyone who did that.
  • [00:17:01.98] JOSIE PARKER: Yes. Everything has been moved out and then put back, yes. You're right. Thank you, Victoria.
  • [00:17:11.06] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK. Well, I think that brings us to Sarah Winston. So you have in front of you materials that she's going to talk about.
  • [00:17:23.70] Well, this is-- would you call this a draft? But it's not a draft anymore, but it's not yet part of the public record. But it will be very soon.
  • [00:17:32.86] SARAH WINSTON: Correct.
  • [00:17:33.73] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: But you have in front of you.
  • [00:17:39.19] SARAH WINSTON: It has been a real honor and a real privilege to work on this process for all of you. And it's really been fantastic to work with Josie and work with the executive committee. So I thank you for that honor to be here.
  • [00:17:54.13] So I wanted to just do quick highlights of what we found and how we created the process. The biggest takeaway was that we wanted to focus that the formal evaluation, the yearly evaluation, of the library director is really less on her performance and it's more about the organization. We wanted to encapsulate the fact that the organization is moving forward.
  • [00:18:19.32] And we wanted to give the library director a chance to reflect on the work of the library director-- on the library for the last year and looking forward to the future and what challenges have happened in the organization. So whereas in other evaluations that sometimes the evaluation is focused on the person and on the performance of the library director, what we found was that in libraries such as ours the real focus is on the organization. Where were its shortcomings, where were its successes, and where do we want to move forward?
  • [00:18:55.10] So that's the formal yearly evaluation. The informal evaluation, the more informal feedback sessions, are on performance. And that's really the distinction between the two. And I think that's really the clear takeaway that we wanted to present to all of you.
  • [00:19:14.68] So I want to jump into the timeline, because I think that really talks about each of the different pieces of the-- here we go. On page 6 it should be, in your packet. The timeline will go through all the different pieces of the evaluation process that we have proposed.
  • [00:19:34.78] So the first piece is the narrative that the library director will create. If you go to the next page, on page 7, there's a list of-- these are different pieces that we think are important for the library director to create-- I'm sorry to reflect on. Things like finance, facilities, and products and services and making sure to talk about both the successes as well as the challenges in each of these departments.
  • [00:20:09.76] And then if you go to the next page, on page 8, that there is really a reflection piece on what were the projects that maybe could have gone better and so that there's a real piece of reflection. And I'm thinking about how we can always improve. I know Josie is never satisfied with just the status quo.
  • [00:20:30.59] So he's always thinking about how to make things better. So this is just a little nudge for Josie, not that she needs any nudges. So that's the narrative, and so she'll write this narrative.
  • [00:20:43.09] At the end of the month, if you go back to page 6-- I'm still on the timeline-- the executive committee will review the document, meet with the director to discuss, request clarification, and then write the memo. So this memo will be a compilation of evaluations from each of you. And so that is one of the biggest pieces that is new in this process.
  • [00:21:12.62] If you go to page 8, you'll see the evaluation form that's written up for each of the board of trustees, so that you all have a sense and a say in how the evaluation and the memo is created as a place to say, I, on the board of trustees, this is how I feel that the library has done up until now. And this is where I feel like there are opportunities for even more success. And so the library director-- I'm sorry, the executive committee, specifically the president, will create this memo that will encapsulate all of your pieces of feedback.
  • [00:21:55.91] Whereas in the past there's been a lot of focus on maybe numbers, the most important part of this evaluation tool is that there is a narrative. And so you can see now on page 9 and 10 and 11 that there is a lot of room for narrative, for specifics, for things that you feel have gone really well-- that it's not enough just to put a number, that there has to be specifics. Because otherwise we don't know how we can constantly improve or constantly succeed.
  • [00:22:31.53] So that's the evaluation and the transmittal memo. You can see next on page 7, the board president will share the narrative and the memo with the full board. And then the trustees will each review the packet and individually complete the evaluation form-- I'm sorry, the evaluation form is there-- and submit it to the board president. And then what will happen is the executive committee will convene a special meeting for the board to discuss both memo as well as the narrative in a full packet to be able to bring to the public into the board meeting in May.
  • [00:23:17.11] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Now, does this mean that the individual trustees will make their evaluations this way?
  • [00:23:26.21] SARAH WINSTON: Correct.
  • [00:23:26.72] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: And then the president would create a narrative bringing all of those points of view together.
  • [00:23:33.21] SARAH WINSTON: That's exactly right.
  • [00:23:33.92] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Then the executive committee will decide if they approve of the narrative?
  • [00:23:40.44] SARAH WINSTON: Approve of the narrative from the board president?
  • [00:23:43.58] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Yes. Before it's presented to the director?
  • [00:23:46.47] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: You all have the ability to. The executive committee will convene a special session. And then because of the Open Meetings Act, Josie will have the ability to say whether she permits us to do that and whether we can be there, whether or not she is there. And then we'll all talk about it together.
  • [00:24:05.26] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I'm still not quite--
  • [00:24:06.69] JIM LEIJA: I know what you're asking, Jan. So what happens is that we all as individuals will fill out the form, and that will go to the president, currently Jamie. Jamie will do as you were saying, which is to create a summary--
  • [00:24:20.12] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: A compilation.
  • [00:24:20.78] JIM LEIJA: --a compilation that includes all of our feedback. That compilation will then come back to the full board for our review and approval--
  • [00:24:28.44] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: --before it's presented.
  • [00:24:29.44] JIM LEIJA: --before it's presented to Josie. That's right.
  • [00:24:31.54] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: That's a process we've-- that part is what we've done in the past. But the other evaluation part is not, so that's good.
  • [00:24:39.99] JIM LEIJA: That's right.
  • [00:24:40.91] SARAH WINSTON: Because we really wanted to make sure that everybody has a voice. And again, as I said before, that it's not just numbers, because numbers don't tell a story. They don't give color.
  • [00:24:53.10] They're black and white. And as you'll see, it's important to provide metrics. And that's part of the conversation that we've had with Josie, too, is making sure that there are key metrics that we think are important to see from year to year to year. But the number evaluation has to-- there has to be some color to it. There has to be some kind of story that comes with it.
  • [00:25:17.82] So I just want to bring up-- so that's the timeline. And that really brings all of the different pieces together. I wanted to bring up a couple of other pieces that were new, just like Jan talked about the actual evaluation form. So as I just said, one of the things that is new is that we wrote out an outline to guide the library director and that there's a list of must-haves, including metrics. Because we do believe that metrics overall on a large scale are important, to be able to see from year to year what does the growth look like.
  • [00:25:59.00] And what are those numbers? So that's number one. Number two is, as I said before, the narratives. That's something also that's new. And it will also give more content and more color, as I said, to support the letter written by the board president.
  • [00:26:17.52] So that, I think, will be helpful. So I also wanted to bring up the-- we updated the job description for the library director. So that's at the very back of your packet.
  • [00:26:29.78] And so I think when I came into this opportunity, we thought it was just about the evaluation form. But little did I know, it's also about creating a job description. Because really, I think Josie does so much that all of us can't really keep track.
  • [00:26:48.27] And so this was hopefully a step forward in understanding a little bit more about what she does, so that it gives us also a little bit more clarity in how to evaluate. And so we actually did the job description almost first before we even went into the evaluation form to make sure that we understood exactly what she was doing. Did I miss anything?
  • [00:27:14.73] JIM LEIJA: I'd just say that one of the things that I am really looking forward to in the process is that it is a more standardized way of gathering feedback from the full board, which has been one of the stumbling blocks that we've had in the past. So I'm looking forward to going through that process with everyone. And I also think it sets up a process that is-- I know for Jamie and others that have served as president in the past that this process of trying to generate a letter every year without a lot of collected feedback to begin with is often challenging.
  • [00:28:00.94] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Well, we've had collected feedback, but based on the structures of our evaluating thing, it was hard to be specific.
  • [00:28:07.99] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Exactly. There wasn't a structure for us to give our feedback, and I think it made writing the letter harder than it needed to be.
  • [00:28:18.40] SARAH WINSTON: I also want to say one more thing I wanted to make sure that we pointed out. I think this was an interesting conversation that we brought up. In the job description, just going back to the job description, there were lots of conversations around, if you go to page 13-- or actually the next page-- about the requirement of having an MLS as a part of the job description. And we all decided that it wasn't a requirement in the future.
  • [00:28:52.70] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I think Ed will want to address that, that right there, the requirement of the-- that will come up.
  • [00:29:02.44] SARAH WHINSTON: OK.
  • [00:29:03.07] ED SUROVELL: You ought to know.
  • [00:29:05.59] SARAH WINSTON: OK. Fantastic.
  • [00:29:08.66] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yes. I guess to kind of summarize that discussion, when we're looking at the type of person we want to do this job, that qualification didn't seem relevant. But I agree that there's--
  • [00:29:20.84] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
  • [00:29:22.81] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I don't know, but I thought there was something connected to the state library that required something. And I don't know--
  • [00:29:32.05] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Right. So it will require further discussion at the point that we need to use the job description to fill the position.
  • [00:29:38.83] SARAH WINSTON: Thankfully we have some years before we need to use that.
  • [00:29:41.09]
  • [00:29:41.28] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Exactly.
  • [00:29:41.64] SARAH WINSTON: It works out well for all of us.
  • [00:29:43.00] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: What a good change, this Michigan library change.
  • [00:29:46.76] SARAH WINSTON: That's exactly right.
  • [00:29:47.66] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Exactly.
  • [00:29:48.25] SARAH WINSTON: That's exactly right. So trying to think forward.
  • [00:29:50.95] JIM LEIJA: Do we have to adopt this as a matter of policy, Josie? Or is it one of those things that's just sort of a practice and a tradition?
  • [00:29:57.76] JOSIE PARKER: It's a practice. The job description is generally something that we develop through HR. And the board has never been involved in the job descriptions generally in the staff. I think this one's different, especially if you're talking about a requirement that has-- where the absence of requirement could have a monetary penalty on the library, for instance.
  • [00:30:26.26] And as Jan says, that could change. The state could change its requirements. But the process itself, no.
  • [00:30:34.75] We looked today. Karen and I looked back through board packets that went back many years. And there's not ever been a formal adoption of an evaluation process for the library director. So it's a practice.
  • [00:30:50.07] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Great question.
