Present: Bette Stuart, Laura Buck, Cathy Heckmaster, Mary Ryan (alternate for Stephen Stanton), Jim Cogswell, Gary Cox, Leo Agnew (guest), Alla Barabtarlo, Suzy Bent, June DeWeese, Kat Koehn, William McCrary
Absent: Stephen Stanton and PT Martin
Agenda:
1-Welcome
Bette Stuart welcomed everyone
2-Minutes
Gary Cox moved and Suzy Bent seconded that the minutes of the Library Assembly may be approved by online agreement in order that they may be made available more quickly. Motion passed. Minutes may be voted upon and approved by email in the future.
3-Announcements
Laura Buck announced that the Veterinary Medicine Library now has new carpet. June DeWeese announced that the position in Access Services has been offered to someone and they have accepted contingent upon the Background check.
Leo Agnew announced that Ashley Nelson has accepted the position in Engineering.
Leo was asked about the amount of time these positions had been open. He informed the Assembly that both positions had been open the requisite period of time (at least 5 days).
4-How Committees Function Refresher –Leo Agnew
Leo offered some tools for successful meetings:
A-Ground rules for engagement—Accountability, staying on track, and everyone will know what makes an effective and successful meeting. Examples include starting on time, having an agenda (how far in advance the agenda items are to be sent to the chair, how long in advance before the meeting will the agenda be published, can items that are suggested be deleted by the chair or vice chair)? Everyone in the group agrees to abide by the ground rules.
B-Parking Lot—the place to put ideas to be discussed later as a way to keep track of them.
C-Plus/ Delta—what worked well, what didn’t, what will make things better next time. This is a self-assessment tool for meetings.
D-Asking questions in a safe manner. Examples:
1-If I could summarize the conversation so far, I’d say …
2-Could you clarify …?
3-Thanks for sharing. Is there more you would like to say?
4-Why do you believe this group needs to take action on the topic?
5-Thank you for sharing. Is there another perspective we should consider?
6-If I heard you correctly, you said…….My take on the situation is….
7-What do you see as the opportunities here?
8-What do you see as the barriers or sand traps?
5-Vision of the Library Assembly Charge—Mary Ryan (for Ann Riley)
It was two years ago when the charge itself was discussed. The focus of the discussion was captured in the current charge itself. The nature of the topics that will be brought here is intended to be fluid because the group (Karla Geerlings, Amanda Sprochi, Ann Riley, Katie Carr and Mary Ryan) thought that the Library Assembly will evolve. That is why specific things were not prescribed in the charge. There were two sessions where anyone on the staff could make suggestions or comment on ideas that would evolve into the charge. Ann Riley may be invited back at a later date to discuss the vision further.
6-Director’s Announcements—Jim Cogswell
Because the All Staff meeting happened so recently, Jim Cogswell said that he had no new announcements but that he did have a proposal that is a part of the discussion items. He asked the Library Assembly to take ownership of what goes on the Staff Web pages. He proposed that we determine what goes there and that we meet with the Web Advisory Committee to make it happen. The content would come from us, the design from them. Discussion followed including questions about who will maintain it and be sure there are no broken links and that the content is current and accurate, how and with whom to share feedback and suggestions, who determines what is added and what is removed? Bette Stuart said that she has talked with Shannon Cary about the website in general and some of these questions and it appears that we would be working with Shannon and the Web Advisory Committee.
June DeWeese moved that we take under consideration Jim Cogswell’s proposal that we take ownership of the staff web pages and come back in a month after we have looked at the web pages and talked with our departments and discuss it further and make a decision at that time. Kat Koehn seconded. Motion passed.
Will McCrary said he had talked with Judy Siebert Maseles about the presence of the Library Assembly on the website and how we can communicate with everyone. Judy has set up a Sharepoint site that is open and accessible with Username. Will will send us the link.
7-Discussion Topics
The Assembly decided that we would like to revise the original Library Assembly proposal and make it more permanent while retaining an archived version of the original proposal. Will McCrary volunteered to do the draft and send it to everyone for discussion.
The Library Assembly decided to change the dates of our meetings in November and December because of the holidays. We will now meet on November 16 and December 21 instead of November 23 and December 28th. Bette Stuart will send a meeting change in OUTLOOK.
8-The next meeting of the Library Assembly will be on September 28th from 1-2 p.m. in 159 Ellis Library.
9-Leo Agnew led us in an assessment of the meeting in the Plus/Delta format. We discussed what went well and what would have helped our decision making. We agreed that having a proposal about the ownership of the web pages in advance would have helped but that we kept the decision making moving forward by taking the next month to prepare and discuss. We are clear on the deadlines. We are clear on the agenda items. We agreed that the meeting went well.
Meeting was adjourned at 2:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted:
June DeWeese (substituting for Stephen Stanton)