 At this time I am going to go ahead and call to order our meeting. We do have a quorum of five trustees and at this time would you all like to join me in the pledge of allegiance? Alright thank you. Next on our agenda 1.3 is public comments and we do not have anyone here to join us for public comment so I am now going to move ahead to 1.4 Would someone like to make a motion to approve the minutes from May 28th 2020? Okay it's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Moving on then to 1.5 correspondence announcements and Common Council reports. I am going to look over to our library director Garrett Erickson to see if there's anything that needs to be shared. Nothing at this time. Next moving on then to committee reports 2.1 Finance Committee and I will turn this over to Kyle Welton who is the chair for a report of the June 22nd meeting and I think Kyle you're on mute. Sorry. Working mistake. So the finance committee convened earlier this week and we reviewed the financials on the council table so far. There's nothing that's out of order there. We're still waiting for some revenue to be recognized properly from the city's finance department so it's slowing the budget process a bit before we're on target there and we'll talk about this later in the agenda but the committee is recommended that we remove late fees or fines for patrons under the age of 18 and also that we alter our gift policy to move those funds to the foundation. So is there any any questions for myself or for Debbie on the 20 the June 2020 financials? And it for those of you who are looking at the agenda later under number three for discussion impossible action we do have the information regarding moving the the Mead fund to the foundation. So I think at this time we are looking for a motion for the payment of the expenditures Kyle. Yep so are we just waiting to see if there's any questions. If there's none I'll move that we approve the council table for June 2020. Well in looking at I was gonna say in looking at the screen of everyone's wonderful faces it does not look like anyone's waving to have a question so I can at least share that with you Kyle. I can't see folks in the council chamber sorry we'll go ahead and I've moved and very limited you second. And any further discussion points for Kyle? Okay all those in favor please say aye. Okay. Any opposed? Motion carries thank you. Anything else for the finance committee report Kyle? Thank you so much. Moving on now to 2.3 the Human Resources Committee. Kathy Norman is the chair and I'm hopefully gonna push the right button so that she can speak. All right you can hear me. All right we met just last week and the main point of the meeting was to discuss a change the table of organization which we have on the agenda to discuss at a later date so we might just wait till we get down further on the agenda. Yep okay yeah so that the committee was basically considering a TO change and so we will bring that recommendation forward in a bit. Okay so I guess then we can move right along then to section number 3 items for discussion and possible action. The first one is 3.1 discussion of late fines for youth and I am going to turn this over first to our library director Garrett Erickson and I forgot to turn them on see oh okay. And so you should have two attachments in on this particular agenda item one is what we've charged and what we've received for money and we did have quite a discussion at the financial committee talking about this it was decided to go ahead and recommend to this group that we would pass this but the thought is here we have collected last year in 2019 about a little over $7,000 the thought would be that we would stop charging youth to use the materials if they're if they come in late we wouldn't charge them a late fee obviously that doesn't count if they were to lose the materials it'd still be charged for lost materials but the late fees would go away and so the thought would be there that we would hopefully get a lot more people using the materials if they weren't afraid of the late fines accumulating so one thing that we missed in the meet the committee meeting was talking about whether we would go back and retroactively wipe out those fines for that for the youth as well so perhaps we could talk about that as well. This is Maeve and just some thoughts that were shared at the finance committee was the fact that this policy that we have at me actually ends up sort of conflicting with our mission and our vision of our library and as a board we really try to have policies in place that helps our professional staff to achieve the mission and vision and by having this type of fee policy has resulted in quite a few of our families in our community not utilizing the resources of our library and in light of the continuing challenge of COVID-19 pandemic we recognize that families are going to need the support of their library more than ever and by making a change to the late fee policy and discontinuing the fee for youth will in fact help us achieve our mission even more. Is there anyone else who would like to chime in and or have any questions about this new change this is something that we talked about quite a bit before COVID-19 pandemic sort of turned our focus elsewhere so we're kind of revisiting something that we've had some good discussions about in the past so looks like looks like Meg would like to chime in Meg Allbrink. Thank you I just wanted to clarify are we is the policy that's under discussion applying to any youth materials that are checked out or is it applying to any materials checked out by a youth card holder or does it even matter? Meg that's customizable and our thought I believe would be to make it for patrons under 18 as well as the materials would be considered a youth material. Great I just had seen the materials the documents provided focused on the materials but it sounded like we were talking about card holders so I just wanted to have a clear understanding of what we were voting on. Thank you. Thank you for the question. Kathy Norman I believe you had let me see if I push the button. Right. Does it look like it's working? Should I see myself or just hear myself? You want to try pushing the button? Yeah so we had also talked about just one moment I don't think it's working. Oh I see okay all right he's coming. We had talked about about also getting rid of late fees altogether at one point just because some libraries are doing it and it sort seems to be a trend nationwide so I'm not remembering how we got back to the point where it's just youth services. I get that it makes sense because there we can hold them they shouldn't be held at the same sense of responsibility as adults but are we going far enough? That's an excellent question I'm going to turn this over to Garrett Erickson. Really it's a financial question at this point I mean we'd like I think the aspiration is to get rid of fines late fees altogether but we also have to consider how much that would be I believe that was we were collecting about 30,000 a year was in the budget and so we'd have to make that up somewhere else. Okay but the timing of that question is excellent Kathy because we're in the process of putting together together our budget for the city for 2021 and maybe that's something to be something that we include within our budget that we would like to be able to have the funds in order not to have this policy that conflicts with our mission. Let's see Mary Lindenahue. I think Kathy's question is a good one. I think starting with materials and use