September 2015 Staff Meeting Notes

Meeting Notes

Kashmere/Lakewood NL Grouping

September 21, 2015

In attendance:

Melissa Ryans (Manager)

Jose Santoyo (Assistant Manager)

Dionne McLaughlin (Senior Library Service Specialist)
Juan Lopez (Senior Customer Service Clerk)

Twanna Wade (Senior Customer Service Clerk)

Linda Adams (Customer Service Clerk)
Ann Perry (Customer Service Clerk)

Karl Beck (Library Assistant)

Denetra Hunter (Library Assistant)

Joseph Asberry (Customer Service Clerk, Part-time)

Ana Santana (Customer Service Clerk, Part-time)

Topics of Interests:

• Staff Discussion
• Open Discussion

First Topic of Interest: Staff Discussion

• Telecheck Machine: The Telecheck Machine at Kashmere NL is still inoperable. We are awaiting an update from Dimitri Revada in Financial Services about getting a new power cord. Until further notice, we can only accept cash through Smart Money. We can accept payments through the My Account function in the online catalog. Please offer this service to anyone wanting to pay their fines with a credit card. Staff have the customer sign into the Express Computer and aid them in printing  a confirmation receipt if they would like.

• M. Ryans provided a training on how to accept payments through the My Account system.

• Meeting Room Scheduling: Please do not schedule meeting rooms outside of business hours. If a mistake is made regarding scheduling, staff should be proactive in contacting the reserving party so that the issue can be resolved in a timely manner.
• Please make sure that reservations do not conflict with library programming.
• Do not schedule meetings back-to-back. Provide a bit of a "grace period" between reservations so that no meetings are delayed. (Time can also be used to allow groups to clean up the room per library policy.)
• Grace periods can be 15-30 minutes. Use your judgement.
• All meetings should end 15 minutes prior to the library closing.
• Scheduled hours for meetings - as well as library closures - have been placed on calendar.
• Linda will be responsible for reviewing each request form, calling customers to go over meeting room policies and guidelines, and confirming start and end times. She will also be ensuring that no double-booking is occurring and reminding customers who have not yet filled out forms for their tentatively scheduled requests.
• WPRs and Skills Tests: WPRs are due in October for most staff. The first set of skills test questions will be sent out to staff with a Unified Skills Assessment on their HEAR. Those staff with a Technology Skills Test will get the first set of 5 questions. All staff will be scheduled to review their tests, so please use your time wisely to go over the assessments.
• National Night Out: National Night Out is on October 6th, and this grouping have been invited to four of them. This is on a Tuesday, so Lakewood NL will need to be staffed. I will be at Lakewood NL to provide coverage. If you would like to attend an outreach, please let me know so that schedules can be adjusted. So far, the layout is:
• Lakewood Community Center - Twanna
• Glenwood Civic Club - Jose
• Settegast Village Apartments - Juan
• Kashmere Civic Club - Dionne and Dee
• TFL, MBK, and Youth Job Labs: Toyota Family Learning at Kashmere NL begins on October 10th. Please be aware the the program takes place on Thursday nights and most of Saturday. The program will run until January 28, 2016. Flyers have yet to be received, but when they do arrive, please promote the program in-house.
• Kashmere NL will also be hosting Youth Job Labs as part of a job readiness initiative geared toward teens. It seems that these labs will run on Thursday nights and Saturdays. 
• Processing Apps from Outreaches
• Shelving Assignments: Everyone has been assigned an area to shelve/shelf read. With the exception of some areas of the juvenile area, sections will be rotated throughout the year so that everyone becomes accustomed to how shelving and shelf reading works at both locations in all of the collections. Going forward, if you are assigned to shelve or shelf read, please do so for the areas you have been assigned.
• Jose and Melissa will be backup for those staff out on certain days. Other staff will also be asked to held shelve/shelf read those areas.
• If you do not have any books to shelve when you are scheduled to shelve - and there are no other pressing duties or assignments - you should check your area and make sure it is tidy: pick up any books and re-shelve as needed.
• Document your shelf reading on the Shelf Reading Log so you can get credit for the work you do.

August 2015 Staff Meeting Notes

Meetings Notes

Kashmere/Lakewood NL Grouping

August 31, 2015

In attendance:

Melissa Ryans (Manager)

Jose Santoyo (Assistant Manager)

Dionne McLaughlin (Senior Library Service Specialist)

Juan Lopez (Senior Customer Service Clerk)

Twanna Wade (Senior Customer Service Clerk)

Ann Perry (Customer Service Clerk)

Karl Beck (Library Assistant)

Dee Hunter (Library Assistant)

Joseph Asberry (Customer Service Clerk, Part-time)

Ana Santana (Customer Service Clerk, Part-time)

Not in attendance:

Linda Adams (Customer Service Clerk)

Topics of Interest:

