The Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Bucks County Free Library was held at the District Library Center in Doylestown. The meeting was called to order at 5:32 p.m. Present were:  Joan Bowman, President; Det Ansinn, Vice President; Roberta Foerst, Secretary; Bill Draper and Mary Ann Beltz, Board Trustees; Martina Kominiarek, Executive Director; Sue Ziegler, Public Services Director; and David Bauer, Business Manager. Jerry Balchis, Treasurer, and Steven Dilliplane, Board Trustee, were absent.

 

A MOTION to APPROVE the minutes of the Regular Meeting of January 15, 2008 was made by Beltz, SECONDED by Draper and APPROVED. (Roberta Foerst abstained because she had not had an opportunity to review the minutes prior to the meeting.)

 

 

STAFF REPORTS

 

Report of Assistant Branch Librarian/Doylestown

Assistant Branch Librarian Darcy Fair informed the board of an exciting new project she will be taking on in the spring, when she will be presenting storytimes on the steps of the Bucks County Courthouse.

 

Since her arrival in January, Darcy noted that she has particularly enjoyed working with Doylestown staff and is enthusiastic about their future endeavors.

 

 

Report of Executive Director: 

Board members are encouraged to visit the Pennwood Branch in Langhorne in the next couple of weeks to see how the renovations are shaping up.

 

The final draft of the Library Circulation Policy was provided to the board so that they could review policy questions that CLC and DLC will be considering in the next two weeks.

 

The Executive Director provided the board members with copies of activities that meet strategic planning goals and objectives. She noted that:  1) Succeed in School: Homework Help is merged with Satisfy Curiosity: Lifelong Learning; and 2) Learn to Read and Write: Adult, Teen and Family Literacy is merged with Satisfy Curiosity: Lifelong Learning. The board was given the opportunity to review the activities that meet the goals of these two areas. After some discussion board members agreed that we should continue with a strategic plan that merges Homework Help and Adult Literacy into larger categories rather than separating them out.

 

Report of Public Services Director (submitted in writing)

Sue Ziegler commented on how beneficial and valuable the recent policies training was and how fortunate we have been to have someone nationally acclaimed work so closely with us.

 

 

 

Report of Business Manager

MOTION to APPROVE the payment of bills for January 2008 in the amount of $804,093.80 was made by Beltz, SECONDED by Draper and APPROVED unanimously.

 

Due to a malfunction on the financial statements programming, they were not available by meeting time.

 

David Bauer, Business Manager, reported that the auditors were here for two weeks in February and had completed their field work.

 

Board Committee Reports:

President’s Report – Board President Joan Bowman commented on how the “Creating Policies for Results” information is outstanding. (To be provided to board members)

 

By-Laws Committee – Committee Chair Det Ansinn briefly reviewed the latest draft of the by-laws revision. The board agreed that since two board members were absent from the meeting that they should not proceed further. Det Ansinn pointed out an important question on ex officio that Executive Director Martina Kominiarek will refer to attorney Dave Spitko.

 

Governance Committee – Mary Ann Beltz reported in Committee Chair Steve Dilliplane’s absence. One of the important issues discussed was the role of the board and of the director. The committee will meet to review the library’s policy at a future meeting as part of this discussion, because although the current policy is older, it is consistent with State requirements.

 

 

Correspondence – Submitted in writing

 

 

Public Comment – No public commented.

 

 

Unfinished business –  Board Trustee Roberta Foerst requested a discussion of how detailed feedback should be from board members when completing the annual evaluation of the Executive Director. The comment was made that not every board member will know all the facets of the director’s workload, so each board member should focus on elements they know the best. Board members should submit their feedback to Joan Bowman in the method they prefer (e-mail without using the form; printing out the form and making notes on it, etc.).

 

 

New Business –None

 

The meeting went into Closed Session to discuss personnel matters and library security.

 

There being no further business, a MOTION to ADJOURN was made at 7:01 p.m. by Beltz, SECONDED by Foerst      and so MOVED.

 

        

Respectfully submitted,

 

                                                                      Pamela J. Riley

 

Executive Assistant

 

 

 

 

 

 

APPROVED BY BOARD OF DIRECTORS    

MARCH 18, 2008