card holders is a really good place to start and I think it will help us figure out I truly don't think this will happen but you know whether there's some reason whatever so I think it's a good place to start. I think we frame it not only in terms of COVID issues but in terms of class and race issues that lowering some kids and their families for them the library is a well for all of us but it is an amazing and important resource and to take down any barriers to participation I think from that perspective is real important as well. I think we could clearly come back I mean I'm going to assume you know in a few months we'll have a good sense of you know we've been cutting usage and you know just whatever metrics we decide we want to measure and then we can go on and look at adult fines as well and I also think that so this is going to be the upcoming budget year I mean and we're just right in the thick of it now for 2021 it's going to be extremely challenging and so I think handling $7,000 in the budget this large is not a problem I think 30,000 is not that large either but I just it's a good place to start it'll set fewer heads of hair on fire. Thank you. Anyone else who would like to either ask a question or share a comment okay doesn't look like anyone so at this time we would like to have someone to move approval of eliminating the late fees for patrons under the age of 18 and retroactively cancel their accrued fines up to this point. Okay moved and seconded any further discussion at this time all those in favor please say aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much and special thanks to the library staff that really explored and researched this issue and brought it forward for us to consider. I think it's a very well time that we're taking this step to be more inclusive and be a better service for all the families in our community so thank you. Now we get to move on to item number 3.2 the Mead Public Library Fund and again I'm going to turn this over to our library director Garrett Erickson. Thanks Maeve. We had again discussed to set the finance committee at length. I'll try to give the abridged version since four of you were in that meeting. Really there's about $1.4 million that is in this fund that we're talking about and much of this was donations that started in 1969 and then accumulated over time from other donations up until the library's foundation was created in 1989 with the focus of managing funds of the library and sort of supplementing the library's budget. So this money accumulated and it's still sort of sitting there as an orphan. We don't we do use it of course but it we don't have all the vehicle basically we had to give it to the foundation for investment purposes anyway. It was a fund that was in the under the management of the city and what was called the SWIB State Wisconsin Investment Board. It wasn't making a lot of money and in 2014 the trustees at that time chose to move it over to the foundation for investment. However they maintain control. What we are talking about today is finishing that sort of compromise that we made in that in 2014 and moving it completely over to the foundation for their keeping they can control it that way and work with it. So in by statute the statute 43.58 the library board does have the ability to make this gift to the foundation. So I guess I'll kind of open it up for questions or if any of the other board members that were at that committee meeting had the things that I might have missed. Okay if anyone has a question or comment I'm gonna turn it over to Marylenn Donahue at this time. I didn't hear what you said. Can you say that again Marylenn that we're trying to understand? Yes. Yeah, good. We can hear you now. Well, my question was whether or not the foundation board has looked at this and is willing to take some of these? Several of the foundation's officers know about it. They haven't taken a formal vote. The thought was once the library board made this motion that then they would convene normally we don't meet in the summer but we would can convene the emergency group the officers and accept the gift if that's what happens. So but they are aware and they're the finance chair is aware of it. I think this is a really excellent idea. I think it's hard to keep the management of the funds under enough control. So I think this is really a smart idea and I think we should absolutely do it. Thank you. Turning this over now to Kathy Norman. Okay so just speaking from a historical perspective may have gave a great history background but I just wanted to add that when we first brought this money over from the library's 850 fund to the foundation just to invest it was because we were getting absolutely no making absolutely nothing off it like a fraction of a percent. But the compromise the library board was a little concerned at that time or at least some former board members that they lose control of how it got used. So they wanted to sort of keep it within the library board. Well I think a level of trust has been established since that time between the foundation board and the regular library board that we're all in this together we all want to spend it on the same things we all want to take care of the library and there doesn't seem to be any basis anymore to keep it on the city books just keep it clean and we know that it's going to get I think the the library can be confident now it's going to be used by the foundation for basically whatever the library asks for needs. It is also thank you Kathy it's also good to note that on the Meade Public Library Foundation Board of Trustees two of those seats are reserved for trustees of our board to really facilitate that strong communication and support of what they are doing that is truly benefiting the Meade Public Library. Any other questions or comments? Okay so at this time I think I am going to propose two different motions one that is very similar to the already passed at the finance committee but the secondary motion would be another step to due to the timing of all of this in the summer that once the legal document is drafted by a lawyer on behalf of Meade Public Library that this board of trustees would authorize myself as president to sign the document and then present that to the foundation of the Meade Public Library Foundation. So I'm actually going to be putting forth two motions keeping it separate because otherwise the motion is like a paragraph. It's a little confusing and Sidney don't worry I'm sending this all to you so you don't need to write this in warp speed to keep up with me. So the first motion that I am looking for is that recommending that our board gift the balance of the Meade account to the foundation and that the funds are approved to engage a lawyer to draw up the paperwork for the ownership transfer of the funds. So would someone like to make? Okay so it looks like it's been moved is there a second? Second. Okay thank you Meg. Alright any further discussion about that particular motion? Okay all those in favor please say I. Any opposed? Okay motion carries. Thank you. This secondary motion that I already sort of described it would someone like to make a motion to authorize the meet public library board president to sign the transfer of excuse me I wrote it down and then I'm not even following my own direction so sorry about that I think it's the mask and everything I can't see so I'm gonna try it again so at this time I'm looking for a motion to authorize the meet public library board president to sign the document drawn up by the