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AADL Board of Trustees Meeting - March 19th, 2018

When: March 19, 2018 at Downtown Library

Watch the March 2018 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.

 

18-038 I. CALL TO ORDER
18-039 II. ATTENDANCE
18-040  III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
( Item of action)
18-041 IV. CONSENT AGENDA (Item of action)
CA-1 Approval of Minutes of February 19, 2018                          
CA-2 Approval of February 2018 Disbursements
18-042 V. CITIZENS’ COMMENTS
18-043 VI. FINANCIAL REPORTS 
Bill Cooper, Finance Manager
18-044 VII. COMMITTEE REPORTS
18-045 A. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
18-046 VIII. DIRECTOR’S REPORT 
Josie B. Parker, Director
18-047 IX. OLD BUSINESS
17-165 A. AADL STRATEGIC PLAN GOAL 3.3: 2018 EPIC-MRA SURVEY PRESENTATION 
John Cavanagh, EPIC-MRA
16-154 B. AADL STRATEGIC PLAN GOAL 4.3: IMPLEMENT THE NEW WEB PRESENCE - UPDATE Eli Neiburger, Deputy Director
18-048 X. NEW BUSINESS
18-049 A. DISCUSSION TO REALLOCATE BALANCE OF APPROVED FUNDS FROM THE TRAVERWOOD MSE PROJECT TO USE TOWARDS PUBLIC MEETING SPACE IN AADL BRANCHES
 Len Lemorie, Facilities Manager
18-050 B. SPACE USE AGREEMENT WITH THE FRIENDS OF THE ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY (Item of discussion)
18-051 C. VOTE FOR CLOSED SESSION FOR AT THE APRIL 16, 2018 REGULAR BOARD MEETING FOR DISCUSSION OF REAL ESTATE, LABOR NEGOTIATIONS AND DIRECTOR’S EVALUATION (Item of action)
18-052 XI. CITIZENS’ COMMENTS
18-053 XII. ADJOURNMENT    

Transcript

  • [00:00:00.00] [GAVEL RAPPING]
  • [00:00:01.47] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Welcome. Good on attendance? OK. Sorry, everyone, to rush right into it. Approval of the agenda? Is there a motion?
  • [00:00:12.57] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: So moved. Since I wasn't even here.
  • [00:00:18.02] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Second, anyone?
  • [00:00:19.25] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Second.
  • [00:00:20.96] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK, all those in favor?
  • [00:00:23.06] SPEAKERS: Aye.
  • [00:00:24.83] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Opposed? OK, all right, moving onto the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve it?
  • [00:00:33.00] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: So move.
  • [00:00:33.98] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Second.
  • [00:00:35.05] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Great, any discussion?
  • [00:00:37.22] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Looks good.
  • [00:00:38.63] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK, all those in favor?
  • [00:00:40.31] SPEAKERS: Aye.
  • [00:00:41.11] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Opposed? OK, great. All right, anyone signed up?
  • [00:00:46.25] KAREN WILSON I did not receive [INAUDIBLE] yet.
  • [00:00:48.03] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK great. Well. I think that everyone in the audience has been here before, but you know you can talk at the end if you want to. OK, financial reports.
  • [00:01:03.49] BILL COOPER: Good evening. As of February 28, 2018 we have collected $15,253,884 or 97.8 percent of our budgeted amount of $15,598,058. We are currently under budget for the year at $1,498,511. Are there any questions for me?
  • [00:01:33.90] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Sounds good.
  • [00:01:38.95] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I think we're all set. Thank you so much.
  • [00:01:40.60] BILL COOPER: All right, great. Thank you.
  • [00:01:45.65] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So for committee reports we just have the executive committee. So the executive committee just met a few minutes ago to advance the director's evaluation process. You might remember that it has more steps than it used to. So one of-- the first step was that Josie completed her self-evaluation and we have the document. So we have now met as a little group. We'll get back to Josie. And then we'll have more communication for you forthcoming. So the process is several months long, and more to come on that. But it's happening.
  • [00:02:19.12] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: We'll take your word for it.
  • [00:02:21.23] LINH SONG: It's a much improved process.
  • [00:02:22.66] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah, it's so much better to-- you know, instead of kind of making it up-- not making it up as you go along, but feeling like what should I be doing? It's nice to look at a document and say well now I do this. So.
  • [00:02:32.38] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Well commendations go to your committee for making it so. Because we've been dissatisfied with it for a long time. And it's-- you made it work.
  • [00:02:43.19] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Well, thanks Jan. So we met about that. And then last week we met to talk with Fran Alexander, who will be facilitating our retreat. Her full name is Francine. She used to have a business called Alexander Resources, which she ran in Ann Arbor for a long time, offering-- like she does a lot of consulting for Zingerman's and companies like that. But she doesn't work on her own anymore. She works with Bridgeport Consulting. Have you ever met Fran?
  • [00:03:16.88] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I feel like I have, but--
  • [00:03:18.68] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I think I have, too.
  • [00:03:21.26] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: She's. Great so she'll be facilitating our retreat.
  • [00:03:24.65] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Give me the date of the retreat again. It's the 24th?
  • [00:03:28.19] JOSIE PARKER: May 23.
  • [00:03:29.07] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: 23rd.
  • [00:03:29.93] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: And it's a little different, the timing. I think we're starting at--
  • [00:03:32.64] JOSIE PARKER: It's in afternoon after 3:00 at Westgate. And then once the agenda's been established we'll know more about how much time, when we start and when we end. But it won't begin before 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon because the room--
  • [00:03:44.48] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Not before.
  • [00:03:45.27] JOSIE PARKER: That's right, because the room's not available on the west side room.
  • [00:03:49.77] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Well Fran is amazing. She listened so well to everything that we went through with her. You know, she's read the strategic plan in detail, was very prepared for our meeting. She had-- when she'd suggest an idea that we weren't nuts about, you really took feedback to heart and changed direction while we were talking. And I've known her-- she was my neighbor about 10 years ago. And I just have always looked up to her and thought she was just an awesome, interesting, like make it happen kind of person. So I think she's going to be a really good facilitator.
  • [00:04:25.75] LINH SONG: She asked difficult questions. And I think she really pushed us to think about what we want to get out of the retreat, any reflections from last year's retreat, though that's probably something that-- I think-- and then she plans to circle back with individual trustees, too, to get your feedback beforehand too.
  • [00:04:45.60] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Great, so we'll do an interview session like we did last year. That part felt valuable because then it-- so as you're talking, I'm thinking, well what do you mean about difficult questions?
  • [00:04:56.15] LINH SONG: You'll find out.
  • [00:04:56.76] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Yeah, great.
  • [00:04:59.99] JOSIE PARKER: She's good about that. I've been through many processes over the past 20 years when Fran was the facilitator. She's done a lot of public engagement for different governmental units and educational units, including the arts community around Washtenaw County. In the three different libraries I've been involved in, she's done engagements in two of those communities. So I knew her name from that. She was Carrie's mentor. Yes.
  • [00:05:30.41] COLLEEN SHERMAN: And then Kerry hired her.
  • [00:05:32.33] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah that's kind of a neat circle thing.
  • [00:05:33.11] JOSIE PARKER: It works that way.
  • [00:05:36.41] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: But yeah, she's great. So that's coming. And those are the main updates. Am I forgetting something?
  • [00:05:42.08] LINH SONG: Nope, I think that's it. Any questions?
  • [00:05:48.64] VICTORIA GREEN: Can we talk a little bit about the process through which we'll figure out the agenda? We're talking about how she'll facilitate us, but do we know what topics we want to cover?
  • [00:05:59.03] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah so that's why we met with her. She wanted to know, well what do you want to talk about during your several hours long conversation? So we told her that we've been really focusing on this strategic plan goal 3.3. We told what we did last year, what we've done in the interim, and kind of where we want to go to advance the conversation. We also told her that we are going to have this data that we'll talk about soon from the EPIC-MRA survey. And we felt like knowing that information, that we didn't know when we had our conversation with her. This, tonight, is going to really inform what we want to talk about.
  • [00:06:37.73] So she's going to be watching the meeting. She's away this month with her grandchild. So she'll have both the report and all of our discussion tonight, plus conversations with the trustees.
  • [00:06:53.36] JOSIE PARKER: She also focused in on-- while there may have been interest here month after month on a particular aspect of the strategic plan, there's a larger strategic plan. And she wanted to report out on the whole plan and what the efforts have been on all the objectives. And because this plan is only a year and a half away from being done, so then it leads you to start thinking about that next step. What's coming, what's not worked, what have we put aside, that sort of thing. So we talked about who could report out, how to line that up, without setting an agenda, just generalities about who had that information here.
  • [00:07:35.69] LINH SONG: And then we also requested that Len and Rich speak at the retreat, too, and just give us some feedback like how Len did last year on the state of the downtown building but kind of expand that a little bit more to align with the strategic plan.
  • [00:07:50.36] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Which speakers did you say? Len--
  • [00:07:52.58] LINH SONG: Len and Rich.
  • [00:07:55.55] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: And we told her that we wanted to again engage the people attending. So we wanted her to design some conversation that we then circle back to the board. It will be a little shorter, I think, because of the time that we're starting. But we won't have an outside presentation this time, so--
  • [00:08:14.69] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Hearing from Rich is fine, but I think that one was the long one. Oh, you mean Richard Reyti.
  • [00:08:20.36] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yes.
  • [00:08:20.87] JOSIE PARKER: We're talking about Rich, our Rich .
  • [00:08:22.55] LINH SONG: OK.
  • [00:08:23.20] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Exactly, right. Like that was such a good piece of information, but it took a lot of time.
  • [00:08:28.47] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Yeah, so-- in structuring retreats, one of the things is you don't want to be too report heavy, especially this retreat which follows on last year, where I think we can do more break out. We can do more constructive-- what are the goals? You have it. It's just making sure that we're really interchanging. Because that's where the magic happens. That's where we sort of-- we made a lot of really good decisions that have gotten us on the path where we say we're going to do data collection. And we're going to understand what the snapshot really is so we can make better decisions, because we don't have that playing field of data that we need. So we're getting the data. Now we can go into the OK, we have the data, what are we still missing.
  • [00:09:11.72] I didn't mean to take over the conversation, but I just-- I've been thinking a lot about like we have a lot to build on this year. And it sounds like Fran is the perfect person to lead us.
  • [00:09:20.57] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah, I think she'll do a great job. And we were just talking in our executive committee meeting that because we don't have committees this is our time to talk. So we should talk.
  • [00:09:32.03] VICTORIA GREEN: And I would second, Colleen, what you said in that I'll read anything ahead of time so that we can talk while we're together.
  • [00:09:37.80] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I think that's important, too.
  • [00:09:38.31] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Here's a topic for the board meeting. Since we've gotten rid of committees, does it work?
  • [00:09:43.10] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I wonder about that. I really do.
  • [00:09:45.76] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I think it's a topic that's at least worth bringing up. Do we risk board disengagement? Because we don't have more engagement, and structure.
  • [00:09:56.54] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: That's been a feeling during the transition from committees to executive committee. And I can understand it. And I'm not sure what I think about it, either. But it's hard to know what's going on when you don't know what's going on.
  • [00:10:11.33] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Right, I worry about that too. I mean we talk about that, because I feel like-- well we literally-- three of us just met, and one-- I think Jim said when you are on the executive committee you have no choice but to feel constantly engaged. Because you're always hearing things in a communication loop. And when you're not-- and I was not before this year-- oh, I'm sorry, my sister-in-law wants to FaceTime with my daughter. Sorry, not right now Kirsten.
  • [00:10:40.20] But yeah, I think when you're not it feels like things are happening, and you don't know what they are. And then you come to the meeting and feel like progress has been made, but-- or I felt this way.
  • [00:10:50.64] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: You're not part of it. You don't feel part of it.
  • [00:10:52.73] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I can't speak for anyone else, but that's how I felt before I was in this new position.