• Staff Discussion
• Manager’s Meeting Updates

First Topic: Staff Discussion

• Sirsi Reminders:
• Temporary Addresses: If a customer puts down an address that you know is probably a temporary housing unit (e.g., halfway house), but the address is on the ID, you have to treat it like any other residency address and make the card a normal library card.
• Please remember that to retrieve any information from an account – including providing library card numbers – requires some form of ID from parent and/or child.
• A child cannot present an ID in the absence of a parent.
• Computer Card Numbers: Adults wanting their computer card number must present a picture ID. Juveniles wanting their computer card number do not have to present an ID because we do not require them to present one to get a card.
• The PIN in Sirsi is not the password used in the reservation system. Those are two different systems. When a customer gets a new card they must set the password at the reservation system.
• Reminder: we are no longer resetting passwords to the last four numbers on the card since those numbers are displayed on the monitor. Ask customers to choose something easily remembered like their first name, birthdate, etc.
• Charges applied to a customer account for overdue/billed items are not to be removed even if the item is returned by the customer. This bill must still be paid.
• Wellness and Benefit Year: Wellness hours for the 2014-2015 benefit year expire today. All full-time employees will receive another 8 wellness hours for the 2015-2016 benefit year sometime in September. Remember that all wellness hours have to be used in the benefit year they are issued. So the new hours will expire August 31, 2015.
• Benefit Year is from September 1 – August 31 of the following year.
• If an employee uses no sick leave during the benefit year then they are issued up to 3 personal days to be used during the benefit year.
• Holiday Vacation Requests: Please submit any vacation requests that you might have for Thanksgiving and Christmas during the month of September. In October, M. Ryans will start speaking with staff about their time off requests.
• Goal is to be equitable and fair in granting time-off requests.
• Reminder: Full-timers wanting a Saturday off must switch with another full-time employee. Part-timers can request up to 4 Saturdays off in a calendar year.
• Expectation that staff will be adaptable and willing to work with teammates so that everyone (who are so inclined) gets at least a little time off during this holiday season.
• If you do not intend on requesting time off, please let supervisors know.
• Opening and Closing Procedures: Please remember that closing the blinds in the morning is part of opening procedures. Opening them is part of closing procedures.
• Holds Processes: Remember that items that have a label with a rubber band must be scanned in the Discharging Wizard under the “Common Tasks” group.
• Items that have the 1-Up sticker are scanned in the Receive Transit wizard under the “In Transit” group.
• New labels will not be printed if they are discharged using this function.
• Fire Drills: Gwen Walter will be coming out to locations on Mondays and Fridays to perform fire drills. Please use spare time to review the evacuation plan at both locations.
• Will discuss with Gwen where the meet-up spot is for staff. At Kashmere, it was normally at the rear of the parking lot. At Lakewood, it was near the ditch at the park. Will confirm to ensure that these locations are correct.
• Building Closures: If the building has to close, there are two options – 1) helping out at other locations (strongly recommended) and 2) take vacation (which may be VACU or VACS depending on circumstances)
• Remember that if you take vacation that you may be called back to work if the building reopens ahead of schedule.
• Person-in-charge is responsible for monitoring emails/calls about the situation, deploying staff, and communicating ongoing developments with Senior Manager and/or CE Administration.
• Usually M. Ryans and J. Santoyo are on duty, but if we are not, then your next point of contact should be P. Fonseca.
• Thanks to everyone for sharing their contact information. This will make it easier for PICs to remain in contact with all on staff in cases of an emergency or building closing.
• Location Closure: Alief will be closed for 9 months for renovations and should reopen in spring 2016. Robison will gain regional hours (will be open late on Mondays and Wednesdays) and passport services on September 8^th.

Second Topic: Managers Meeting

• Updates
• Cylenthia Hoyrd is now manager of Carnegie. Kelly Patton is Assistant Manager
• Monica Siboldi is now Assistant Manager at Collier
• We received the items for the outreach kit (notepads, magnets, pens, pencils).
• Might take time to replenish items to distribute wisely.
• Tablecloth is screen printed so they cannot be washed or dried at high heat, so please be careful when using them at outreach events.
• CMC: Candece Beverly is this year’s CMC Coordinator. There will be a Fall Festival at Central on Friday, October 30^th from 11AM-2PM. All branches will open at 2PM that day to allow staff time to attend.
• There is a mandatory training on early literacy called the Very Ready Reading Program that is to happen on Friday, October 9^th at Central. It is an all day training for youth staff.
• Public Relations Office and Media:
• Marjorie Gonzalez is the new PR Manager.
• Please review this handout regarding the guidelines related to handling the media.
• Some major points:
• Call PRO when the media arrives, even if they claim that their presence has been cleared by Communications
• If anyone tries to photograph customers, especially children, they need permission.
• Selfie pictures are allowed as well as photos of the outside of our buildings.
• Professional photos require a fee and the customer/photographer needs to be directed to Communications department.
• Marjorie and Blanca are our main contacts for Communications since Greg Simpson’s position remains vacant.
• HEAR Goals:
• Staff is no longer penalized for absence due to illness.
• Sick time usuage up to 64 hours is not reflected on this new system.
• Staff needs to provide a sick note for any SICK hours over 64 hours.
• Staff must submit vacation requests within 24 hours in order for the request to be considered scheduled and not unscheduled.
• VACU and AWOL hours will count toward attendance hours PLUS any SICK hours if more than 64 hours were used during the review period.
• Punctuality policy: tardiness is defined by the Kronos rule of 7 (if Kronos shows that you are late because you punched in 8 minutes after your shift).
• Forgetting to punch in or out is considered a tardy unless there is a power outage.
• Lateness due to a major weather event is excused.
• Both metrics are equally important. To get a certain score you must meet both metrics. You can score no higher than the lowest metric.
• Please click here to review the chart with the new metrics: Attendance and Punctuality Metric for Customer Experience
• New Meeting Room Policy:
• Event has to be free and open to the public
• Customers can reserve the room up to 90 days in advance but no more than six times during a 90-day period
• Photo shoots or media announcements need to be approved by Communications
• Equipment use is restricted to what is in the room (i.e., we cannot loan out our televisions, projectors, etc.)
• Customers may provide light refreshments and drinks in covered containers but if the group wishes to have an event catered or have carry out food that is a charge of $25 per meeting.
• No food preparation is allowed in the meeting.
• All fees except for food charges should be paid at the time of the reservation. Food charges are paid at the time of the meeting.
• Customers are responsible for cleaning up.
• School visits are exempt from the food fee.
• Link to new meeting room policy.
• Training: Staff should provide 48 hour notice if they are unable to make it to a training they signed up for.