FONDULAC DISTRICT LIBRARY

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING

November 26, 2007

 

 

            Members of the Fondulac District Library’s Board of Trustees met in regular session on Monday, November 26, 2007.  President Herring called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.

 

            On roll call the following members were present:  Mrs. Cole, Mr. Goff, Mr. Hale, Mrs. Herring, Mrs. Humphrey and Mr. Johnston.  Also present were Ms. Falasz-Peterson, Director, Mrs. Hensley, Assistant Director and Mrs. Geier, Business Manager.  Fred Schlipf was also in attendance.  Mr. Lasswell was absent.

 

            Mr. Johnston was appointed secretary pro-tem.

 

            M/S/P (Johnston/Hale) to accept the minutes of the October meeting of the Board of Trustees.

 

            The bills were presented for payment.

 

            M/S/P (Cole/Johnston) to accept the Treasurer’s Report and payment of bills subject to audit.

 

            Treasurer’s Report:

GENERAL FUND CHECKING

10/29/07  Balance                                                                                             1,096.10

10/04/07  ACH transfer fee                                                                                   (41.68)

10/29/07  Transfer – Investment to checking                                                 25,500.00

10/31/07  Interest 3066700474                                                                                3.29

11/01/07  Checks issued – Payroll                                                                 (23,579.38)

11/01/07  Checks issued – Utilities                                                                  (1,881.18)

11/02/07  Deposit – Fines, fees, misc.                                                                 518.51

11/09/07  Deposit – Fines, fees, misc.                                                                 409.93

11/13/07  Transfer – Investment to checking                                                 23,000.00

11/13/07  Aflac payment                                                                                    (114.92)

11/15/07  Checks issued – Payroll                                                                 (23,183.07)

11/15/07  Check issued – AT&T                                                                          (555.43)

11/15/07  Checks issued – NCPERS Group Life                                                     (52.00)

11/16/07  Deposit – Fines, fees, misc.                                                                 776.53

11/26/07  Transfer – Investment to checking                                                 21,000.00                  

11/26/07  Checks issued – Bills                                                                      (21,170.81)

11/26/07  Balance                                                                                             1,725.89

 

 

GENERAL FUND SAVINGS

10/29/07  Balance                                                                                             3,506.40

10/31/07  Interest 3619307057                                                                                  .39

11/26/07  Balance                                                                                             3,506.79

 

GENERAL FUND INVESTMENT

10/29/07  Balance                                                                                         711,011.09

10/29/07  Transfer – Investment to checking                                                (25,500.00)

10/31/07  Interest 7139120393                                                                         2,745.50

11/13/07  Transfer – Investment to checking                                                (23,000.00)

11/26/07  Transfer – Investment to checking                                                (21,000.00)

11/26/07  Balance                                                                                         644,256.59

 

WORKING CASH FUND

10/29/07  Balance                                                                                         250,804.34

10/31/07  Interest 7139120401                                                                            984.12

11/26/07  Balance                                                                                         251,788.46

 

RESERVE FUND

10/29/07  Balance                                                                                      1,804,040.08

10/31/07  Interest 7139120419                                                                         7,078.85

11/26/07  Balance                                                                                      1,811,118.93

 

ENTERPRISE FUND

10/29/07  Balance                                                                                           33,176.09

10/31/07  Interest 6900342215                                                                              13.74

11/01/07  Check issued – Cilco                                                                             (24.45)

11/09/07  Deposit – Rent                                                                                     420.00

11/26/07  Check issued – Bill                                                                              (101.70)

11/26/07  Balance                                                                                           33,483.68

 

            Mrs. Geier made two authorized transfers this month.  The first, on the 13th, was for $23,000 and the second, on the 26th, was for $43,500.  Both transfers were from the investment account to the checking account.           

           

            Ms. Falasz-Peterson reported that she would be sending out a brief board report around December 21st to avoid such a large packet in January.

