Smith and Young NL Staff Meeting Notes from 9/4/2015

Smith and Young Neighborhood Libraries

Staff Meeting

Friday, September 4, 2015

Smith NL Meeting Room, 8:30 – 11:20 a.m.

Attending: Kitty Myers, Dominick Spinelli, Hallie Jackson, Norola Morgan, Monique Collins, Ymelda Contreras, Lawanda Monroe, Nuvia Jasso, Monique Pickrom, Brittany Robertson, Robert Lewis

* Handouts were attached to an email sent by Kitty to the staff with the meeting agenda. These handouts are referenced in the meeting notes below. The handouts are the HPL media policy, the emergency situation procedures, and the draft meeting room form and policies.

1)      Announcements from the Managers Meeting (Kitty)

a)      NL Staffing updates:

i)        Cylenthia Hoyrd is the new manager of Carnegie NL. Kelly Patten is the new assistant manager of Carnegie NL.

ii)       Alief NL is closed for renovation. The staff will weed for the next 6 weeks and then be deployed to other locations.

b)      CMC information:

i)        Candace Beverly is the CMC coordinator this year.

ii)       One of the activities will be a fall festival on October 30^th from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. All libraries will delay opening by 1 hour so staff can attend the festival. Each branch is being asked to set up a booth, which will cost $5 ($10 for outside vendors). The branch should come up with items to sell. The proceeds will go to the CMC campaign and there is a competition between branches to make the most money.

iii)     Each branch/grouping needs someone to represent at CMC meetings.

iv)     The SMI/YOU staff had a brief discussion to brainstorm potential ideas (face painting, balloon animals, crafts, food, calendar).

c)       Digital Strategies update:

i)        Current Digital Strategies projects include bringing more branches onto RFID. They will continue to expand the RFID project and switch the thumpers to RFID pads.

ii)       Digital Strategies also participated in a discussion of the public printers later in the meeting (see notes below).

d)      Communications update:

i)        New hire: Marjorie Gonzalez (3-1381)

ii)       Blanca Quezada (3-1382)

iii)     See Handout on dealing with the media.

e)      Cash Handling discussion:

i)        There was an open discussion at the Managers Meeting of the issues we currently face with the cash handling / change / public printing process. We talked about the difficulties of printing, purchasing print cards, making change for patrons, faxing, and scanning.

ii)       This was not a conversation to decide on solutions, it was just to present issues. One suggestion was to ask a patron to purchase from book sale or headphones/flash drives if you have enough change in the till, but this does not always work and it would be preferred to have a simpler process all around.

f)       HEAR gaols explanation:

i)        Smart goals for managers and assistant managers were discussed.

ii)       The attendance and punctuality metric was also discussed. Sick leave is a benefit that you shouldn’t be penalized for using, so this is recognized in the new HEAL metrics. Also, time off must be requested at least 24 hours in advance to be approved. See Handout for details.

iii)     HEAR Period: July 1 – June 30 (compared to the Benefits Year: September 1 – August 31)

g)      Civic Engagement: The next meeting is 9/22/2015. Results of the city vitality study will be shared in the meeting.

h)      New Meeting Room policy:

i)        See Handouts for the 3 new policy forms and fee schedule.

ii)       Kitty and Dominick led the SMI/YOU staff through an analysis of the changes to the Meeting Room process, including maximum of 6 meetings per organization during a 90 day period, and a $25 fee for prepared food

(1)    There will be a public meeting room policy available on the HPL website, and the new rules will not go into effect until this is posted.

(2)    Question raised by the group: Do organizations such as YMCA and sororities violate the payment rule, since they have membership dues?

i)        Training Reminder: If you sign up for a training session, please make sure to go! If you cannot make it, you must cancel at least 48 hours in advance. This will make the waiting list more effective and ensure we have adequate attendance for training sessions.

2)      TRAINING: Emergency Situations (Kitty)

a)      Kitty provided training to the staff about the correct procedure for the following emergency situations. See the Handouts for reference.

i)        Bomb threats.

ii)       Customers Accessing Obscene Images

iii)     Power Outages

b)      In addition to walking through each procedure, Kitty explained the reasons behind these procedures. She also shared examples of these situations from her experience.

3)      Navigator

a)      The old Kronos full service has been removed from the web site, so make sure you have the new navigator link bookmarked.

4)      New Holds Procedure

a)      The group confirmed their understanding of the new holds procedure. We discussed the set-up at both Smith and Young so everyone understands what to do at each location.

5)      Mission and Vision

a)      Kitty reminded everyone of the mission and vision statements. We should have these memorized.

i)        Mission statement: We link people to the world.

ii)       Vision statement: HPL is a vital member of a dynamic and diverse local, national, and global community.

6)      Comments and Questions

a)      Kitty showed everyone a picture of the ELT members, since several of us on staff are new and have possibly not met them all.

b)      We discussed closing procedures. It was agreed that those assigned to the CSD should be doing the end of day SMM duties, and others should be turning off the patron computer monitors, picking up toys and materials, putting away the iPads and laptops, lock the door, and record the doorcount.

Meeting adjourned at 11:20  a.m.