  • [00:30:52.18] JOSIE PARKER: But I would like to be the one that says that it's also in here, and it's a commendation to the boards of this library over time. What Sarah found in her discussions with libraries around the country is that we have a formal process to evaluate the library director, and many of them don't. And so it's a positive I think that we do.
  • [00:31:18.34] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: We were dissatisfied with ours, so that's why we upgraded.
  • [00:31:21.59] [LAUGHING]
  • [00:31:22.54] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I'm excited to try this process, because last year was my first time using this process. And I found the most difficult thing was reading through Josie's narrative and having very little context for knowing how to make comments. And also, it wasn't necessarily the things that I wanted to understand. It felt like it was an update of past documents.
  • [00:31:46.47] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: And it was.
  • [00:31:49.05] SARAH WINSTON: We'll start with it. It should help.
  • [00:31:53.23] VICTORIA GREEN: I hope so.
  • [00:31:54.90] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah, maybe one thing maybe I was too focused on following as you were discussing that I missed-- one thing I want to make sure that you come away with is that there's the formal evaluation process and the timeline for that. But then built into this is an informal structure, too, for-- at the moment, it's the executive committee that's charged with that. That could always change in the future, but so that we're not just doing this once a year. Instead, that gives us a chance to have conversations so that Josie or anyone in this role has the chance to think about what they want their growth to be like or areas where they need more support to achieve something.
  • [00:32:36.36] Right now, we don't have a mechanism to have any conversations like that. We're always talking about, well, the library, which is important. And that's what you do. But we want to make sure we talk about you, too.
  • [00:32:49.68] Any other questions? Well, great. Thank you for getting us through this. We're excited to try it all out.
  • [00:32:55.99] SARAH WINSTON: Thank you so much.
  • [00:32:56.42] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Fantastic. Looking forward to hearing about it. So that brings us to a discussion for which we do not have a guest tonight.
  • [00:33:05.98] We are on our own to manage this discussion. But you each have in front of you a draft. Or each of you up here have this draft. I'm sorry that you don't have it if you are not sitting up here.
  • [00:33:18.99] But we are looking at a draft of the survey that would be conducted of AADL patrons by phone, conducted by Epic-MRA. And we need to review this draft that we've been presented with and bring it back so that we can get a final version. So I think what we're most interested in is, what did you think we were going to ask that we're not asking here, what are we asking that you don't think we need to ask, and any other feedback that you have.
  • [00:33:56.70] JIM LEIJA: Is it going to be helpful just as a matter of process to read through the questions?
  • [00:34:03.52] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah. Would that be helpful to you all?
  • [00:34:05.96] JIM LEIJA: Or have people done their homework?
  • [00:34:09.62] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Or even if you did do your homework, you might be a little bit--
  • [00:34:11.89] JIM LEIJA: Even if you did, it might still be helpful.
  • [00:34:14.71] LINH SONG: Well, does anything stand out? Because it's 50-- no. Quite a few questions.
  • [00:34:24.79] COLLEEN SHERMAN: So page one is about qualifying, right? So we start with, who are you-- page one, page two. Those are qualifying questions.
  • [00:34:34.19] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Right. So we're asking some of the same questions that we asked before, where they're like, how do you feel about your taxes? Do you think they're too high, too low, just right?
  • [00:34:48.57] And then we ask more specifically about the library in the context of other services. We ask them whether or not they understand how we are funded, which is something we asked before. And we debated about whether to include it this time.
  • [00:35:10.49] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Was it only the last time we asked about the funding? After we had been doing the newsletters, that was the first time. I think it would be good to ask it again.
  • [00:35:20.17] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah. That's kind of where we ended up. We want to see if it's different.
  • [00:35:26.18] LINH SONG: And then we dropped questions where the answers were pretty definitive. So if it was--
  • [00:35:34.22] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I'm sorry?
  • [00:35:35.69] LINH SONG: So we dropped some questions where we felt like the response was pretty definitive. If it was an 80% response yes, then we dropped that. But if it was a 50/50, then we kept it.
  • [00:35:49.63] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: What was new?
  • [00:35:53.15] COLLEEN SHERMAN: So they highlighted that question 20 is new.
  • [00:35:56.25] JIM LEIJA: Question eight, it has changed into a question about the electronic newsletter, which is a new program or a new publication that was a swap-out from the previously printed paper.
  • [00:36:18.30] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yes. So number 20, exactly. Whereas we had asked questions before that were more leading towards the changes we were going to make at Westgate, we dropped some of those. And also, we dropped a few of the things that were more related to the communications piece we were interested in last time, in order to make room for a question like this one, which is covering, what if we were going to do something about our presence here and we needed to ask you to help us with that, how you feel about.
  • [00:36:45.58] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: That's 20B.
  • [00:36:46.83] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Would it be helpful if I read 20?
  • [00:36:49.92] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Sure. Yes, please, thanks.
  • [00:36:52.05] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: There are two versions of 20, right?
  • [00:36:54.19] COLLEEN SHERMAN: There's 20, 20A, 20B. So let's start with 20. For several years, there has been discussion in the Ann Arbor community about renovating, replacing, and using a combination of upgrades and new construction to improve the condition and expand the usable space of the Ann Arbor District Library's main downtown facility at Fifth and William Street.
  • [00:37:15.36] While there are currently no specific plans for any construction or improvements to the downtown library, if a request were placed before voters in an upcoming election to increase the millage to pay for the bond, it would fund such construction activity. Would you vote yes to support such a millage request, or would you vote no to oppose it? If undecided or it depends, ask, well, if you had to decide right now, would you lean toward voting yes? Who's the man from Epic-MRA who came to speak with us?
  • [00:37:46.62] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: John.
  • [00:37:47.03] COLLEEN SHERMAN: John. Yeah, we talked to him about this.
  • [00:37:53.36] VICTORIA GREEN: So my first thought when I read the question is it's asking about an ability to invest in the library as opposed to in order to get something specific. You know what I mean? It's not saying, would you be interested in supporting this piece of it?
  • [00:38:09.40] And so I just wonder what we-- I mean, it sort of is asking if folks are willing to support an increase in the millage for a purpose that hasn't been stated. And I just wonder what we're going to-- I mean, how useful is it? What question is that actually answering for us?
  • [00:38:26.91] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Right. Is that the question?
  • [00:38:28.41] VICTORIA GREEN: Right.
  • [00:38:32.76] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: In this survey, when you get somebody on the phone finally and you tell them, how long do you tell them it will take you to read these questions? How long does this conversation take?
  • [00:38:45.77] JOSIE PARKER: Yeah, it says at the beginning.
  • [00:38:48.55] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: A few minutes.
  • [00:38:49.46] VICTORIA GREEN: A few minutes. That's long.
  • [00:38:52.99] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I'm surprised if anybody will give you enough time on the phone to deal with all this.
  • [00:38:57.52] JOSIE PARKER: Fortunately they do.
  • [00:38:58.83] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I know, but it's amazing. I wouldn't.
  • [00:39:00.65] COLLEEN SHERMAN: So part of the reason I wanted to read that aloud was to see how long it would take, because I didn't do that in my homework. 20A and 20B, you're dealing with the same length. 20A, now I would like to give a little more information about the history of the downtown library.
  • [00:39:18.77] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah, these strike me as quite long in that context. I agree. They're quite a bit longer than the questions from the previous version.
  • [00:39:24.84] COLLEEN SHERMAN: They're important questions. What Victoria is saying is, do the questions lead? Do the questions lead you to say yes or no?
  • [00:39:33.99] It's a yes or no, how much do you like my library, would I pay for it. And it's more of a gut question, because it says, hey, we're just thinking about this. Is it an easy yes? Is it an easy no? It's a snapshot in time.
  • [00:39:48.87] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So what is the question you feel like we need to ask?
  • [00:39:53.87] VICTORIA GREEN: So the question I'd be interested in more is what people want to get out of a new library that they can't-- I mean, that they couldn't get out of our existing facility, what a reinvestment would buy for people. Does that make sense?
  • [00:40:08.12] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: That sounds hard to ask.
  • [00:40:09.09] VICTORIA GREEN: It does.
  • [00:40:09.74] JIM LEIJA: It's an interesting question, but it's very close to the question of, what is it that you want in terms of services. And when we ask that question, it doesn't yield any useful information.
  • [00:40:19.54] JOSIE PARKER: Well, the list is, like, that long.
  • [00:40:22.67] VICTORIA GREEN: I'm with you. And of course, everyone wants everything. I mean, you ask me do you want faster internet speed-- yes.
  • [00:40:28.76] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Right. But we talk about what we want to do here, I think I always hear you say, what are we going to do if we do something different? It's not just that we want to do something different. What? Be specific.
  • [00:40:42.74] VICTORIA GREEN: The benefit that we're all getting out of it.
  • [00:40:45.89] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So it's the awkward part of needing to get this information before we have the ability to be more specific.
  • [00:40:52.27] COLLEEN SHERMAN: But the way this is designed addresses it. Because they're specific in here. Do we want meeting rooms? Do we want study rooms?
  • [00:41:00.30] Value that. Put a value on that. I mean, it's an imperfect way. I mean, it's more of a quantitative survey. It's a phone survey.
  • [00:41:11.06] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: What do you guys think about 20A, this bit about the history?
  • [00:41:15.02] LINH SONG: Yeah. It's a lot of background info. I'm not really sure we're going to be able to keep people on the phone for that.
  • [00:41:20.88] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: If you just started with, we haven't done anything in 27 years, does that make you feel differently? It just feels like too much.
  • [00:41:28.64] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I mean, 20B following-- so you've gotten to say three words when someone's read to you for 10 minutes.
  • [00:41:34.81] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: [LAUGHING] Yeah. OK.
  • [00:41:38.81] COLLEEN SHERMAN: And then this meat part, like, hey, do you want study rooms-- I wouldn't be ready to answer, do I want study rooms, after I've been talked at about the history of the library, personally. I might be annoyed at that part.
  • [00:41:50.92] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: What were you going to say?
  • [00:41:52.93] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I would get annoyed pretty quickly. I'm sorry. I would.
  • [00:41:57.86] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I mean, I should say that--
  • [00:41:59.18] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Did you get annoyed while I was reading it?
  • [00:42:00.53] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: [LAUGHING] I did.
  • [00:42:01.94] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Because we've asked John to do this for us, and he has done this professionally for a long time. I'm not suggesting that we just write off whole portions of this very nice draft. I think what we want to tell him is this feels really long, why are you asking about the history? So I just want to make it clear I'm not planning to put this through the shredder and be like, start over.