  • [00:10:57.72] LINH SONG: So we actually talked. We brainstormed a little bit on different approaches that we could take on having more consistent engagement with staff and between ourselves, too.
  • [00:11:08.12] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: That's been about it before, and it doesn't happen. Because there was some discussion of the executive committee being in touch with the none-- with other trustees on a monthly basis. As far as I know, that hasn't happened. Maybe it has, but--
  • [00:11:25.37] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: No, I don't think that that's something that's happening regularly. I mean I feel like we have to do something structurally to fix-- it's like we had probably too much, right? I think we had too much. There was too many committees. And now we have maybe too few ways of formally engaging the brainpower on the board.
  • [00:11:48.41] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Formal engagement is a good way to put it. So I said something ridiculous to Jim last week, which is you know I haven't sat down and had coffee with Josie. And he's like Colleen, just call her. She'll go out to coffee with you. I'm like, yeah, but I don't want to waste her time.
  • [00:12:05.33] JOSIE PARKER: Yeah, that's the problem is you can't think that way. I mean I work for you.
  • [00:12:10.67] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Yes.
  • [00:12:11.33] JOSIE PARKER: And so--
  • [00:12:12.17] COLLEEN SHERMAN: And I understand that there's a ridiculousness, but in the course of my busy life, having a structured and we-- it's on the calendar and then I go there.
  • [00:12:20.96] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: That's the way I feel.
  • [00:12:21.60] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Makes a lot of sense.
  • [00:12:22.26] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: If I have it on the calendar--
  • [00:12:22.92] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Yeah, I'm going to miss my second finance committee meeting if I can't make the schedule meetings, then what do I do. And I think the onus is on us. So it's not right, correct, having been on the staff side many times with many different boards of directors, it goes both ways. You are only 50% of any relationship. And you have to take responsibility for your own engagement. You can't just put that on the staff.
  • [00:12:45.77] But that's why having it on the retreat agenda allows us to say this might work. What if we try this, to get creative with it.
  • [00:12:53.56] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah I think-- so I will write that down as a note to say to Fran. She'll see it when she hears the talk. But when she has her conversations with you all, that and other things will be important to surface. Because I think also Jim, Linh, me, we think about things from each our own perspective. And that's what Fran's hearing. And she's probably hearing the whole board as if it's the three of us. And that's why she's going to talk to you. But I just think it's important that she understand-- and she I know she does, but it will be helpful for her to learn each of your perspectives.
  • [00:13:28.44] LINH SONG: I think we're really lucky to have such a board who wants to be so fully engaged. So we're just trying to-- and this came up during our executive committee meeting just now, too. We were brainstorming on potential ways where Josie can reach out to each of you and bring you in in certain ways that speak to your own professional talents and interests beyond just having an events list and trying to figure out where you should be at a certain time. So it's something that we've considered, and I'm sure Fran can really tease out in better ways, too.
  • [00:14:05.04] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Well and I think most of us work on a calendar. And I don't know if Josie wants to talk to me every Tuesday at 4:00, but that's how I work. I have a slot that I-- where I focus. And I know Josie's slots are pretty full. But--
  • [00:14:23.37] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: But I'm sure she would make time.
  • [00:14:24.71] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Well we always have.
  • [00:14:26.21] JOSIE PARKER: Yes, we always did, Jan was president--
  • [00:14:27.00] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: And Josie's good about calling us to get our views on things.
  • [00:14:32.20] VICTORIA GREEN: Well I also think that the times I've called-- I've called you, Jamie. I've called you, Linh. And I mean if you weren't taking my phone calls, I might think that was a problem. But when I call you up about an issue, I feel like, you know-- so I'm comfortable with the more informal ways of doing that as well. Now that said, we haven't had too many hotly contested issues where--
  • [00:14:51.50] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Where we need to know more.
  • [00:14:53.18] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Right. Yeah, that's true. It probably varies based on what we're dealing with.
  • [00:15:04.26] LINH SONG: I think we'll have a really productive meeting, though. So we had this phone call with Fran and trying to map out goals for the retreat. But then-- and then she'll come back to us with an agenda. So we're still working things out. So everything, all the input you've given tonight, will be-- is timely.
  • [00:15:23.11] VICTORIA GREEN: And I hope like last year we get lots of people who come.
  • [00:15:26.58] LINH SONG: Yes tens, tens of people.
  • [00:15:28.57] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Tens. tens is a good-- that's a good safe-- like we won't feel sad if it's--
  • [00:15:34.29] LINH SONG: Right.
  • [00:15:34.54] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Great.
  • [00:15:35.43] LINH SONG: Hundreds would not fit.
  • [00:15:37.08] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Wouldn't fit.
  • [00:15:38.28] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah, right, exactly.
  • [00:15:39.87] LINH SONG: Yes.
  • [00:15:40.89] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK so, thank you all. I think we move on to your part.
  • [00:15:45.00] JOSIE PARKER: Oh sure, thank you honey. In addition to the upcoming events and issues of interest that I gave to you in the written report, I just want to remind everyone that national library week is in April. And it's April 7th through 15th. And there will be a number of events here at the library that mark that week that we're involved in. So I won't go down that list, but I just want to make sure you're aware, for those non-library people it's a big week for libraries. So around the country, so make sure you do that.
  • [00:16:18.52] The other thing that I want to say that's not on my written report is that we started a new podcast here. And I'm going to-- I'm looking back there. I want to get it right. Behind the marquee with the Michigan Theater, and the Michigan Theater staff meet here in our space. And they're using our files. They're doing their own discussion. They're in charge of their own conversation, their own topics. They're doing everything, the editing and all, everything. But it's here.
  • [00:16:47.01] So it's a partnership with us. And so at the front of each of these it will state this is done in partnership with the AADL. So I thought you should know that.
  • [00:16:55.83] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Explain how it will be-- it's printed, or it's--?
  • [00:16:59.27] JOSIE PARKER: No, it's on the web.
  • [00:17:01.57] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Digital.
  • [00:17:01.85] JOSIE PARKER: You listen, yes, on the web. Podcast.
  • [00:17:03.62] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Oh, a podcast.
  • [00:17:04.17] JOSIE PARKER: I'm sorry, Jan, yeah, podcast. So we're pleased about that. This is a different kind of partnership.
  • [00:17:09.69] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: It's a good partnership that we've looked to have.
  • [00:17:13.59] JOSIE PARKER: Yes, other than the things we do with them on some films and some smaller things, this is I think a good thing for everyone. Looking forward to it.
  • [00:17:23.71] VICTORIA GREEN: And it's focused on film and local history, and--
  • [00:17:27.18] JOSIE PARKER: And what they're doing, yes, and what they're doing, correct. Speaking of local history, this is a photograph of the lady's library building that's in Ypsilanti. It's no longer a lady's library building. I think it's a law office. But it's downtown near Depot Town. And the Women's History Month focused on the history of the origins of the Ypsilanti this library, particularly in the Ann Arbor District Library on a WEMU NPR program a week ago, I think.
  • [00:18:03.03] So we just gave-- we thought this was a great photograph of their building, which still stands. They still have the building.
  • [00:18:08.97] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: That's their lady's library, not the one in Ann Arbor.
  • [00:18:10.25] JOSIE PARKER: No, that's Ypsilanti. They still have the building, we still have the ladies. So that's how I like to think about it, because our lady's library is still here and still with us. Speaking of, when you have a moment, if you go up to the fourth floor to the atrium near the landing-- on the landing, we received a gift from Miss Hears from the Ladies Library Association that is a sculpture of work by her husband. It's Wendell, isn't it, Jan?
  • [00:18:38.44] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Wendell.
  • [00:18:38.80] JOSIE PARKER: Wendell Hears. It's called By The Numbers, which she thought-- they thought was appropriate because of the Dewey Decimal system. And it's up there, and it's lovely. It's absolutely lovely. It came in this late last week. So we're very happy about that. So the Ladies Library Association helped to pay for moving it. It is stone and metal. It was not-- it's more than a piano.
  • [00:19:01.54] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: And two-- one of the oldest members of Lady's Library, or the longest term members of the Lady's Library died last fall. And her husband died recently.
  • [00:19:12.49] JOSIE PARKER: Oh, I didn't know that.
  • [00:19:13.97] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: And they-- we should-- they should hear from us about-- Sarah should here from us.
  • [00:19:19.03] JOSIE PARKER: I was not aware. I sent Sarah a note about her mother. I did not know about her Father.
  • [00:19:23.83] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: OK. Good.
  • [00:19:26.52] JOSIE PARKER: Then let's see, there was other thing-- I think those are the things I wanted to say that are not written. And so the next thing was the Raspberry Pi, an upcoming event. Linh and her family attended the Raspberry Pi Jam here. These columns are lists of places where this happened around the World. So we were involved in something that was going on globally all over. And so we were-- if you remember, we were one of the few places selected in North America to do Raspberry Pi in a public library a year and a half ago. And so this is a follow up part of that program. So we're very happy about it. It's not edible pie. No, no, no.
  • [00:20:18.04] LINH SONG: It was really well run. We had a really great time. The entire family from ages 8 to-- let's say mid 40s. They had a great time.
  • [00:20:26.96] JOSIE PARKER: Good, good to hear it. And then the art and gaming symposium, so we partner with U of M libraries and the Institute for the Humanities on art and gaming symposium. That is coming up in early April here. And we're excited. That's always an interesting event because it's gaming and humanities coming together in a conversation, which right now I think is something a lot of people are talking about, a lot of people are interested in. So we're glad we're doing that.
  • [00:20:57.45] Library camp-- we've been doing library camp for almost a decade-- about a decade. And this is an unconference where the public library of Ann Arbor opens its building up and has its staff available for libraries, librarians, library professionals, people who work in technology all across the Midwest who want to come here without paying a fee for a conference and without an agenda, and meet here and decide in that moment what the agenda will be and who the people will be who lead those conversations around the library that day. This has been-- this has become a very successful and well-attended event that people look forward to and plan for.
  • [00:21:38.08] So it's a compliment to the folks here who put in the time and energy to manage it and make it work, but also to those folks who come here in good faith that it's going to be worth the trip for them. And we're grateful that so many people do. So that's coming up. You are all invited to unconference. This is one of those days when you can look at what the agenda turns out to be and decide what it is you want to go learn more about and come away with some good information and more knowledge about what goes on, not only in this library but in others. They will always ask about how do we compare, how we compared. Gives you a way to do that that's in a non-competitive, non-judgmental type of environment. So we look forward to this.
  • [00:22:25.78] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So I-- do you mind if I--?
  • [00:22:27.19] JOSIE PARKER: No, go.
  • [00:22:27.67] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I went last year. I had gone before, because for work it's something that there are other U of M people who go to it. And last year I thought, oh my gosh everyone, all the trustees should be here. Because I felt like I learned a lot about the public library environment in Michigan. And there was another trustee there from Kalamazoo. I think she was--
  • [00:22:47.44] JOSIE PARKER: Southfield too, one from Southfield.
  • [00:22:49.71] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK. Yeah, yeah, so I just felt like I learned a lot about this library and how it exists in context.
  • [00:22:56.83] JOSIE PARKER: Susan Kornfield, who's a local attorney in town of Bodmin, who's pretty well known in her field for being an expert on copyright. And we've had-- we had Susan come to speak here about a decade ago on staff day. She's a very interesting speaker. And copyright remains a major issue in the world of libraries and information technology. And she is coming to be one of the speakers. We do have two organized speakers?
  • [00:23:26.49] SPEAKER 2: There's one in the morning, and then--
  • [00:23:27.54] JOSIE PARKER: One in the morning and then in the after-- so we do that much. And then the rest of the time is determined by the people who come. We talk about--
  • [00:23:35.95] LINH SONG: I love, I love this format. It's fun.
  • [00:23:38.54] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: What is the attendance usually? What numbers?
  • [00:23:41.44] JOSIE PARKER: Oh, about 70.
  • [00:23:42.36] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Really?
