May 2023 Board Meeting Minutes

ADDISON TOWNSHIP PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD

MEETING MINUTES Tuesday, May 16, 2023 @ 7:00 PM.

Call to Order: The Library Board President called the meeting to order at 7:01 PM, in the Addison Township Public Library, 1400 Rochester Rd, Leonard, MI 48367.

Board Members Present: J. Baldiga - Yes, J. Eller - Yes, J. Elsarelli - Yes, Kara King - Yes,

Newby - Yes, M. Szost - No, Excused

Pledge of Allegiance All in attendance participated

Approval of Agenda: J. Eller motions to approve the agenda, 2nd by J. Baldiga, all in favor, none opposed, motion carries.

Call to Audience: (two minutes per visitor) Joel King shares that Supervisor Pearson announced at the May 15, 2023 township meeting that the township will be purchasing the property 1457 Lakeville Rd. from the library. The Library Board awaits formal communication from the Township offices.

Consent Agenda:

Approval of April 18, 2023 meeting minutes
Approval of April 2023 bills and expenses as paid

A motion by J. Baldiga to approve the April meeting minutes, bills and expenses as presented, 2nd by J. Newby. All in favor, none opposed, motion carries.

Financial Report: D. Lamsa, CPA reviewed the current financial report. She has separated the operating budget and new building budget to show activity for both accounts. *The transferring of $20,000 from operating budget to the new building budget line should happen, however, documentation of this is needed. *Treasurer Szost to address this area at the next meeting. Questions offered to D. Lamsa, CPA regarding budgeting out of the fund balance for items such as building maintenance. Discussion took place on what this may look like in report form. D. Lamsa, CPA will continue to work on the format and separation of the accounts, meeting all the recommendations of the Auditor. *Signatories on the New Building Fund need to be approved and documented in minutes for bank and audit records. The bank requests new minutes stating the signator’s and all updates to the bank accounts be provided for their records. * Signator’s per account to be added at the next meeting when M. Szost is in attendance. D. Lamsa, asks permission to order checks for the New Building Account. The Board agrees to order duplicate checks for the New Building Fund. *D. Lamsa, will order. J. Baldiga moves to accept the financial report, 2nd by J. Newby. All in favor, motion carries.

Director’s Report: Ancestry.com usage has quadrupled and all other programs have increased. Director will be attending Library of Michigan, ALA conference June 23 - 27 and has applied for a grant through ALA for the conference and the summer reading program. Discussion took place about documenting the line item of the grant from ALA to be a subline under the Staff Development to continue transparency in the accounting process. J. Baldiga moves to accept the Director’s report, 2nd by J. Newby. All in favor, motion carries.

Committee Reports:

New Building:

Updates to site plan and expected changes - gravel drive will exit on to Maple Cove, Parking lot lamps may come back into the plans, architects to make recommendations.
Approval to proceed with Site Plan and Special Use approval with township, Representative for Site Plan and Special Use application. - When filing with the township the Library needs to refile and designate a representative as acting agent for the approval of special use and site plan application and approval. J. Baldiga moves to allow Library Board President, J. Elsarelli, as the acting representative of this site plan process, 2nd K. King. All in favor, none opposed, motion carries.

Public Information:

Updates to the letsbuildalibrary.org website - identified all the needs to be updated and removal of outdated information and the needs of the capital campaign. Outdated web page information and pages will be deleted. Updates currently taking place with fundraising main page and community communications. 39 other updates that are newsworthy to share along with a wishlist|Furniture registry for future needed items. Goal was to eliminate dated and incorrect information and to make a new website for the Capital Campaign. All Library related inquiries will now link to the library website. *Updates to be completed.

Policy:

Approval of amendments to Library card form - Motion by K. King to accept, as amended, the Library Card Application Form, 2nd by J. Eller. All in favor, motion carries.
Approval of amendments to the Code of Conduct - expansion of code - K. King moves to approve the changes to the policy draft as presented. 2nd by J. Baldiga. All in favor, motion carries.
Approval of amendments to the Employee Handbook - This is a starting point for the communication of amendments to the new employee handbook - comments only not an approval of subcategories- *These suggestions will return to the Library Board in draft form.

Director Walker shares the need of an Attorney for the Library. Director will start the search and request the Board to make suggestions. Clare Membiela of the Michigan Library Education specializing in Library Law is present. C. Membiela addressed the Board with Library Law recommendations, Trustee Manuels, Robert’s Rule books, and much more resource information. *At the June meeting Director Walker will present options for retaining a library law attorney.

Finance:

Capital: * J. Baldiga will draft a letter to investors sharing the new updates and the conceptual plan for the building listed under the Capital Campaign Committee.

By-Law:

Communication: New Trustee Manuals updated communication received.

Old Business:

Prepare for Millage in 2024 - *Director will discuss this with Friends of the Library.

New Business:

Introduction from Library of Michigan and offered resource- Welcome to Clare Membiela, a Library Law consultant for the Library of Michigan, in Library development. The Library of Michigan acts as support libraries through services of the state, state aide programs, works with boards & trustees, trains, and provides options for decision making by the Board. C. Membiela shared all the resources she brought as well as additional resources through the Library of Michigan. Regarding millage knowledge, C. Membiela recommends this Board to contact Shirley Versomo, Kent district, to consult on the millage. Discussion took place. C. Membiela advises to look at the retention schedule for keeping information on hand. Recommends to document in bylaws that hard copy minutes are kept forever, recorded minutes are kept for transcription time period.
Letter for donation of storage unit. - *J. Baldiga will draft a letter and send a request to the new owner of the storage unit to request donation of storage space.

Public Forum: Joel King offers discussion about policy changes.

Next Meeting: June 20, 2023 @ 7:00 p.m. (unless otherwise posted)

Adjournment: Motion to adjourn by J. Eller, 2nd by J. Baldiga - All in favor - Meeting adjourned at 9:24PM.