WEBVTT 00:00:01.090 --> 00:00:08.512 - I call to order the Board of Trustees meeting for the Monroe County Public Library for December 10th, 00:00:08.512 --> 00:00:15.862 - 2025. I'd like to hand it over to Rear for, nope, let's do a consent agenda first. Motion to approve 00:00:15.862 --> 00:00:23.576 - the agenda for minutes from the November 19th board meeting, the executive session, the monthly financial 00:00:23.576 --> 00:00:29.470 - report, monthly bills for payment, personnel report, and board meeting calendar. 00:00:30.626 --> 00:00:38.132 - All in favor say aye. Those opposed say nay. Motion approved. And now to hand it to Greer for the director's 00:00:38.132 --> 00:00:45.293 - monthly report. Okay, thank you. So one of our biggest stories for 2025 has been the strong circulation 00:00:45.293 --> 00:00:51.422 - statistics we've seen particularly in digital circulation for the second month in a row. 00:00:51.618 --> 00:00:57.318 - overall circulation was stronger last month than any previous November going back to 2020. As we prepare 00:00:57.318 --> 00:01:03.181 - to adopt a new collection analytics tool and in thinking about some of the patron use and seasonal patterns 00:01:03.181 --> 00:01:08.664 - you all asked about last month, we'll be looking closer at these circulation stats in 2026 to better 00:01:08.664 --> 00:01:14.635 - understand correlation, causation, and some platform specific trends that are driving our digital circulation 00:01:14.635 --> 00:01:20.173 - increases. But with that said, the bottom line is that our patrons are making greater and greater use 00:01:20.173 --> 00:01:21.584 - of our digital collection 00:01:21.584 --> 00:01:26.921 - and that our suite of digital content platforms is meeting the needs of more and more patrons. So that's 00:01:26.921 --> 00:01:32.309 - just a great thing. Outreach Librarian Libby and Outreach Associate Dan participated in the second annual 00:01:32.309 --> 00:01:37.798 - Highland Park Elementary School Community Fair. They brought the Outreach fan as part of their presentation 00:01:37.798 --> 00:01:43.186 - and students got to explore the vehicle and its heavy duty lift. Next year, we're hoping to have Outreach 00:01:43.186 --> 00:01:48.574 - return to Highland Park for the third annual event and this time, of course, with a brand new bookmobile. 00:01:49.858 --> 00:01:56.214 - We held our annual volunteer celebration last month. We hold this event every year to thank our many 00:01:56.214 --> 00:02:02.758 - volunteers for the remarkable work they do in supporting our library. We're proud and fortunate to have 00:02:02.758 --> 00:02:09.681 - had 344 unique volunteers in 2025 who've helped with all kinds of projects, including seed library packaging, 00:02:09.681 --> 00:02:16.288 - friends, bookstore sales, and stockroom work, our friends by annual book sales, library program support, 00:02:16.288 --> 00:02:18.302 - and community service projects. 00:02:19.650 --> 00:02:25.692 - Mario Kart is not surprisingly one of our most popular multiplayer games at the library, but it and 00:02:25.692 --> 00:02:32.097 - other popular video game programs often center around teen services. In November, our downtown children's 00:02:32.097 --> 00:02:38.140 - department hosted a lively and well-attended Mario Kart tournament, and the winners, who by the way 00:02:38.140 --> 00:02:41.886 - were decided by a photo finish, received 3D printed trophies. 00:02:43.234 --> 00:02:49.013 - As we've shared previously, our partnership with Heading Home of South Central Indiana involves a diversion 00:02:49.013 --> 00:02:54.364 - and prevention case manager being stationed on site here at the downtown library. Our case manager, 00:02:54.364 --> 00:02:59.715 - Shaquay Norris, has been working on site and is starting to connect MCPL patrons who are at risk of 00:02:59.715 --> 00:03:05.173 - losing their housing with local agencies to help them develop a plan to avoid becoming homeless. This 00:03:05.173 --> 00:03:10.899 - position is funded by a generous grant from the Lilly Foundation to the Monroe County Community Foundation 00:03:10.899 --> 00:03:13.200 - and Heading Home of South Central Indiana. 00:03:13.200 --> 00:03:19.716 - The $7 million grant is aimed at reducing instances of homelessness in Monroe County over the next five 00:03:19.716 --> 00:03:26.106 - years. We'll have a full update on this partnership and on the work that Chiquet is doing in probably 00:03:26.106 --> 00:03:27.422 - quarter two of 2026. 00:03:28.450 --> 00:03:34.575 - And back in 2023, MCPL developed its own policy and procedures for mitigating pest infestations. Over 00:03:34.575 --> 00:03:40.641 - these past three years, we've refined and expanded the procedures to identify and eradicate bed bugs 00:03:40.641 --> 00:03:46.766 - in particular, which are sometimes found in return library books as well as materials on our shelves. 00:03:46.766 --> 00:03:52.771 - Now with three years of practice and success under their belts, our circulation services department 00:03:52.771 --> 00:03:58.416 - gave a presentation at this year's ILF conference on how MCPL manages this challenge that all 00:03:58.416 --> 00:04:05.102 - public libraries now face. This is the first time that our circulation services department has presented 00:04:05.102 --> 00:04:12.043 - at a professional conference, and we are very proud to celebrate their great work and well-earned accolades. 