  • [00:23:43.10] JOSIE PARKER: Yeah. And there's-- you know, we use the whole building, all the rooms for this. This building.
  • [00:23:54.01] LINH SONG: Do we do unconferences for anything else?
  • [00:23:56.52] JOSIE PARKER: We have not. We have not.
  • [00:24:00.29] LINH SONG: I love it, because unconferences you're not held hostage to a certain agenda. And then you vote with your feet. So if you like a particular session, then you can stay. But if not, then you can speak up and present yourself or see if others will.
  • [00:24:17.22] JOSIE PARKER: It's worked for us. It sounds like such a contradiction. But they have to be well planned to work.
  • [00:24:25.53] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Can I go back and ask a question about the gaming and humanities? What's the date for that?
  • [00:24:31.92] JOSIE PARKER: April 7th.
  • [00:24:32.91] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: OK. And the time? I'm sorry, I didn't get.
  • [00:24:37.04] JOSIE PARKER: I don't know.
  • [00:24:37.95] SPEAKER 2: It starts at 9:00 AM on campus. And then the closing talk here.
  • [00:24:43.88] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: 9:00 AM on U of M campus?
  • [00:24:45.95] SPEAKER 2: Yeah, I believe at Hatcher.
  • [00:24:47.72] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: OK.
  • [00:24:48.62] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I'm moderating one of the panels, actually.
  • [00:24:50.35] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Are you? At Hatcher?
  • [00:24:51.99] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: At Hatcher, yeah. But I can't remember what time.
  • [00:24:56.97] VICTORIA GREEN: There was just a gaming and music conference. Is it related? It feels like they're two distinct events.
  • [00:25:02.30] JOSIE PARKER: They're not related.
  • [00:25:03.48] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So the art and gaming part is different for this year, but I don't-- I don't remember what the-- I'm only involved because of the art half of the gaming. So when they did the gaming conference last year, I don't know what the theme was.
  • [00:25:15.13] ELI NEIBURGER: I believe it was gender.
  • [00:25:16.25] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Oh right, right, yeah.
  • [00:25:17.17] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: It my what?
  • [00:25:17.85] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Gender.
  • [00:25:19.10] JOSIE PARKER: Gender.
  • [00:25:19.37] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So another really hot topic issue.
  • [00:25:24.50] JOSIE PARKER: So we try to stay right there on the forefront of everything. So tonight you see your for projects and initiatives underway, the draft budget is coming to you with the April board meeting, which is our normal schedule, with a budget hearing in May, with the passage of the budget at the May meeting. Then the EPIC-MRA reports evening, which is also part of the strategic plan.
  • [00:25:49.67] Then we're bringing to you some information about meeting room development in the Traverwood, Pittsfield, and Malletts Creek that are similar to what we've been able to do at Westgate and down here. Len's going to talk to you tonight about what we want to do and how we're trying to approach that. And this is one of those places where-- it's facilities. So we're bringing it to you this evening for you to have all the information that you need that we have for you to consider.
  • [00:26:19.25] In the past-- and I'm to go back to the committee conversation-- in the past, a facilities committee would have met with us and gotten all this information. And the facilities committee would have brought it to the board with three people knowing more about it than everyone. What this does, and I'm not advocating one way or the other about what you all decide, I'm just saying-- we, the staff, have pulled together the information. Linh's going to present it. You are listening tonight. You are not voting on what to do. We're not asking you that. We'll ask you for that in April. So if you have more questions or you want more information, you let me know, we get that pulled together, and then we get it.
  • [00:26:57.36] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: So the budget figures will be tied to the projects at that time?
  • [00:26:59.99] JOSIE PARKER: No, this is money that's in the capital outlay fund that lives outside of the operational budget. But it's money we have and we want to do something with it. And we want to make sure that you are supportive of it before we go forward. So you'll hear that tonight. So that's one way-- not having so many committees, this is one way the staff approaches getting you this information. So the communications strategy reports coming at the board retreat. That's part of the strategic plan. And then summary of staff comments, Jim Chiconas tweeted about the Cam article that was highlighting the Westgate branch expansion, which I thought was interesting, because I'm not sure how technologically-- how much he uses it. But he did it. So we put it up there for you. And we brought that to you last month about the article in the construction management magazine about Westgate.
  • [00:28:00.63] Then this is about a group of people were using our events lights for a fundraiser at Zal-- I'm going to get it wrong-- Zal Gaz Grotto Club. The fundraiser was for a nonprofit in town. And so our events lights, which you can check out from the public library with your library card, were checked out and used for this. And so someone tweeted about how this was done.
  • [00:28:30.87] I can also tell you from my own experience, that it is awesome lighting, and that you do not need to be grownups to do this. Because a group of seventh and eighth graders from Open Elementary School checked them out and used them to light up their seventh and eighth grade dance about three weeks ago. And I happened to have been part of that, been there, and helped cart all that back to the library. And I can tell you, it was so amazing to watch them be in that space with all that light that's professional, but yet it was for them too. And it went out on a 12-year-old's library card.
  • [00:29:08.29] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Oh, cool.
  • [00:29:11.30] JOSIE PARKER: This is a gentleman, I think, I don't know-- yes, Eric Smith, who wanted us to know about his child's first story time and how into it the child was, and how much the father appreciated it. Obviously it was at Traverwood. And then the same gentleman talked about the book sale where you can fill a tote bag full of books for $5 and that he and someone else have been training for this moment all month. So how do you do that? So I think you should know that somebody loved the story time.
  • [00:29:47.89] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Can we comment on the me and so and so?
  • [00:29:50.59] JOSIE PARKER: No. I didn't write it, Jan, I'm just telling you what it says. You can comment on it, but I'm not taking any credit or blame for it one way or the other.
  • [00:30:02.46] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I have a campaign against that.
  • [00:30:03.78] JOSIE PARKER: I know. This one is about someone who just has five books in their queue at home on their desk. And they're looking at the Goodreads and comparing it to what's at AADL, someone just commenting on their reading list.
  • [00:30:21.31] The other one is playing Braille Uno with someone at a cultural arts program here at the library. So I thought for those of you who play Uno and would to play it some time in Braille that you might find that very challenging.
  • [00:30:36.46] And this is just a young person who was at story time, obviously having a great time. And his parent wanted us to know about it.
  • [00:30:47.38] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Oh, Adalee knows that baby. They're baby friends.
  • [00:30:51.79] JOSIE PARKER: That at Pittsfield, so isn't that sweet?
  • [00:30:54.40] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yes.
  • [00:30:56.05] JOSIE PARKER: So Adalee's friend. This is a person who wanted to let us know that they came to the Sashiko Embroidery Program and learned a lot and wanted to thank the library for having this. I believe this might have been in the secret lab.
  • [00:31:14.40] And then the last-- I think it's the last one-- this one is a conversation back and forth about someone who's talking about don't you just hate it when trees suddenly begin popping up in your library. And they called it a beautiful photo, would you mind if we shared this on our social media channels? And the person said I wouldn't mind at all, go right ahead. And someone else says I should try studying there. So it's interesting what all is discussed and how it's discussed when people are in these places, and trees popping up in their public library, and that's Traverwood.
  • [00:31:52.02] So the only thing I'll say to you from the director's office is that we anticipate beginning negotiations with our two represent units of staff members that are MEA units here, collective bargaining, in early April. So the contracts expire end of June. They have been, historically, three year contracts. That's always part of the negotiations, the term, the duration. But we will be beginning to have those conversations in early April. So you will-- there will be a conversation with you in closed session with a labor attorney regarding benefits and that portion of the negotiations. So that will happen later in the spring.
  • [00:32:44.91] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Thank you.
  • [00:32:45.86] JOSIE PARKER: You're welcome.
  • [00:32:48.73] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK, so we now come to-- you know, for all the discussion about the EPIC-MRA, it happened. Linh tells me that two of her neighbors were called?
  • [00:32:58.95] LINH SONG: Oh, yes, my neighbors participated in it. We talked about it on our morning walk to school, to our kids' school this morning. They really enjoyed it. I was surprised.
  • [00:33:08.88] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: That's great.
  • [00:33:09.70] LINH SONG: And I was thankful.
  • [00:33:11.98] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So John joins us tonight.
  • [00:33:14.68] JOSIE PARKER: John Cavanagh from EPIC-MRA, and Eli's going to get him set up. We have slides. We thank John for being present to go through it with us. You all have--
  • [00:33:26.57] LINH SONG: Thanks John, good to see you again.
  • [00:33:28.08] JOHN CAVANAGH: Good to see you. That's good to hear that they enjoyed that. That's always a source of some trepidation on our part when I find out a board member's spouse or neighbor was called.
  • [00:33:43.66] VICTORIA GREEN: You guys called me.
  • [00:33:45.33] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Did you really?
  • [00:33:46.33] JOSIE PARKER: Yeah. It's OK, we didn't answer.
  • [00:33:51.41] JOHN CAVANAGH: We're used to that.
  • [00:33:53.43] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: We know what you think, I guess.
  • [00:33:54.86] JOHN CAVANAGH: Well I'm here to give you a 20,000 foot view of the survey results. This is the fourth in a series of surveys we've done by NALE for the District Library, the first one in 2012. And the biggest takeaway is you remain well-loved. And you have some slight variations up and down in various sectors that I'll cover a little bit.
  • [00:34:25.31] As I noted, this is the fourth in a series of surveys that we've completed. And this report will highlight any significant changes. And since there weren't huge ones, it will probably highlight some rather insignificant ones, too. But they are interesting nonetheless. Just to cover our professionalism, we conducted this February 5th through the 10th, 500 sample, it was done with 40% cell only users. That is up from 0% in 2012, 20% in '14, and 30% in '16. So we are increasing that. And that becomes-- the acquisition of those numbers is a little bit better. I always like to point to my daughter who lives in Muskegon but still carries a Lansing area code on her cell phone. So it is-- it poses some challenges for us.
  • [00:35:23.87] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Well how do you get the cell phone numbers.
  • [00:35:26.63] JOHN CAVANAGH: There are commercial vendors of them.
  • [00:35:28.62] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Are there?
  • [00:35:29.72] JOHN CAVANAGH: Yeah, and they have become increasingly better at zeroing in on weeding out the ones that don't fit a zip code. If you get a little narrower than a zip code wide, then you're really looking searching a needle in a haystack at times. But nevertheless, it was a five day process. And again 500 sample, that is a very robust sample, but the area can handle it. It is large enough. That produces a little less than a 4 and 1/2 percent margin of error. The bulk of them, obviously, since the district is the Ann Arbor Public Schools district, the bulk of the interviews came proportionally from Ann Arbor city residents, and again from Pittsfield. And there is some Saline and Lodi, and other Scio and Lodi other minor civil divisions that partake of that school districts.
  • [00:36:32.00] In case you're wondering, that margin of error is 4 and 1/2 percent either side of 50%, and that's true 95 percent of the time. So 19 times out of 20 these figures are what they ought to be within 4 and 1/2 percent of 50.
  • [00:36:50.31] An interesting finding in this was that the respondents believe their local-- exhibited a higher sensitivity to local taxes than state taxes. That's the inverse of what we usually find. Usually state taxes are viewed, at least on our statewide surveys and in many of our minor civil division surveys, state taxes are viewed as being too high in the 40% range, which is quite steep actually. And almost uniformly local taxes are viewed as being more palatable.
  • [00:37:32.32] Respondents viewed them as being too high in not nearly those proportions, somewhere in the low 20s like we see for the state level is more the norm for local taxes. But local taxes are perceived by nearly 1 in 3, 29%, and a good proportion of them feel rather intensely about that. 13% say much too high.
  • [00:37:57.90] You again, specifically the district, is viewed only has 14% too high. You will always find a core of respondents in any jurisdiction who believe their taxes are too high for what they receive in return.
  • [00:38:15.99] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Now say that again? Locally, it was a 14%?
