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I a. Roll Call

President Donna Wall called the meeting to order at 9:35 a.m.

Present: Cheryl Bugnone, Mary Frances Burns, Phyllis Cettomai, Nancy Currie, Carol Davis, Donna Fried, Peter Kozup, Ruth Mizik, Paul Rohrbaugh, Nancy Simpson, Donna Wall, and Lois Wynkoop. Susan Weaver arrived a few minutes into the meeting.

Also in Attendance: Executive Director Millie Fry, Clerk-Treasurer Anne Hoerig, Technology Coordinator Brad Stephens, Continuing Education Coordinator Melissa Latanzzi, State Library Representative Jay Burton, and Members Janet Moy and Kim Miller.

 

Phyllis Cettomai moved and Paul Rohrbaugh seconded that the agenda be approved as presented. Motion carried by voice vote.

 

It was moved by Carol Davis and seconded by Donna Fried that the Minutes of the January 19, 1999 meeting be approved as presented. Motion carried by voice vote.

 

3. Correspondence

A resignation letter, effective February 19, was received from Judi Burdette, Administrative Assistant. On behalf of all NOLA members, Donna Wall thanked Judi for her vital help in designing the NOLA Training Center and keeping the office running smoothly during her tenure with NOLA.

 

IV a. Clerk-Treasurer’s Report – Anne Hoerig

The State percentage is slightly high due to the use of local funds for the Director’s salary and the cleaning contract first. It is expected that this line item will be back "on target" in two months. Otherwise, monthly financial totals are within acceptable levels for this point within the fiscal year. Phyllis Cettomai moved and Ruth Mizik seconded that the Financial Reports be accepted as presented. Motion carried.

 

IV B. Director’s Report – Millie Fry

At the State Library’s meeting with the Ohio State Office of Budget Management Staff was told that they needed to resubmit the statewide resource sharing budget at $6, 350,000 instead of $11,700,000 which they have now done. It is hoped that the entire amount eventually will be in the State Budget.

Director’s Report, cont.:

If the line item remains at the $6.35 million, the Statewide Delivery System will be affected. It would begin on January 2, 2000, and would occur for a six-month period in FY 2000. Regional Library Systems and members would need to make up the difference until it was launched. U. S. Cargo is willing to work with the Library Community by offering service on a month-to-month basis. If funding is increased, statewide delivery would start sooner. Conversely, if funding is cut, Regionals and member libraries could end up paying the full price for two years.

NOLA’s Reflinks project has been asked to give a presentation about the project at an academic library meeting this spring.

Director Fry outlined what is known to date about funding for regional library systems. At this time, $841,906 of state money is shared currently by five regionals; $1,214,763 of federal funding was shared by seven regionals for a total of $2,056,669. For 1999-2000, it is estimated that there will be approximately $875,582 in state funding if it is not increased by the Legislature this spring. Federal money will only be available on a grant basis for start-up projects. The State Library has asked each Regional Library System to submit the costs for their rent, utilities (not including phone), and the salaries of the Executive Director and Clerk Treasurer. For NOLA, this figure is $154,425 per year. There will be an RLS retreat on March 2-3 to discuss funding options.

A copy of a letter written by the "ETM" Libraries presenting an alternative point of view on RLS funding was made available to participants.

President Wall expressed kudos to the Staff concerning Enclosure #12, progress on the NOLA Strategic Plan to date. The Staff has not only kept the plan on target, but have been actively pursuing alternate forms of income.

 

IV c. Technology Coordinator’s Report – Brad Stephens

Two versions of a contract offering Remote Patron Access to OPLIN’s databases for statewide use were vetted by NOLA’s Attorney. They have been presented to the OPLIN Board, who are expected to address this at their March Board Meeting. Meanwhile, the system is working successfully in the NOLA area. Any libraries that would like this service are invited to speak directly with Brad Stephens. Susan Weaver complimented Stephens on his work for this project.

NOLA is now using Major Domo, a listserv service, that enables members to create e-mail "mailing lists." For instance, it could be used to create a Department Heads list .If interested, please contact Brad Stephens.

NOLA Staff will get a demo of a financial software package on February 25. Should the demo be successful, Staff is hoping to get the price of this software down to around $12,000 by not purchasing all the modules. This software is Y2K compliant and is Windows based.

 

IV d. Continuing Education Coordinator’s Report – Melissa Latanzzi

The "Corporate" Training Initiative is progressing. NOLA is working with MicroDoctor (Mark Richmond) to become a training solution for the company’s business. The Fields Schools in Portage County are contracting with NOLA for OPLIN training. Cleveland Heights / University Heights has contacted NOLA about providing training in Microsoft Word.