  • [00:42:28.11] LINH SONG: So 20, from what I understood, was just trying to gauge the sense of where people are at and understanding where we're at so far. I mean, we're almost into a year of meeting and discussing what we would like or what we know we would like so far. So it will be interesting to see who has followed along, who needs more information.
  • [00:42:58.56] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Would anyone counter that the questions are not too long, like Jim or Ed or Jan or someone who hasn't said?
  • [00:43:04.81] LINH SONG: They're long.
  • [00:43:05.40] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: They're long.
  • [00:43:06.52] JIM LEIJA: Well, I mean, John's really the expert, to be perfectly frank. So John wrote these questions. And so we can ask--
  • [00:43:14.97] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: And he's willing to do it.
  • [00:43:15.36] JIM LEIJA: We can ask him about the sequencing and the length of the question, given the success rate. I mean, the fact is they won't stop surveying people until they get a certain number of completed surveys for us. So if the question doesn't work for a person and they decide they want to stop the survey--
  • [00:43:38.86] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
  • [00:43:39.18] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: And what is the number of completed surveys that we count on receiving?
  • [00:43:44.70] JIM LEIJA: I can't remember what the end was last time.
  • [00:43:45.85] JOSIE PARKER: Between 400 and 500.
  • [00:43:47.30] JIM LEIJA: Yeah.
  • [00:43:49.11] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: And how long does that usually take them to achieve that number?
  • [00:43:52.72] JOSIE PARKER: The survey is conducted in February, and we hear a report in March.
  • [00:43:57.00] JIM LEIJA: Yeah, so it's like usually--
  • [00:43:57.87] JOSIE PARKER: They do it over a three to four day period.
  • [00:44:00.63] COLLEEN SHERMAN: What's the meaning behind 20B? Why would we want to bring something up that's five years old? What are we trying to get to with that one?
  • [00:44:08.77] JIM LEIJA: I think he's just giving us a set of--
  • [00:44:12.21] LINH SONG: Choices.
  • [00:44:12.72] JIM LEIJA: --choices of how we would want to approach the question. The purpose is to test the appetite of the public for doing something here in our downtown site.
  • [00:44:26.84] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So you view this as three different versions of the question, not three different questions?
  • [00:44:32.92] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I do.
  • [00:44:33.23] JIM LEIJA: Yeah.
  • [00:44:34.45] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Because I don't like 20B.
  • [00:44:38.07] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So what is our preference among the board, then, for the versions? I mean, it kind of reads to me like he's going to ask it all three times.
  • [00:44:55.51] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Me too. Let me ask you again because--
  • [00:44:57.93] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Right. Let me ask you a final time.
  • [00:45:00.03] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Right. I read it as, he's going to read these all to you.
  • [00:45:05.13] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Right. Agreed.
  • [00:45:05.94] COLLEEN SHERMAN: And I don't like reading, in 2012 this happened.
  • [00:45:13.56] JIM LEIJA: You just have to ask him.
  • [00:45:15.21] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: We will ask.
  • [00:45:16.65] VICTORIA GREEN: And, Jim, I do take your comment seriously that he's an expert in survey design, so I don't mean to nit pick at things. But to me it would make a lot more sense to ask questions about whether or not people are likely to-- how they feel about making an additional financial investment in the downtown branch after you talk about the things you wish you had in your library, which is questions 25A, B, and C.
  • [00:45:37.85] It's like, you've looked at the services that are offered and you've expressed what you're interested in. It seems weird to ask about money before you say what you're trying to do with it.
  • [00:45:48.87] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: What your money could buy you, yeah.
  • [00:45:52.29] JIM LEIJA: Having gone through this process before, there is quite a bit about-- I mean, the lead up to this set of questions really has to do with the value. And we know what ends up happening is most people think that we're a really great value for what they're paying, so that we would suspect something like that to happen again, hopefully. And then it leads into questions about usage.
  • [00:46:24.99] So I mean, I guess you have to-- I don't know. I mean, there's clearly a logic. And I think it could go any number of ways. But I think one of the questions would be just to ask him about sequencing and whether or not questions regarding a millage or a renovation or reconstruction of this building could come after people talked about services.
  • [00:46:53.10] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah. I mean, I think Victoria's point's a really good one. It's like, we don't want this to be structured so that we get answers that are not what people would-- we want their natural response, even if it's not what we want to hear. But I think, on the other hand, we don't want to ask them a question without giving them the information they need to make the decision.
  • [00:47:13.94] LINH SONG: Let's ask.
  • [00:47:14.85] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: We will definitely ask about that. Other comments? This is, as I look through here, the meat of where he's getting at, the things we want to ask him about related to this.
  • [00:47:25.62] JIM LEIJA: We are continuing to ask questions about the tools collection and usage.
  • [00:47:31.36] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I like that. That's good.
  • [00:47:34.46] JIM LEIJA: Which is also important to the staff to understand the perception of that particular question. There's an additional question about Pulp, which continues to be an investment the library is making. And if I remember correctly, Eli, Pulp had just started when we did the survey last time?
  • [00:47:53.90] ELI NEIBURGER: Yes.
  • [00:47:56.01] JIM LEIJA: There's also these set of questions about the downloadable collection, questions about the participation in the summer game and the perception of the summer game.
  • [00:48:13.12] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: It almost seems-- I'm interrupting.
  • [00:48:15.02] JIM LEIJA: Yeah?
  • [00:48:15.23] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: It almost seems to me in some ways-- now I could be totally wrong. But if those particular questions about services that are being offered now-- if that presents the value--
  • [00:48:31.67] JIM LEIJA: Yeah. And it precedes the--
  • [00:48:33.39] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: And it almost could precede these other questions about how much more would you be willing to invest in even further development.
  • [00:48:43.08] JIM LEIJA: Which is, I think, the feedback that we would give John. I mean, I suppose you could make the argument both ways just to say--
  • [00:48:48.19] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: And he could say, well, that just doesn't work. But as we're discussing it now, it seems to me that these questions about our particular innovations almost state something about the kinds of things we do and the kinds of things we might continue to develop.
  • [00:49:06.59] LINH SONG: And I think that's the big difference between this survey and the old survey. So the former survey was more on satisfaction-- so program. And then I think this is really more about trying to get an understanding of what people know about the library and how they come about it.
  • [00:49:27.12] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: You might get that out of them by mentioning things that they may not think of if you ask this big, long question about evaluating, number 20. They might, as they're answering these questions about the tools and all that-- oh, my gosh, that's really amazing. And then they reflect on what else might happen.
  • [00:49:54.58] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Do I hear maybe everyone coming to this idea that we are trying-- I think he's trying to interpret us making a case by presenting what he's presented in these long questions. But I hear us saying that we think the case is better made by what the library does than by presenting this sort of a situational the library's in, like the history of structurally where we're positioned. Now, would you give us more money?
  • [00:50:23.65] That's kind of how he's asking it. I mean, I say that in a way that makes it sound like there's no art to it. I know that he's put a ton--
  • [00:50:30.43] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: No, but think about the person who's trying to answer all this.
  • [00:50:34.64] COLLEEN SHERMAN: You know how I interpret this? He heard what we were saying when he met with us. He's interpreted what he said.
  • [00:50:40.94] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Exactly.
  • [00:50:41.58] COLLEEN SHERMAN: And they're in here. Is the website in here, Jim, the new website?
  • [00:50:46.19] JIM LEIJA: No, we're not talking about the website in this survey, because it will have just launched. And we know that--
  • [00:50:55.56] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Lightning rod.
  • [00:50:56.59] JIM LEIJA: --any kind of website launch is going to upset people, no matter how great and fabulous and wonderful.
  • [00:51:05.20] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Well, it takes getting used to.
  • [00:51:06.95] JIM LEIJA: Yeah. So I think when we were talking about that in the committee, the decision, really, was to let the website launch and breathe and give people the time to become familiar with it before you're asking them to really-- I mean, we would be asking them to process questions about the website like four or five weeks after the website launched. Which is really unfair.
  • [00:51:30.57] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Yes.
  • [00:51:31.40] VICTORIA GREEN: And I think we can get that feedback from the website.
  • [00:51:33.12] JIM LEIJA: We will.
  • [00:51:34.00] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
  • [00:51:35.37] We're going to get that feedback naturally, anyway.
  • [00:51:38.45] COLLEEN SHERMAN: There's an obvious thing, this survey. Why wouldn't you ask me? So imagine you're on the other end of the phone.
  • [00:51:44.04] They just launched a website. They changed my whole world, and they didn't ask me about it? I wouldn't find it--
  • [00:51:48.69] JIM LEIJA: I mean, I think it's interesting. But we have an intention with the survey, and our intention with the survey is not to understand, in this particular iteration, how good or bad the website launch is going. We're going to get a lot of real-time feedback about that just from users, period. The intention of this is really one of customer satisfaction, understand how programs and services are being used and how they're being perceived and processed, to test the appetite for redevelopment here.
  • [00:52:20.96] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I understand that, but will the survey taker understand that?
  • [00:52:24.53] JIM LEIJA: Yes.
  • [00:52:25.72] COLLEEN SHERMAN: OK.
  • [00:52:26.17] JIM LEIJA: [LAUGHING] I think so.
  • [00:52:29.00] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: We're paying now for this.
  • [00:52:29.75] VICTORIA GREEN: This is a super small point. But in questions 26 and 27 where we're highlighting "special collections"-- none of it's like the secret lab-y kind of stuff?
  • [00:52:38.34] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: You mean like tonight, like the sewing lab, like more of the program?
  • [00:52:41.44] VICTORIA GREEN: It's just we've got artwork, prints, scientific tools, musical instruments. I just wonder if this question needs to include some of the things that have been added to the collection more recently, like the sewing machine.
  • [00:52:50.96] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: That's interesting.
  • [00:52:52.66] VICTORIA GREEN: I mean, my guess is that we've added some things to our collections since the examples were polled.
  • [00:52:57.02] JIM LEIJA: I mean, we could revise 26 to include more specific examples.
  • [00:53:00.91] VICTORIA GREEN: Yeah.
  • [00:53:01.51] JIM LEIJA: Might be interesting.
  • [00:53:02.34] VICTORIA GREEN: Yeah.