  • [00:38:20.54] JOHN CAVANAGH: No, no, your dedicated millage that funds the operations of the library are viewed by local area residents as being too high by only 14% of the population compared to 29% of the population believe their other local government taxes are too high. Now that 14% is up a little bit, but it is within the margin of error. And it's two points lower than 14, so it's hanging in right at a median level for the four surveys.
  • [00:39:00.94] In 2016, 37% of the respondents were aware of the means by which the district was-- the library was funded, that it was a dedicated millage. The respondents or read a list of, I believe there are five different alternatives. The AADL is part of the Washtenaw county ISD, it is part of the Ann Arbor Public Schools, it is part of Ann Arbor city government, it is an independent body with a dedicated millage-- 30% this time around picked an independent body with a dedicated millage. That's down seven points from the 2016 survey. And, as Josie and I were talking, there was some effort made on the part of the library to inform respondents in the 2016 cycle that that's how you were structured and how you were funded.
  • [00:39:53.22] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: But is 37% or 30%-- aren't those low considering our effort to explain?
  • [00:40:00.77] JOHN CAVANAGH: Not especially, I mean it's-- how many times was it out with--
  • [00:40:07.99] JOSIE PARKER: Oh, the Millage?
  • [00:40:09.85] JOHN CAVANAGH: How you're funded and how you're structured. I mean if you mention it a few times, it doesn't sit, I guess on the top of a lot of people's in-baskets.
  • [00:40:17.99] JOSIE PARKER: Well, on the other side of that is the millage that we operate with was voted in perpetuity. So this library has not had to go back and go back and go back. So it's not been in front of the voter since it was passed originally. And I think that-- I think that matters, too, because a lot of people who moved here don't know.
  • [00:40:38.47] JOHN CAVANAGH: Haven't a clue, haven't a clue, yeah. I point that out only because to the extent-- that 7% by the way, difference, between '16 and '18-- that 7% didn't migrate over into an answer that was incorrect, and especially incorrect in a matter of it's part of local city government, since local taxes are viewed so askance. But rather it migrated to the undecided column. So there is some concern. And I point that out because we did have millage questions in this. And certainly that correlation could have impacted those numbers.
  • [00:41:24.66] You have a very high rate of people who use your libraries. We had one in northern McComb County where it was closer to 50%. Statewide our library of Michigan surveys have it at about 70%. At 83 you again are down a little bit from '16, but above '12 and '14, so hitting around the median. You're down a little bit in the frequency of visitation, in terms of daily or weekly as opposed to monthly. But if you lump together monthly with daily, you're right on a par again.
  • [00:42:00.99] The most visited branch is this facility, the downtown facility. But for the first time, the Westgate branch has overtaken Malletts Creek as the second most visited facility. I guess with renovations that might make some sense.
  • [00:42:18.26] JOSIE PARKER: Yes.
  • [00:42:21.43] JOHN CAVANAGH: We test awareness, use, and satisfaction with the things other than book lending. And the likelihood of significant visitation behavior changes if some things were introduced or expanded into the facilities. We also, as I mentioned, a test of a hypothetical millage. This was really just a dip of a toe into the water to find out whether or not there was any stomach for it. There appears to be. The first cold test of support was yeah, I'd support a millage. And the support rises once some background information is provided, in particular that major renovations haven't occurred here in about 27 years.
  • [00:43:10.31] VICTORIA GREEN: Do we know how this compares to-- sorry, do we know how this question compares to when it was asked in previous years, especially when the millage didn't pass?
  • [00:43:21.24] JOHN CAVANAGH: Yeah I can compare them, but they aren't the same questions. We had specific dollar amounts and how much would be-- this was a generic would you support a millage to fund improvements at the library. It's would you support a marriage to support public education. Well, yes. Would you support one that costs you $200 a year? Maybe not. So making comparisons when in 2012-- and I can get to that in some detail when I get to that particular slide. But the support does go up in this captured audience when you drill down with we've renovated the porch, did some elevator work and this and that, but for 27 years we haven't done much and haven't asked for.
  • [00:44:14.38] Here's the visitation numbers. As I noted, Westgate for the first time overtakes Malletts Creek. And the frequency at least a few times a month you've got very high visitation rates among the 83% of the population who visits with it at all.
  • [00:44:39.21] Again the perception of the state tax burden, that level underneath in that far left column is I think my taxes are too high, my state taxes are too high. If that's the response, then the interviewer asks would that be much or somewhat. And so the intensity of that belief is-- typically if you see at least half of the total or more then it's pretty strongly held. Perception of local tax, in 2012 a little closer to when the economic difficulties were around, 33% of your respondents thought local taxes were too high. That dropped to 29, then to 26, and now it's popped back up to 29.
  • [00:45:36.38] And as you can see, your 2018 figure split the difference between the two times it was asked before. And again, the intensity of that belief is not particularly great. But that you are half the proportion too high at 14% than the locals at 29 would serve you in good stead, particularly since the non-correct answers on your structure and funding don't gravitate toward local city government, but rather gravitate toward the undecided column. And there is a little bit-- a graphic depiction of the difference between the two perceptions.
  • [00:46:29.43] Here's a comparison of the millage votes, what we refer to in the business as a cold vote-- that is, it's the Ann Arbor District Library board is considering placing a proposal on the ballot that would ask voters to approve a millage increase to expand usable space. It's a very generic description of what was going to happen. It didn't mention a millage rate amount. It didn't mention what the bond amount would be for, how long it would last, nor what it would cost the average homeowner. So would you support or oppose?
  • [00:47:05.66] If the respondent says yes or no, that's considered a solid response. And that's depicted in the green portion of those bars. If they say undecided, the interviewer presses the respondent a little bit and says, well, if the election were held today and you had to decide right now, which way would you lean? And lean yes and lean no are the result for your totals. Leaners are notoriously unreliable votes, particularly in the yes column. But it gives you an idea of what the potential vote can be.
  • [00:47:44.12] Among those people who were not solid yes, they were given a follow up question that described a little bit of the renovation history of the downtown District Library and then were re-asked, if a millage were placed in front of you would you vote yes or no. And you can see the solid yes support and the total overall support goes up. But again, those are without any firm figures to them.
  • [00:48:12.26] In 2012, when we posited 0.69 mill increase, I believe-- or was it 0.65? Sorry. We laid out what we refer to in our office as the Monty Hall let's make a deal structure to the questions. Ann Arbor District Library is considering a millage increase to fund the improvements and to pay for a bond, $65 million, that would increase the millage rate by 0.69 mills. A typical homeowner would see an additional $69 per year to their tax bill. Would you vote yes or no?
  • [00:49:07.81] You got the green portion of that bar, solid yes at 45%. Among people who said no or are undecided, well if you didn't like 0.69, how about 0.51? And that resulted in 47% who were solid yes. It wasn't until that dropped down to a question, well if you didn't like that, how about 0.25? Only then did you reach that cold vote number of 51% solid vote.
  • [00:49:43.78] In the business, you like to see a solid yes of 50% or better and a total yes of 60% or better. That means that that 60% rate is what happens, potentially, if you are able to capture the attention of voters with the information that was explained as part of an interview where they are on the line with you for 15 minutes.
  • [00:50:12.65] That's why you rely more heavily on the solid yes. I would not look at the total yes, that is simply a representation of what is possible without opposition. Because we didn't line up, which we often do in surveys-- if there is a survey specifically about a specific bond issue we'll line up the components that will be funded. The library will do this with its sewer system, it will do this with its meeting rooms, it will do that, and try to attach a dollar cost to it.
  • [00:50:45.10] And then line up supporters of this, say, this is needed because, and then line up several advocacy arguments. And find out how convincing each one of them is or is not. And then line up opponents' arguments-- this is just another tax increase. Even throw out something that would muddy the waters and say our local taxes are too high already to feed into that 29% who already believe that and see if those resonate. Once those line up, you take a final vote and find out where you stand.
  • [00:51:19.31] But the long and the short of this one is-- one way of putting it is you aren't hated, clearly. People believe your taxes are the lowest among the three that were presented, state, local, and AADL. You have 83% of your population who are using you with some regularity. And your satisfaction levels-- I'm sorry, let's jump into this.
  • [00:51:49.37] This Is the second go around for asking this. The 2016 are in parentheses, so which of the following, if AADL were to do more or Institute this type of thing in the branch you visit most often, would that-- this was asked of everyone, not just visitors-- would that increase your likelihood of either visiting or visiting more often. And for the second year in a row, meeting rooms topped the rankings, followed by play spaces. The three that trail-- you know you could shuffle those third, fourth, and fifth places interchangeably, given the percentages that emerged from there.
  • [00:52:44.21] You can see that in 2016, a cafe ranked fifth, but it's only four percentage points lower than its third place ranking of 35%. But clearly, two years, two surveys in a row, you've got meeting rooms and play spaces. So to the extent you want to influence visitation behavior, I'd focus on the first two as being at least what this survey evidence indicates is what respondents said.
  • [00:53:17.24] Then we tested the awareness, use, and helpfulness of your nontraditional items. Here's your awareness. There was a recommendation that we eliminate-- which was that, Josie, newspapers or archives from 2016? And insert non summer game events. Clearly more people are aware of that. You've got better than 2/3 of our respondents knowing that you host those types of events. The 0% means we didn't test it in '16. And awareness is up except for downloads. I'm at a loss to explain that. Your awareness is up on everything else.
  • [00:54:04.56] The use of them is up on everything else except downloads. Among those people who are aware of downloads, or aware of any of these, we ask well you're aware of it, do you use them? And between 40 in 67-- 42% and 67% of those people who are aware of these items use them.
  • [00:54:31.13] And here's an awareness use-- I meant to make the contrast between those bars better, but apparently I didn't. Well the left hand bar is the awareness level. So in the case of events, 67% of the 68% who are aware of it use it. Interestingly, that pulp.org is the least-- carries the least awareness. But if you know about it, you have a tendency to use it.
  • [00:55:06.25] And then satisfaction mean scores, across the board you-- this is a scale of zero to five. Zero's poor, five's extremely satisfied. Anything above a four you're in great shape. Gradations of a-- on that scale, gradations of a tenth of a point is more or less 2% in case you wanted to convert that.
  • [00:55:32.48] And your overall customer satisfaction. Overall, based on what AADL can offer, do you have a positive or negative opinion of them? Would you give them a positive or negative rating? If positive, would that be excellent or pretty good? If negative, would that be just fair or poor? So the yellow portion is the more intensely held sentiment of positivity or negativity. For all a difference it makes when you've got a total of 4% who believe you are doing-- view you negatively. I mean, 4% of 500-- 20 people out of 500.
  • [00:56:19.89] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Plus, isn't that the margin of error?
  • [00:56:22.88] JIM CAVANAGH: That's correct. Well, it would be even--
  • [00:56:25.87] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I suppose that could be 8%.
  • [00:56:26.66] JIM CAVANAGH: No, because that narrows. If you were at 50-50 I'd say it's 4.4, but yeah I'm pretty certain those-- 18 of those 20 people would say the same thing.
  • [00:56:40.31] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: All right, then.
  • [00:56:44.24] JIM CAVANAGH: And on a timeline, again you're on a median, with increasing levels of excellent portion of that positive rating. Thank you very much. I am more than happy to entertain questions. The report itself is full of mind numbing recitations of subgroups and how they vary from the norm, but that's-- here's the nutshell.
  • [00:57:19.02] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Great, thank you so much. I think we might have some questions for you.
  • [00:57:22.56] LINH SONG: Yes.
  • [00:57:23.97] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: At least I was sort of assuming that people would have questions.
  • [00:57:30.35] LINH SONG: I guess it doesn't seem like-- it doesn't seem like we have very many surprises, right?
  • [00:57:34.64] JIM CAVANAGH: Not really.
  • [00:57:35.10] LINH SONG: Compared to the last survey.