lawyer for the ownership transfer of funds to the foundation. Any further discussion? All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much. Now we're moving on to three point three update of gift policy. So this one is just sort of a follow-up to the last agenda item but we did create a gift policy in 2014 that hasn't been updated since and again we sort of compromised at that point in time and it had one anything over $100 in donations would go to the foundation and anything under we just kept at the library and what we're proposing is just to again as Mary Lynn said to clean things up just to have one process where everything goes to the foundation as a gift and so we did strike through the language other towards the bottom of that page. Are there any questions or comments regarding the changes to the gift policy? Okay all right it's been moved and seconded any further discussion? All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries thank you and next up three point four update to table of organization and would would you like to speak to that point Kathy Norman and make sure her thing is on okay yeah I'll speak a little bit to the background and then I'm gonna let Garrett get into the nitty-gritty of it but we were looking at some of the positions that things like the the maintenance people that are doing cleaning and thought that some of them were sort of in the wrong spot and should possibly report directly to Garrett when Garrett first came on he tried to keep his direct reports as streamlined as possible because he was new and going up the learning curve and he now feels that he can take on some more of the administrative duties and get some people some more stability to have them be in places that make more sense so for instance we have an IT guy who often needs to be dealing directly with the communications guide it makes more sense for them to be together rather than have the IT person up through maybe like the library services department so we did a little bit of shifting around so essentially it's like three three additional employees will be reporting up directly through Garrett so Garrett would you like to describe exactly how that TO change will work? So actually we have two during the discussion we had two scenarios and we've got two different documents placed up there for you to pick which one is you prefer one is it's actually there's three FTEs but it's actually four people because the cleaners are half time and so there's actually four in the maintenance group and then the one IT person so it's a total of five people five heads so to speak so one of the scenarios is to have those five direct report directly to me and then the other document has a revision that was discussed at the meeting which has us recreating a maintenance supervisor position which we did have until a couple years ago we had a retirement and then also the IT person would still be under me so it would be a total in that second scenario of just having two people under me and then under the maintenance supervisor you would have the three people so I wouldn't have as many direct reports so that was another option discussed that's there so that's a cost of about $5,200 per year so those are the two scenarios to discuss I guess. Any questions or comments? Okay so didn't we come out we had the different scenarios didn't we come out with the one as our suggested recommendation? We did we did all yeah we did at that time we didn't have the supervisors an option it was I thought brought to my attention to also bring that as a scenario we had to come up with costs that I didn't have at the time though. Okay all right so do we want to have an open discussion about which scenario makes more sense? Okay and this is Maeve speaking and and at that meeting you know just looking at the table of organization and trying to figure out you know what makes good sense what's what's what is the most efficient use of everyone's time and you know I remember from you know a few years ago that we actually had someone that was more at the level of maintenance supervisor with you know cleaners and you know other staff underneath monitoring and and looking at our table of organization when we were at the meeting I sort of said it'd be interesting to explore whether or not that's even feasible or possible not knowing you know the individuals and whether or not there seems to be a good match for that particular for that particular table of organization so so we have two options revision one in which we would have one two three trying to count three four we would have seven full it's five people that would basically five people and the life director versus having just four is that versus two so two and so in in talking with with Garrett I suggested that if he could provide us with those two options that he would bring it forward so that we'd have a chance to talk about it at this meeting so yeah I'd be curious if anybody has any suggestions or recommendations I mean we were kind of flying blind a little bit at the meeting and not having the numbers and how we play out but we just knew it made sense to move some people over so I think whatever would work better you know what makes more sense do you think both of them would work Garrett I mean it would be easier on me to do the option of having the supervisor again so I'm not chasing cleaners around you know in that sort of a thing but it is fifty two hundred dollars so that's the difference someone was raising their hand on the screen I think was Mary Lynn go ahead Mary Lynn thank you I guess I would prefer the maintenance supervisor we did have it and it worked pretty well in the past and and this is Mae speaking and I as what it was discussed even at our HR meeting is that the the importance of keeping our facility clean has had all sorts of new safety realizations I think for all we've all known that but I think with this latest pandemic it is really brought to the forefront how critical it is to have key places key people in positions overseeing the fact that we are trying to keep our building very safe for our employees as well as the public and and I would think I would I'm at the point where I would like to support a structure that our library director thinks would be best for our library any other Kyle Welton I would move that we approve the main supervisor option and I'll just add is that your time is incredibly valuable and is there someone who would like to make a second I'll second Kathy Norman well lots of people second but I think Kathy Norman was first in person and see any further discussion I was just gonna add that so maintenance has been under me and I agree that having the supervisor model would probably work the best not only for Garrett but just for the maintenance team as well as far as being able to get their work done efficiently and I have complete faith in in the person who would be going into that supervisor position and I just want to let the board know that I've been talking with him as well and and we've agreed that it would be also beneficial just for him to continue to bounce ideas off of Melissa and I whenever there is a change to be made in one of the public areas Cheryl I agree 100% thank you yeah very helpful additions thank you Cheryl that's it's good to have that perspective that you have shared with all of us is there anyone else okay been moving seconded so at this time all those in favor please say aye any opposed motion carries thank you very much moving on now to 3.5 discussion of marketing strategies and may I just