00:04:12.043 --> 00:04:18.411 - And happy to answer any questions about the director's report. I do have a quick question about the 00:04:18.411 --> 00:04:25.161 - look at digital resources and platforms moving forward. You had mentioned looking at the usage statistics 00:04:25.161 --> 00:04:27.326 - for the platforms and adding new. 00:04:28.258 --> 00:04:33.738 - What is the possibility of looking at account level to see, you know, who's maximizing accounts, how 00:04:33.738 --> 00:04:39.272 - we're not, and looking at rather, and I'm not sure how our subscription services work if we're paying 00:04:39.272 --> 00:04:45.077 - per individual account or if we're paying for like volume usage, but if we could use that as a negotiating 00:04:45.077 --> 00:04:51.262 - point? So it depends on the platform, it depends on the vendor. So Lisa Giampelli of Collection Develop and I are 00:04:51.458 --> 00:04:58.910 - are going back and forth on this to see which platforms we can actually drill down to say weekly daily 00:04:58.910 --> 00:05:00.574 - use trends. Can we see 00:05:00.738 --> 00:05:06.206 - user-specific use trends, or is it just sort of MCPL as a package on a given day, whatever it is, and 00:05:06.206 --> 00:05:11.674 - it really does depend on the platform. But what I know now is that we'll be able to get more granular 00:05:11.674 --> 00:05:17.034 - analytics on digital collection use, in part with the aid of some of our new tools, but really just 00:05:17.034 --> 00:05:22.502 - a more concerted effort on our part to take a look at digital collection use and what the trends are. 00:05:22.502 --> 00:05:27.863 - I don't know if we're gonna be able to do that across the board with digital collections, and there 00:05:27.863 --> 00:05:30.704 - are apples, oranges, and pears, because some of them 00:05:30.704 --> 00:05:36.740 - databases for research, some of them are streaming platforms, downloadable platforms. They're all kind 00:05:36.740 --> 00:05:42.658 - of different. But we want to get a better sense for what digital collection use is about in terms of 00:05:42.658 --> 00:05:48.635 - meeting patron needs, rather than saying, as a whole, these 90 to 100 digital collections we have are 00:05:48.635 --> 00:05:54.553 - doing extremely well. It's great, but it's not detailed enough. So we don't know how detailed we can 00:05:54.553 --> 00:05:59.710 - get yet, but we're working on it. Okay. And if we can't internally, we could reach out. 00:06:00.354 --> 00:06:09.498 - We generally reach out to the vendor with those questions anyway. Sometimes we're met with, that's not 00:06:09.498 --> 00:06:18.642 - what our license allows us to do, but we'll see. Okay, I appreciate it, thank you. In the report under 00:06:18.642 --> 00:06:26.366 - goal two, website updates, the first bullet point. And I, sorry if I should know this, 00:06:27.426 --> 00:06:33.176 - I don't know how to pronounce it. A-T-O-Z, Food America. Oh, A to Z, Food America, and A to Z, 00:06:33.176 --> 00:06:39.229 - World Food. Sorry, the space would have helped. Well, it's throughout the whole thing, so it's like 00:06:39.229 --> 00:06:45.342 - an organization. So those were some pretty amazing statistics, and I don't know really what that is. 00:06:45.342 --> 00:06:51.516 - Are you able to explain that? I don't know a lot about A to Z, Food or World Food either, so I'd have 00:06:51.516 --> 00:06:55.390 - to pass that on to Lisa and also to Tori in our CNM department. 00:06:55.522 --> 00:07:02.283 - Yeah, and I can probably get on the website and read about it, too, or something. But I thought these 00:07:02.283 --> 00:07:09.043 - statistics were pretty amazing. I didn't know if it was something to help the community, no resources 00:07:09.043 --> 00:07:15.870 - for getting food. I think it's something like that. But what's interesting about this, and we see this 00:07:15.870 --> 00:07:18.654 - pretty much every month with the website, 00:07:18.818 --> 00:07:25.066 - updates is that when we do a featured e-library resource for a given month and we do one every month, 00:07:25.066 --> 00:07:31.314 - we expect to see some kind of increase in use as a result. So that's sort of the causation. Sometimes 00:07:31.314 --> 00:07:37.562 - we see enormous increases in use, which is the case this time and some other times this year. So it's 00:07:37.562 --> 00:07:43.872 - just an indication that it's worth our while to continue the e-library of the month kind of focus. So, 00:07:43.872 --> 00:07:45.342 - yeah. Great. Thank you. 00:07:48.834 --> 00:07:58.993 - Anyone else before we move on? Okay, we don't have any old business today. We've got a lot of new business 00:07:58.993 --> 00:08:08.868 - to work through. So can I get a motion to hear about the El Centro contract for 2026 from Gary? Second. 00:08:08.868 --> 00:08:18.078 - Great. This is the annual renewal of the agreement with El Centro to rent space in the building. 00:08:18.178 --> 00:08:27.189 - And the only thing that's changed is the dates. And thanks, Jamie, for getting that right for us. But 00:08:27.189 --> 00:08:36.200 - are there any questions about that agreement? Well, I don't know what that is. When I looked at this, 00:08:36.200 --> 00:08:45.918 - I looked at introductory material, and I couldn't quite figure out what El Centro is. Do you mind explaining? 00:08:46.274 --> 00:08:57.626 - Anyone happy to they are on the first floor and It is basically They are providing services to the Latino 00:08:57.626 --> 00:09:08.656 - population here in Monroe County so it's just a place for them to go and I don't know a lot of details 00:09:08.656 --> 00:09:12.190 - about their services, but oh Yes 00:09:12.386 --> 00:09:19.712 - So it's a resource for the Latino community here in county, and they're able to connect people with 00:09:19.712 --> 00:09:27.550 - other resources in the community or if there's a need where we're seeing a large, large need and anything. 00:09:27.842 --> 00:09:35.637 - they kind of are able to connect people to whatever resource they may need. I know of this because I 00:09:35.637 --> 00:09:43.817 - used to use it a lot to promote the speech therapy services that I was providing, but they're a wonderful 00:09:43.817 --> 00:09:49.374 - resource for our Latino community here in Monroe County, so I hope that 00:09:49.506 --> 00:09:55.128 - I got that feeling. Sheds a bit of light. I want to just make sure that I was getting that right. Greatest 00:09:55.128 --> 00:10:00.434 - person to describe them. I just know I've used their services before. An outside group, technically, 00:10:00.434 --> 00:10:05.688 - using library space. It's OK. Sounds a little collaborative. They sort of lease a space from us. It 00:10:05.688 --> 00:10:11.309 - was in a different location some years back, and now it's in one of the offices at the back of the Indiana 00:10:11.309 --> 00:10:16.668 - Room. So they have their own dedicated space where they can meet with clients and families and things 00:10:16.668 --> 00:10:17.246 - like that. 00:10:18.242 --> 00:10:25.883 - share that having it at the library is phenomenal because for families that are new to our community, 00:10:25.883 --> 00:10:33.523 - getting them here to El Centro and then getting them here and introducing them to our library is just 00:10:33.523 --> 00:10:41.089 - phenomenal. So I'll add that little bit. And I don't volunteer there. I just have used the resources 00:10:41.089 --> 00:10:46.782 - before. So we want to keep that partnership. That's basically what this is. 00:10:50.306 --> 00:11:00.798 - Yep. All in favor of approval, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, say nay. Ayes have it. Gary, thank you for 00:11:00.798 --> 00:11:11.392 - continuing to stand there. Can I get a motion to hear Gary speak about the resolution of surplus items? 