  • [00:57:37.04] JIM CAVANAGH: I wasn't anticipating too much in that regard. We inserted a state taxes question and jockeyed the presentation on the awareness, use, and satisfaction. I don't know whether there is some information you might have that would suggest why downloads aren't as well-recognized, and among those people who do recognize them, why they aren't used as much. But that would be--
  • [00:58:05.72] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Was this survey in the same-- it was February, a week in February--
  • [00:58:11.51] JIM CAVANAGH: In the same general vicinity. In 2012 we did it in March, '14 in February, '15 February, or '16 February, and '18 in February as well.
  • [00:58:27.19] LINH SONG: I was really struck by how often our users visit the library, and how prominently it is in their schedules if it's once a week, several times a month, several times a week, right.
  • [00:58:41.42] JIM CAVANAGH: Right, right, that would be-- oops. Yeah, I mean that is nearly 70% are at least monthly visitors. And that shows up, too, on the awareness, use, and satisfaction cross tabulation. Because we have a cross tabulation on frequency of visitation. It only makes sense-- if you're around here more, you're more aware of these items and more apt to use them.
  • [00:59:14.42] COLLEEN SHERMAN: We spent a fair amount of time on survey question design. Did anything come up in the delivery of this survey that had to be tweaked during process?
  • [00:59:24.55] JIM CAVANAGH: No, we got no report back from the phone bank of people stumbling on it.
  • [00:59:28.63] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Following on Linh's comment, is it more likely that you answer a survey about your library if you are inclined to like your library or is it simply a matter of people want to share their opinions? Is there any to measure that?
  • [00:59:45.68] JIM CAVANAGH: Not really, I mean, apart from the margin of error. I mean that accounts for that sort of bias.
  • [00:59:54.16] COLLEEN SHERMAN: OK, great.
  • [00:59:55.47] LINH SONG: Do we have a way of breaking down these responses, the frequency of visitation by location?
  • [01:00:03.89] JIM CAVANAGH: Yes, I believe so. It would be in the cross tabulation report that was-- I can double check that that's part of it. If it is not we can certainly run it. The difficulty happens when you start reducing the raw numbers down to 40 or below, it's kind of meaningless.
  • [01:00:29.14] So that, for instance, visitors-- if my 72 interviews out of Pittsfield are representative of Pittsfield most used branch then you start pulling those 72 interviews apart, you reach that 40 level pretty quickly. I mean, you just pull them apart by gender.
  • [01:00:56.33] LINH SONG: And then but at some point we did see that the downtown branch is the most--
  • [01:01:01.89] JIM CAVANAGH: Yes, it holds its number one position.
  • [01:01:06.91] JOSIE PARKER: By a significant percentage.
  • [01:01:08.45] JIM CAVANAGH: Yes.
  • [01:01:09.05] JOSIE PARKER: 28% to--
  • [01:01:10.22] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Oh it has, it has never not been the most visited.
  • [01:01:14.91] LINH SONG: With a bit of bounce back compared to last year, right?
  • [01:01:20.03] JIM CAVANAGH: You may have had a higher visitation-- '16 was a couple of percentage point outlier in many respects.
  • [01:01:33.65] VICTORIA GREEN: Was Westgate open in '16? When was the renovation? Was that '17?
  • [01:01:38.55] JOSIE PARKER: It opened in September of '16.
  • [01:01:42.72] JIM CAVANAGH: You are correct, 28% is the highest mark of the four surveys. No-- yes it is. Yes it is. Up from 22 in '16.
  • [01:01:54.12] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Wow, so more people are coming downtown, at least according to the-- I mean we have the data on our end, too.
  • [01:02:01.77] COLLEEN SHERMAN: If we wanted to dive into that, we could say have we done more events downtown, has that been a result. My perception is that again, raw grass is, like we did the eclipse thing down here. And we had how many people? Hundreds, hundreds and hundreds-- so it might be related to more robust events. Robust events could-- say 6% is a really nice rebound.
  • [01:02:28.27] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah and well secret lab, when did secret lab open? 2015?
  • [01:02:31.84] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Oh that's a good question.
  • [01:02:32.27] JOSIE PARKER: '16.
  • [01:02:33.15] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So that doubled programming space down here.
  • [01:02:37.01] VICTORIA GREEN: We also have more people living downtown. Although I don't know that we have more people living close to downtown.
  • [01:02:41.40] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Bigger facility all central, too.
  • [01:02:44.54] VICTORIA GREEN: Which is illustrative. John, I have a question about the perception of tax levels. When I read the question, it sounds like it's measuring the value people perceive rather than--
  • [01:02:55.29] JIM CAVANAGH: Yeah, are you getting your money's worth.
  • [01:02:56.93] VICTORIA GREEN: Yeah not the affordability, per se, but the value.
  • [01:02:59.53] JIM CAVANAGH: Not-- no, you are correct in that perception. It is phrased to draw out are you getting your money's worth. In return for what you pay in local tax-- in return for what you receive in state services and programs, do you believe your state taxes are too high, too low, or about right.
  • [01:03:18.21] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Oh I see.
  • [01:03:19.31] VICTORIA GREEN: Right so the many people who are unhappy about roads, for example, might say their taxes are too high because the roads aren't fixed.
  • [01:03:25.40] JIM CAVANAGH: Which is why I find this-- it's a curiosity that that's inversed. It's an awful lot like other phenomena that you'll see-- everybody hates Congress, but everybody loves their congressman or something to that effect is that the further away from your locality you get the less empathy you have.
  • [01:03:47.09] VICTORIA GREEN: And I had one more comment that I'm wondering-- I don't know what to think about this. The percentage of people attending the university, or attending a four year university, was low in our respondents. It's 5%. I think of our population in our service area as being larger than that. But it sounds-- we have more than 5% of our population who attends the University of Michigan or Eastern Michigan University. Is my perception incorrect?
  • [01:04:15.59] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I do kind of wonder about-- it's like if you think about those people that are not at all reachable by a land line. So even 40%, upping it to 40%-- and then you know that people don't answer calls when they don't know them, especially young people. It's a challenge to the industry, I guess I would imagine.
  • [01:04:34.88] JIM CAVANAGH: Our three survey history is 89%, 91%, 92% not taking college classes responding to the interview harking back to 2014. It is partially a function, too, of age. When we do election surveys, we take a look at voter turnout for a similar election and stratify our sample to make sure that we are getting the same age cohorts as showed up. Young people are difficult to get ahold of.
  • [01:05:14.32] VICTORIA GREEN: So it feels to me like U of M voices might be a little statistically under-represented in our data sample.
  • [01:05:21.16] JIM CAVANAGH: That's a possibility, although there is, I presume, readily available library services for U of M students at the U of M campus.
  • [01:05:30.93] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Not with free party lights to check out, though.
  • [01:05:35.64] LINH SONG: Now they know. Now they know.
  • [01:05:38.32] JIM CAVANAGH: Everybody will want them.
  • [01:05:39.42] LINH SONG: Oh my gosh.
  • [01:05:40.69] JOSIE PARKER: That's the idea.
  • [01:05:42.64] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So you mentioned-- I feel like this is the elephant in the room-- that we want to be at 50% if we're interested in moving forward with something. We're considering all our options, and a big part of our options considering and gathering with this survey. So can you give us your professional opinion on where the public in Ann Arbor is on--
  • [01:06:03.64] JIM CAVANAGH: They are receptive to the notion, if it is explained adequately enough to them, of supporting a bond issue for the library. I can't give you a hard and fast rule. We didn't give them any dollar figures. The only thing I can look at is 2012, and that isn't exactly the same thing as 2018.
  • [01:06:26.85] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So different, yeah.
  • [01:06:28.29] JIM CAVANAGH: But 0.69 didn't come close to 50%. Rolled back into the 0.5 area didn't come close to 50, it was only until they were, OK if you didn't like that, how about this and they had 0.25 did you reach a majority solid yes. Now again 2012 is not 2018, you're coming off of serious economic problems statewide in 2012. But the long and the short of these millage questions is that you are not facing an audience that's predisposed to say no.
  • [01:07:11.68] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK, that's helpful. That's-- I wanted you to just answer everything for us.
  • [01:07:18.43] JIM CAVANAGH: I'm sorry, the hard work is still yours.
  • [01:07:20.90] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yes.
  • [01:07:22.15] LINH SONG: It just seemed like-- I read it-- I read that as folks being open to learning more about the library. And once given that opportunity to learn more, they'd be willing to consider--
  • [01:07:35.60] JIM CAVANAGH: Sure, sure, but I mean you have to weigh what are the resources necessary to saturate the electorate with the information that we were able to convey in that follow up question.
  • [01:07:46.87] LINH SONG: Right.
  • [01:07:49.07] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: That was like a dense amount of information, so yeah.
  • [01:07:52.48] JIM CAVANAGH: I mean if the financial, frankly, wherewithal is there through a yes ballot question committee to educate and inform-- and certainly, just as with a school district, the newsletters might arguably have the affirmative duty to educate and inform the electorate. But it's no small task. You know--
  • [01:08:21.41] JOSIE PARKER: And that's without opposition.
  • [01:08:24.40] JIM CAVANAGH: And without opposition. You know, I'd love you-- I think the Ann Arbor District Library is the greatest thing in the world. But believe it or not, it isn't on top of everybody's in-basket. And you have to-- and you have to be kind of repetitive and saturate with messages that resonate.
  • [01:08:43.92] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: If the roads would get fixed I think we'd have a better chance.
  • [01:08:48.34] JIM CAVANAGH: You might be right.
  • [01:08:50.22] LINH SONG: Or if we could convince voters to love taxes as much as summer games, then--
  • [01:08:57.59] JIM CAVANAGH: Maybe you could weave the two in. Yeah, I wish I could give you a definitive answer. I can't. There was not a specific proposal to test.
  • [01:09:08.87] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Sure, yeah, that makes sense.
  • [01:09:10.45] JIM CAVANAGH: But what this did show is that they're not predisposed to say no. And the overall atmosphere is good. Your favorability rating is at 89%. The once explained what people pay in taxes to fund your operations isn't viewed by more than 14% as being too high, compared with city government or local taxes at 29%. That's less than half. So the environment is OK. It's just that we didn't test a specific proposal. And I-- I can't lay out a recommendation.
  • [01:09:50.85] LINH SONG: Well can I just say a quick kudos to Staff and our library programs to-- I mean the--
  • [01:09:58.05] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah, right.
  • [01:09:59.32] LINH SONG: I mean this is our one way to measure our impact in our community. So aside from millage questions, to understand how well our programs are received and beloved, and I think a lot of credit goes to Josie and leadership and everyone involved.
  • [01:10:17.68] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I was just in Florida with Ann Arborites who spend half their year in Florida to avoid paying the taxes that are-- the Michigan taxes which are much higher. And I was asked, how often do they check books out of your library. And this had just come [INAUDIBLE] and I was full of information.
  • [01:10:42.85] JIM CAVANAGH: Despite the fact that you aren't helping to pay for it, a lot of people check the--
  • [01:10:49.71] COLLEEN SHERMAN: What was the response to that from this group?
  • [01:10:52.69] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: They were very quiet.
  • [01:10:55.91] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Eli, did you want to say something?
  • [01:10:57.26] COLLEEN SHERMAN: You can always see we take donations.
  • [01:10:58.01] ELI NEIBURGER: John, in your opinion, what would a slam dunk look like on that question. What would-- like that's a blinking green light. What would that look like to you?
  • [01:11:08.68] JIM CAVANAGH: Well it wouldn't look like that question. It would have specifics. You know again I get back to do you support your local public education system, yes I do. Do you support it to the tune of an extra $12 per month, no I don't. Or maybe yes I do. But until a respondent is apprised of the financial effect on them personally, the length of the obligation, the total amount that's to be spent because sometimes it doesn't matter what their financial outlay is, they may bristle at the fact that-- well that doesn't need $75 million worth of work.
  • [01:11:54.75] COLLEEN SHERMAN: It's unlikely that I will give something to you until I know what you are asking me for.
