CE/Professional Development Committee Meeting
June 24, 2002
MHLS Auditorium
10:00am – 1:00pm

Present:

Sally Alderdice (Claverack), Wendy Fuller (Chatham), Lisa Karim (LaGrange), Jennifer Simmons (Hurley),
Merribeth Advocate (MHLS), Josh Cohen (MHLS), Rebekkah Smith (MHLS)

Minutes
Approval of February minutes: 1^st: S. Alderdice, 2^nd: L. Karim

Trustee Education Series: Committee agreed that the timing of the education series should be changed to when trustees are most frequently elected to a board seat. Therefore the basic sessions will be offered in September and the advanced in June in 2003.

Libraries should be reminded that the components of the trustee training curriculum are available through the MHLS Consultation menu for boards to schedule anytime.

67% of attendees heard about the training from a peer or their director. L. Karim noted that she always indicates upcoming trustee education opportunities on each board meeting agenda.

Discussion of basic session as prerequisite for advanced session. Committee decided that the basic session does not need to be, packets of background information will be provided and the online registration form will have an addition question about whether or not the individual attended a basic session.

Suggestions of other workshop topics by attendees that the committee developed for further planning:
Fundraising
            Member items, grants, capital campaigns, success stories

Policies
            Personnel, bylaws, where to find, how to work with, minimums, reviewing

Financial Long-range Planning
            Budget, sustainable funding, financial management, insurance

Millennium Training:

• 35 trainings w/MHLS; 8 w/III trainer Don Myers
• 5 Circ and OPAC overviews
• 3 Holds Refreshers
• 3 Offline training sessions (19 out of 22 offline)
• Acquisitions Module training – end of August
• Report Training coming up on June 28th – possibility of repeating this year, definitely next year.
  • Also to be covered:
    ¨       Comparing yourself to yourself
    ¨       Subjectivity
    ¨       Telling your story
    ¨       Cross tabulating meaningful comparisons

LSTA Proposals:

Committee read over the LSTA abstracts submitted. W. Fuller noted that it is difficult for some smaller libraries to buy into LSTA grant opportunities that enhance basic services (like homework help) because they don’t have the funds to sustain the project in their libraries after the grant year ends.

SENYLRC Offerings:

Re: Suggestion Box on their web site, asking what libraries would like to see offered in the region. Committee comments: would prefer a list to chose from; feel the workshops are not offered in a geographically convenient way; would like to know how many MHLS libraries actually attend these workshops; are our needs being met?

Committee would like to see every library in the system ask for the administrator certification program sponsored (see action item). This program is currently done in the Suffolk Library Sys.

NYLA Annual Conference:

Committee discussed what MHLS can do to promote the NYLA Conference to member libraries’ staff and trustees. Issues of time and cost as reasons people don’t attend (see item under actions).

Pending MHLS Workshops:

Scheduling at the System – the Committee asked staff to avoid heavy scheduling in the next month in light of the amount of trainings and meetings over the previous months. Columbia County committee members brought up the need to offer workshops in multiple locations. Possible synopsis versions of workshops offered remotely.

·        Fundraising series for the fall: general, grant writing, marketing, capital campaigns.
·        For August: Community Presentation Customization, Presenting an annual report to your community.
·        MHLS staff is also planning disaster preparedness workshop.

Actions:

• Add electronic resources training (OPAC and electronic databases) to list of board consultations from MHLS staff.
• Board President’s Forum in November topic: Board/director responsibilities
• Investigate further library activities in relation to the acquisitions module training
• Advisory committees and Director’s Association will be brought up to speed on the discussion regarding SENYLRC and the administrator certification program.
• Promote NYLA program tracks topically in the Bulletin; trustee opportunities; incentive program; registration information; buddy system to save money on hotel costs.

Handouts:

2.26.02 Minutes
Trustee Education Series schedule
Total registered/attended statistics
How trustees heard about the training & Attendance by county
Consultations Available from MHLS
Trustee Education Series: Other workshop topics suggested
FY2002-2003 MHLS LSTA Applications
Pending workshops at MHLS

           

Adjournment: 1^st: S. Alderdice, 2^nd: W. Fuller

Next meeting dates:

August 13 @ Chatham Public Library
November 5 @ TBA

Submitted by Rebekkah Smith