00:11:11.392 --> 00:11:13.022 - I will so move. 00:11:14.018 --> 00:11:23.107 - So this was triggered by a request from our IT department. We had an employee who wanted to purchase 00:11:23.107 --> 00:11:32.377 - their laptop was going to be declared surplus or because it was a 2021 laptop and this employee wanted 00:11:32.377 --> 00:11:42.366 - to purchase it. And so it was done through the bookstore, but we needed this resolution to declare it surplus. 00:11:44.834 --> 00:11:58.606 - All in favor say aye. Those opposed say nay. Ayes have it. Can I get a motion to approve the policy 00:11:58.606 --> 00:12:13.342 - update to the fee schedule? Thank you, Josh. Hi, folks. We do this every year. We review our fee schedule. 00:12:13.634 --> 00:12:20.043 - a handful of changes last year, some updates that we thought we needed, and there are none this year. 00:12:20.043 --> 00:12:26.327 - If you look on page 57, you will see that the plaque card non-resident fee of $70 is highlighted in 00:12:26.327 --> 00:12:32.610 - red. That's just because the state library had not set that rate at the time the board packets were 00:12:32.610 --> 00:12:39.145 - sent out, and it mercifully was kept at $70. So if you have any questions about any of these individual 00:12:39.145 --> 00:12:41.470 - items, I'd be happy to discuss them. 00:12:46.178 --> 00:12:55.233 - Any questions? Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Ayes have it. Thank you. Do you 00:12:55.233 --> 00:13:04.112 - have a motion to approve or to hear Greer talk about the board bylaw update? Sorry, we'll do the art 00:13:04.112 --> 00:13:13.080 - exhibit first if we could. I'm sorry. Policy update, yeah. Oh, thank you. The policy update. And this 00:13:13.080 --> 00:13:14.750 - one's pretty easy. 00:13:15.522 --> 00:13:22.399 - So one of our policies manages the way we handle art exhibits and displays such as we have right outside 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:29.079 - of this room. This is just a housekeeping piece because now that we have a second branch location, we 00:13:29.079 --> 00:13:35.760 - need to include that in this policy. And it currently just talks about downtown and Ellitsville. What 00:13:35.760 --> 00:13:41.982 - we would do is at the bottom of the second page of the policy, which is page 59 in the packet, 00:13:42.114 --> 00:13:48.678 - It says Ellisville branch, and then the language there just says where it is. At Southwest, the exhibit 00:13:48.678 --> 00:13:55.053 - space is also right outside the meeting room or meeting room lobby. So we would simply use the exact 00:13:55.053 --> 00:14:01.490 - same language that we have for Ellisville and build a paragraph specific to Southwest, and that's it. 00:14:01.490 --> 00:14:05.214 - We would consider the policy updated. So that's all it is. 00:14:11.586 --> 00:14:24.211 - All in favor of approval, say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Ayes have it. All right, now the motion 00:14:24.211 --> 00:14:36.714 - to hear board bylaw update. So moved. Oh, sorry. I second. Okay. So our board bylaws outlying what we 00:14:36.714 --> 00:14:38.430 - do as a board 00:14:38.626 --> 00:14:44.974 - how we're structured, how it relates to the Indiana code specific to public libraries, which I think 00:14:44.974 --> 00:14:51.322 - was passed in 1945, and how our meetings are structured. And we are required by the state library to 00:14:51.322 --> 00:14:56.350 - review and update this every three years, whether we make changes to it or not. 00:14:56.450 --> 00:15:02.217 - The last time we updated it or made any changes was actually 2019. We didn't accuracy check on the bylaws 00:15:02.217 --> 00:15:07.822 - back in April of this year, but we're bringing it to you all for discussion to see if there's anything 00:15:07.822 --> 00:15:13.317 - you want to change. We do not have to vote on changes to the bylaws tonight. We can talk about them, 00:15:13.317 --> 00:15:18.867 - bring it back again in January and make a vote. The one thing that I know has been asked, and I think 00:15:18.867 --> 00:15:24.526 - Amy asked this in a relatively recent meeting is, have we ever thought about moving public comment from 00:15:24.526 --> 00:15:26.430 - the end of our meeting to the top? 00:15:26.562 --> 00:15:31.423 - A lot of other public boards do that because it's more intuitive for the public to get to speak at the 00:15:31.423 --> 00:15:34.302 - top of the meeting rather than after all the votes are done. 00:15:34.434 --> 00:15:39.698 - And so that's something for you all to consider. If we did, we would of course keep the same policy 00:15:39.698 --> 00:15:45.066 - for public comment in place that we currently have, which is that individuals are limited to three to 00:15:45.066 --> 00:15:50.383 - five minutes to speak and the board does not engage or respond to any comments. So there would be no 00:15:50.383 --> 00:15:55.646 - changes to the nature of public comment, but it might be worth considering moving public comment to 00:15:55.646 --> 00:15:57.278 - the beginning of our meetings. 00:15:58.114 --> 00:16:05.028 - And other than that, most of what's in the bylaws is how we have officers, when and how they're elected, 00:16:05.028 --> 00:16:11.612 - how we manage committees, how often we meet, who's present, and so on. Stuff that generally doesn't 00:16:11.612 --> 00:16:18.394 - change all that often. Does anybody know what our local school board does? I'm just trying to use that 00:16:18.394 --> 00:16:20.830 - as an example here in the community. 