 

            Ms. Falasz-Peterson reported that the library staff and board will be volunteering at the Festival of Lights Winter Wonderland on November 28th.                                                                    

 

            Mr. Goff reported that he met with Ms. Falasz-Peterson and Mrs. Hensley earlier in the month regarding fundraising and the different opportunities for people to graduate from giving for supporting programs to giving big money for capital projects.  From this meeting a fundraising brochure was created, which introduces people to all the different ways donations can be made and the things that can be done for the library.  Mr. Hale asked if the brochure should contain something more that would key people into the hopes of a new building, which may drive them towards checking the building program box versus something else.  The board suggested a few minor changes.  Mr. Goff stated that he would like to see the brochure “on the street” by the next board meeting. 

 

            Fred Schlipf reported that he had met with Ms. Falasz-Peterson and Mrs. Hensley in October to go over the original building program to come up with ideas on what could be cut without ruining the library.  Mr. Schlipf began by going over the potential cuts which amount to about a quarter of the original program.  He suggested that once the building is cut substantially, we will want to make sure that the resulting design lends itself to easy future expansion.  The suggested cuts to the program are:

 

1.      Cutting the conference room instead of making the meeting room smaller.

2.      No offices were made smaller, but the coat closets were eliminated, which is a substantial money saver.

3.      The book collection was cut by simply following the Illinois State Standards.  The collection can still grow by about 50% before the building is full.  The audio visual collection was decreased by a factor of three.

4.      The size of the reference collection was radically cut.  The vertical file and more reference resources being available on-line accounted for this reduction.

5.      Seating was cut by a third.

6.      The refreshment service area was cut.  A coffee service machine is still in the program and has been moved to the new book/exhibit/gathering area.  In this area, the open floor space for traveling exhibits or displays has been removed.

7.      Removed the space for a piano in the big meeting room.

8.      Removed the screened in areas, which were never included in the original program.

 

Mr. Schlipf also stated that he added a section of dysfunctional design concepts to the end of the updated program.

 

Mr. Goff stated that he feels it is important that the new program be an internal focus document.  He feels we should be cautious about citing minimum standards when asking for money.  He thinks we should focus instead on the betterment to the community a new library would bring. 

 

            Mr. Goff asked Mr. Schlipf to speculate on his comments about making sure the smaller building is expandable to the full desired space.  Mr. Schlipf feels it is important to have a knock out wall in both the adult department and the children’s department, so when the building is expanded, each department expands equally.  Mr. Schlipf stated that we may want to expand towards Washington Street instead of towards the parking lot, as it is more mechanical at the grocery store end of the property. 

 

            Mr. Goff stated that he feels that when we ask the architects to hold the new program up against their schematic design, the worst outcome would be for them to tell us to scrap the whole original design and start at zero, which Mr. Goff does not believe in.  Mr. Schlipf stated that it will take more than a tweak and he feels that there were already a couple of areas in the original plan that was already awkward.    He also stated that it is not just a matter of drawing a line and leaving off part of the building, it will take some serious redrawing.

 

            Other areas to pay close attention to when planning for future expansion are:

·         Roof lines

·         Structural integrity

·         None of the walls that would be at the point of expansion should be bearing walls.

·         Be sure there are no utilities run under the future site of the expansion.

 

            Mr. Schlipf stated that the board can ask the architect for floor plans that would include future expansion to show how it would come together.

 

            Mr. Johnston asked if the basement was still included.  Mr. Schlipf replied that the basement wasn’t in the program, but that would be a place to cut costs.  Mr. Schlipf suggested other areas that could be used as tornado options.  He stated that with a two story building, the weight of the second story floor is tornado quality, so on the first floor people would just need to get away from glass.  It is also common to have the restrooms built tornado quality or have a windowless meeting area.

 

            Mr. Schlipf mentioned that he divided the IT room into two separate server rooms.  The library’s servers are not in the same room as other technology.  He also suggested that since the screened in areas were removed, they could be replaced with bay windows, which would make the space more usable.