say that I'm so sad that Dirk Zellman is still not on the board because when we ever had the word marketing on our agenda he was the happiest person in the room so I'm hoping he's watching on TV that we have not given up on that critical part of getting our message out to the community so I will turn this over to Garrett so this may be our most interesting discussion of the day so lots has happened in the world in the last few weeks even and so we started having a discussion about our social media strategies and really we were kind of at odds to some extent within the staff ourselves and so we thought we better bring this to the attention of the board and kind of have you guys give us some direction but ultimately as we looked into this you know we spent a few two years ago we spent quite a bit of time on the marketing committee working on a strategic plan for marketing and as well as Josh wrote up a plan a subsequent plan for us to tell me basically how he was going to try and to get these strategic initiatives done but what I realized in this last couple weeks is that we don't really have good policy to back that up we don't have for instance an updated social media policy or public relations or more of a broader media type policy and so Josh hopefully he's on on this listening to the conversation because we were going to charge him with having to try to write this but what happened really was that with the death of George Floyd and all the subsequent protests across the world it made us realize that we really didn't we weren't really sure of what how we should respond to certain incidents is really what comes down to in the past we chose only to market library events and inform the community of different things in various ways we did not take stands on issues and get involved that way that being said our strategic plan really states that we are to provide leadership in the community and act as a catalyst for change and so that the two are a little bit at odds when George Floyd died at first we as a staff decided to put together a list of resources pertaining to racism but a few days later Melissa came to me representing several staff in saying we needed to take a stronger response several libraries had taken very strong responses and said we're behind black lives matter against police brutality and those sorts of things and other libraries had not taken a stand at all and so we kind of went back and forth among Josh and I and trying to understand what we should be putting down as an organization we were I mean I had a problem personally I didn't want to be accusatory towards police because I mean I have a good relationship with our police chief as well as our police here in town and so it was hard to for me to go further than what libraries traditionally had however staff had a really good point in that our strategic plans is we are to be leaders in the community and catalysts and so let me see here's my next point so basically I guess that that's sort of the the problem that we had was we don't have a statement or any policy telling us what we should be doing moving forward so I'm I had a whole two or three pages that I've written down but I think you kind of get the gist of it and in fact it's interesting as well to read the ALA the American Library Association they have written a statement on that incident as well however in in their statement in their code of ethics which we do have attached in one of the links in number six they talk about see if I can find it quick it's essentially about not having personal biases in the workplace and so I guess I'm gonna let I'm gonna turn it over to Melissa she has a bunch of in articles that she had added to the agenda as well and hopefully you all get a chance to read it but even a library world itself is not quite sure how to deal with it so kind of becomes a local issue on how you want us to react to certain situations and whether we should be making statements or not making statements try to remain neutral and that's sort of the gist of our confusion and so I'm going to turn it over to Melissa who thinks we should be making more stronger statements I believe so Melissa are you there yep I'm here sorry you can't see me I had to share my webcam with another staff member so I won't really say a lot I think that the resources I shared sort of speak for themselves and I'd like really to hear what you all think about it but as Garrett kind of alluded to I think he and I have a philosophical disagreement on this issue my interpretation of the professional ethics framework is that as a library we strive to provide accurate information from diverse points of view but that neutrality doesn't mean that we don't take a stand on important issues and in fact the practicing neutrality that that concept in that way assumes a false equivalency of viewpoints and then of course you know we're not engaging with with a whole segment of our community so when libraries choose not to address issues of relevance to people of color we are not embodying neutrality in fact we are ignoring the needs of that service population so that's my personal view on it and with that I'll turn it over to you all for discussion this is Maeve and you know thank you both for you know sharing your perspective and bringing this to light this is a perfect example of why I absolutely love Meade Public Library because we're all about really trying to learn and educate and and try to sort of elevate you know our community and so it's almost like we are we are a perfect example of what is happening and should be happening you know all over our country I can just share that from the items that were shared under 3.5 discussion of marketing strategies the information that was shared from the American Libraries Associates and organization there is so many helpful detailed wonderful statements and resources so it took a bit of time personally to kind of work through all of that and you know at the end of the discussion that we of the board have today is it your hope Garrett and Melissa that the board has some guidelines for you or some policies because it seemed as though that is the piece that was missing that didn't provide real good direction for Meade during this particular point in time is that my understanding yeah the main goal of today is really to hear from all of you and then for us to write a policy that we could bring back to the board and see if we got it right so to speak and in what you want how you want us to react to situations obviously this will not be the last situation like this this will come up again and you know we do have I guess I see it as sort of a conflict in library world about neutrality versus in in particular issues versus getting involved in being leaders so thank you so at this time I think I'm just going to turn it over to whichever trustee who would like to talk first or perhaps pose a question so just seeing if anyone has some thoughts so I'm going to call on Mary Lynn Donahue taken a more definitive stand on social justice issues I know the mayor did some proclamations to a black leader in the community and that was wonderful and that he led a conversation with the police chiefs a couple of Saturdays ago but if you look at the city's website there's not much going on there's not any articulation of where we are the institutions the institutional framework for how people interact in more official kinds of ways and I think bringing the library into into sharper relief in terms of how it expresses itself would be something that I would be personally