The public library board meeting.

You can attend the meeting here in person on the second floor meeting room in the library or obtain the recording available on the city's website after the meeting.

Is there any public comment today?

Seeing none.

Yeah.

Meribel.

Here.

Nick here.

Connie.

Here.

Anna here.

Steve here.

And the line is not here.

Can I have a motion to approve the agenda?

Absolutely.

Presented.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Any of those?

No.

Motion passes.

All right.

So the Rochester Public Library Foundation report.

So Brenda's not here, but she asked me just to kind of go over to brief report.

I say gifts received recently.

Another significant estate has arrived from Dr.

J.

Keith Campbell in March.

And there was a previous uh significant donation by Dr.

R.

Jean Campbell back in 2012.

There are also gifts in appreciation of the bookmobile staff.

Another one in memory of our homebound delivery job.

One regarding related to the parking pilot project.

Another one in honor of our book club celebrating its 25th year.

And there was also a mayoral uh clinic grant for the WIT sponsorship.

And uh the foundation also launched the Summers Pro fundraising initiative.

And from that Atlas Insurance and Vobles City so far have been uh two contributors.

Uh for youth services.

Um there was an anonymous uh donor gift targeting uh launched this fall uh with a rotating uh imagination station uh featuring monthly updates to keep curious young minds engaged thank you any questions for now all right hi I'm Sandy George and I am presenting for the friends on behalf of Val who is in Poland right now on family vacation so I have some information and then a couple of stories to share with you.

I'm also one of the managers of the friends bookstore, so sharing some of that.

If I could ask you to move over so we can thank you, focus.

Okay.

Um the bottom half, Val just wanted us to let you know we are selling the Rochester Fest buttons in the bookstore, and of course, starting next week on Thursday evening, it's our Prince uh Rochester Fest Auditorium sale.

So that's uh a big thing.

Starts Thursday night for the members and then open Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

So um for the bookstore.

Since the beginning of this year, our bookstore has made 38,164 selling used books, DVDs, CDs, movies.

Um slightly higher than Lambster at this time, but we have noticed a drop the last couple of months, and we think that's because of the because of the construction.

Um what put us over a little bit is when the uh garage had their duck duck garage sale.

Uh we also have a half price sale in the bookstore that day, and that one day at half price, we made over a thousand dollars.

So people will come down to the library if they have a good reason to.

And it was also a crazy day in the uh parking ramp that day too.

So we were pretty happy with that.

Uh the black box, if you have seen it, it's on the uh circulation desk right on the main floor so far this year that has made over a thousand dollars for us, and that's selling books, uh, jigsaw puzzles, the coffee table books, the dollar books in the lobby when the bookstore is closed.

So that we're pretty happy with that.

And since we started that method five years ago, that little black box is collected over 12,000, which one dollar at a time, pretty cool.

Uh, our volunteers.

We have about 54 active volunteers right now in the bookstore.

That's not the friends organization altogether, that's just us.

Um of our volunteers are starting to age out, and we have some high school and college kids working in the bookstore also.

We are we do need more volunteers though.

So if you know people, spread the word, we we really could use some more volunteers.

And I think I want to end with some stories about the bookstore because the place really is magical.

And we know that because customers have used that word specifically with us in the last year.

I'd like to share a few stories that have happened just in the last year.

We get a lot of uh obviously the library uh patrons come in.

We have regulators that will drive to Rochester to come to our bookstore.

We have a lot of clinic and patients and uh people that work at the clinic that stop in.

So just this past week, we had a couple come from Iowa.

They come twice a year to the clinic.

They've been coming for the last five years, and the bookstore is our favorite place in Rochester.

Um, she complimented us on our friendly staff, great author suggestions, our welcoming field feeling in the store.

And they've even returned books that they bought from us and donated them back to the bookstore.

So we get pretty cool people like that.

We also had a librarian uh in from Northern Minnesota, and her husband was going through the clinic.

She was thrilled that she found a book by a certain author.