  • [01:12:00.18] JIM CAVANAGH: And we did have a column that said depends. And about 10% right off the bat said I might be, I might be supportive. And again those numbers would be a slam dunk in the second follow up question. If the question were phrased in a manner that said here's what it costs you, here's what it's buying, here are the components, and the final vote after all that information were conveyed, I'd say you were in very good shape with that second vote, not necessarily the first one.
  • [01:12:36.73] LINH SONG: What if we moved awareness on how the library is funded from 30%?
  • [01:12:44.29] JIM CAVANAGH: I'm not-- we can look at that cross-tab. I didn't look at that one in particular. But I'd see what the 70% of the respondents, how they reacted those questions 15 and 16 on the millage vote. I'm not sure they're vastly different than people who know how you are funded.
  • [01:13:03.45] LINH SONG: Interesting, OK.
  • [01:13:04.91] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Let's look at that cross-tab, because that's an interesting idea. Maybe drill down on that. I don't know if it'll teach us anything, but that sounds like an interesting way to look at that data.
  • [01:13:17.08] LINH SONG: Yeah I think there is still an assumption that we're governed by the city and that the library funding comes from city taxes. That might kind of--
  • [01:13:29.20] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Well it's surprising how close it is, the reality versus the perception. They're really close. What was it 26% on this, you're governed by the city. Oh, that's a quarter of the population who don't-- that's a pretty high number. So you're answering a question about do you want to pay more for library services when you have a perception about where the money that you're already giving is going, probably very different. How do you get people to understand this when there's so much to understand? John's right, how much are we going to invest in this? And before we even say what we want to do or what we want to ask for. We don't have the answers to those questions ourselves.
  • [01:14:22.84] JOSIE PARKER: I want to change the track a little bit. I want to point out that the two reasons given for those persons who never use the library are the same two reasons since 2012. People-- I have a computer and I have internet at home, which is a stated reason, or I have no need for the library is the other stated reason. They have stayed the same two reasons all this time. Frankly, in my opinion, there's comfort in that there are two reasons, the same two reasons, and the numbers of people who never use a library is so low.
  • [01:15:00.33] I think at first we worried about that. But over time I think we put that to the side. Those aren't things we're going to affect. We're not going to affect the attitude embedded in either of those answers. So I-- it's so great that the numbers are so high in use and satisfaction. And that we know the reasons person doesn't use a library doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the effort.
  • [01:15:25.16] JIM CAVANAGH: No and you would have seen much higher numbers, too, and the cross-tab will show that. Whoops, where did that go. I apologize. There. I mean these are specifically designed to see if you would provoke people to increase their visitation. And I can take a look at the cross tabulation report, but again with only 17% of the 500 to look at separately who are non-visitors, your n sizes are pretty tiny to see which, if any, of these had a much more substantial influence on them than the 43% total influence that's for meeting rooms and play spaces.
  • [01:16:20.53] So it's a pretty tiny universe. If you really were interested in prying those people out of their homes and to come visit, we'd screen only for non-users and then do a robust survey. And we'd find out pretty much the same answer, I have the internet, and I don't need it.
  • [01:16:42.21] VICTORIA GREEN: Josie, can you place our percentage of-- I mean the number-- our percentage of users who you contacted who use the library seems extraordinarily high. Are we an outlier nationally?
  • [01:16:53.34] JOSIE PARKER: Yes. Yes. There are some public libraries around the country with very high use saturation in their community. Seattle is one of them, for example. But very-- these numbers-- no, no, not at all, no.
  • [01:17:10.81] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Where did you mention?
  • [01:17:12.59] JOSIE PARKER: Seattle has a very high-- there's a very high use of Seattle's public libraries. Seattle has done a system-wide building campaign that they've been--
  • [01:17:22.86] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: They have a lot of branches.
  • [01:17:23.81] JOSIE PARKER: They have-- and that's the other thing. It's a city library. So the city neighborhoods, the city funds, and the city supports, so that's what matters. That's what makes it so different. And that's why people, when they ask us this question, pretty much I think, in the country, the public libraries that do as well as we do for their size are departments of larger government, cities or counties. And Seattle's one of them. Nashville's one of them. I don't want to pull it too much off the top of my head, but those two stand out. So our numbers are very high in satisfaction and use, very high.
  • [01:18:11.36] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Thank you.
  • [01:18:12.02] JOSIE PARKER: Thank you. Thank you much.
  • [01:18:13.79] JIM CAVANAGH: Thank you.
  • [01:18:14.45] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Thank you very much.
  • [01:18:17.62] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I hope people are thinking of questions for public comments.
  • [01:18:20.86] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I know.
  • [01:18:21.97] JOSIE PARKER: I guess we'll find out
  • [01:18:23.62] LINH SONG: It's never too late to-- Karen's right over there.
  • [01:18:37.94] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Looks like we're moving on to you, Eli, I think.
  • [01:18:42.01] ELI NEIBURGER: OK so we are just about done with the entire launch window. We have a few other small things that are still being rolled out. We have since the last board meeting-- we've deployed additional barcodes. It's one the people have been waiting for for a long time. That's when you can have multiple barcodes attached to your library-- to your website account-- so you can manage multiple library barcodes and have multiple users checkouts from one account.
  • [01:19:05.02] There are households that use one card and get everything on one card, and there's households where everyone in the household has their own card. And this is for that second case where they want to be able to have one log in and be able to manage each of those cards. So that's now deployed.
  • [01:19:20.56] History search has been deployed. There's still a lot of distance we want to go with that in terms of making it look better and work nicer and all those things. But is out the door.
  • [01:19:29.75] VICTORIA GREEN: Wait, history of individual checkouts? Or--
  • [01:19:32.60] ELI NEIBURGER: I'm sorry, historical documents-- old news, photographs, documents, those kinds of things. We did deploy history search in terms of check out history search. You can now search within your lists and reorder your list. That's something for our avid check out history users, something that they've been waiting for.
  • [01:19:50.60] We also have deployed the ability to make your list public and not public. That was something that was there before, and there were controls were missing for that. That's now back. Basically all-- almost all of the functional-- oh and popularity is now back in the index, which we had just recently deployed. And that is the popularity, it has continuity going all the way back toward the old website. So it is 15 years of popularity data that is now in the index, which means you can look at the most popular titles. And it doesn't just-- if you choose most popular this year, it's not just back to January, it is back an entire year. Or if you say for all time, it goes all the way back to 2007. So Hunger Games remains our most popular book over the past--
  • [01:20:35.32] LINH SONG: Is that right?
  • [01:20:35.62] ELI NEIBURGER: Oh yeah, absolutely.
  • [01:20:37.06] VICTORIA GREEN: Eli, I'm sorry, does popularity affect the algorithm for returning results?
  • [01:20:42.31] ELI NEIBURGER NEIBURGER: Not currently. What it-- no, it's its own search where you can view most popular. We have in the past used popularity to weight the result ratings, the result ranking. That's extremely helpful in things like when you search for Harry Potter and you don't really want to see the Polish one first. So we deploy it in some of those circumstances. We have not deployed it yet. We're kind of waiting to see if we need to move it into the actual search weighting. It does help with a lot of problems, but then it also kind of reinforces other problems when you're looking for something obscure.
  • [01:21:14.71] But you can now look at the top DVDs this week, the top Blu-rays this week, the top CDs, all those kinds of things. So that is now working again. Magazine requesting is back. We had a small problem with magazines that were added since the launch not getting pulled from the shelves. We're working on fixing that. And there's a couple other small things. The next thing is iCal feeds of checkouts-- that's something that a small number of users really intensely like because it allows you to see your due dates on a calendar alongside all of your other calendar appointments. That should be out probably this week. A couple of other tweaks here and there. And we're about to move into summer game development. So that's going to be coming up pretty soon. Any questions?
  • [01:21:56.29] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Can you tell me how you could arrange a course for ancient trustees to manage all this?
  • [01:22:04.90] ELI NEIBURGER: Available by appointment whenever you wish. Yes. Any other questions about websites? Yes.
  • [01:22:11.77] VICTORIA GREEN: Just-- oh crikey-- my question was about MeLCat. And is that a programming effort? And is there a conflict between the summer game and the MeLCat? Or is it just--
  • [01:22:24.19] ELI NEIBURGER: Not really. There's a little bit of development that we have to do, but it is mostly not a development project. It is a network project, in that with the first step after the migration was complete was to begin what they call exit services, which is a contract that you sign with the vendor that operates MeLCat-- actually the vendor of the software that runs MeLCat. and they have to remove all of your items from the MeLCat network that have previously been hidden. That part has started. And that's the next part. We're a little bit-- that is something that the vendor does-- this is our former vendor. So they are working on that with MCLS, the operator of MeLCat. Then we have to then re-upload all of our materials into the MeLCat network.
  • [01:23:08.90] So MeLCat told us when we first started this that once you've moved over it's about a three to four month process. Well we just got that part of it going in late February. So there's still a few more months left to go.
  • [01:23:22.69] We've been promoting the traditional ILL for people who are asking about that. We've been looking closely at the list of titles that have been requested over traditional ILL to see if there's low hanging fruit in there. But we don't have a date yet for MeLCat because we're not really in control of the process. But it is not a big development project. It's mostly just waiting for the MeLCat network operators to do their part, waiting for the vendor of that software to do their part, and then us doing the-- because currently there are no tasks pending on us for the MeLCat part. We're waiting on the vendor to do their part.
  • [01:23:51.78] VICTORIA GREEN: But our old vendor may not be incredibly motivated. You said it's no longer our vendor, either.
  • [01:23:56.48] ELI NEIBURGER: It's true. However, we do have a service contract that goes through the end of June. So we are still their customer. And we'll make sure they keep delivering.
  • [01:24:04.82] JOSIE PARKER: And also it's in MCLS's interest for us to be back, because we are a net lender net borrower in MeLCat. And it's-- so there's-- we don't have to be the only place applying pressure for this to get done. There are plenty of libraries around the state that want Ann Arbor's material back in MeLCat. The same as we have people who use MeLCat from our library, many people relied on our library's collection as well.
  • [01:24:32.30] ELI NEIBURGER: And MCLS remains a customer of that vendor. So they will continue to get results.
  • [01:24:38.02] VICTORIA GREEN: And I only have one other thing to say, which is every time I ask you a question, Eli, you always know the answer. And I just want to say thank you.
  • [01:24:43.93] ELI NEIBURGER: Ah, that's what your library's for.
  • [01:24:45.36] VICTORIA GREEN: I ask you little obscure questions.
  • [01:24:46.82] ELI NEIBURGER: No problem.
  • [01:24:47.21] VICTORIA GREEN: And you always explain it. So thank you.
  • [01:24:48.92] ELI NEIBURGER: You're very welcome. Any other questions?
  • [01:24:51.32] LINH SONG: Oh, I had a quick question. So what does summer games development look like?
  • [01:24:55.82] ELI NEIBURGER: We basically have to rebuild the whole thing. We have the technology. We can rebuild it. Because it was very much heavily built for the old system. There's a number of things that as it has grown required to be refactored. But there's also-- this is an opportunity to make some major changes to the way that summer game works, change some of the things that are incentivising not the right behaviors and change them into incentivizing other behaviors.
  • [01:25:19.53] The core stuff isn't going to change-- points, badges, codes, all that stuff, the things that people love. But there's a lot of things that we have been incentivising, for example, adding things to lists. We have enough things on lists. We don't need to incentivize that anymore. However, we always want to incentivize writing reviews, because that's always such a great thing. And just to see kids choosing to write about books in the summer-- it's like the teacher's like how did you make them do that? So it's very-- not a huge change, but there will be some changes.
  • [01:25:46.89] We also have to make some changes to the way that the shop works to address growing pains and sort of the inequity in the summer game economy. Our planned economy is tending to accumulate wealth at one end. So we have to look at how we can address that. So there will be some changes. We don't want to take anyone's points away, and that won't be happening.
  • [01:26:05.33] VICTORIA GREEN: What do you mean?
  • [01:26:07.23] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: With your economics?