supportive of just saying thank you anyone else Kathy Norman yeah I would be in completely in favor of having some sort of definitive statement about our commitment to social justice and race equality and everything else and I don't think it has to I think there's a way to do that without it being like a direct slam at the police I mean I think there is a middle ground where we're sticking up for what we believe in and proclaiming what libraries are all about and not necessarily offending people now we may offend I don't know hardcore conservatives that don't even like any statements like that but in the end does it really matter because that's not what the library is about so we might as well be real as to what we're about and what our mission is and if that means being forth for right about you know serving everybody and caring about justice and you know just minorities that are discriminated against then I think that's totally consistent with what we're doing this is Maeve you know one of the things that I've always been so pleased with with our library is that every time I would go in there would be a you know area right on the first floor covering some kind of topic or something that I was completely unaware of so there's nothing like walking into your library and realizing that you still have to learn you know every time you go in there and you know it's almost like maybe it was a year ago or Melissa corrected maybe it was two years ago but I remember walking in and there were these massive like eight foot by four foot huge posters that really was going into the in-depth history of the redlining that was done in Milwaukee and how the city really through its policies really you know made certain areas of Milwaukee only for for a particular you know group of people and that was by design and you know and that was in Sheboygan you know teaching us something that maybe many of us weren't aware of so you know when we put together our our sort of mission in talking about how we view the library and its importance to its community the catalyst for change is the piece that I keep coming back to and I agree with Kathy I think there are ways that we're able to do that by just providing people with information that they didn't even realize they needed you know so a lot of it is just you know by not saying anything it's almost as if we're stating that the way things are currently they're fine but by really trying to encourage people to learn more or be aware of things that are not fair and what your role is in trying to make it better and more equitable for everyone I think it's pretty powerful I was so pleased with some of the Facebook posts that the library has been doing about sharing resources that we have in our library so people can learn more about racism they can learn more about the history of why people are feeling that our country is not treating them equally you know I just I thought those Facebook posts were really quite powerful and and I'm just wondering you know what there must be some other ways or some other suggestions to to bring that knowledge further Marcos Guevara hi everybody I what I want to say is grounded in civil liberties and civil rights right and I'm sure a lot of people watching this on this on this conference and on this call know this but I think it's important sometimes to review civil liberties are the spaces and places we don't want the government to to be in right freedom of speech freedom of assembly freedom of religion free press we that's that's where government shouldn't be those are spaces where we're government should be and civil rights is where we're asking the government to ensure justice and equity as an instance of government we have a responsibility to use our our the resources and tools that are disposals to fight for justice to fight for for equality and and so I I want to encourage us to keep keep in mind that a lot a lot of outcomes in our society are unfairly predictable based on things that shouldn't predict an outcome a race gender identity sexual preference country of origin citizenship status all kinds of things the belonging to a Native American tribe so much so that that there are laws naming these these identities these people these these communities as special protected classes so I think it's incumbent on instances of government like the library to not only provide knowledge and and and lead but also to ensure equity and justice for those those protected classes especially so I personally would have loved to have seen the library take a stronger stance and and and to loudly proclaim in in all its ways that black lives matter thank you thank you uh Kyle Welton I want to echo a lot of the sentiments I've heard from my colleague I would agree I also would like to see the library take a stronger stance I understand that there is some unique considerations we can consider the library institution that being said I do think on matters such as this it's it's critical that in our role of public trust right that we take a stance forward that advocates on behalf of equity and fairness for all and that leads to controversy perhaps but I think it's necessary and wrong overdue if it draws controversy the the thing I would also like to add is I think institutions like the the library are critical when we think about the role of creating anti-racist structures and policies right as we as we look at the world around us the library facilitates the understanding and meaning and education that's required for the public to understand really the root cause of these injustices that we see around us on a daily basis behavior is the the result of individuals but there are a lot of different forces and structures put in place that incentivize different behaviors and guides toward those actions and you look at large disparate outcomes across populations that really have no good good reasons back to what's the policy structure in place that's creating racial disparity and so I think it's it's critical that we promote anti-racism not just simply taking stance of not racism in simplicity right but actively advocating towards that educated stance we've got a long way to go and we can be a leader in creating that change. Thank you Kyle. Anyone else? Oh Meg Albrink. I want to echo what my colleagues are sharing here I think you know as one of the values of the Meade Public Library inclusion is an action it's not just a thought it's actually an action and so I think as we strive for inclusiveness as an organization I think it is incumbent on us to act our inclusiveness to make statements about our commitment to it in addition to our policies and procedures so I think some of the things that we did today in terms of the fine policy is a great action that accompanies a value of inclusiveness and I think statements like those that we're hearing are important as well so to actively instate that Black Lives Matter is part of that inclusive policy. Any other comment or question? I did manage to call up the statement that Meade Public Library shared on Facebook on June 9th. I think this was probably several days after there was some post about various resources in the books of movies but in echoing what Meg has shared and what others have shared you know focusing on what our values are and how this connects to this time and place in our history but I'm just going to read just a couple of the statements just so that for those of you who may have not seen it on Facebook because you know things go so quickly and June 9th already feels like 60 days ago but but on June 