And she said she'd be back because she loved the prices, the great selection, and she also wanted to come back just to chat and visit.

So we could post cool stories.

One time I helped a uh woman, she bought about 10 juice puzzles.

She took them back to Methodist Hospital and distributed them in the different waiting areas.

Um I also had a woman from Texas buy books to drive around and put them in little libraries that she saw around town.

So we get some really really great great uh customers.

Um, and one of my favorite stories, we had two friends that visit from Iowa.

They come together a couple times a year, and they were chatting with one of our regular uh customers, an older man, and they were laughing, talking in the corner.

I didn't quite catch what they were talking about.

When the older man came up to buy his books, this woman bought his books for him.

And he got terrified.

And then her friend bought her books for her, and it kind of cascaded from there.

So I just wanted to share some of the things that are happening in the bookstore, and thank you for your support.

And it really is a magical place.

Thank you.

Uh, any questions about the bookstore?

Thank you.

All right, so more Laurie's not here's mate.

Um, just wanted to mention that Celco directors advisory grouping at our meeting this month, and the topic, one of the topics was how we count our library service area.

You can imagine where it's stemmed from.

So we're continuing to have these conversations.

Um, I am meeting with our Olmstead County libraries um tomorrow, Thursday.

Um, and Krista from Celco will join us in those conversations.

She's been having conversations with other federated regional library assistants who learn more about how they are dividing up their service area populations.

So that is all.

Advocacy committee okay.

Nick, oh, that's me.

Yeah.

Um, so we met on May 28th.

Um, and I guess there's actually a transcript of the meeting.

I'm not sure where that is, but um uh I think on the agenda we uh included a uh well, we talked about the county funding.

I don't know if we're gonna get that to the in this meeting, but um and the issues involved, uh the new funding formula would redistribute resources among Rochester, Stuart Bill, St.

Charles, Pine Island, and Chatfield.

Um, and the letter that was approved by the board has been sent to the homestead county commissioners addressing these changes.

And I know that some progress is some changes have been made already.

Uh, then we discussed uh refining a working contract list for advocacy efforts, um, adding notes about personal regulationships and or connections to help guide all the reach.

And this is similar to the process used uh during the master plan community engagement.

So refining a working contract list for advocacy efforts, um, adding notes about personal relationships uh and or connections to help guide all of this is similar to the process used uh during the master plan community engagement um and a new column in that uh document will be added to track those who on the advocacy have relationships with each contact uh and additional contacts for local institutions such as RCPC and UMR uh were also noted for inclusion, and then we talked about uh uh the broader issue of sustainable funding, uh including potential partnerships and support from major local institutions, and uh we also talked about what constitutes a hard ask specifically in relationship to uh Mayo and specifically more in relationship to its funding priorities, which include access to uh care and mental health.

And uh we also talked about the fact that we're not looking, we we're not looking at Mayo as a vast money call, but if we if and when we get to the point of proposing a hard task, um we can construct that in a way that will be a win-win situation for both Mayo and the library, which specifically addresses these two issues access to care and to mental health, and we have some ideas.

Um we also uh briefly discuss possible satellite locations in the northwest and south east.

Uh we acknowledge that the options are still preliminary and are tied to future planning uh within the master plan.

So that's what it questions for Nick.

Thank you.

Um then can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved.

Thank you in a second.

Awesome.

Thank you.

All in favor.

Okay.

Any opposed.

Then we are to 2026 board foundation and friends activities.

All right.

So um wanted to um connect and talk about a board retreat because we have not done a board retreat, and um Steve recommended that this would be a good idea.

So if you don't get this idea, you can thank him.

Um but it would really be a good opportunity for us to um have a longer connection more than just a meeting, but uh more of a uh a nice discussion.

So what I'm envisioning is either after a board meeting or on another day, just a two to three hour retreat where we can connect and really talk specifically about the two topics, um succession planning, making sure that we're thinking about that and board engagement in general, and then reviewing those action plans and those big action items um that are included in the library master plan.

