CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by President Jane Callahan. Also attending were Dan Berndt, Chris Colby, Phil Henoch, Farhan Hussein, Judy Kereakos, Brian Murphy, Sue Reinke, Harry Swedlund, Trevor Westrom, and Matt Wohlers.
Staff Present: Audrey Betcher, Library Director; Carrie Farrow, Director of Communications; and Kathy Olson, Administrative Assistant.
MINUTES
Motion by Chris Colby, seconded by Matt Wohlers, to approve the January 24, 2007, meeting minutes as submitted. Motion carried.
LIBRARY BOARD AND DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Audrey Betcher reported that the Library Board approved a number of documents at their last meeting including a Technology Plan required for federal funding, the annual report to the state, Fine Purge Policy, and Collection Development Policy.
The new merchandising display areas, partially funded by Endowment Fund proceeds, have been installed. The merchandising displays make better use of existing space to market library materials.
The Library Board discussed that we haven't done a good job of recognizing and thanking Board members for their service. One suggestion was to place a bookplate in one book per year acknowledging service of former Board members, both Library Board and Foundation Board. This would be similar to the Book-A-Year Endowment. There was consensus that this was a good idea.
Jane suggested that former Board members also be invited and acknowledged at the donor recognition luncheon.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Advocacy: Several bills have been introduced at the legislature since the last meeting including bills to increase funding for the regional basic library support system (RLBSS) from $8.5 million to $13 million. The Governor is proposing an increase of 2% in each year of the biennium.
North Mankato worked on legislation that would mandate that electronic databases paid for by the state be available to all libraries whether they are members of a regional system or not. The State Department of Education has guaranteed that North Mankato would continue to get the databases, so the bill was pulled. This issue will probably come back in the future.
The Governor's budget had included dollars for a library structure study, but this was not included in the House or Senate files. Randy Demmer will be introducing an amendment to the budget bill for funding of the study.
Finance: The Foundation has received two undesignated gifts: $500 from Sam's Club and $2,000 from the Alan and Rose Rich Irrevocable Trust. According to the Gift Acceptance Policy, "upon receipt of an unrestricted gift, action will be taken at the next Board meeting as to how to allocate the gift."
Motion by Sue Reinke, seconded by Trevor Westrom, to move the undesignated gifts from Sam's Club and the Rich Trust to the Endowment Fund.
Jane noted that if these funds are moved to the Endowment Fund, we cannot invade the principal. Dan Berndt responded that we are still in growth mode. For maximum benefit in the future, we need to grow the fund. If we use these undesignated funds for projects, we are not growing the fund.
Sue added that if the Library had specific projects for these funds, we could so designate them.
Motion approved.
WWW proceeds of $8,000 will be moved to the Endowment Fund as designated in the 2007 approved budget.
Development: Kathy reviewed the results of the 2006 fund drives. Total donations were approximately $58,000 of which $9,500 was designated to Book-A-Year Endowment, $16,284 to the Endowment Fund, and the remainder to materials. After expenses, $26,366 will be turned over to the library for materials.
Donations increased almost $20,000 over 2005, probably due to several factors. In addition to the annual appeal for donations for materials, a second appeal letter for the Endowment Fund was sent in October. Also, the donation form was added to the newsletter and annual report mailings and we are getting donations as a result of those mailings.
We will be doing a presentation to the Mayo Clinic in April. The matching grant commitment from Mayo ends after 2007. We want to keep on their radar as a candidate for funding.
Library tours continue. Please remember to invite people to attend. The tours are scheduled several times per month and the dates are noted on the Events Calendar on the library's web site.
Events: Planning for the Amuzing Race fundraiser continues. Adamson Motors has agreed to be a sponsor at the $2,500 level and we have commitments from nine leg sponsors at the $500 level. Sponsorship at the $500 level does include registration for one team. There are still leg sponsorships available.
The goal for this first year is $10,000.
KIMT will be publicizing this event during the Amazing Race TV show.
Board members are encouraged to volunteer for the event and/or put together a team.
COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
Committee assignments have been distributed. If anyone wants to change committees, please contact Kathy or Carrie.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY
Last year the Board approved a Conflict of Interest Policy contingent on Mark Neville's review. Mark has reviewed the policy and does not see a problem.
Dan Berndt added that it is a standard policy that mostly applies to vendor or employee/spouse conflict.
Board members should review the form at the end of the policy and turn in a signed copy at the next meeting.
OTHER ITEMS
We have received an in-kind donation from Think for designing billboards to promote the library's online databases. Four billboards went up in March and four more will go up in April.
We have applied for a federal grant to continue to promote the online databases.
The Board reviewed the Library's new web page.
The 2006 Annual Report will be mailed in April.
The next meeting is scheduled for May 23, 2007, at 4:45 p.m. Committees will meet in the interim.
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Matt Wohlers
Secretary