00:16:22.882 --> 00:16:29.787 - I think they have comment at the top of the meeting and not at the end. And they do have the same policy 00:16:29.787 --> 00:16:36.627 - where they don't comment. They just listen. Got it. That makes sense to me. Yeah. OK, so first question 00:16:36.627 --> 00:16:43.203 - that I would like to ask you is, would you like to vote tonight, or do you want to wait and revisit 00:16:43.203 --> 00:16:50.043 - this in January, with the change being that we would move the public comment to the top of the meeting? 00:16:50.043 --> 00:16:52.542 - I would prefer to wait until January. 00:16:57.250 --> 00:17:06.645 - if Amy's here since she suggested that maybe we don't want to vote it all down without her I mean we 00:17:06.645 --> 00:17:16.133 - not that I would but it's just so we can hear her opinion might make sense the person that's it would 00:17:16.133 --> 00:17:25.342 - be it would be nice and respectful if the person that suggested it was here we will move that to a 00:17:25.794 --> 00:17:35.820 - a January action item. Good thinking. It's okay, Nancy. It's all good. All right. Motion to hear the 00:17:35.820 --> 00:17:46.342 - resolution to approve the 2026 holiday closing schedule. So moved. And second. All right. If you wouldn't 00:17:46.342 --> 00:17:48.030 - mind, thank you. 00:17:54.498 --> 00:18:02.517 - So this can be found on page 64 and 65 of the packet. It's just our holiday clothing schedule. We update 00:18:02.517 --> 00:18:10.459 - this every year. There are no changes to the observed holidays. It's just been updated for the calendar 00:18:10.459 --> 00:18:17.790 - dates. Any questions? Do you want me to read the whole resolution, or do I just pass it around? 00:18:21.026 --> 00:18:30.132 - I think you could, Tom, do we need to read the resolution aloud for this or can we pass it around? It's 00:18:30.132 --> 00:18:39.063 - okay in writing, right? Okay. It's in the packet. Yeah. Okay. Let's do a quick vote. All in favor say 00:18:39.063 --> 00:18:43.966 - aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Ayes have it. Thank you. 00:18:46.498 --> 00:18:57.076 - Next up, can I get a motion to hear the resolution to approve the 2026 payday schedule, wage schedule 00:18:57.076 --> 00:19:07.550 - and annual wage increases? So moved. I second. So this is found on page 66, 67 and 68 of the packet. 00:19:07.778 --> 00:19:14.234 - The pay date schedule is just updated for our 2026 paydays. The way that our payroll works is we pay 00:19:14.234 --> 00:19:20.690 - out every two weeks. So the pay period runs Monday through the following Sunday, and then we pay out 00:19:20.690 --> 00:19:27.274 - on two Fridays after that. The only thing to note that is not a Friday payday is December 23rd, that's 00:19:27.274 --> 00:19:33.666 - a Wednesday, because the 25th is a holiday and we didn't want folks to have their paycheck delayed. 00:19:33.666 --> 00:19:36.670 - So that's the only payday that's not a Friday. 00:19:38.402 --> 00:19:45.510 - And then the wage and salary schedule. We worked with NFP back in 2023, well 2022 for our 2023 wage 00:19:45.510 --> 00:19:52.831 - and salary schedule. Part of the work that they did with us was to help us with the adjustments to our 00:19:52.831 --> 00:19:54.750 - wage and salary schedules. 00:19:54.850 --> 00:20:01.357 - We were on track to do that for 2026, but with SB one and the impacts that that had, we did decide to 00:20:01.357 --> 00:20:07.864 - pause that. And so we didn't do a full review of the compensation study or the compensation schedule. 00:20:07.864 --> 00:20:14.243 - We have committed to do that for 2026. So we'll do that work in 2020. I'm sorry, we'll do that work 00:20:14.243 --> 00:20:15.774 - in 2026 for 2027 wages. 00:20:15.874 --> 00:20:23.356 - The only change that we have on this right now is that we're moving the maximum out so that our folks 00:20:23.356 --> 00:20:30.765 - continue to get those annual pay increases and don't go above the maximum. So that's the only change 00:20:30.765 --> 00:20:38.174 - that's been made on this and then we are committing to adjust the entire schedule for 2027. And then 00:20:38.174 --> 00:20:42.942 - the other piece in this is the compensation increase. So this is 00:20:43.490 --> 00:20:51.476 - Similar to what we've done in years past, it would be 75 cents or 2.75% incremental increase, whichever 00:20:51.476 --> 00:20:59.154 - is higher. And it's subject to those wage and salary schedule maximums. And the wage increase would 00:20:59.154 --> 00:21:02.302 - be effective for the first payday in 26. 00:21:02.402 --> 00:21:10.315 - which falls on January 9th of 2026 and includes the pay periods beginning December 15th, 2025, ending 00:21:10.315 --> 00:21:18.073 - December 28th, 2025. And it would be for anyone who works at the library as of December 15th, which 00:21:18.073 --> 00:21:26.529 - is that first day of the pay period. And I have the resolution to pass around, but do you have any questions 00:21:26.529 --> 00:21:30.718 - on any of that? I have a really quick question. Yeah. 00:21:32.258 --> 00:21:38.767 - Have we ever discussed non-exempt and exempt being paid in different times, like versus a biweekly? 00:21:38.767 --> 00:21:45.406 - Or has that ever been discussed? I think it's something that we talked about with NFP, but I think we 00:21:45.406 --> 00:21:52.175 - decided to keep it the same. I know there have been some questions about maybe increasing the frequency 00:21:52.175 --> 00:21:58.813 - of compensation for our hourly folks to be like a weekly versus biweekly. But I don't know that we've 00:21:58.813 --> 00:22:00.766 - ever discussed it beyond just 00:22:00.930 --> 00:22:07.585 - sort of the anecdotal. OK. Are you aware of anything that we talked about, Greg? That sounds right. 00:22:07.585 --> 00:22:14.439 - So maybe with the next. That's certainly something we can bring up with NFP next year when we do this. 00:22:14.439 --> 00:22:21.427 - Yeah, with the next discussions, just to see. Yeah. OK. I appreciate it. Thank you. Any other questions? 