  • [00:53:02.96] JIM LEIJA: It also does bring into question about just events. We don't actually ask any questions about events. I don't know how important that is, though. We'd want to talk to the staff about whether or not there's anything that you're dying to know.
  • [00:53:14.79] LINH SONG: Don't we do surveys at events or not all events?
  • [00:53:18.72] ELI NEIBURGER: We've stopped doing surveys at events because they're always five, five, five. It hasn't been very useful-- not for years.
  • [00:53:24.73] VICTORIA GREEN: But that's the people who chose to go to the event. This is our chance to talk to people who think, oh, there's never anything to do with the library-- not that there is such a person out there.
  • [00:53:31.82] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I think we can definitely put a pin in events to talk about a future time where we go forward with something like this.
  • [00:53:39.23] JIM LEIJA: As we move through this survey, just so that everyone's aware of the major categories here, 41 is an aggregate satisfaction score. 43 is querying you people's media diets, try and find out where people get information, which we've decided to ask again. Because we want to see what the change will look like. And we can also cross-tab that with demographics to understand how a 24-year-old patron gets information about the world versus a 75-year-old patron.
  • [00:54:17.03] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Or someone who says no, where they get their information, versus someone who says yes.
  • [00:54:22.40] VICTORIA GREEN: So I'm just noticing it doesn't say Facebook, Twitter, or podcasts, any of the stuff that's--
  • [00:54:27.19] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Saturday Night Live.
  • [00:54:29.10] VICTORIA GREEN: Well, local resources that are more crowdsourcing instead of a published item.
  • [00:54:37.02] JIM LEIJA: We should make a note of that and just ask John about other categories.
  • [00:54:41.37] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: For sure.
  • [00:54:43.53] JIM LEIJA: One of the other change questions here was 47A, which is a question about how long people intend to stay in Ann Arbor, which is to get a sense of people's intention--
  • [00:55:01.38] LINH SONG: Just how transitory.
  • [00:55:02.24] JIM LEIJA: --to be in this community and how transitory the survey takers view themselves to be.
  • [00:55:07.93] VICTORIA GREEN: Be interesting if their other responses were different based on that answer.
  • [00:55:12.58] JIM LEIJA: It's another cross-tab situation, where we can-- and one of the ideas was to look at appetite for a redeveloped concept for downtown against the perceived commitment that people have to the community. That's what we'll be looking for. And the rest is demographics.
  • [00:55:33.68] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Which is what we had last time.
  • [00:55:35.25] VICTORIA GREEN: Gender respondent-- can we have something that isn't binary?
  • [00:55:37.56] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah, we talked about this.
  • [00:55:38.64] JIM LEIJA: We had a conversation about this.
  • [00:55:40.48] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So all three of us felt really uncomfortable when we noticed the way that this gets collected. And John explained to us that this is how surveys are done, this industry standard to assess the gender of the person you're talking to based on their voice.
  • [00:55:55.68] JIM LEIJA: It's not actually a question.
  • [00:55:57.03] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Right. And we were really uncomfortable about that. So I think we're coming up against, this is the way--
  • [00:56:07.20] JIM LEIJA: This is the sort of industry practice, versus a set of values that some of us might have.
  • [00:56:12.63] LINH SONG: It might not be useful at all to us-- I mean, if it's not something that we need.
  • [00:56:19.19] JIM LEIJA: So my question is-- I mean, I sort of agree that if you want to have a question about gender, you should really be asking people what their selected or preferred gender pronouns are. And if we're not going to do that, we should simply not record gender as a matter of the survey. And John went to great lengths to say that it will not affect-- it won't affect any outcome of the survey, unless we're trying to do a cross-tab based on gender.
  • [00:56:53.73] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah. Because there are goals. So you don't want to end up doing a survey of only males or females. So the reason it's in there is to try to make sure there is differentiation there.
  • [00:57:03.55] COLLEEN SHERMAN: No, that makes sense.
  • [00:57:04.86] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: But still, I felt uncomfortable about it, and I can see that you do, too.
  • [00:57:10.41] JIM LEIJA: It's our survey. So if we want to ask people to self-identify, then we can do that.
  • [00:57:18.45] VICTORIA GREEN: Yeah. I'm uncomfortable with mining that data from a person's voice. But I also agree that we want a range of people entering the survey. Yes.
  • [00:57:35.38] COLLEEN SHERMAN: There is a survey I was involved in recently, and the number of gender options for online surveys now is pretty long. Because as there should be. And do you want to give people 14 options over the phone? I don't know. I mean, I don't--
  • [00:57:54.70] VICTORIA GREEN: You don't have to give them the options. You just ask the question.
  • [00:57:57.38] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: We can make an open-ended question. It doesn't have to have--
  • [00:58:00.59] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I kind of like that. Do you have a gender preference that you identify by? We still live in a time where, for some people, that question opens a whole can of worms, because it's not commonplace yet.
  • [00:58:17.56] But I like that question. How do you identify as your gender? How would you like us to identify you?
  • [00:58:23.89] JIM LEIJA: Let's just say you ask people, what is your gender? And people can do that any way they want to. And if it's important for us to know-- I mean, now the standard is essentially you ask people what their gender is, and then there are a number of options. And then you also ask the additional question, which is to ask people if they identify as transgender. So there's just a cascading set of survey practices now around gender, which is why when you take a survey, it's lots of different options.
  • [00:58:52.13] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I mean, I think that if industry standard hasn't caught up to the world, then we need to say something to help industry standard change. If we just accept that, then maybe we won't see a change, though I do think because this came up in both this meeting and the last meeting that we will definitely discuss this with him further.
  • [00:59:13.18] ED SUROVELL: On the other hand, that's not the purpose of this survey, to help industry standards change. I think that whatever we decide to do needs to be based on the goals of the survey.
  • [00:59:27.56] LINH SONG: Which will help us understand the community we serve.
  • [00:59:30.61] ED SUROVELL: You're looking for a set of-- you're looking for results that are useful to us. And if gender identification is one of those, then you fashion your questions to give whatever range you wish to get. If gender identification is not, then you take a more traditional route. I think we have to be careful to not impose our own political standards on the goals of the survey.
  • [01:00:21.00] We're trying to get a survey that's consistent with previous surveys, to measure change over time. And I'm not recommending a way to do that one way or another. I think simply that we don't want to lead on that issue. We're looking for reliable results.
  • [01:00:41.53] VICTORIA GREEN: So I agree with some of what you said, Ed. But the only compelling argument I've heard for why we're even looking at gender is because we want to have a broad sampling.
  • [01:00:49.97] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Right.
  • [01:00:50.51] VICTORIA GREEN: And that does make sense to me. We don't want to somehow inadvertently have everyone be 43 years old or something. We want a range of people. And gender can help us with that question, if we know people's gender, so that we get representative. But I haven't heard anyone on this board say we want to be able to slice the data by gender, and so we want to have it binary so we can slice it.
  • [01:01:13.43] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Exactly. I think that's the argument John was making. He's saying you want to get an even distribution of people who live in your community, and the answer to this question isn't helping you do that. But on the other hand, it just feels icky to see you assess the person without asking them.
  • [01:01:29.41] ED SUROVELL: I will be frank. I decline to respond to any question having to do with race, period. Having grown up in a segregated world, where I did, it just sets me off. And I don't think we should be asking it.
  • [01:01:46.34] Though I know that organizations in the law sometimes require it, you won't get it from me. And with gender, if we have something we're looking for, then we should ask whatever question will get that answer. And if we don't-- I'm not an expert on these tests, so I don't have an opinion. I just want reliable information.
  • [01:02:16.31] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Based on in part what Ed said, which is does it help us conduct a better survey, frankly I feel that knowing gender and allowing people to choose their gender and not just to have to choose one of two makes sense to me. It does help us accomplish the goals of this survey, which is ultimately to make sure that we have a diverse representation within the survey.
  • [01:02:40.64] It helps us do that-- to make sure that we're serving the community appropriately. I'd say include it. And my suggestion is kick it back to John and say, we feel it's important to give more than two options.
  • [01:02:55.17] VICTORIA GREEN: How can we do that and still have a great survey?
  • [01:02:58.02] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Yeah.
  • [01:02:58.32] VICTORIA GREEN: I'm sure there's some way.
  • [01:02:59.78] LINH SONG: We can't be the first.
  • [01:03:00.69] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Well, does this mean that when they compile the required number, if they have too many of one sex or another they'll keep going until they balance it?
  • [01:03:11.55] VICTORIA GREEN: Do they balance it? Are we balanced 50/50, men and women, in our--
  • [01:03:14.97] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I mean, I don't know what balanced means, really.
  • [01:03:17.47] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I don't know.
  • [01:03:18.48] VICTORIA GREEN: I don't know, either.
  • [01:03:19.29] JOSIE PARKER: I think you have to rely on the experience of the people who are pulling this all together to try to understand that he's asking that question to make sure that you're not only talking to males or females who meet all your other requirements and all your other-- so all the people answering are not 17-year-old, 40-year-old, 50-year-old, 70-year-old women. And that's why they're doing it. They're not even asking the question.
  • [01:03:50.43] So the fact that you're objecting to how that information is assessed-- I think is what you're saying-- not that there is or isn't a question. That's your objection. He answered that objection in the committee. And so I think he'll probably answer it the same way if you ask him again.
  • [01:04:08.22] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah.
  • [01:04:09.48] JOSIE PARKER: But you should ask him again because it came up here.
  • [01:04:15.12] LINH SONG: He will bring a better answer.
  • [01:04:19.49] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK. Have we collected all of your feedback that comes to mind at the moment? I mean, we're not going anywhere. We know where we left.
  • [01:04:29.73] But I think that I have a pretty good summary. And with Karen's help, we'll have a much better summary of what you've said to deliver back to John, with Josie's help. Great.
  • [01:04:41.64] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I must say, having recently been cold calling for political reasons, just asking people to call their councilperson or something or their representative-- getting people to talk to you is not easy.
  • [01:04:59.78] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I know.
  • [01:05:00.13] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: And I don't envy at all the people who have to do this.
  • [01:05:03.73] ED SUROVELL: I'll talk to you any time you want, Jan.
  • [01:05:06.41] [LAUGHTER]
  • [01:05:08.77] She's fun to talk to.
  • [01:05:12.52] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I'll be reading a script.
  • [01:05:14.57] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Eli's going to talk to us about this website that we're all so excited about.
