WINNEFOX LIBRARY SYSTEM
BOARD MEETING MINUTES
May 25, 2005
The regular meeting of the Winnefox
Library System Board of Trustees was called to order at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday,
May 25, 2005, in the Meeting Room at the Oshkosh Public Library by President Judy
Malueg. Trustees present were: Lurton Blassingame, John Brennan, Deanna Boone, Debra
Clark, Jo Dell’Antonia, Bonita Dresen, Vern Hess, Jackie Jurkowski, Judy
Malueg, John Muentner, Jeff Ogle, Mary Olson, James Reiland, Kay Roethel, Lewis
Rosser, Joyce Schoepel, Paul Wade, Merry Whipple, Tom Widener, Tom Willadsen
and
President Malueg welcomed, new board member, Mary
Olson.
Public
comments: none.
Motion to approve the
minutes of the March 30, 2005 regular Winnefox Board Meeting. Motion: Boone; Second: Rosser; Vote:
Unanimous.
Motion to approve the
minutes of the May 10, 2005 special Winnefox Board Meeting. Motion: Rosser; Second:
Whipple; Vote: Unanimous.
Classifications
Motion to approve the
March 2005 and April 2005 WLS Classification of Invoices Previously Paid. Motion: Roethel; Second:
Willadsen; Vote: Unanimous.
Motion to approve the March
2005 and April 2005 WALS Classification of Invoices Previously Paid. Motion: Dell’Antonia; Second: Whipple;
Vote: Unanimous.
Motion to approve the March
2005 and April 2005 WCTS Classification of Invoices Previously Paid. Motion: Brennan; Second: Whipple;
Vote: Unanimous.
John Nichols gave the
Report of the Director.
Winnefox
Directorship
The board discussed
options in the director position.
May 25, 2005 Page 2
Tom Widener read a
statement to the board. His statement is
included at Attachment 1.
Motion to let Don
Stolley, President of Oshkosh Public Library board read a statement. Motion: Willadsen; Second: Rosser; Vote:
Unanimous.
Don Stolley read a
statement from the Oshkosh Public Library board. His statement is included at Attachment 2.
Motion to search for one
director and maintain joint directorship.
Motion: Woldt; Second: Jurkowski; Vote: Motion
passed 14-7. Aye: Blassingame, Brennan,
Boone, Dell’Antonia, Dresen, Hess, Jurkowski, Muentner, Ogle, Olson, Roethel,
Wade, Willadsen, Woldt; Nay: Clark, Malueg, Reiland, Rosser, Schoepel,
Whipple, Widener.
Discussion then turned to
next steps and selection process.
Motion to use the
executive committee as Winnefox members on the search committee. Motion: Wade; Second: Reiland; Vote:
Motion passed 19-2. Aye:
Blassingame, Brennan, Boone, Clark, Dell’Antonia, Dresen, Hess,
Jurkowski, Malueg, Muentner, Ogle, Olson, Reiland, Roethel, Rosser, Schoepel,
Wade, Willadsen, Woldt; Nay:
Whipple, Widener.
Motion to let Ken Hall,
Director of
Ken Hall pointed out
that, although he did not have a problem with what the board was doing, the
board was making motions on items not on the agenda.
The board thanked Ken
Hall for pointing that out. The motion
to use the executive committee as Winnefox members on the search committee was
nullified. President Malueg will appoint
members to the search committee.
Proposed Change to
OCLC Inter-Library Loan (ILL) System
Motion to approve the
proposed change to OCLC Inter-Library Loan System as proposed in Exhibit
C. Motion: Blassingame; Second:
Whipple; Vote: Unanimous.
WPLC Overdrive
Digital Audio Book Demonstration
Motion to table the WPLC
Overdrive Digital Audio Book Demonstration as contained in Exhibit E until the
board gets more information and an opinion from council regarding copywrite
laws. Motion: Reiland; Second: Rosser; Vote: Unanimous.
Request for Future
Agenda Items
Widener
requested detailed information about the Omro/Winneconne Non-Reciprocal
Payments be made available at the next meeting.
A request for the directors of Omro and Winneconne Public Libraries to
attend the meeting was also made.
May 25, 2005 Page 3
Whipple
requested that the board discuss the Winnefox marketing position at one of the
next two meetings. She would also like
to see the full report from Blue Door Consultants.
Motion to adjourn at 5:40
pm. Motion: Whipple; Second:
Respectfully
submitted,
John
Brennan
Secretary
js/mc
Attachment 1
Winnefox - Comments for vote
Passing
out the hats as it appeared in the last meeting that some were wearing hats
from another organization.Let us all be sure that we are wearing our Winnefox
hat as we go into these discussions.
I
feel badly that a simple question as to whether we should take the opportunity
to examine a different organization with the Winnefox Director’s retirement has
degenerated into a debate over how the organization has operated in the past.
That
was, and is not, the point. Early
correspondence went out of the way to praise the past and present operation of
Winnefox. Who would of thought that
would be turned into the issue.
I
have twenty some pages of response to a survey that completely missed the
point.
The
point is:
Would
Winnefox be better off, in the future, with it’s own director?
A
Little Background
If
we were meeting today as a new Board to form a system, what would we do?
As
suggested by Trustee Woldt, we would look at the past, or at least what else is
happening.
We
would look at how other systems were organized, and would discover that 14 of
the 16 had an independent Director for the system, eight had started with an
independent Director, and that 6 of the systems had changed from a resource
library combination to an independent Director and that none had switched from
an independent to a shared Director.