00:22:21.427 --> 00:22:28.082 - All in favor of passing the resolution for the 2026 payday schedule, wage schedule, and annual wage 00:22:28.082 --> 00:22:30.078 - increases, say aye. Aye. Aye. 00:22:30.242 --> 00:22:41.326 - All opposed say nay. Ayes have it. Motion to hear the resolution to renew PERF. Thank you. So this is 00:22:41.326 --> 00:22:52.192 - found on pages 69 through 73 of your packet. This is just the annual agreement with PERF. So that's 00:22:52.192 --> 00:22:59.038 - Public Employee Retirement Fund. It is run by, in PERS is the, 00:22:59.426 --> 00:23:07.135 - organization that does that. Every year they adjust the normal and supplemental rates. So the way this 00:23:07.135 --> 00:23:14.620 - is set up is there is an employer contribution to the retirement fund and an employee contribution. 00:23:14.620 --> 00:23:22.180 - The library pays both the employer and the employee. So the employee contribution is 3% each payroll 00:23:22.180 --> 00:23:24.126 - and the employer is 11.2. 00:23:24.258 --> 00:23:32.078 - So it's a total of 14.2% that the library is contributing into our full-time folks perf accounts. The 00:23:32.078 --> 00:23:39.744 - normal and supplemental rates change every year. There's a published schedule that those change on. 00:23:39.744 --> 00:23:48.254 - And so for 2026, the normal rate is 4.4% and the supplemental rate is 6.8%. Last year, the normal rate was for 00:23:48.802 --> 00:23:58.641 - and the supplemental was 7%. So just a little change there, and we have to sign this document to continue 00:23:58.641 --> 00:24:08.758 - and renew our PERF retirement account for folks. Any questions? No? All in favor of approving the resolution 00:24:08.758 --> 00:24:15.998 - to renew PERF, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, say nay. Ayes have it. Thank you. 00:24:20.962 --> 00:24:28.107 - Motion to hear the resolution to set the library director's salary. I'm going to read from the Board 00:24:28.107 --> 00:24:35.535 - of Trustees of Monroe County Public Library, having conducted appropriate evaluation and considerations, 00:24:35.535 --> 00:24:43.105 - hereby adopts the following resolution concerning the annual salary for the library director Greer Carson. 00:24:43.105 --> 00:24:45.086 - For the calendar year 2026, 00:24:45.250 --> 00:24:54.877 - The annual salary for the library director, Greer Carson, shall be $118,600.17, together with all appropriate 00:24:54.877 --> 00:25:03.804 - benefits consistent with the position. Any questions? In favor of approving the resolution to set the 00:25:03.804 --> 00:25:10.718 - library director's salary, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, say nay. Ayes have it. 00:25:13.154 --> 00:25:22.448 - Can I get a motion for the approval of the 2026 board calendar? It is in the packet. So any questions 00:25:22.448 --> 00:25:31.559 - or comments before we take vote? I'll point out that there is one alternative meeting space to this 00:25:31.559 --> 00:25:39.486 - space. That's in April. We're going to meet in the auditorium. That's when we have our 00:25:39.970 --> 00:25:47.092 - spring book sale and it takes up this entire space so we'll happily return to the auditorium for that 00:25:47.092 --> 00:25:54.284 - one. Otherwise we have one meeting at Ellitsville in June and then one in Southwest in September which 00:25:54.284 --> 00:26:01.545 - is what we've been doing for the last couple of years. All in favor of approving the 2026 board meeting 00:26:01.545 --> 00:26:08.318 - calendar say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Ayes have it. And last up we're going to hear from 00:26:08.418 --> 00:26:25.679 - Becky about the Hoosier START program. No, you're good. I'll let you guys sign the papers. You're fine. 00:26:25.679 --> 00:26:34.974 - It's not like we gave you guys eight documents to sign. 00:26:39.554 --> 00:26:46.579 - So we have been reviewing some of the benefits that we offer to staff. And one of the opportunities 00:26:46.579 --> 00:26:53.744 - that we saw as a chance to improve some benefits and offer additional retirement savings to folks was 00:26:53.744 --> 00:27:00.840 - to change our retirement plan in addition to PERF. So PERF is the one that you guys signed to renew. 00:27:00.840 --> 00:27:08.286 - That's the employer contribution. Employees want to contribute money as well to help save for retirement. 00:27:08.418 --> 00:27:15.925 - And so we currently offer a mechanism to do that, but there's some barriers to entry there's not great 00:27:15.925 --> 00:27:23.213 - participation there's not a lot of education that we're able to do with that plan and Hoosier start 00:27:23.213 --> 00:27:27.294 - is a program that's a statewide program. It's a bigger. 00:27:27.618 --> 00:27:34.003 - of employers that use that. There's a lot more education. They have a specific person for our region 00:27:34.003 --> 00:27:40.325 - who would come out and educate staff on how to save for retirement and plan for retirement and what 00:27:40.325 --> 00:27:47.152 - those mechanisms look like. They also are able to have a much lower fee for participating in the retirement 00:27:47.152 --> 00:27:53.790 - plan. And they also offer a couple of different options that would meet folks where they really need to. 00:27:53.954 --> 00:28:00.689 - be saving for retirement. So there is a pre-tax and a post-tax option. The annual fee is $54 a year 00:28:00.689 --> 00:28:07.491 - in order to participate in Hoosier Start, and that's paid by the employee in order to be able to use 00:28:07.491 --> 00:28:14.360 - the plan. The employer doesn't pay anything for it, we just would be able to offer it to staff. It is 00:28:14.360 --> 00:28:21.297 - run by Nationwide, so they're the planned administrator, and it's a state program that's been in place 00:28:21.297 --> 00:28:22.846 - for quite a long time. 00:28:22.978 --> 00:28:30.501 - We met with them yesterday. They've got over 70,000 participants in the plan. It's over $2 billion total. 00:28:30.501 --> 00:28:38.166 - So it's part of a really large plan. And then they have 60 plus counties out of the 90 counties in Indiana. 00:28:38.166 --> 00:28:45.335 - They have fire departments. They've got public libraries that all participate. And so it's something 00:28:45.335 --> 00:28:52.574 - that a lot of employers are offering that we thought would make sense to offer for our folks as well. 00:28:52.770 --> 00:28:58.670 - And then they also have the option for part-time folks to be able to save for retirement, which is something 00:28:58.670 --> 00:29:04.245 - we can't offer now. And so that would be a voluntary enrollment for folks if they did want to save for 00:29:04.245 --> 00:29:04.894 - retirement. 