  • [01:05:22.61] ELI NEIBURGER: All right. So we're doing a thing.
  • [01:05:25.95] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yay.
  • [01:05:27.45] ELI NEIBURGER: So just today-- wake up my mouse here. Or not, all right. There we go. So just today we have launched the open beta of the website at new.aadl.org.
  • [01:05:47.31] There's a new post on the front page of the website that details some of the upcoming service interruptions and invites people to have a look at the new website. Thank you to all of you who took a look and gave us feedback. It was very helpful.
  • [01:06:00.21] We made a number of changes based on things we heard from you, as well as from the staff, during the closed beta. And we're in the homestretch here. So here are the things that you might be likely to hear about, because now we're in hardcore service interruption land. Previous to this point, it was mostly just mail that was affected.
  • [01:06:18.03] But as of today, we are not filling holds anymore. This is something that's possible to hear about. Because the last time we didn't fill holds was the great blackout of 2003. So it's been quite a number of years since the last time we didn't do this.
  • [01:06:33.45] So the challenge, in case you hear about it, is that we cannot have any items on the hold shelf at the time of migration, because the on hold shelf is non-migratable status. So what we have to do is clear out the hold shelves. We want to give people the full six days, including the two days it will be closed for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. So the last holds for millennium and for 2017 have hit the hold shelf today. So you missed the incident.
  • [01:07:00.73] JIM LEIJA: By one day!
  • [01:07:01.83] ELI NEIBURGER: This includes us pulling things that are available off the shelves. Nothing new can be added to the hold shelves. So while we can tell patrons when they call that something is still on the shelf, there is not a mechanism at all by which we can hold it for them, including can you just set it for us on the desk for a few minutes.
  • [01:07:18.15] That is quickly unworkable. So what we can do is we can say, it's here on the shelf right now. That's what we can tell you. Unfortunately, we're sorry for the service disruption, but there aren't other solutions at this point.
  • [01:07:29.20] VICTORIA GREEN: I'm sorry, Eli. You said you can't fill, but people can still place in millennium.
  • [01:07:32.70] ELI NEIBURGER: They can still place holds. Up until the website goes down at 10:00 PM on the 29th, people can still place holds, and those holds will be moved to the new system. What they cannot do is have those holds filled, even if it's on something that's available. So that's probably the most significant service interruption that's happening through all of this, other than the closure and the website being offline New Year's weekend.
  • [01:07:57.16] So then that gets us through to the 26th, which at the end of business on the 26th is when all the shelves will be cleared. So that gives an extra day-- that's actually seven days-- of business from when the last hold was filled. So that gives everybody an extra day to try to get their stuff in.
  • [01:08:13.33] So hopefully, we should get everything off. And if someone calls on the 26th and they're coming on the 27th, it's OK. That's partially why it's the 26th and not the 29th. So we have a little bit of cushion in there if someone calls and can't make it in, especially--
  • [01:08:24.24] ED SUROVELL: Eli, how many books are typically on those shelves?
  • [01:08:29.04] ELI NEIBURGER: Across the whole system, we might have 3,000, across all locations-- that is just totally spitballing-- on a busy day. Typically, we fill about 40,000 holds a month, but many of them will sit on the shelf for five or six days. So it depends on the volume. You can take a look at the shelves on your way out on the first floor.
  • [01:08:51.57] So it's usually about 2,000 to 3,000 items per location. So those will all be cleared by mid-next week. Then the next step is that-- oh, and one other service interruption that we'll have, which is a weird one, is that we need to start moving the patrons over.
  • [01:09:07.62] So we will not be able to create any new library cards next week between-- so we we're open on the 26th, the 27th, the 28th, and 29th. That's four days where we won't be able to create new library cards, because we would just have to create them again on the new system. However, we will have a mechanism by which staff can send someone home.
  • [01:09:25.68] They can take their application. They can give them the card, ask them to come back after the library's new system is up. And we will have a way that they can-- let's send them home with something with it checked out to a dummy account so we don't have to turn people away. But we will not be able to give them an account that they can log into or any of those kinds of things.
  • [01:09:43.26] So that's coming up as well. Then, on the 29th, at 10:00 PM, about an hour after close, the website goes down. It will be replaced by a web page that says under construction-- maybe we'll get a little '90s era gift for GeoCities or something like that-- to say under construction and that the new website is coming. And it will launch on the 2nd.
  • [01:10:02.76] Now, we do have a safety net in mind, because this is a-- I wouldn't say a high risk project, but there are a lot of moving parts. Our absolute worst case if something essentially explodes during that weekend is we can open back up on Tuesday with the old system still running. Because none of this is destructive to the old system or the old website.
  • [01:10:24.03] Clearly, that is not something we want to have happen, but that's our safety net, in essence, if something goes wrong. So you heard it here first and hopefully last. So basically, we're in very good shape as far as parts of the website.
  • [01:10:38.59] We're on track for all of the essential functions of the library to be working, including placing holds, placing lists. The catalog is working very well. We'll do a quick search here. So you can see we get the pop-ups now that tells you some different items.
  • [01:10:54.01] And then you get your search results. And one thing that's likely to be very popular is the new grid view for items, that you can see lots of things like that, working through all the facets. This now sticks.
  • [01:11:06.70] When you click on an individual item, of course, then you can-- I'm not signed in right now, but then you can sign in to request. I'll go ahead and sign in here as the beta tester user. So now I can place a request for another location, et cetera. All the basic stuff is working. This one I can't request because there's no copies of it, you can see.
  • [01:11:26.88] So you get the instant response on the My Account page. We've been testing this extensively with a bunch of different users and on a bunch of different platforms. You can see our dummy user has a $49 account balance.
  • [01:11:39.38] So they get the message here about the account balance being over $25. So all of the renewal items-- of course, I won't be able to renew things. But when your account is blocked, you can still freeze and unfreeze. So I can select this whole column and say freeze.
  • [01:11:54.68] And then it chews through all of them and will slowly freeze all of them as they go. So we can see those all got frozen. So that's where we're at with the basic functions. For the beta test, basically none of the static content has been loaded. We're working on that right now.
  • [01:12:11.72] So none of these links go anywhere at the moment, just like with the test that you saw. That's all yet to come as we finish up the content over the next couple of weeks. The explorer items are getting loaded. All the events are getting loaded.
  • [01:12:23.51] We will be offering with the launch two new bookable meeting rooms at the downtown library. Those are the two rooms on the second floor. We'll be using the same method that we used to offer the bookable meeting rooms at Westgate to offer those two rooms on the second floor. Yes?
  • [01:12:36.65] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I have a really geeky library question for you. But when you did the search for cows, why was something you have no copies of high up in the list?
  • [01:12:45.89] ELI NEIBURGER: We haven't done any relevancy ranking, as far as how that goes. Relevancy ranking is not loaded on this version.
  • [01:12:52.64] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I'm satisfied.
  • [01:12:54.56] ELI NEIBURGER: Although we don't often do relevancy ranking based on availability, because usually the most popular items have no availability. Something that has no copies won't even show up in the results.
  • [01:13:04.52] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: That one had no copies.
  • [01:13:05.18] ELI NEIBURGER: Yeah. If we have zero copies, zero circulating copies, it's suppressed from search results.
  • [01:13:09.42] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Great. OK.
  • [01:13:10.61] ELI NEIBURGER: Now, one thing that you can't do now as a patron is see those items at all. When you're logged in as staff, you get a pink box that says, "AADL has no copies of this." With the new website, people will be able to opt in to seeing items that we don't have any copies of anymore. It's helpful for Summer Game and things like that and sometimes, did you use to have this-- or especially people who are like, I know you had this, what happened?
  • [01:13:31.01] So that makes it helpful. So they will be able to check a box that says, show items with no copies. And that'll be an option. Yes?
  • [01:13:40.52] VICTORIA GREEN: So, Eli, January 2 is the release.
  • [01:13:43.05] ELI NEIBURGER: Yes.
  • [01:13:43.34] VICTORIA GREEN: I'm sure there are going to be some things that are on your list that you want to change that won't make it into January 2.
  • [01:13:48.41] ELI NEIBURGER: Oh, yeah.
  • [01:13:48.96] VICTORIA GREEN: So how does that work? Do we have rolling releases?
  • [01:13:51.67] ELI NEIBURGER: Yeah. We will continue once the dust settles, once we're comfortable with how everything's working and everything's working well with the staff. And especially, the big thing is frozen and unfrozen holds changes everything.
  • [01:14:03.63] I mean, it is a huge change to our process of operation. One very big example is we expect there to be a lot of frozen holds. So for example, right now, if you're number one of 254, you know that you're next, right?
  • [01:14:17.36] VICTORIA GREEN: Yes.
  • [01:14:18.02] ELI NEIBURGER: But it could be that you're number 41 of 254, but you're still next. Because there's 40 frozen holds in front of you in line. So we got to see some of those things that are really difficult to test in a vacuum. What are the best ways to communicate that so the patron knows that they're really next? All those kinds of things.
  • [01:14:34.25] That's going to be our focus is on holds and renewals and the base library functionality. Then we'll circle back around and start adding new things. But we've been putting off rolling updates for basically two years working on this project. So once this is out the door and the dust has settled, then we start with updates all the time. Does that answer your question?
  • [01:14:53.51] VICTORIA GREEN: It does.
  • [01:14:54.62] ELI NEIBURGER: One big one that we had hoped to make--
  • [01:14:56.42] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: What is frozen? What are frozen holds?
  • [01:14:58.97] ELI NEIBURGER: So you when you freeze your hold, you continue to move up the list, but it does not come onto the hold shelf for you until you unfreeze it.
  • [01:15:05.00] JOSIE PARKER: If you're on vacation--
  • [01:15:05.63] ELI NEIBURGER: So if you're on vacation or if you have too many things checked out, you can freeze your holds. And you keep moving up the list, but you'll never get your copy until you get unfrozen. But you could be number one in line. And then as soon as you unfreeze, the next copy that comes back is yours. That's going to be far and away the most popular feature out of all of this.
  • [01:15:23.69] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: And it's up to the user whether it's frozen or not?
  • [01:15:26.00] ELI NEIBURGER: Correct. And they don't have to mess with it at all. They can never freeze or unfreeze a single hold. If they don't do that, it all just behaves the way it always has.