That history would certainly enter into our consideration.
I
had a conversation with the Director of the Lacrosse Library, according to her,
approximately the size of the Oshkosh Library.
She
indicated that there was no way she could do justice to both jobs!
That
is what Winnefox will face with a NEW, not the existing, combination Director.
Upside
Trustee
Willadson commented in the last meeting that the upside of separate Directors
had not been addressed, a fair comment.
The
upside for Winnefox, and particularly it’s smaller libraries, is quite simple:
A
100% Winnefox director with the prime responsibility to the 30 libraries in the
system, as opposed to a 20% Director with prime responsibility to the Oshkosh
Public Library.
Downside
Are
there downsides to a separate Director?
Let’s
look at a couple of those discussed in the last meeting;
Don’t
fix it if it ain’t broke
There
is always fear of the unknown, in this case change. But we must realize that a
new Director, or Directors, is going to bring change. Change happens in all organizations, despite
the existence of policies and procedures.
Change is happening in
Possible
increase in cost. This is an area of
concern, particularly to the smaller libraries
Winnefox
presently has an assistant Director at $ 75,000, plus about $23,000 to OPL and
$7000 as a consultant for the existing Director; so the cost for a separate
Director is essentially equal.
This
is reasonably compatible with other projections, although the present Winnefox
Director includes a Field Services Librarian
in the proposed Winnefox organization. That position has been vacant
since 2002, and was eliminated in 2003, so I question why it would be necessary
in the future.
Other
costs are now contracted with the Oshkosh Public Library, so even with minor
adjustments, the cost impact is negligible.
Winnefox
has a budget of about 1.4 million, after
I
know that this was a little long, and I appreciate your indulgence.
Hopefully
this information will aid in your understanding of the issue at hand – Should
Winnefox have it’s own dedicated Director.
What
is best for Winnefox?
The
summary was not read – comments were similar, however
Summary
The
decision that we make today will influence the libraries in the Winnefox System
for many years. We can move forward and
build on the excellent base that has been built over the past years. Don’t confuse what has happened in the past
with what can happen in the future. This
is an opportunity to improve service to all libraries in the Winnefox System
Let’s
not waste it
Attachment
2
The Board of
Trustees of the Oshkosh Public Library would like to join the Winnefox Board in
thanking John Nichols for his years of service and professionalism. His term at
the Oshkosh Public Library and the Winnefox Library System has been years of
great change in libraries and broad expansion of library services. His foresight and steady leadership have made
both the system and all the member libraries strong and healthy.
It is the
unanimous desire of the Oshkosh Board that the two directorships remain
combined. Because we believe the
partnership between the Winnefox Library System and the Oshkosh Public Library
is so valuable, the Oshkosh Public Library Board requests that the Winnefox Library System Board join us
in a joint search for a new director.
Our desire is that we find the best possible director, one that both the
system and the library can embrace and welcome with enthusiasm. We believe that the process of seeking a
common director will be an exercise that will continue the trust and goodwill
that exists between the two boards.
Although John's retirement is a logical time to consider restructuring the
administration of both organizations, we of the OPL Board, considering this
history of good will and harmony, believe it is wise to keep the positions
together. The combination of these
positions has a long and successful track record. It seems unwise to split the positions, given
this history. The phrase “If it ain't
broke, don't fix it” springs to mind. We
believe that if the positions are split, they will never be reunited.
Part of the reason for the
system’s health and vitality has been one director’s ability to create
synergies between the individual libraries and the system, to act for their
mutual benefit. While the appearance of conflicts of interest has been possible
the entire time these two positions have been combined, we have not heard a
single instance of WLS or OPL suffering because of an actual conflict of
interest. Rather, we see repeated occasions when the interests of both entities
have been well served by "coincidences of interest," which the current
director has been able to exploit.
In a
climate of shrinking tax dollars available to cities and counties to support
libraries, it seems unwise to split the position and thereby increase the
amount of tax dollars spent on library administration. Governments at all
levels are seeking ways to create efficiencies and combine services to make tax
dollars go farther. Splitting the positions would go against this tide of
increasing cooperation among units of government.
The Oshkosh Board believes both OPL & Winnefox, have been good stewards of
the public's tax dollars all of the years the positions have been combined.
Should the Winnefox Board decide it best to seek their own director, they will
need to be ready and able to articulate and defend this position to the
taxpayers.
Our analysis
estimates that the Winnefox Library System would increase their annual
operating costs for library administration by around $26,000 in 2006 if the
position were split. It appears that the
Oshkosh Public Library’s operating costs would increase about
$36,500 in
2006. This includes an increased cost
for marketing. [Please see the
accompanying papers.]
While it is the strong desire of the Oshkosh Public Library Board for the
positions to remain combined, indeed we've heard nothing to indicate the
current structure needs any improvement, nor have we heard any potential
"upside" that could be
realized by splitting the positions, we realize that we cannot make this
decision unilaterally.
If Winnefox's Board feels it best to seek their own director, we will abide
by that decision and seek a director for OPL independently. We appreciate the commitment the system board
made at its May 10 meeting to reach a decision May 25. However, it is the unanimous desire of the
Oshkosh Board of Trustees that the two directorships remain combined. We hope that the Winnefox Board will join us
in finding a new director that will successfully guide our system and our
member libraries into the challenges of the future.
We thank you for your
consideration of this matter and we look forward to working with you to our
mutual benefit.
Sincerely,
Don Stolley,
President