00:29:05.666 --> 00:29:12.486 - We are just starting the discussion, so we still have some work on our part to do. We have already asked 00:29:12.486 --> 00:29:19.111 - for contacts of other public libraries who use it, so we can talk to them and hear a little bit about 00:29:19.111 --> 00:29:25.801 - how it's going and do a little bit more research. But wanted to start the discussion with you all, see 00:29:25.801 --> 00:29:31.646 - what questions you have, and just kind of go from there. I have a lot of questions. Yeah. 00:29:32.866 --> 00:29:39.399 - This is new to me, so I'm trying to figure out and think about the distinctions and the benefit for 00:29:39.399 --> 00:29:46.194 - Hoosier Start. Things I'm hearing are PerF is run by the state, right? So it's public versus nationwide 00:29:46.194 --> 00:29:52.923 - running Hoosier Start. So we're moving private, right? So Hoosier Start is a state program. Nationwide 00:29:52.923 --> 00:29:59.522 - is the organization that manages the plan, but they're both state programs. So they're both intended 00:29:59.522 --> 00:30:02.462 - for folks to be able to save for retirement. 00:30:02.882 --> 00:30:09.944 - and they're both specific to state and public entities. Okay. But the Hoosier Start is not overseen 00:30:09.944 --> 00:30:17.359 - by anyone at the state? It's just in coordination with? They have people at the state who are overseeing 00:30:17.359 --> 00:30:24.986 - the plan and the nationwide is the one that is basically administering the plan. Okay. So there's oversight 00:30:24.986 --> 00:30:32.542 - and there's a couple of different places where the state is overseeing the policy and overseeing the plan. 00:30:32.674 --> 00:30:40.469 - So I understand that we would pay the enrollment fee with Hoosier Start. How I think it would be really 00:30:40.469 --> 00:30:48.190 - beneficial and I as we move forward of this to be able to see some type of table of comparison because 00:30:48.190 --> 00:30:55.985 - I hear you and I know that we wouldn't be looking into this if it wasn't advantageous for the employees 00:30:55.985 --> 00:30:59.358 - but I think being able to see that as far as 00:30:59.650 --> 00:31:06.312 - Why? You know, what is our reasoning behind this? What makes Perf unattainable that Hoosier Start would 00:31:06.312 --> 00:31:13.039 - be able to satisfy that need? I'm sorry. So it's not to replace Perf. So we would continue to have Perf. 00:31:13.039 --> 00:31:19.509 - We have a 403B plan right now that's an additional retirement fund option for folks to put money in. 00:31:19.509 --> 00:31:26.236 - And so Hoosier Start goes hand in hand with Perf and would just be another option instead of our current 00:31:26.236 --> 00:31:28.670 - 403B. What other option is right now? 00:31:29.314 --> 00:31:35.713 - Is that what you're saying? It's replacing that. Yeah. So we have a 403B option. We only have a few 00:31:35.713 --> 00:31:42.240 - folks who are enrolled in it. The employee pays the cost on it. So there's a percentage fee with most 00:31:42.240 --> 00:31:48.639 - retirement accounts that folks pay. The benefit with Hoosier Start is that it's $54 as the flat fee 00:31:48.639 --> 00:31:55.230 - to participate for the year, which is significantly less than most other retirement options would cost 00:31:55.230 --> 00:31:58.366 - for the employee. And it's completely voluntary. 00:31:58.466 --> 00:32:03.976 - folks contribute, the library doesn't contribute anything to that because we max out perf for folks. 00:32:03.976 --> 00:32:09.541 - Does that make sense? Yeah. It's helpful. I'm sorry, I didn't do a very good job explaining that. No, 00:32:09.541 --> 00:32:15.160 - that's OK. In my head, I was just like, what? OK. But I may have misheard. OK. One of the other things 00:32:15.160 --> 00:32:20.779 - that the Hoosier Start program offers that we think would be a benefit, because as Becky said, we only 00:32:20.779 --> 00:32:26.344 - have a few people who are participating in the 403B right now, is that they do a lot of education and 00:32:26.344 --> 00:32:27.326 - consultation with 00:32:27.842 --> 00:32:35.788 - staff members, financial planning for retirement and so on. So whether that results in more people using 00:32:35.788 --> 00:32:43.507 - the supplemental retirement option or not, at least there's the opportunity for people to learn more. 00:32:43.507 --> 00:32:51.377 - So that was attractive for us, yeah. Could you also say that it would include part-time where PERF does 00:32:51.377 --> 00:32:53.118 - not include part-time? 00:32:53.250 --> 00:33:00.068 - And again, this isn't replacing perf. So our perf plan is currently only offered for full-time folks. 00:33:00.068 --> 00:33:05.950 - And so the library contributes all of the amount for the perf plan for full-time folks. 00:33:06.274 --> 00:33:12.810 - other voluntary retirement saving is only available to full-time folks. Just the way that plan is set 00:33:12.810 --> 00:33:19.473 - up and administered and managed. There were some changes with the secure act here recently that allowed 00:33:19.473 --> 00:33:26.458 - for part-time folks to be able to save in an employer's retirement fund. And so this would be an opportunity 00:33:26.458 --> 00:33:30.174 - for us to potentially offer that to folks. We as the plan 00:33:30.626 --> 00:33:38.235 - Sponsor plan administrator on our part would be able to say if we do or don't want to offer it to part-time 00:33:38.235 --> 00:33:45.281 - folks And we can change that if we start out conservative and then open it up Don't know that I see 00:33:45.281 --> 00:33:52.467 - a reason not to offer it to part-time folks, but we could definitely talk about that. Okay Thanks for 00:33:52.467 --> 00:33:57.822 - getting started is there any information that you guys would like to see in 00:33:57.986 --> 00:34:06.016 - for the next meeting. Do you want me to do a cost comparison for what it costs employees to have the 00:34:06.016 --> 00:34:13.728 - plans? Anything? I know you're looking into all of those things as you're comparing the options. 