9th our library shared this and and from my perspective I feel like the library has been probably one of the leaders in the community and putting forth statements prior to even our city government or the police station or the fire department or the parks department or all the others but this is what was on Facebook. It states inclusiveness is one of our core values and we strive every day to offer a safe and welcoming space for people of all backgrounds to relax, socialize and pursue personal enrichment. That's why we stand in solidarity with our fellow community members and speaking out against racism and oppression and in grieving the senseless killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others. We encourage our fellow community members to check out our recommended reading and viewing lists compiled in our staff blog that gives the information to learn more about race and social justice. We also recommend exploring the growing number of events being held in our community right now on this topic and then it connected to a Sheboygan Press article with a couple of events. So that is something that our library had already done. So I have something to say maybe if I could. Sure. This is Sydney. Okay, thank you. Just playing devil's advocate a tiny little bit. I 100% agree with all of the things that have been said. And I firmly believe that Black Lives Matter. What I want to remind everyone of is that several months back, we had a bulletin board policy change regarding a very specific organization that wanted to advertise in the library. And I guess my question would be for the board members whether this is I guess whether we really think that supporting one area and not supporting another area is to our benefit, especially given that we are supposed to be neutral. And we have already censored certain information from the public. Just it's just a thought that I wanted to throw that out there. Any other question or comments? Kyle Walton. I do remember that real quick. Kyle, this is Garrett. It was an abortion rights or anti-abortion type group is what it was. Yes, my thoughts in regards to that certain issues, I think where we can kind of understandably just find the right way to word this, it's obviously all of these things are tricky. I think that the library getting involved in terms of the debate over abortion rights, in my opinion, feels different. And I guess this is on the fly. I apologize if you were sealed to come back to more of a three instruction argument, but it seems different to me than talking about issues of systemic racism and how that plays out in terms of the murder of innocents, right? And so I do appreciate that, Sydney, because you have to make sure that we're consistent with how we apply our mission and our values and what our role is in what our controversial topic, whether we believe it's controversial. I'm calling on Kathy Norman next. Okay, so I'm going to try to play off of what Kyle was starting to articulate. I do see these things as different because whether your pro-choice or pro-life really shouldn't, it is a controversial topic that doesn't necessarily belong in the library. But when you're talking about social justice and equality, it does because it's part of our mission and it's part of what the library is about. So I actually, I recognize that it seems a little too faced, Sydney. And I appreciated your double's advocate, you know, raising that that we're trying to be neutral. But this one actually seems, this issue seems to be reflective of what we're about as a library. And so I think it's appropriate to take a stronger vocal position. Turning this over to Nancy Manchin. I think a key word that Kyle used here is the word debate. And the issue of rights on abortion is a debatable issue on social justice. There is no debate on something like that. And that, to me, helps us, helps to guide us toward what we would do to fulfill our mission. Thank you, Nancy. Any other questions or comments? So in hearing all of my trustees, it seems as though they are in support of our library, really trying to be a leader on the the core issues of our democracy, which involves, you know, equality and justice. And so I think Garrett, we've sort of provided you with some direction and how that manifests itself into a policy. We encourage you and Melissa and Cheryl to really dig in and determine how best you think a policy can provide guidance, because I think as we go forward as a community, the issues of trying to highlight equality and social justice for all in our community is going to be a continued conversation. And so the policy that's put forward, I think will be probably the most referenced policy in the next couple years. So I really appreciate you bringing this forward to have this conversation. Because I think in so many cases, challenging topics are just kind of shelved or sort of put to the side because they require a lot of thought and careful direction. So I welcome seeing this policy. Do you think we'll see it in July or what's your hope? We will try to put something together for next month. Yes, so I appreciate the feedback and Josh is a super talented writer, and we'll do our best to put something out there and and get feedback at the next meeting. Right. Okay. Any other questions or thoughts? All right. I do think Dirk Zyleman really would have loved this conversation. So I might send him a written summary of it. Moving on then to the director's report, 4.1 update on services and programming. And so I'll again delegate to Melissa for 4.1 and Cheryl for 4.2. Okay, just a few updates on programs and services. We're pretty much status quo with our hours and building setup at this point. It's working well for our staff and patrons. Feedback has been mostly positive. The main negative really has been the children's library being closed still. So we are exploring some options for opening that up a bit. We've started by putting quite a bit of children's material down on the first floor now and we are doing the book bundles as well. So anyone who's interested in just getting a random selection of books based on their child's reading needs, they can call us and we'll put that together for them. And then looking at programs, we've seen some of our online program attendance taper off a bit, which is not surprising given that the weather is nice and people have had enough of being cooped up in front of video screens. So we are looking at some kind of passive programming outside of the building. So we are working with the bid to develop a story walk, which will be downtown along 8th street. And what it is is it's kind of enlarged pages from a children's book and you walk to each page to read the book. So we're also working on some activity kits for kids that we will send out with the summer library program sign up. It includes a variety of things that kids can do at home. There'll be some making type of stuff in there as well, make your own bubbles and other STEM type of things. And then we also have launched dial a story. So if you want to call the library and get a bedtime story, you can do that. It is extension 2072 and we're using stories that are in the public domain. So definitely check that out. We're excited about that. We're hoping to get both children and adult content on there for you to hear a nice story. And then we are also looking at opening our maker space up a little bit by appointment so that folks can get in there to use the equipment and we can still maintain safe distance and all of that. So that will be coming probably in July. And