  • [01:26:09.66] ELI NEIBURGER: Well for example, there's one percenters in the summer game. And they have a lot of points to throw around.
  • [01:26:16.83] VICTORIA GREEN: I can never get anything I want because it's too high.
  • [01:26:19.20] ELI NEIBURGER: Exactly.
  • [01:26:19.92] VICTORIA GREEN: I can't afford it.
  • [01:26:20.70] ELI NEIBURGER: So we want to look at a way where every player of the summer game, whether they're playing for the first time or the 10th time, is able to get the good stuff. So that'll be some changes to the way that those prizes are meted out without eliminating the experience of wealth that you earned yourself that summer game gives to people. Right?
  • [01:26:40.20] There are many kids for whom ordering something from the summer game shop is their first experience with online commerce. And that's wonderful. And it's money they earned themself. Right? Very powerful. However, we want to make sure that they are not not having the opportunities that we want all the players to have because there's adult players with a lot of points to throw around rolling-- you know, buried in mugs up to their waist.
  • [01:27:05.22] LINH SONG: Yes, hoarding, hoarding.
  • [01:27:06.90] ELI NEIBURGER: Yes.
  • [01:27:07.83] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Points, yes.
  • [01:27:08.37] ELI NEIBURGER: It really is-- there's the looting behaviors that happen when something is scarce. And it's not abnormal human behavior. But there are some ways that we have to address that.
  • [01:27:20.09] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Great.
  • [01:27:21.12] JOSIE PARKER: People are people.
  • [01:27:23.49] ELI NEIBURGER: Any questions about that or anything else? All right. Thank you very much.
  • [01:27:28.66] JOSIE PARKER: I want to elaborate on my answer to the question about other libraries with use rates and satisfaction rates. I want to qualify that with libraries our size or larger. I imagine there are libraries around the country that are smaller than we are that have satisfaction rates that high with their communities and probably have use rates. But our size or larger I'm comfortable that we're pretty high in that number.
  • [01:27:59.60] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK so we move on to new business. And Len's going to join us. Did you want to preface this?
  • [01:28:05.76] JOSIE PARKER: Sure. I've asked Len to talk to you tonight. And he's going to address the question about the door counters, too, in his conversation. But the library board created, within the financial structure of the library, a capital fund that exists outside the operational budget the same way in a fund balance. So it stretches over fiscal years. You allocated funds for that for work we did primarily on the Traverwood wall and some other things. And we did not need all of that for that project.
  • [01:28:40.14] But we have approached putting-- and this is interesting that EPIC-MRA numbers came back the way it did about meeting rooms-- we bookable meeting rooms into the three buildings, Traverwood, Malletts Creek, and Pittsfield similar to what we have at Westgate and now have been able to do down here. And so we will be-- Len's going to go through this and explain to you what we're going-- what we'd like to do. And then give you some numbers about what numbers we need and move that money toward this project now that we're finished with that project out at Traverwood. So I'm going to let him go forward and do that.
  • [01:29:15.86] LEN LEMORIE: That's great intro too because I wrote that down-- influence on more frequent visitation was meeting rooms were number one. So looking at Pittsfield here, we're proposing a 35 seat meeting room where the computer lab is currently. We've seen the usage drop there. We'd still have public computers to the left of that space. Two five-seat meeting rooms over in the corner kind of similar to what we've had at Westgate. And we've seen the success there.
  • [01:29:46.04] LINH SONG: Is that where the fireplace is in that corner?
  • [01:29:48.80] LEN LEMORIE: The reading room just below it would be where the fireplace is.
  • [01:29:54.04] JOSIE PARKER: That back corner if you go into Pittsfield, it's used, but it's very bare space. It was intended for build out if we needed to add more shelving, and we've not.
  • [01:30:04.75] LEN LEMORIE: There's some soft seating back there.
  • [01:30:06.13] JOSIE PARKER: There's some soft seating back there. And on the wall it was subscriptions, newspapers and magazines, which also has been a diminishing number of subscriptions. So we're able to take that space and make it two small meeting spaces.
  • [01:30:25.40] LEN LEMORIE: Then we have Mallett's Creek. There in the top you'll see there's a 10 seat meeting room that we propose moving one range of shelves. And then you see the four top tables there-- consolidating those down to two top tables.
  • [01:30:43.86] VICTORIA GREEN: I'm sorry, I'm not as familiar. I'm having trouble visualizing.
  • [01:30:46.25] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Putting this in context. Where do you enter?
  • [01:30:47.42] LEN LEMORIE: You walk in from the left. And then you're coming through, and computers are right there. What you're not seeing is the program room and the restrooms.
  • [01:30:58.16] LINH SONG: Oh right, because the program rooms are out beyond. OK. There you go. Wait, I'm sorry, where's the entrance?
  • [01:31:05.93] LEN LEMORIE: The entrance would be over here.
  • [01:31:08.01] VICTORIA GREEN: On the right. OK.
  • [01:31:09.27] LEN LEMORIE: Yes, so we've walked past the program room. We've walked past the restrooms. And now I guess we're being proper.
  • [01:31:15.89] JOSIE PARKER: So we're looking at two spaces, ten seat and seven seat.
  • [01:31:18.91] LEN LEMORIE: Yeah, there'd be a 10 seat up here. This range of shelves would be moved. These tables would be consolidated to two top tables. And then this whole thing would kind of shift forward.
  • [01:31:31.49] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Oh, that's what I was confused about as well. I see.
  • [01:31:35.20] LEN LEMORIE: And then this back space here, this counter would be removed, and we'd get a glass partition wall here. Close this off, close this off, and this would be a meeting space as well.
  • [01:31:48.69] JOSIE PARKER: What we find is that now, when you have a large table where you-- these are put together where they seat eight people-- if a person sits down, seven people won't. So trying to reduce the number of seats at a table helps give more seating and tablespace.
  • [01:32:06.13] LEN LEMORIE: Absolutely, we've seen that at Westgate. The more two top cafe tables we have, the more people use them.
  • [01:32:13.50] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Makes sense.
  • [01:32:14.43] LEN LEMORIE: And then Traverwood, you'd walk in from here, you'd come in where the computer lab is. This range of shelves would move. But we're proposing I think it's 18 feet of shelves closer to the program room that would kind of replace those.
  • [01:32:32.19] LINH SONG: This is where the CDs are, the CDs and a couple computers?
  • [01:32:34.46] LEN LEMORIE: Right here, yup. And then there's a range of shelves here.
  • [01:32:40.22] LINH SONG: Would we have more shelving for--
  • [01:32:44.26] LEN LEMORIE: Actually, I'm mistaken, that's four-- that's computers. There's four computers here and then a range of shelves. I'm sorry.
  • [01:32:50.31] LINH SONG: There's always an overflow of holds along beside there.
  • [01:32:54.66] JOSIE PARKER: There's a larger shelving project associated with this work at Traverwood that is adding shelving in other places and shifting and having room for the holds, also creating space for the Friends to have a place to sell books out there. Right now there's nowhere for that. So this would-- eventually we would make that happen, too.
  • [01:33:16.64] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Melanie looks really excited.
  • [01:33:18.14] JOSIE PARKER: Yeah, I know she is.
  • [01:33:20.33] LEN LEMORIE: So that's the three locations. And for me, the fun part-- like Josie mentioned, in October 2016 the board approved moving $861,000 from fund balance to the capital projects fund. We did the MSE project. We've closed it out. And we have a balance left of $378,000 that was pre-approved, or what the board's already approved. So what we would ask that you reallocate those funds towards this project.
  • [01:33:52.46] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: I wish you could do budgeting at my house.
  • [01:33:54.61] LEN LEMORIE: We got lucky. There are a few things happened with the Traverwood project. We had cost estimates done in September, October with the anticipation to go to bid immediately. It was end of the year, so the numbers were a little bit high. We chose to wait, and we went in December. So when our project went out on the street we were one of the only projects out there for earth work. So we saved a lot there. We also had a large contingency just because it was earthwork behind the building. We didn't use any of it. So the project went really well.
  • [01:34:26.33] VICTORIA GREEN: Thank you for saving us money.
  • [01:34:27.95] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So we don't have to vote on this today. We're just going to have this conversation so that--
  • [01:34:35.44] COLLEEN SHERMAN: This will be part of the budget or it will be a separate line because we're moving something?
  • [01:34:39.57] JOSIE PARKER: It's separate. It's already outside of the operational budget. But the money wasn't used for the--
  • [01:34:47.23] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: What it was allocated for.
  • [01:34:48.28] JOSIE PARKER: Right. So it's there, but it's more money than the library administration can use without your approval and knowledge. We would have, if you approve it, then we'll go forward and make sure that it's done within the architecture of each space. It will not-- none of this will look like afterthoughts. They will all look as though it was designed there.
  • [01:35:15.58] COLLEEN SHERMAN: And it can be done for that budget, the number you cited, which is over--
  • [01:35:19.99] LEN: Our construction estimates say yes.
  • [01:35:22.13] COLLEEN SHERMAN: OK, that's great information.
  • [01:35:24.10] VICTORIA GREEN: So in terms of the look, are we thinking with sort of the glass walls like we have at-- those are so nice out at Westgate.
  • [01:35:30.24] JOSIE PARKER: It would depend on-- well it depends on the building itself. Traverwood, Mallett's Creek is wood, a lot of wood. Pittsfield is glass and metal and masonry. Traverwood is ash. So it's going to be its own-- they're all going to have to have their own look. But we use glass so that we can see through for safety.
  • [01:35:55.36] VICTORIA GREEN: That was my question.
  • [01:35:56.11] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So we would still do that. And they would not be able to lock-- people would not be able lock in, lock themselves or anyone else in. All of the same types- of-- all the same lists of requirements that we have or standard that we have for all our public spaces would apply.
  • [01:36:13.98] VICTORIA GREEN: And you could do it for the amount of money you're talking about. You haven't cut corners to do that. So I want to switch gears a little bit. Were there other ideas about what to do with the money? Or was this the clear thing that you thought, given that this is a high priority. Or were there other proposals that didn't come to us?
  • [01:36:29.97] LEN LEMORIE: I think it just worked out that way. It was something we knew was a success at Westgate. It's something that patrons talk about all the time is seating and bookable space. It just happened that way. So we were fortunate with the project that went so well.
  • [01:36:44.46] VICTORIA GREEN: So I'd actually be interested in sort of a storyboard or a picture about what bookable space gets used for at the library. When I think about it, it's nothing I have an intuitive sense of what community needs are we meeting, sort of how that goes.
  • [01:36:59.44] JOSIE PARKER: I think you can-- I think we're going to give you that.
  • [01:37:01.83] VICTORIA GREEN: Well look at me, giving you your segue.
  • [01:37:09.81] ELI NEIBURGER: So we'll just take a quick look here at what the Westgate ones are currently being used for this month, and what the downtown ones are being used for. So here's March. Let's see, got a staff meeting, tutoring Eli-- that is not me, that is a different Eli-- financial coaching session, GED class, League of Women Voters, one small change, CQL, whatever that, accruals meeting, Apple Play schools, Katie works for us, three's therapy, RS business meeting, feathered friend Science Olympiad, another Science Olympiad, three's therapy, Wolverines reading group, Lakewood genius Science Olympiad, Pac five leadership committee meetings, some Cub Scouts, Hazely circuit wizardry science Olympiad team, online marketing for entrepreneurs--
  • [01:37:51.60] COLLEEN SHERMAN: So many book clubs, lots of book clubs.
  • [01:37:54.30] ELI NEIBURGER: What's that?
  • [01:37:55.16] COLLEEN SHERMAN: There's some book clubs.
  • [01:37:56.13] ELI NEIBURGER: Yes, book clubs, definitely. And a lot of these where it's just two letters, you know they don't have to tell us anything that they don't want to. So it's GH book club is another good example, Chinese Bible study, speech therapy, here's an admin meeting of some other organization, HCCS foundation meeting, AACHM, that's African-American Cultural and Historical Museum marketing committee, there's another tutoring, homework, studying, booking, more Science Olympiad, Ann Arbor potter's Guild board meeting, happiness enhancement group, SCBWI, that's the Society of Children's Book Writers, that's another one. Let's see, here's some more tutoring. OK that's up to March 9th at Westgate.