00:34:13.728 --> 00:34:21.759 - Trust you. If there's anything you guys would like to see specifically, I want to make sure we bring 00:34:21.759 --> 00:34:27.006 - it to the next meeting. If we can't think of something right now, 00:34:27.458 --> 00:34:35.070 - Yeah, yeah, and you had mentioned that they have you know traditional and Roth plans, correct? Yes full 00:34:35.070 --> 00:34:42.390 - part-time employee more fund investment options. I Believe it's more fun investment options I can't 00:34:42.390 --> 00:34:49.709 - say that confidently because I haven't seen the difference between what we currently offer and what 00:34:49.709 --> 00:34:53.662 - they offer enrollment fee but no fees on the fund and 00:34:54.082 --> 00:35:01.167 - Correct. Yeah. So there's a $54 enrollment fee to be participating in the plan. But there's no administrative 00:35:01.167 --> 00:35:07.673 - that covers the administrative fee. Getting a list of referrals specific to public libraries will be 00:35:07.673 --> 00:35:14.243 - important to us because we want to see comparable compensation packages that use who should start and 00:35:14.243 --> 00:35:20.684 - whether or not that's effective for those employees. And that's probably going to be through public 00:35:20.684 --> 00:35:23.454 - libraries. So that'll be a part of what we 00:35:23.554 --> 00:35:30.166 - want to get from them too. So we'll hopefully have that by January, bring it back, and can discuss it 00:35:30.166 --> 00:35:37.103 - further and either vote then or just continue to talk about it. You had mentioned the current plan doesn't 00:35:37.103 --> 00:35:43.715 - have a lot of participation, the second option. Yeah. Do we know why? Have we reached out to staff to 00:35:43.715 --> 00:35:50.198 - find out why they're not contributing? So we make sure that what we're looking for, OK? Don't know. 00:35:50.198 --> 00:35:53.310 - Yeah. I can look into it a little bit and share 00:35:53.506 --> 00:35:59.121 - some more details with you guys on if you've had any feedback I guess that would be great to know I 00:35:59.121 --> 00:36:04.792 - just want to make sure that this doesn't sound like it is a negative move in any way but I also want 00:36:04.792 --> 00:36:10.519 - to make sure we're meeting staff needs if that's an issue now yeah yeah and we did start looking into 00:36:10.519 --> 00:36:16.190 - this based on some staff feedback and just questions on education we've seen a big need for that and 00:36:16.290 --> 00:36:22.139 - Perf does a really great job of helping our folks, but they can only help really with the Perf plan. 00:36:22.139 --> 00:36:28.104 - And so this is an option for us to also offer education for our folks as well, which I think is really 00:36:28.104 --> 00:36:34.011 - important and really valuable, no matter what stage folks are in. I do know also that the Roth is one 00:36:34.011 --> 00:36:40.323 - that we've had folks ask about, and we don't have a mechanism right now to be able to do a Roth contribution 00:36:40.323 --> 00:36:45.246 - through payroll. And so this would give us the ability to do that. That's big. Yeah. 00:36:45.858 --> 00:37:00.622 - It's really big. Okay, I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, thanks. Next up, we're gonna have a department 00:37:00.622 --> 00:37:15.102 - update from CATS with Martin O'Neill. Hello. There we go. It's good to see everybody. Happy December. 00:37:15.426 --> 00:37:22.329 - I'll try not to take up too much of your time, because I know it's going to get really cold and everybody 00:37:22.329 --> 00:37:28.906 - wants to go home. But I'm just going to start by thanking folks, Josh, Greer, and all the people who 00:37:28.906 --> 00:37:35.548 - work at CATS for another year where we are doing more than we ever did. So great thanks to everybody, 00:37:35.548 --> 00:37:42.190 - and thanks for Greer and Josh's guidance through the whole year. It was great. I'd also like to thank 00:37:42.190 --> 00:37:44.990 - Mike Adams, who came on with us this year. 00:37:45.634 --> 00:37:53.812 - from a videographer editor, he moved up into our equipment expert, and as such he's led to a better 00:37:53.812 --> 00:38:01.989 - inventory of equipment and an increase in our digitization projects. And the ADA compliance for our 00:38:01.989 --> 00:38:04.606 - CEPPS website is well underway. 00:38:06.594 --> 00:38:12.683 - This is some highlights what we want to do here. Replace old equipment throughout the CATS network. 00:38:12.683 --> 00:38:18.955 - We actually did some of that this year as well as some equipment we have at City Hall, Ellisville, and 00:38:18.955 --> 00:38:25.044 - Monroe County. We continued partnership with WAFHB and our weekly government roundup program called 00:38:25.044 --> 00:38:31.256 - CATS Week and increased digitization of our community collection. Some numbers for this year. This is 00:38:31.256 --> 00:38:35.518 - for the government meetings, the comparison between 2020 tour and 25. 00:38:35.970 --> 00:38:42.381 - We don't have December of this year in yet just because we're not that far into the end of the year. 00:38:42.381 --> 00:38:49.047 - So we, you know, and it will be a low year because, you know, Christmas Thanksgiving or sorry, Christmas 00:38:49.047 --> 00:38:55.649 - in that. But you can see it's the years have been comparable. There's always a little increase the next 00:38:55.649 --> 00:39:02.377 - year. It hasn't been as dramatic this year, but you see March in there, there's, we reached 70 government 00:39:02.377 --> 00:39:03.774 - meetings, which is a, 00:39:03.874 --> 00:39:11.256 - record that we have never hit before. And a lot of that was down to some rules that the state brought 00:39:11.256 --> 00:39:18.565 - in where municipalities needed to have more of their meetings recorded and have them archived for at 00:39:18.565 --> 00:39:25.875 - least 30 days. And the city of Bloomington and town of Ellisville has asked us to help them out with 00:39:25.875 --> 00:39:31.230 - that. So that's where that sort of bump came there. Our community events. 00:39:32.706 --> 00:39:40.748 - Yeah, more this year than last year. Some months went up and down. The biggest increase was in September. 