 

            Mr. Schlipf asked the board if they would like him to add a section to the program that would list the spaces that should be included in the future expansion.  The board expressed interest.  Mr. Schlipf said that the board can ask the architects for phase 1 and phase 2 floor plans to see how exactly an expansion would work.

 

            M/S/P (Goff/Hale) to accept the revised building program and to have Mr. Schlipf add a phase 2 for future expansion. 

 

            M/S/P (Cole/Johnston) to accept the fiscal year 2007 audit.  During discussion Mrs. Cole went over the financial statements and the truth in disclosure from the annual audit.  She met with a CPA that she works with to get a better understanding of what the board should be looking at when reviewing the financial statements.  The Independent Auditor’s Report states that the library received a clean audit and is the most important part of the audit.  Mrs. Cole explained that the balance sheet shows the library’s long term financial status and the income statement shows the financial activity of the audit year. 

 

            Mrs. Cole reported that the current assets were up.  Although we’ve added to capital assets, it appears they are down.  She noticed that there was $90,000 in deletions of capital assets and asked what could of caused such a large amount.  Ms. Falasz-Peterson reported that the library had received a Weed and Feed grant, therefore, had discarded many books and other materials over the last year. 

 

            Mrs. Cole reported that liabilities were up a little, but all costs increase, so this is nothing unusual.  The total assets increased as did the net assets, primarily because the library’s investments brought in $105,000.  Cash also increased a little.

 

            Ms. Falasz-Peterson commented on a few highlights from this year’s Management, Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) letter.  She reported that at the end of last fiscal year, the library’s combined fund balances were over $2 million.  There was an increase in the library’s net assets of over $300,000.  Ms. Falasz-Peterson also reported that one thing that affects our library, but not as much as some libraries in Tazewell County, is that our income from property taxes were not received until the end of the first quarter. 

 

            Mrs. Cole discussed the internal control letter from the auditors.  She reported that we will never be able to get rid of some comments in the letter simply because of the size of our organization and some of the new standards.  Mrs. Cole informed the board that a material weakness is worse than a deficiency and the library has no material weaknesses.  The auditor’s letter however noted a few deficiencies.  The first deficiency was adjusting journal entries.  These adjustments are related to receivables, payables and deferred revenue at year end.   Mrs. Cole feels this would be a simple fix on the library’s part.  She stated that it would be no more than making a list of all the payables and receivables that come in after July 1, but are from the previous fiscal year.  By adding these numbers, we will have done our own adjusting journal entries.  It was reported that Mrs. Geier does make a list of payables and receivables and gives it to the auditor.  Ms. Falasz-Peterson will ask the auditor to explain this deficiency in a little more detail. 

 

            The auditor also reported bank reconciliations as a deficiency.  Ms. Falasz-Peterson reported that she has been opening the bank statements for over a year and has been going over the bank reconciliations from the accounting program and initialing them since the audit when it was mentioned to her that they would like to see her check over them. 

 

            The last deficiency was regarding the excess in the working cash fund.  Mrs. Cole reported that we have already addressed that by moving what we expected to get in interest to the reserve fund so that we won’t have to transfer every quarter. 

 

 

            M/S/P (Hale/Humphrey) to pay bills on December 21st.

 

            M/S/P (Cole/Hale) to give the full time staff $100 and part time staff $50 for Christmas gifts.  Mr. Hale asked if the library has always done the chamber checks.  Ms. Falasz-Peterson reported that at one time the staff got Simon gift cards, but previous boards thought that by giving chamber checks, we would not only be supporting the chamber, but local businesses as well.

 

            M/S/P (Hale/Johnston) to table a change in the by-laws to change the start time of board meetings from 6:30 to 6:00 and to accept the 2008 board meeting dates as presented.

 

            Ms. Falasz-Peterson asked the board if she should send a copy of the revised building program to PSA-Dewberry or wait until Mr. Schlipf completed the new phase 2 of the program.  The board requested she wait for the complete program.

 

            M/S/P (Johnston/Hale) to adjourn at 7:30 p.m.