IV e. State Library of Ohio Report – Jay Burton

Information on the LSTA Grant process is available on the State Library’s home page. 56 mini-grant proposals will be going to the State Library Board at their March Meeting. There were 123 applications received this round. Peter Kozup recommended that the State Library work on the mini-grant guidelines to make them more understandable. Burton reported that this is in progress.

 

IV f. Board Officers Report – None Presented.

 

4. Current Business – None Presented.

 

5. New Business

Nancy Simpson, Personnel Committee Chair, presented an updated job description for the Administrative Assistant’s position that needs to be filled upon Judi Burdette’s leaving the NOLA Office. The Committee moved that the job description supercede the existing one. Motion carried by voice vote.

Phyllis Cettomai, chair of the ad-hoc Audit Committee, said that the Audit was reviewed and found acceptable. The Committee does not feel it is necessary that a post-audit conference be conducted this year. President Wall thanked Cettomai, Nancy Currie, and Ruth Christie for reviewing the audit.

Susan Weaver, Finance Committee Chair, discussed the different budgets that were inclosed for Board Members’ perusal. While we need to accept a budget at this point, it is unclear how state funding will affect it. Keeping that in mind, the Finance Committee optimistically recommends the acceptance of the Optimum Budget that was presented. Motion carried by roll call vote.

The Finance Committee asked the Board to pass a motion that would provide funding to hire a temporary Administrative Assistance for up to six weeks out of "Contract Services" while a job search for the position is being conducted. Motion carried by roll call vote.

Two OPLIN contracts about the Remote Patron Access Software were presented by the Finance Committee for approval. The first was for libraries covered by OPLIN Services. The second was for libraries not covered by OPLIN service. Both Contracts were accepted by individual roll call votes.

The Finance Committee recommended several LSCA Budget Changes in order to finance connecting the smoke detectors to a monitoring system, to finance additional in-state travel for NOLA Staff, to pay part of Brad Stephens’ salary during development of the Patron Access Project out of the Non-Project Account, and to finance OLC memberships for Brad Stephens and Anne Hoerig. To do this, it was recommended that $1,500 be moved from 201.1120 (Personnel) to 201.311 (Travel in District), $540 be moved from 101.1610 (Fringe-Health) to 101.3370 (Contractual –Security), $350 from 101.1610 (Fringe-Health) to 101.7100 (Other-Dues), $3,200 from 101.1610 (Fringe-Health) to 202.4500 (Other-Software Support); and from 601.8900 (Contingency), $1,961.26 to 601.1120 (Salary and Benefits – Professional), $265.75 to 601.1410 (Salary and Benefits – PERS), $28.44 to 601.1680 (Salary and Benefits – Medicare), and $42.75 to 601.1610 (Salary and Benefits-Health). All of the above passed with one roll call vote.

New Business, cont.:

With the news about regional library system funding that was presented earlier in the meeting, Legislative Committee sponsored activities become even more important. Plans were discussed to get each Public Library Director in contact with their Legislators by the end of the month to discuss the funding cut. Legislators will be asked to wear the book tie or scarf to OLC’s Legislative Luncheon on March 10. Handouts will be available at the end of the meeting briefing Directors on the pertinent facts pertaining to library and regional funding. President Wall thanked Lois Wynkoop, her Committee and Millie Fry for their work on legislative issues.

The Youth Advisory Committee met since the last Board Meeting. Donna Fried and Carol Davis, Committee Co-Chairs, discussed the Committee’s work. Sue McLeaf Nespeca will be retained until June 30 as the Joint Regional Library System Youth Services Consultant for NORWELD and NOLA. The Committee also discussed a brain-storming session that was held about what services NOLA should offer in this area. This included programming ideas, training new hires, facilitating an expanded relationship with academic and school libraries, evaluation of the kits, coordinating author visits, etc. The Advisory Committee will meet again in April. By then more will be known about funding.

The Membership Committee, chaired by Cheryl Bugnone, met to discuss membership issues. One surprising finding is that the Board seems to have an image problem—people don’t know who are the board members!

 

VII a. Items Too Late for the Agenda – None Presented.

VII b. Comments by Visitors – None Given.

8. Next Meeting

The next meeting will be at the NOLA Conference and Training Center on March 16, 1999.

 

9. Adjournment

A motion was made by Paul Rohrbaugh and seconded by Cheryl Bugnone to adjourn the meeting at 11:49 a.m. Motion carried by voice vote.

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Revised: 03/29/99 10:46:04 AM
URL: http://www.nolanet.org/meetingminutes/approved/0299.htm