our maker space coordinator and Miller has also started working with the Sheboygan County mask makers who have been providing the cloth mask for the library to distribute to patrons. But we are going to work with them to provide them with access to our sewing machines and our acu quilt, which can cut mask fabric six at a time. So that should be really helpful to them. And then of course continuing to print the ear savers on our 3D printer. And that's all the updates I have. Well I didn't expect such a robust report on programming during the this COVID pandemic that we're going through. So thank you Melissa. I do have to ask one trivia question and it may not be there anymore but when I was at the library a week ago there were printed out photos of I think birds or something at the bottom of the front doors. Like all the front doors had animals printed at the bottom. And I didn't know if that was some kind of fun children's game that I was unaware of. I'll let Cheryl answer that one. Oh maybe it's not something I want to share. I'll include that in my building update. If it's okay to move on to that. Well I'll just check to see if anyone else okay we'll find out from Cheryl why there's those pictures. Now I'm really intrigued. Are there any other questions or comments from Melissa on services or programming? Oh Marcos. Yeah Melissa I was I was wondering how our patrons complying with the request to wear face coverings when they're when they're using library services. That's a great question it's been mixed and honestly it seems to vary from day to day and the first week that we opened we probably saw 70 to 80 percent of people wearing masks when they came in and that has tapered off quite a bit. It is starting to cause some concern for our staff I think. So I know we've I don't know if this is open for discussion right now but we have talked about the possibility of requiring patrons to wear masks especially because we are providing them at no cost in our work with the mask makers group. So it really it varies quite a bit from day to day. Okay this is this is particularly concerning to me because the effects of COVID have been so racialized and marginalized and immunocompromised people are the ones that are really affected and so rooted in the no shoes no shirts no service I think I could easily support a no mask no service policy as well. I'm just turning I'm looking at Garrett Erickson as far as the city at this point I mean I know that they have a requirement I think within their buildings for staff to wear masks at this time if you could just elaborate. Sure so staff do have to wear masks if they're in common areas if they're in an office they don't have to or if they're in a car by themselves they don't have to but otherwise or outside I should say as well otherwise staff are required to wear a mask at this point. We did send a I did send something to Chuck Adams our city attorney about it the library board does have the power to create like an institution a department policy for the public however the enforcement of it would be on staff it's not a loss so the police don't enforce company policies my understanding of it and that would be the hard part would be the enforcement angle the staff would have to take care of that so it is something we're talking about in light of the initial opening had a 70 percent of people wearing masks and now that that summer and people are feeling as though maybe it's not as dangerous as the virus and that's just not happening here it's happening you know throughout United States I think it would be a great benefit for our library if we can have this topic be on our agenda for next month and that we are the board can have a full discussion on what steps we would like to take and I guess more follow-up pieces because I know so many people are not able to afford masks if we were to take the step of requiring what financial assistance would we have from the city or from the state or federal with covid protective gear you know just so that we have an awareness of what that also means for our our budget class and I'm turning it right back over to Garrett I just do have one comment on that we are starting to run into problems getting PPE in certain areas and so if we open that up completely we may struggle to provide that so all right but but I think this would be a very good topic for us to be a little more educated about and have a fuller discussion next month and then perhaps decide on whether or not we want to add that requirement to our public as they enter our buildings so thank you oh sorry yeah go ahead Kyle Weldon so we're talking through masks in the school district as well I've been approached and I know that's been approached as well there's a group of retired women in town that are just amazing who are sewing cloth masks for many organizations and they did tell us that you know if we give them enough heads up they can produce enough for all the students in the school district and that would be a you know a donation so is it I wonder if we could research who would be allowed to accept a donation and allow the use of hand homemade cloth masks that you would be provided in the public as a cost-neutral solution to the library I do know that when we first opened the cloth masks that were donated were absolutely beautiful and people were so pleased that the library was offering that option of the the cloth mask right any other questions or comments then under services and programming otherwise we get to turn on go on to 4.2 update on building projects where my trivia question earlier might be answered by Cheryl but now I'm not too sure I want the answer but I will turn this over to Garrett and then he can yeah Cheryl could speak on this particular item along the bottom of our main entrance doors and windows we have alternating pictures of a cat and an owl and I think we might have a um a hawk outline thrown in there too uh a few weeks ago not well about three weeks ago we had a crazy uh seagull who who was I reimagined seeing his own reflection in in the glass and was harming himself trying to get to his reflection we'll just say um so and and there was quite a bit of of a mess around on the ground around it so we we decided to try that and he went away so we are planning on taking those down really soon and hoping that Mr. Seagull or Mr. Seagull stays away but we'll we'll like you know well you'll know if the the pictures go back up but they have worked I I think I like my description better than it was a fun kids game but but but thank you Cheryl very clever very clever go ahead and continue to think that it's fine um so the other updates so we have contractors uh that are putting the doors on our materials return room today uh that is almost the last step we will still have to have them out to do some painting and then the hardware is going to go on the door so my guess is that um it'll probably be another week before it's completely done I have started to think though about how we're going to include that in our our workflows in the the returns room uh so we should be ready to go um and maybe we'll want to do a tour with this group if you all want to see how that that works once we have everything in place um the contractor who planted trees and seeded the lawn last year has been out to do some touch-up work uh they will be returning again though there's still a little bit more that needs to be done we have some leveling off near some of the the sidewalks that needs to be done as well as reseeding and they are keeping an eye on a few