Um I would love to be able to do something in August, September that gets us set up so that we can that informs our asks for uh the friends and foundation priorities, funding priorities, as well as uh for um budget requests that we have to have ready by January, February of next year.

Um so what I'd like from you all is input.

Um the first thing that I have on here in July is a United for Libraries conference.

They host these every year.

They have board days, foundation days, and friends days.

I'm recommending that we participate this year um in a better, more meaningful way and have in-person like a watch party together, do a group viewing session or folks who could make it from the board on the day, folks from the friends who could make it on a Friends Day, and folks who could make it together on the foundation day.

And we'll have staff there on those days as well.

Uh the conference runs.

We see the dates that are there.

Um, so first, if you are interested, please let me know if you can attend, that would be great.

Um, and we'll have lunch together, watch the sessions together, have an opportunity again to engage.

And then the second part again is that board retreat.

I would love to again do in August or September and would like your input on how you would like to do that, whether it's after a board meeting, having a meal together and doing it for just a longer night, or if having it on a separate day is preferred.

I like after a meeting.

I think that we're already here.

Yeah, I would agree with that.

I have a toddler, it's impossible to plan.

And then August or September, which would you prefer earlier or later?

I think if it's in September, it does give staff a little more time to prepare information that we can prepare and present to you.

That's what we can September is a lot busier for me.

I'm in Thailand in August.

So August it is what I'm hearing.

Any opposition to August on this side?

Okay.

We're gonna shoot for August.

Um and I'll reach out with mail information and um the topics.

If you have other topic ideas, this would be a good time to throw them out while you're all together.

Um wouldn't be impossible to squeeze out on the agenda, but I think our time is going to be very well taken by both the succession planning and um talking about the action plan initiatives.

So fantastic.

We'll have more information to send out, um, including I'll get a sign-up sheet for the virtual conference and the additional information about the board retreat.

All right, thank you.

Great idea.

Right.

We are on to library delivery and outreach ban.

Yeah.

No, that would be me.

We'll see if we want to.

I didn't have plenty of so um we are here to talk about um a van.

Um in our current budget for 2026, we have an approved Dodge Caravan, an SUV stemmark, the one that we have, or we had an SUV.

Uh, we currently have a library van that we utilize.

Um that SUV that was our second vehicle was not on the depreciation schedule, so we asked for a vehicle.

This was we had to make these asks before the library master plan was done.

Um so what got approved was a uh passenger van, similar again to the one that we have now.

However, as you know, we have many initiatives in our master plan.

Um, and they recommend that we have um uh a vehicle that could accommodate these things.

Piloting folds make up location at partner locations, um, and then the satellite locations when we move serials around.

Currently, you don't have a vehicle to make that happen.

It would be an additional um request.

What we're recommending is um using money uh that we had earmarked for the van to put that towards uh a vehicle that would support those pilot projects.

So what we're looking at is an outreach um delivery van.

So um in prior to doing our library master plan, we did connect with a library vendor about uh outreach vehicle.

And at the time the estimation was about 122, 23,000 to purchase a um a van.

This time we did work with um Monty from City's public works department to um custom build out a vehicle for us.

Um and this is an actual van that was purchased for the city of Rochester for maintenance, I believe.

Um obviously it would be much prettier than a maintenance vehicle.

Um, but would the back would have that same um you know buildable, customizable back end that could support carts that you could roll on and off.

Um you could put tables in it, you could put bins of materials in it, um, much um easier, better, and uh more functional for outreach.

Uh this is what the quote is um that we got from Monty.

It in all it would be 90,000.

Um, and that would include building it out, buying the vehicle uh off of the state contract, um, having the vehicle wrap done, and then also some of the equipment.

There may be equipment that we could potentially reuse.

So um if there are carts, for example, that we could utilize, we would we would do that.

Um so at most it would be a 90,000 price tag.

What we have earmarked in the budget is um 42,000.

So what we have is a difference of 48,000.

And these are the three options that we propose using.

Um either using library reserves, um, using the money that we have set aside for bookmobile replacement, or requesting a budget adjustment from administration council from city reserves.