00:39:40.748 --> 00:39:48.942 - And that was due to the Lotus Festival. We actually covered more concerts this year. So there's an increase 00:39:48.942 --> 00:39:56.756 - there in that. And combining them both together, you can see for over the year, Harvey did. And again, 00:39:56.756 --> 00:39:58.046 - slight increase. 00:39:58.722 --> 00:40:05.729 - comparison side by side between 24 and 25, it's about a 5% increase that in all our programming for 00:40:05.729 --> 00:40:12.946 - 2025. And this is just a list of the meetings and stuff that we obviously you're not going to read all 00:40:12.946 --> 00:40:20.303 - this. I'm not going to read it to you. But this is just the meetings and programs that we did this year. 00:40:20.303 --> 00:40:25.278 - And you can see just to get a sense, it's really quite a lot of stuff. 00:40:25.538 --> 00:40:33.551 - Our storage, the last time we upgraded our storage, everything we do now is digital. It all comes off 00:40:33.551 --> 00:40:41.721 - servers and plays back on it from a server and all that stuff. We last upgraded that server seven years 00:40:41.721 --> 00:40:50.284 - ago, and with the assistance of MCPL staff, we have determined a course of upgrading the server environment, 00:40:50.284 --> 00:40:54.526 - which is mainly storage capacity. One small thing is, 00:40:54.754 --> 00:41:00.910 - Right now we have our storage and then we have our backup storage, which is great. It's all mirrored 00:41:00.910 --> 00:41:07.189 - and everything is exactly the same. The problem is they're in the same room, which doesn't really help 00:41:07.189 --> 00:41:13.467 - if we have a fire or flood or something like that. So the plan would be to take the backup storage and 00:41:13.467 --> 00:41:17.246 - put it in our southwest branch. So there's a nice separation. 00:41:17.378 --> 00:41:26.496 - between the two of us. And FYI, we also use Amazon Web Services for our deep, deep storage. So we keep 00:41:26.496 --> 00:41:34.817 - things backed up in three different places all the time. Due to Mike's help here too, enhance 00:41:34.817 --> 00:41:42.430 - the workstations using legacy equipment to continue to digitize our old legacy tapes. 00:41:43.106 --> 00:41:52.722 - So this year we've managed to do over 250 programs. But the problems that we're running into, and this 00:41:52.722 --> 00:42:02.430 - is leading to the packet that I left for you earlier, the Memnon packet, we've realized that converting 00:42:02.430 --> 00:42:12.606 - 250 programs a year is really nice, but considering just for our government stuff, we have about 8,000 tapes 00:42:13.378 --> 00:42:22.140 - That's gonna take us a long time. The other problem is that the equipment that we use to do that, our 00:42:22.140 --> 00:42:30.987 - old legacy gear is breaking and it's hard to keep it going and they don't make them anymore. You can't 00:42:30.987 --> 00:42:40.350 - get parts anymore. So that led us to think about having to look at other alternatives for getting this done. 00:42:40.642 --> 00:42:46.952 - And as we started looking around and we were looking at companies across the country, really, we came 00:42:46.952 --> 00:42:53.447 - to discover that one of the foremost companies in the world actually have an office here in Bloomington. 00:42:53.447 --> 00:42:59.756 - So this is a company called Memnon. And if you wanted to read through that packet, it gives a history 00:42:59.756 --> 00:43:06.004 - of the company and everything else. I believe they started out in Belgium, but then were acquired by 00:43:06.004 --> 00:43:10.334 - Sony and then were sold yet again. But they did all the archiving for 00:43:10.530 --> 00:43:17.251 - IU when they had their huge push to get all their analog programming tapes, audio, video converted. 00:43:17.251 --> 00:43:24.038 - Memnon kind of parked themselves at IU for about five years to do all that conversion. But then when 00:43:24.038 --> 00:43:30.893 - that was over, they decided to just to open an office here in Bloomington, which could work out great 00:43:30.893 --> 00:43:37.614 - for us. Part of the great thing on that is that we don't have to ship any tapes. We just stick them 00:43:37.614 --> 00:43:39.294 - in the back of the truck 00:43:39.426 --> 00:43:48.104 - bring them over, which cuts down on costs and also safety of that. What is a valuable historical resource 00:43:48.104 --> 00:43:56.454 - that we have, and I think there are very few communities in the country that have the kind of archive 00:43:56.454 --> 00:44:05.049 - that we have there. So that's, we are looking into doing this. They give us the proposal. It's of course 00:44:05.049 --> 00:44:05.950 - not cheap. 00:44:06.466 --> 00:44:13.953 - For the government stuff, it would be around about $240,000. But breaking that out per average per tape 00:44:13.953 --> 00:44:21.296 - is about $38 per tape. That is comparable, if not cheaper, than any other service that we used before 00:44:21.296 --> 00:44:28.639 - with some other legacy stuff that we had converted. So we feel good about them. They're here in time. 00:44:28.639 --> 00:44:35.838 - We met with them. It feels good. They have given us a contract. But of course, we'd have, you know, 00:44:36.034 --> 00:44:43.343 - Tom looked that over and everything else. And again, this is just something that we're looking into. 00:44:43.343 --> 00:44:51.158 - But we know that we are contractually obligated to keep the government stuff archived and make it available 00:44:51.158 --> 00:44:58.466 - for folks online. So that's one thing. And then the tapes are degrading. And every year that they're 00:44:58.466 --> 00:45:05.630 - there, that degradation just keeps accelerating. And we'd hit to get to the stage where, you know, 00:45:05.762 --> 00:45:15.998 - dust shitting on the shelves. So that's what we're doing now. These are just some clips of what we've 00:45:15.998 --> 00:45:26.435 - done through the year. So that's in there. But any questions? I know that was a lot just to throw right 00:45:26.435 --> 00:45:32.958 - there. All right. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Martin. 00:45:38.306 --> 00:45:50.942 - have any members of the public for public comment okay all in favor of adjourning say aye we are adjourned thank you