of the trees that they planted that have not weathered the winter very well um some will be replaced others they see a little bit of green on them so they're hoping that they pull through we also had somebody out this week to um to fix the piping on our our cooling towers when it was installed not too long ago um there was a problem with how they installed the piping between the the towers which made it really difficult for the maintenance crew to maintain a level in both of those coolers uh so we had somebody come out redo that it should be working a lot better if you're in the library Friday morning you might notice that it's a little bit hot because we need to turn the air conditioner off to do that work um we are hoping to have somebody out on Monday or Tuesday of next week whether permitting to look at some of the areas um on the the bottom edge of the roofing i mentioned this i think at our last meeting we have a couple of weeks when we have those really strong storms where the the rain is coming in horizontally uh so we're having the the contractor come out to do some repairs to that to uh fix those leaks and he is also going to take a look at our tuck pooling at that time just to see what it looks like what condition all of that is in i know we had discussed uh maybe working that into a a plan down the road to have that done um we are looking at how we're going to handle voting in the it's in the august and november elections that usually occurs in the roca room we're currently using the roca room for quarantining our return materials so we are thinking of some options here melissa is reaching out to the clerk to find out what their suggestions are see if there are any restrictions as far as what we can do uh so there will be more on that but that is it at the forefront of our thoughts right now because that's going to come up awfully quickly uh we are also getting a quote on a gate which we want to put across the northwest emergency exit um it's kind of by the book returns area and uh it it's that exit there's a brick wall coming off of it and we have found that it provides quite a blind spot where there has been some possibly dangerous behavior for happening behind that wall uh so we're we're getting a quote on a gate that can go across that it's also in the back corner where our bug room sorry our materials return room is going to go um so we want to make sure that if we do get a gate that it will allow for anyone who is back in that area to escape without having to unlock something um but it will require lock for anyone trying to enter the building at that point I think that's it all right thank you Cheryl does anyone have any questions or comments okay thank you moving on then to 4.3 the monthly statistics um just uh that of course these run a month behind so these are May and we were closed in most of May so they're pretty far down and I'm hopeful that next month when we meet some of our numbers will start to come back up as we opened up okay any questions or comments Kathy Norman yeah I do have a question about um usage even though we don't have the statistics yet are we seeing that there was pent up demand and you know with us being closed and that there was a sudden surge of people coming in or are people kind of still staying away I'm just curious if we're getting I mean looking at the stats it looks like we're at about half of last year I guess I should probably turn this over to Melissa and and Cheryl Moore because they deal with uh returns and and the materials going out did you all want to make comments sure I can jump in first um just our gate count since we've opened has been about half of what it typically is so um we're seeing 300 to 500 people come through the doors every day and we usually see double that uh this time of year that bears out to with like our summer library program registration is down by about half um but in terms of of activity with checking out materials I feel like that's been going pretty strong so I'll let Cheryl jump in on that sure um you know just traffic wise it looks like we've had a few more slower days so you know a few less people as far as returns go um we were pretty steady and uh and our transit between the member libraries has been very robust I guess you would say um we have had a couple of slower days with returns especially I think it was last Saturday and possibly uh this Monday we're just a little bit slower so we're seeing a downward trend which is which is good when we're thinking about opening our book returns because we were a little bit worried about how well we would be able to man those so it seems like it's going to be at a more manageable level for us any other questions comments uh all right and moving on then to 5.1 monarch library system I'm turning it over to Nancy mentioned okay this excuse me um the staff at at the monarch system has been working in compliance with COVID-9 health regulations to continue services the bookmobile is out on the road and deliveries are being made um so they're working hard to maintain those uh those things that that we expect from monarch there's also a bookmobile committee working to establish policy and procedures for the bookmobile for adding stops for those things that in the past were not um we're not written into policy but as more people are aware and with COVID-19 there there's even more demand on the bookmobile the search for the a new director continues and that will be going on in the next couple of weeks the monarch board will meet on July 9th and it's hopeful that we'll have a candidate to present at that time okay thank you Nancy anyone have any questions or comments for Nancy all right thank you i'm moving on now to 5.2 friends of mead public library uh Sydney if you would like to share the report yes um so the friends did kind of impromptu meet earlier this week um normally they would have met last week but they decided that they would like to meet and so we met at Sharon Quicker's home um honestly most of the business that they conducted uh were things that had been canceled for future um events during the year for example the night market and things like that so there wasn't a ton to talk about um they did however vote to approve a donation um to the mass making group that had donated masks to the library when we first opened up again um in support of them and trying to give a little bit of a kickback um and um potentially to get more masks in the future from them as well so i think that's kind of the expense of what was covered at that i think mostly they just wanted to visit with one another again any questions or comments for Sydney uh just pass along our our gratitude for their support of the mass makers since uh as you had mentioned the masks were quite beautiful and it was anything we could do to support the mass makers as they continue to support the library is wonderful so thank you looks like our next upcoming meeting will be July 23rd um and i am we have at least it is uh to be determined but i am assuming that we are making it a 3 p.m. time um if that time seems to create some difficulty please get in touch with me uh within this next week but otherwise we'll plan for three o'clock and at this time would someone like to make a motion to adjourn is there a second this is mad all second okay it's been second to any for and any further discussion okay all those in favor please say aye aye aye any any opposed motion carries uh thank you so much and may you all continue to enjoy this beautiful weather and be safe out in the community take care bye-bye