  • [01:15:33.32] VICTORIA GREEN: And MeLCat doesn't have any plans to offer that functionality?
  • [01:15:36.74] ELI NEIBURGER: No, I'm not aware of it. That'll be another big thing, is joining MeLCat, again, is a big project. Because we basically have to re-catalog the entire collection for MeLCat.
  • [01:15:45.71] So like I said, that's why we haven't put a date on that yet until we get rolling with that. It'll be spring. But once we get everything up and running, then we can start working on rejoining MeLCat.
  • [01:15:55.61] JIM LEIJA: I would also just say, it didn't occur to me until this moment also to look at it on my phone. And it looks really great.
  • [01:16:01.70] ELI NEIBURGER: Excellent.
  • [01:16:03.38] JIM LEIJA: The dynamic quality-- I mean, it's so much easier to navigate than the current site. One graphic design question, which is actually this here, is this problem of dealing with text on text when you have images. So I don't know if you got any feedback about that and how you might think about the design standards to try-- I don't know if that is better.
  • [01:16:34.96] ELI NEIBURGER: That's too busy. It's hard to see that.
  • [01:16:36.57] JIM LEIJA: Yeah. It's like, whoa.
  • [01:16:37.35] ELI NEIBURGER: Well, and one thing is that this is still very much placeholder content. And we are anticipating that even though we have the mechanism for text in these, that a lot of them will actually have the text in the alt tag, so it's there for people with visual disabilities, but that the actual image is the text. And there's not text on it at all. So this part of it wouldn't even exist, and the image would be carrying the text. And the text is there for people who are using screen readers or adaptive technology, and it would read that to them.
  • [01:17:06.59] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: That would be better.
  • [01:17:07.81] JIM LEIJA: So that's going to go away?
  • [01:17:09.36] ELI NEIBURGER: Well, it's an option that it can be there or not be there, depending on the graphics that we put behind it.
  • [01:17:14.09] JIM LEIJA: Brilliant.
  • [01:17:15.30] ELI NEIBURGER: So this was something that-- I mean, these are definitely placeholder images. And some of them work better than others. And also, this could be more opaque, all kinds of stuff like that. Any other questions about any of this?
  • [01:17:27.62] Oh, just one other thing I wanted to show real quick. Because we are discontinuing the mobile app as part of this, because basically the whole website is now the mobile app. So the one feature that you can currently do on the mobile app is when you log into the front page, it gives you your barcode for easy use at the self-checks.
  • [01:17:47.72] So what we've done-- I just want to show this to you. Of course, our WiFi has just died. Let's see if we can get on the other one. So the same page that you see everywhere else-- and we'll see if we can get back online. Famous last words.
  • [01:18:06.83] There we go. Let's see if this comes up. Something is perhaps coming. There we go. So this is what it normally looks like when you shrink down to phone size and your barcode appears. So when you log in as your phone without having to do anything with that, you automatically get your barcode right there, so that you can log in.
  • [01:18:29.11] JIM LEIJA: That's very rad.
  • [01:18:30.51] [LAUGHTER]
  • [01:18:33.79] ELI NEIBURGER: OK. Any other questions? Anything else I can answer about this?
  • [01:18:39.91] JIM LEIJA: What's the communication plan beyond our own-- I'm sorry, my brain is toast.
  • [01:18:46.76] ELI NEIBURGER: No, that's OK. We have a number of posts planned for social over the next couple weeks. There's a special newsletter going out this week. Actually, this release breaks the newsletter, so we will need to reinvent the newsletter platform, which we've wanted to do anyway, after we get this out the door. But there will be a special newsletter coming out over this holiday weekend that tells people that this is coming in a week. It talks about the new features.
  • [01:19:09.04] That will go out to 45,000 people. Then we'll also be doing some posts that I think we're planning on putting some money behind on both Facebook and Twitter and some posts on Instagram as well. So there's a number of things coming there.
  • [01:19:20.11] JIM NEIJA: I mean, is it completely kooky to do a press release to MLive that would get reprinted, which is basically what they would do?
  • [01:19:31.25] ELI NEIBURGER: I mean, it's not like people have a choice to use it.
  • [01:19:33.57] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Exactly.
  • [01:19:34.13] ELI NEIBURGER: So there's only so far.
  • [01:19:36.65] JIM NEIJA: That wasn't meant to be shady.
  • [01:19:38.15] ELI NEIBURGER: We're going to hear what those commenters have to say regardless.
  • [01:19:43.85] JIM NEIJA: I'm not saying it from a negative point of view. It's actually, I think--
  • [01:19:48.08] LINH SONG: It's a huge accomplishment.
  • [01:19:48.83] JIM NEIJA: Most people are going to be excited that there's this new resource.
  • [01:19:51.68] VICTORIA GREEN: I wouldn't send out an adulatory post press release until we know it works.
  • [01:19:56.93] JIM NEIJA: Oh, I'm not saying adulatory. I'm saying simply informational, as in, we have launched a new site.
  • [01:20:03.35] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I'm with Victoria.
  • [01:20:04.18] ELI NEIBURGER: Well, I still would like to have the wiggle room for something to explode that weekend.
  • [01:20:10.43] ED SUROVELL: But you know, anticipating is much more effective, because we presume nothing is going to explode. Or you can put that into the press release.
  • [01:20:29.28] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Right. Exactly like that. We presume nothing is going to explode.
  • [01:20:32.70] JIM NEIJA: You're also already telling 90,000 people on email, so it's not like the word won't be out.
  • [01:20:38.29] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Sorry, Ed. I cut you off.
  • [01:20:40.84] ED SUROVELL: Sorry. I would encourage a press release. There's many different places an announcement can appear. One more concerned patron, who all of a sudden is not concerned.
  • [01:20:59.72] And MLive is a pretty good vehicle for doing that. Doesn't cost anything. It gets a lot of coverage that we don't get. I would encourage it.
  • [01:21:13.52] ELI NEIBURGER: I guess partially, it's not a product launch so much as it's a brain transplant, in terms of it is an operational tool for the organization that then is used in a marketing context. And we're not trying to drive new usage of the site through this launch.
  • [01:21:32.42] ED SUROVELL: No, but we're trying to educate a public, some of whom are not quite up to speed-- many of whom are not up to speed-- and some of whom won't discover it for months but will have read it in MLive. Now, it doesn't hurt.
  • [01:21:55.25] Try it. And you can say, it might explode. You can use that wonderful term. It's a "brain transplant." You can do it as a direct quote from Eli in conversation.
  • [01:22:12.09] JIM NEIJA: I put your phone number in it.
  • [01:22:14.62] JOSIE PARKER: Oh, no. He's going to put my phone number.
  • [01:22:17.10] [LAUGHTER]
  • [01:22:18.80] JIM NEIJA: Direct complains to Josie Parker.
  • [01:22:20.24] JOSIE PARKER: Exactly.
  • [01:22:21.58] LINH SONG: Well, kudos to you and the team for pulling this off. This is a huge endeavor. And I think it says a lot about the community and how excited we are by just these little design features and our ability to have an Amazon experience and also a new new site experience for us. It's a new central place for us to gather information, so I love it.
  • [01:22:46.77] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Thank you.
  • [01:22:47.33] ELI NEIBURGER: Thank you. Any other questions?
  • [01:22:49.91] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Thank you.
  • [01:22:50.45] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Good luck.
  • [01:22:51.30] ELI NEIBURGER: Thank you very much.
  • [01:22:52.53] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Can't wait to hear what the feedback is.
  • [01:22:55.40] ELI NEIBURGER: You will.
  • [01:22:57.45] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Yes, you will.
  • [01:22:57.96] COLLEEN SHERMAN: It's going to be great.
  • [01:23:02.49] RICH REYTI: We also have for everybody all the things-- I might as well pass a few out.
  • [01:23:08.69] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Great.
  • [01:23:09.65] RICH REYTI: The fact sheets with some of those dates on them.
  • [01:23:11.55] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Great. Thank you.
  • [01:23:13.09] JIM NEIJA: That's so helpful.
  • [01:23:13.35] LINH SONG: And there's things on social media we can share.
  • [01:23:16.57] RICH REYTI: Yeah, all this information will be shared on social starting this week, including that newsletter.
  • [01:23:22.55] ED SUROVELL: And you can link it to the press release?
  • [01:23:24.08] [INTERPOSING VOICES].
  • [01:23:26.33] RICH REYTI: Yeah.
  • [01:23:27.20] ED SUROVELL: Good.
  • [01:23:28.51] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So we are to the auditor's report, I believe. Would you like to introduce Tracy?
  • [01:23:34.76] JOSIE PARKER: Tracy Kasparek is from Rehmann. And we thank you for your patience--
  • [01:23:41.24] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah, sorry.
  • [01:23:41.84] JOSIE PARKER: --in our you getting to you this evening. It's not a minor aspect of our board meeting. And because of the way this agenda is set up, you are the first thing in new business. So obviously, we have a lot of old business that we've been dealing with. So thank you, Tracy.
  • [01:23:56.00] TRACY KASPAREK: No problem.
  • [01:23:57.64] JOSIE PARKER: Now, the library board does have copies.
  • [01:23:59.48] TRACY KASPAREK: You guys all have copies of the reports in front of you? OK. This will probably be a little less exciting than the last presentation.
  • [01:24:05.57] But basically, I'm just going to walk through the bound copy of the report first. Feel free to stop me if you have any questions. So page one is the opinion of the opinion letter.
  • [01:24:17.43] So this is where we would give our opinion. And as was mentioned earlier, you did receive an unmodified or a clean opinion on the financial statements. And then page four starts the management's discussion and analysis.
  • [01:24:33.21] This is really just more of a narrative overview and analysis of the activities of the library for the year. So I'm not going to spend any time going through this. It does have the input from library management in here. So I do recommend you take some time to go through that when you are reading the statements. And then the actual financial statements start on page 11.
  • [01:25:01.18] So page 11 is your statement of net position. This statement encompasses all of the activities of the library. So it includes all of your funds. And then it also includes longer term assets and liabilities here that you're not going to see at the individual fund level, so things like capital assets, which is your buildings and vehicles and things like that that you may own and then also your long-term debt.
  • [01:25:24.28] Kind of in the middle of the page, you've got long-term debt, which is your compensated absences, so your accrual for sick and vacation. And then you've also got that net pension liability there, that $1.9 million that I'm sure you guys all remember having to record. So really, that is a quick snapshot of the library at June 30. But usually, what people are more interested in seeing begins on page 14.