  • [01:38:33.96] Let's take a look at downtown. Now downtown these rooms are new. We just started with them with the new website. So they are not yet being used quite as intensely. Crohn's and Colitis support group planning, gal quilters, girls who code, a Dungeons and Dragons group, that's great, St. Thomas moms group, Palma, there we're booking-- so you can see both a mixture of patron bookings and staff bookings-- patron representative, State Representative Kristi Pagan fund raising meeting, tree line Conservancy, church discussion group, I mean you name it. So there's Greek time. There's just tons of stuff-- National Latin exam home school test.
  • [01:39:11.41] So just tons-- taking these rooms that have been here, specifically looking at downtown, here we have the-- what we call the Whiffletree room and the Lamplighter room, both named after vanished Ann Arbor restaurants. And also the Free Space. We recently added the free space to self-booking so people can now book that themselves. Being able to know that you have the room and book it in advance completely changes the usage of the room. So it's-- and making it as lightweight as possible where they can book it from tomorrow onward up to 12 times a year and it's just been-- it's been great. And the demand has been huge.
  • [01:39:46.22] VICTORIA GREEN: So each patron or each group can do 12 times a year?
  • [01:39:49.14] ELI NEIBURGER: Each library card can book each room 12 times in a 365 day period. So the intense users bump up against that and that's a little confusing. But it keeps it from someone doing 12 bookings in December and 12 bookings in January.
  • [01:40:05.85] COLLEEN SHERMAN: And then do we have wait lists?
  • [01:40:08.08] ELI NEIBURGER: No there's no wait lists. You will book the room if it's available. And if it's not, you don't.
  • [01:40:13.37] COLLEEN SHERMAN: You could pick a different time.
  • [01:40:15.85] JOSIE PARKER: Or a different room.
  • [01:40:17.15] ELI NEIBURGER: And if it's not booked, there's walk in use the same day only. And you can write your name in for one hour, walk in same day. So it's been a really low impact on the staff. It's very manageable. The schedule prints out of the printer automatically each morning. All they have to do is put it up. And then occasionally if there's a dispute about whose room it is, get involved, but that happens extremely rarely.
  • [01:40:40.95] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: How does this differ from what we've done before?
  • [01:40:44.37] ELI NEIBURGER: Well this was new with the opening of Westgate. So we started doing this approach to room booking with the Westgate meeting room A and B started in January of 2017. So we had a year of that. Then when we launched the new web site we added the two rooms downtown. A few weeks after that we added the free space.
  • [01:41:01.71] So we've seen this-- just the demand for this is huge. It's transformative. It gets groups into the library that don't normally use the library. And adding this at all the branches without co-opting study rooms-- at the downtown library to make the Wiffle Tree and lamplighter room, those were existing study rooms that are now bookable. We didn't want to take away the first come, first serve tutoring rooms like we have at Westgate and the branches. So this is adding new bookable space as opposed to converting some.
  • [01:41:28.11] JOSIE PARKER: And the two rooms downtown were those big rooms that seat eight. So if one person went in there and sat down, no one else went in there. So this changes the use.
  • [01:41:37.78] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Did you break them up?
  • [01:41:38.42] JOSIE PARKER: No, now they're still large eight-person rooms. But they're booked for that.
  • [01:41:45.49] ELI NEIBURGER: You see them right here.
  • [01:41:52.35] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Thank you.
  • [01:41:53.16] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: You guys are so good.
  • [01:41:54.68] VICTORIA GREEN: Once again, answer the questions.
  • [01:41:58.05] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Will there be a drake's room? Uh,
  • [01:42:01.22] ELI NEIBURGER: Perhaps.
  • [01:42:03.45] LINH SONG: Is there going to be an update on the door counters?
  • [01:42:06.17] LEN LEMORIE: That's why I stood back up. I heard you wanted to hear more. The door counters, they will be operational in April. We're working on them. We've done all the leg work. We started pulling cable about a week ago. It's just getting them installed. So it'll be very quickly.
  • [01:42:22.83] LINH SONG: I only-- I bring this up because I think I scared the staff at Traverwood. I went up to their front desk and, just on my way out, said, you know, have they been installed? Because it was mentioned at the last board meeting, and I just wanted to have a sense of-- I told them I want to seem like I know what's going on in the libraries. And they were a little flustered. But I mean it was only because I think they were trying to figure out if I was talking about the door counter in their front versus the one in the basement.
  • [01:42:54.72] LEN LEMORIE: They've probably seen me walking around looking at the ceilings a lot. Traverwood will be the last one. The order we're going in right now in downtown, Pittsfield, Malletts, Traverwood. West is kind of easier because it's an open ceiling.
  • [01:43:09.40] LINH SONG: OK. I don't mean to startle folks. I won't quiz them or anything. But thank you.
  • [01:43:15.16] LEN LEMORIE: OK, any other questions?
  • [01:43:17.51] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: No, sounds great.
  • [01:43:18.33] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: We're going to have to give you a wig like the menu-- like the food writers--
  • [01:43:23.66] LINH SONG: The secret trustee.
  • [01:43:25.01] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Go into restaurants.
  • [01:43:26.38] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Secret shopper. OK so it looks like we're moving on to the space use agreement with the Friends of the Library. Again it's an item of discussion, so no voting. Do you want to say anything?
  • [01:43:42.44] JOSIE PARKER: Sure, this is the point in time in the year when you as a board review the space use agreement that we currently have with the Friends of the Library regarding the space they use for sorting and the sale in the library. The administration has no recommendations for changes of any kind. And so it's in front of you for your consideration and discussion.
  • [01:44:05.16] I gave copies of this to the Friends at their board meeting last Wednesday. So the board of the Friends has a copy too with the full understanding that you are going to be discussing it-- you are going to have it tonight in front of you, that you will as a board approve it for us to offer it to them for their signature. You'll approve it in April. And if there are any concerns or questions, that Friends president Pat McDonnell should be in touch with Jamie.
  • [01:44:32.11] This is a board to board negotiation, and that Jamie would bring back to you any questions or requests or changes that the Friends have. In a moment of conversation Pat indicated she didn't expect there to be any, but at the same time they have the time to consider it and discuss it.
  • [01:44:52.90] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: So is it anticipated that we will hear from them requests for something different?
  • [01:44:58.71] JOSIE PARKER: Not-- she indicated that we won't hear requests for something different.
  • [01:45:04.21] COLLEEN SHERMAN: There are some yellow boxes on this sketch. Last year, the Friends gave up some space?
  • [01:45:10.52] JOSIE PARKER: No. Those sketches, the yellow boxes have been the same for the last few years.
  • [01:45:16.35] COLLEEN SHERMAN: OK they're the same yellow boxes. Nothing is changing.
  • [01:45:20.16] JOSIE PARKER: Not from our point of view. From admin's side, no.
  • [01:45:24.39] COLLEEN SHERMAN: OK. Thank you.
  • [01:45:26.85] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Weren't they asking for more space? Shelving space?
  • [01:45:32.07] JOSIE PARKER: Yes. I don't have it. I just don't have it.
  • [01:45:39.26] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: But we are working to give the space at Traverwood.
  • [01:45:41.75] JOSIE PARKER: We are, for sales. But what I would remind you of is that this storage space is all the library has for the whole system. This is all we have.
  • [01:45:55.28] VICTORIA GREEN: I mean, I think the Friends, like everyone finds downtown challenging at times.
  • [01:45:59.48] JOSIE PARKER: Yes.
  • [01:46:00.02] VICTORIA GREEN: And I don't think they're right. I mean, I didn't hear-- at the Friends board meeting that I was at, I didn't hear-- I mean, I agree with you, Josie, that I would expect that this is-- that Pat is not going to come back with more requests. And it makes sense to me, as it is. I actually have a different question, though. Why do we do this every year? What's the period?
  • [01:46:22.07] JOSIE PARKER: It's an annual--
  • [01:46:22.55] VICTORIA GREEN: Have we always done it every year?
  • [01:46:23.63] JOSIE PARKER: Yes, it's an annual agreement. It's so that if there are issues or questions or concerns it can come up.
  • [01:46:30.99] VICTORIA GREEN: With maximum flexibility ourselves, because we've only made an agreement for one year.
  • [01:46:34.88] JOSIE PARKER: Right, exactly.
  • [01:46:37.88] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: How are the book sales? I know they have a small space for sales at Westgate. Is that hard to manage?
  • [01:46:48.16] JOSIE PARKER: No-- I don't want to answer for Melan-- do you want? Do you mind?
  • [01:46:52.70] MELANIE BALDWIN: I wish I had the form.
  • [01:46:54.40] JOSIE PARKER: It's all right. Come to the--
  • [01:46:57.77] MELANIE BALDWIN: OK, So sales at--
  • [01:47:00.44] JOSIE PARKER: Use the microphone, Melanie, thank you.
  • [01:47:02.45] MELANIE BALDWIN: Sales at Westgate have been really amazing. And for the first two to three months when Westgate opened, we were slammed with requests. We were sending box after box every day, almost. But now it's calmed down, and we've got enough people doing books to branches. So it's doing fine.
  • [01:47:21.26] I expect once we get shelves at Traverwood it'll probably be the same way. The first month or two will be kind of insane, and then it'll slow down. We'll get a feel for what they want. They want things at West that they don't want anywhere else, including downtown. It's kind of crazy. It's the only spot we can sell memoirs, so memoir lovers, Westgate.
  • [01:47:42.43] But yeah it's going well. Westgate, we love it. It's a lot of space. People are seeing us, and they're like, oh, what are these? And I get the staff side of it, too, because I work at the desk as well. And people-- my volunteer came in on a Saturday I think and stocked the shelves. And eight people in the next hour bought things.
  • [01:48:03.72] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Wow, that's great.
  • [01:48:04.61] MELANIE BALDWIN: It was wonderful. We love it. We thank you so much for it.
  • [01:48:09.25] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Great. Thank you. Comments, or--
  • [01:48:17.79] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Well you're doing a good job.
  • [01:48:19.32] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yes, thank you. OK I think we are just about wrapping it up here. We have a vote for a closed session, which is at our next meeting, which needs to be roll call. So--
  • [01:48:37.26] JOSIE PARKER: Someone needs to--
  • [01:48:37.88] COLLEEN SHERMAN: First you need a motion. Let me make a motion.
  • [01:48:40.06] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Gosh, so close to doing all that correctly. One last thing.
  • [01:48:45.52] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I have to read it, right? No.
  • [01:48:47.60] JOSIE PARKER: Just the--
  • [01:48:48.16] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Just make a motion. I make a motion that we have a closed session at 6:00 PM next month in April at our board meeting.
  • [01:48:54.98] JOSIE PARKER: For the purposes of--
  • [01:48:56.84] COLLEEN SHERMAN: For the purposes-- I don't have the--
  • [01:48:58.02] VICTORIA GREEN: The real--
  • [01:48:58.83] COLLEEN SHERMAN: For the purposes of talking about real estate?
  • [01:49:01.56] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Discussion of real estate, labor negotiations, and directors evaluation.
  • [01:49:04.71] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Thank you for helping me articulate my thought.
  • [01:49:08.70] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Any seconds?
  • [01:49:09.68] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Second.
  • [01:49:10.62] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Thank you very much, everyone.
  • [01:49:17.32] VICTORIA GREEN: Aye.
  • [01:49:20.16] JAN BARNEY NEWMAN: Aye
  • [01:49:22.84] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Aye. Aye.
  • [01:49:26.25] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Aye. OK, do we have anymore citizens comments? No? OK. All right, everyone, nice meeting. Adjourned.
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March 19, 2018 at Downtown Library

Copyright: Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike)

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AADL Board Meeting