I will tell you that the library does have a healthy reserve budget.

Our current reserves 2.2 million.

Um, and so um I you know the council is aware that we do have a healthy reserve budget and um so would move more than likely appreciate us using library reserves set aside our library.

I just I appreciate the option, but it may like seems like option one is the obvious option.

Especially since we have so we have the money for I don't want to not, I don't I wouldn't want to in any way say that we aren't gonna replace the book my bill right now.

So in option three seems that you could work the one I was gonna use, but especially for one I could have on date.

So uh option one would seem like anybody want to make an uh recommendation or motion, excuse me, that we move forward under option one.

So move second, second.

Any discussion?

And I know we actually talked about this a little bit a couple months ago.

So all right.

If no other discussion, all in favor, all right.

Any opposed?

Right, motion passes, move forward.

All right, excellent.

So our next step will be we do take this to city council because there does need to be an approval from city council um for making that change, even though it's library reserves.

So um we will do that and hopefully get that done in unity uh first meeting in July.

So action plan.

It's me again.

So um here is our action plan.

Remember the action plan is what the library owns operationally.

So these are the things that we are um working on.

We just met on Monday.

We had a retreat with all of our supervisors to discuss how we how we can be more strategic in Digby, knowing that we don't have loads of additional resources.

How can we be creative to make sure that we um complete all of these activities because there's a lot of time for MLC?

Um, our plan is for our retreat.

We'll do um a deeper dive into these because we'll by then uh we'll have our project teams um spelled, but we do have leaders for each of the main initiatives.

Um we distributed those among our um administrative teams, so everybody everybody gets at least one that they get to own um and and speak to and and keep moving along.

Um questions about the actions.

I think you've seen these in draft form previously.

Um we will of course be bringing updates as we make progress on these actions.

So the first uh quarterly update would be in September or October.

Because we have already made some progress on some of these initiatives.

So what do call PT and C T spam thing?

LDT is the library director's team, so that is uh myself, Kernet and Stacey.

So we meet regularly, yeah.

Um, and then um AT is our administrative team, so those are all of our division heads.

Um so folks that you're often seeing here including or have met with anybody have any questions.

I had to look up at the six most common languages in Rochester working on three lists.

Oh, those are the ones that are offered in our summer playlists, which thank you so much for bringing everyone to my playlist so you can all participate.

Is there anything you want clarification on as far as some of the tactics?

I'll look forward to good morning.

Deadline, I see the start dates, uh the deadlines the end of the year, or is it just sort of until it's finished?

This is um there are many columns that continue on.

Okay, um, so a lot of them are starting this year and not necessarily ending this year, but the parking pilot assessment that will be done before this this year.

It will be brought to you in September or October for your review.

So um, a lot of these things we do have deadlines for um a lot of these that are this year as I'm looking at them.

So you'll see a lot of progress before the end of the year.

So there's a on page 57 of the master plan, remember then?

Uh there's an implementation schedule.

parking pilot assessment that will be done before this this year it will be brought to you in September or October for your review so um a lot of these things we do have deadlines for um a lot of these that are this year as I'm looking at them so you'll see a lot of progress before the end of the year so there's a on page 57 of the master plan remember then uh there's an implementation schedule it's it's much smaller or scale um more generalized than this is um so I guess in my head I'm trying to marry this with this yeah so the library master plan gives us that um those recommendations and then we're we're gonna have to implement so there are gonna be dates that will be slightly different there may be um um tactics or activities that are slightly different than are recommended um we're really bound a lot by funding and and what we can make possible with what we have so um yeah yeah um yeah so this is flushing that out quite a lot yes um and if you have a schedule and it turns out that well this isn't gonna work right now we can we'll have to make an adjustment sorry yeah that will be something that would be brought after the board strategic any other questions right any questions or answers I guess we give questions we use the answers or we do it the other way around the board have any questions for the staff right then could I have a motion to adjourn someone second all in favor thank you everybody