  • [01:25:49.03] So page 14 starts your fund level statements. So this is your balance sheet as of June 30. The first column is your general fund, and then you've got your capital projects fund. And then your non-major governmental funds is a combination of your two endowment funds that if you wanted to see detail for, there's a statement in the back that shows those separately.
  • [01:26:11.48] So this statement summarizes all of the assets as of June 30 and then all of liabilities, with the difference between the two being your ending fund balance for the year. And then page 16 tells the story of how you got to that ending fund balance. So again, same columns.
  • [01:26:28.90] This summarizes the revenues for the 12 months ended at June 30. It summarizes all of your expenditures for the 12 months ended. And then those last three lines on page 16, you can see your change in fund balance for the year, where you started and where you ended.
  • [01:26:45.01] So that first column, the general fund, you started with a fund balance of about 5 million. You had an increase of about 318,000 for the year in just your general fund. So ended at about $5.3 million in fund balance. And then on page 18 is a little bit more detail for just the general fund.
  • [01:27:04.32] This is your budget's actual statement. So that first column is your original budget. So that would have been adopted at the beginning of the year. And then the final budget column would include any amendments that were made during the year.
  • [01:27:15.58] And then you've got your actuals there as well. And then that final column shows variances between your final budget numbers and your actuals. And then the next probably 15 or so pages, starting on page 20, are the notes to the financial statements. Again, this is a lot more narrative information and a lot more detail as to some of the individual numbers and the financial statements. So if you wanted to see a little bit more detail, that information is available here.
  • [01:27:53.07] And then the last statement in here is on page 42 and 43. And again, this is just the detail of those two endowment funds that were combined in that statement upfront. So you can see the two individual endowment funds.
  • [01:28:06.28] Page 42, again, is the balance sheet that shows the fund balance broken between what's non-spendable versus what's spendable in those funds. And then page 43 shows the changes in those two funds for the year-- so any revenue that was brought in versus any expenditures. So that is a very high level of the financial statements. I would be happy to answer any questions. Yes?
  • [01:28:31.22] VICTORIA GREEN: Yeah, I have one question. On page 18, I don't understand what the interest income line is telling us. If someone has an explanation about why the budget versus actual is so different?
  • [01:28:53.78] TRACY KASPAREK: I do not know that offhand. I can try and find out an answer for you.
  • [01:28:58.64] JOSIE PARKER: Bill, is it simply what we budgeted?
  • [01:29:01.17] BILL COOPER: Right, this is--
  • [01:29:02.78] JOSIE PARKER: You want to step up to the podium? Do you mind, Tracy?
  • [01:29:09.33] BILL COOPER: Yeah, when the budget was developed, we had spent the $3 million to buy the building the year before. And that wasn't taken out of the budget when it was being prepared.
  • [01:29:24.05] VICTORIA GREEN: Got it.
  • [01:29:24.85] BILL COOPER: So we didn't collect as much interest on the account as we were hoping to because the fund balance of that investment was much lower.
  • [01:29:33.21] JOSIE PARKER: We didn't adjust that.
  • [01:29:34.20] BILL COOPER: And we didn't adjust for that in the budget.
  • [01:29:35.99] VICTORIA GREEN: So when we do our budget going forward, we would expect the number to be more like-- $268 is going to be expected for next year?
  • [01:29:44.20] BILL COOPER: Not necessarily. It'll be higher than that. But we'll have a true budget number than what they had in the '16-'17 budget. Because they didn't take that into account when they made the budget.
  • [01:30:00.08] VICTORIA GREEN: I don't think I was-- I mean, maybe I should have known this. But, Jim, does this match your-- I mean, does that make sense to you as an explanation for the difference as well?
  • [01:30:09.27] JIM NEIJA: Yeah. Well, we asked this question when we were in the meeting.
  • [01:30:12.02] VICTORIA GREEN: I asked the question. We didn't know the answer.
  • [01:30:14.10] JIM NEIJA: We didn't know the answer, but that makes sense, yeah.
  • [01:30:16.39] VICTORIA GREEN: OK.
  • [01:30:24.54] TRACY KASPAREK: Anything else on that report? There's one other smaller report referred to as the management letter. The first four or five pages are really just our standard required communications to you guys.
  • [01:30:39.09] Basically, the first part is stating these are your financial statements, you are responsible for them. And our responsibility is to just express an opinion on them. And then there's just a few other things.
  • [01:30:51.30] I mean, if we had any disagreements with management or if we encountered any difficulties in performing the audit, those would have to be disclosed here. But there was nothing like that. So everything else in this letter is pretty standard.
  • [01:31:02.43] And then attachment A to that letter is where we provide our findings, our comments, and recommendations. So you can see here we did have one finding related to an audit adjustment that we needed to make. Any adjustments that are found as part of the audit process we're required to bring to your attention.
  • [01:31:22.99] So there was just that one adjustment that came up. And then also less material, which is considered an other matter, is that one of the journal entries that we looked at was missing the reviewer's sign off and the supporting documentation for it. So it is your policy to keep that supporting documentation and have some independent of the preparer reviewing those. So we just recommend that you make sure that policy is followed.
  • [01:31:54.76] And then attachment B is just some exciting upcoming GASBs. I'm not going to go into any detail on those, but those are there for your information. And then attachment C is just the management representation letter. So this is something that management signs, basically saying that they've let us know everything that we need to know.
  • [01:32:18.62] JOSIE PARKER: One thing I'll ask you, if you can, in the GASB changes-- because we're all understanding now the pension liability and how that's recorded. There's a GASB change that's going to add retirement--
  • [01:32:35.53] TRACY KASPAREK: Other post-employment, yeah.
  • [01:32:36.89] JOSIE PARKER: Right. Can you just mention that?
  • [01:32:39.86] TRACY KASPAREK: Yeah. So GASB 75, which will be applicable in fiscal year '18-- so the same thing you did with your pension liability related to [INAUDIBLE] you're going to have to do with your other post-employment benefit obligations. So you're going to have another big liability recorded on the books.
  • [01:32:58.40] JOSIE PARKER: But we understand what that liability means. I mean, we understand our responsibility and how that's working through. I just want to make sure the board knows there will be another one reported next year.
  • [01:33:09.53] TRACY KASPAREK: Yes. That is very true. And it'll be the same type of calculation as the pension liability was-- and probably very similar disclosures.
  • [01:33:23.26] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Thank you for pointing that out.
  • [01:33:25.28] JIM NEIJA: Josie, did you want to comment on that one journal entry?
  • [01:33:28.29] JOSIE PARKER: Oh. It's another matter. I'm the person who initials and signs off on the journal entries, and there are dozens and dozens of them.
  • [01:33:42.32] And so I'm not surprised that I missed one. So as far as following the policy, I missed one, so I'll own it. It's mine.
  • [01:33:56.37] TRACY KASPAREK: And yes, it was just one. And we didn't find anything wrong with the journal entry or anything like that. It was just missing those initials.
  • [01:34:02.02] JOSIE PARKER: Didn't have a JBP on it. That's all.
  • [01:34:10.29] TRACY KASPAREK: Other questions? Comments?
  • [01:34:16.05] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Is that all you have for us?
  • [01:34:17.97] TRACY KASPAREK: Yes, it is.
  • [01:34:18.79] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, guys.
  • [01:34:21.27] TRACY KASPAREK: Thank you.
  • [01:34:21.71] JOSIE PARKER: Thank you so much.
  • [01:34:22.86] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Thanks especially for your patience.
  • [01:34:25.73] JOSIE PARKER: Tim. Tim, could you help her out? Thank you. Thank you very much.
  • [01:34:30.48] TRACY KASPAREK: You're welcome.
  • [01:34:32.36] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So we're on to-- yes, an item of action. These always make me think of The Princess Bride or something. We are men of action.
  • [01:34:40.00] JIM NEIJA: I'll read the resolution.
  • [01:34:41.61] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Thank you.
  • [01:34:44.43] JIM NEIJA: The board resolves to accept the 2016-2017 financial audit prepared by Rehmann, that all resolutions and parts of resolutions that conflict with the provisions of this resolution are rescinded.
  • [01:34:57.26] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Second.
  • [01:34:57.73] JIM NEIJA: Thank you.
  • [01:34:58.66] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: All those in favor?
  • [01:34:59.82] MULTIPLE: Aye.
  • [01:35:01.53] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Opposed? Great. So who wants to arm wrestle me for these two? Because I knew both of them well, but I feel like we should spread the love.
  • [01:35:11.13] JOSIE PARKER: Wait. You got the meeting. You changed the agenda. So you might put the meeting schedule in there.
  • [01:35:16.02] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: That's correct. Oh, before we get to tell Debbie and Rachel how much we love them, we have to talk about when we're going to meet in 2018-- somewhat less exciting. Oh, are we going to get one of our announcements?
  • [01:35:31.63] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
  • [01:35:33.12] JOSIE PARKER: It's muted in here.
  • [01:35:34.34] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Oh, great. Nice work. So our 2018 meeting schedule. I was talking with Jim and he was mentioning that we usually talk about this-- I think we do it in January. We usually officially set the schedule.
  • [01:35:49.41] But since it's the month before January, we might as well talk about it, especially if we need to have any adjustments to the schedule. Let's see. Where is that? Jim, you said that you saw--
  • [01:36:04.14] JIM NEIJA: We have often met on MLK Day, but I see, Karen, that you've indicated the meeting would happen on Tuesday. Which is probably because this room is being used for--
  • [01:36:14.85] KAREN WILSON: No, the last several years, the board has moved it up.
  • [01:36:17.92] JIM NEIJA: Oh, we moved it off of--
  • [01:36:19.82] KAREN WILSON: They moved it off of MLK day onto the Tuesday.
  • [01:36:24.47] JOSIE PARKER: And these is a lot going on in the library system all day.
  • [01:36:27.53] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Is the schedule online or is it in the book?
  • [01:36:30.32] JIM NEIJA: I'm looking at the back page of the book.
  • [01:36:32.73] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So I think we're having this discussion with two months in front of us, which are on the back page of the front cover of our agenda, which say that we are going to meet in January on the 16th, a Tuesday, and in February on the 19th, a Monday. We have the opportunity now to talk a little bit about if there are any other adjustments we want to make, if we're OK with this January Tuesday.
  • [01:36:58.43] JIM NEIJA: We're looking at a third Monday. We do the third Monday, typically. Yet the reason I wanted to talk about this is because I know that I personally have a conflict every Monday January, February, and March that would conflict with our usual scheduling. Now, it's not necessary to schedule around me personally, but I do like to be present for our meetings.
  • [01:37:22.19] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Well, we know January is already proposed to meet those needs.
  • [01:37:26.72] JIM NEIJA: That's correct.
  • [01:37:27.56] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So if we start with January, do we have any issues with this meeting on a Tuesday that evening, the 16th?
  • [01:37:34.11] LINH SONG: We could go to city council.
  • [01:37:36.16] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah, you can go to-- are they having city council on that Monday?
  • [01:37:39.40] JOSIE PARKER: Mm, mm.
  • [01:37:40.14] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: No?
  • [01:37:40.61] JOSIE PARKER: Not on MLK day.
  • [01:37:41.93] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Oh.
  • [01:37:43.41] LINH SONG: Well, then, if we change to February, we can go to city council.
  • [01:37:49.14] JOSIE PARKER: Are you proposing, Jim, a change to Tuesdays through the year?
  • [01:37:56.26] JIM NEIJA: I would propose that--
  • [01:38:03.97] VICTORIA GREEN: This is a small point, but February 19 is President's Day as well. That is not a problem for me, personally. I don't know if the other board members-- there's no school.
  • [01:38:12.60] JOSIE PARKER: There's a couple things.
  • [01:38:13.85] VICTORIA GREEN: It's fine for me.
  • [01:38:19.31] LINH SONG: Are you going to Disney World on President's Day?
  • [01:38:24.02] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I like the idea of not meeting on Mondays because of the conflict with city council.
  • [01:38:30.35] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: We certainly could look into meeting on Tuesdays. Doesn't matter to me.
  • [01:38:34.49] JIM NEIJA: I would say in general that's not great for me. It just happens to be that these two--
  • [01:38:39.73] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Tuesdays are not any better?
  • [01:38:40.55] JIM NEIJA: Tuesdays are typically also impossible, but it's those Mondays which are turning out to be unusually hard.
  • [01:38:48.37] LINH SONG: Well, shall we go for Tuesdays for a quarter?
  • [01:38:53.15] COLLEEN SHERMAN: What about Thursdays?
  • [01:38:57.08] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yes, Mr. Surovell?
  • [01:38:58.94] ED SUROVELL: My own preference is to keep it with Monday, and those who can't attend can't attend. It has been that way now forever. It has worked astonishingly well, with a minimum of conflicts. And I personally prefer Mondays and will vote for Monday.
  • [01:39:23.72] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Anyone else have a strong opinion?
  • [01:39:26.08] ED SUROVELL: Excuse me?
  • [01:39:28.25] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: She asked if anyone else has a strong opinion.
  • [01:39:31.35] VICTORIA GREEN: I don't.
  • [01:39:33.24] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I think I do, either. I don't really care when we meet, as long as it's after work.
  • [01:39:37.03] JIM NEIJA: I mean, I would shift to Tuesdays for the remainder of the school year. Same.
  • [01:39:41.99] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So through June?
  • [01:39:43.56] JIM NEIJA: Through April.
  • [01:39:44.63] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: April. Oh, the Michigan school year.
  • [01:39:48.00] JIM NEIJA: For the Michigan school year. Thank you.
  • [01:39:54.70] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: What about this room?
  • [01:39:56.47] JOSIE PARKER: I was about to say. We need to look at-- we were not prepared for this. So we will have to look at room availability and determine whether this room is available or another room in the system where there's possibility to broadcast.
  • [01:40:13.39] Because we aren't able to do that from everywhere. So we will understand that Tuesday's the preference through April, and then we'll work. And we'll get back to you.
  • [01:40:24.92] JIM NEIJA: So we simply just want to make a decision that we're going to have our next meeting on the 16th of January. That's enough. And then we can revisit that.
  • [01:40:33.34] JOSIE PARKER: We'd do that.
  • [01:40:34.69] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
  • [01:40:35.65] You did that. Yeah.
  • [01:40:36.76] JIM NEIJA: That was part of our vote for last year? Got it.
  • [01:40:39.05] JOSIE PARKER: Yeah. You go through that annual meeting in your vote. And that's your elections.
  • [01:40:43.85] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I don't remember doing that.
  • [01:40:45.07] JIM NEIJA: Yeah. I don't remember doing that, either.
  • [01:40:47.18] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Well, it was last year.
  • [01:40:49.21] ELI NEIBURGER: February the 20th, the room is booked for Ann Arbor Reads.
  • [01:40:51.75] MULTIPLE: OK.
  • [01:40:54.24] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So is the upstairs-- that won't be done by then.
  • [01:40:59.88] JOSIE PARKER: It is done. It's done, but I'm not sure about the broadcast. So if we meet on Tuesday the 16th in January, we'll know then what we can do. And we can have a counter proposed.
  • [01:41:12.73] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: That sounds really good. We can vote then.
  • [01:41:15.36] JOSIE PARKER: Yes.
  • [01:41:15.77] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK. Great.
  • [01:41:16.81] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I liked how he we took August off based on need. I think we can leave that open, leave it on the calendar.
  • [01:41:24.69] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah, I think it's good to have it on the calendar, but I liked that. I think no one can do anything 24/7 all year. It's good to have little breaks.
  • [01:41:35.58] LINH SONG: And now there's arm wrestling for [INAUDIBLE].
  • [01:41:38.00] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: That was not an item of action, I don't think. Was it? Or what is it?
  • [01:41:41.52] JOSIE PARKER: Or is it because we don't have answers?
  • [01:41:43.14] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Item of discussion, so we're good to move on.
  • [01:41:46.18] JIM NEIJA: Do we want to do the closed session?
  • [01:41:48.92] JOSIE PARKER: You're not there yet.
  • [01:41:49.70] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah, we're not quite there yet.
  • [01:41:50.40] JIM NEIJA: OK. I just couldn't remember where we put it in the order.
  • [01:41:51.87] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: First we get to thank Debbie and Rachel. Who would like to read Debbie's? It's on page 24.
  • [01:42:01.28] VICTORIA GREEN: The board resolves, one, that it would like to officially thank Debbie Gallagher for her services as an employee from December 2, 1996 to December 15, 2017 of the Ann Arbor District Library; two, that all resolutions and parts of resolutions that conflict with the provisions of this resolution are rescinded.
  • [01:42:23.22] JIM NEIJA: I'll second that.
  • [01:42:25.43] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: All those in favor?
  • [01:42:27.13] MULTIPLE: Aye.
  • [01:42:28.25] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Opposed? Well, thank you, Debbie. Oh, my gosh.
  • [01:42:32.39] JOSIE PARKER: She's done. She's not here.
  • [01:42:34.57] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: But still, maybe she'll read the transcript.
  • [01:42:36.12] JOSIE PARKER: She might look. She might be watching.
  • [01:42:40.30] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah, Debbie is amazing. I remember when I first started working here, Debbie walked here every morning from, like, all the way out where I live, west of Maple every morning. And she was the first person who was here always. She's just a tireless powerhouse. And I'm sure she's going to do amazing things in her retirement.
  • [01:43:00.00] Now we on to Rachel Yanikoglu, which maybe I will read because I can pronounce your last name. The board resolves that it would like to officially thank Rachel Yanikoglu for her service as an employee from April 7, 1986 to December 15, 2017 at the Ann Arbor District Library; that all resolutions and parts of resolutions that conflict with the provisions of this resolution are rescinded.
  • [01:43:22.28] JIM NEIJA: I'll second that.
  • [01:43:24.00] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: All those in favor?
  • [01:43:25.15] MULTIPLE: Aye.
  • [01:43:26.75] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Opposed? So Rachel-- if you have not visited the children's area recently in the past few years, there's always a little table where you can play a different interactive sensory game. And Rachel has been making those for the past few years-- making them.
  • [01:43:46.51] And she's the most creative, imaginative person. She's wonderful with children. And she's just given so much to this library. So we wish her well.
  • [01:43:57.94] JOSIE PARKER: And it was the Facebook post we showed you where Rachel had so many comments from people-- people who are all grown up now, who remembered meeting the Bookmobile with Rachel on the Bookmobile, a way long time ago. And they still talk about it. And it's wonderful that she got that type of response from the Facebook page-- and in person and a lot of others.
  • [01:44:21.58] She did her last baby playgroup Thursday evening, and she did second grade round up down here on Friday. And then she said she was calling it good. It's very wonderful for her.
  • [01:44:36.21] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So we wish her well, too.
  • [01:44:37.41] JOSIE PARKER: Yes.
  • [01:44:38.52] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: All right. So now I think we can talk about--
  • [01:44:41.31] JIM NEIJA: I would like to move to call a closed session for the discussion of real estate on Tuesday, January 16.
  • [01:44:48.97] LINH SONG: Second.
  • [01:44:49.46] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Second.
  • [01:44:50.44] JOSIE PARKER: That's a roll call.
  • [01:44:51.33] JIM NEIJA: That's a roll call, yeah.
  • [01:44:55.26] KAREN WILSON: Victoria Green?
  • [01:44:57.15] VICTORIA GREEN: Aye. Yes.
  • [01:44:57.90] KAREN WILSON: Jim Neija?
  • [01:44:58.59] JIM NEIJA: Yes.
  • [01:44:59.42] KAREN WILSON: Jan Barney Newman?
  • [01:45:00.25] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Yes.
  • [01:45:01.23] KAREN WILSON: Colleen Sherman?
  • [01:45:01.98] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Yes.
  • [01:45:02.43] KAREN WILSON: Linh Song?
  • [01:45:03.39] LINH SONG: Yes.
  • [01:45:03.81] KAREN WILSON: Ed Surovell?
  • [01:45:04.80] ED SUROVELL: Yes.
  • [01:45:05.58] KAREN WILSON: Jamie Vander Broek?
  • [01:45:06.96] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yes. All right. I think that finally brings us-- oh, no, citizens' comments. Do you have anyone else?
  • [01:45:14.09] KAREN WILSON: I have not received any.
  • [01:45:15.97] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Oh, OK. Well, that brings us to the end. I believe we are adjourned. We'll see you in the new year.
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December 18, 2017 at Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

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AADL Board Meeting