Fox Valley Library Council
Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Board

Thursday, November 11th at 1:30 p.m
The Fabulous OWLS/APL Office and Conference Center

In attendance: Joy Schwarz, Erin Czech, Judy Owen, Gretchen Raab, Pete Gilbert, and the inimitable Elizabeth Timmins

1. Call to Order
   There was one addition to the agenda: a discussion of an insurance fund request.
2. Selection of secretary for the day
   Pete "volunteered" to take minutes until Elizabeth arrived. The necessary coffee and donuts were provided.
3. Minutes of the October 14, 2004 Board Meeting
   On a motion by Gretchen, seconded by Judy, the minutes were approved.
4. Treasurer's Report
   Pete noted that the meeting program expense line included a rather large expense from a program from last year that was not billed until now. On a motion by Judy, seconded by Gretchen, the October 31 Treasurer's Report was approved.

Old Business:

5. ALA Bus Trip
   Beth Carpenter graced us with her presence and a very thorough presentation about the planned bus trip to the ALA exhibits. Some salient points:
   • The date has changed from Friday June 24 to Monday June 27.
   • Kobussen has been very cooperative.
   • The bus will be a 56-passenger wonderland with air-conditioning and a restroom. We can have food and drink, but we'll have to clean up after ourselves.
   • The bus will leave Appleton Public at 6:00 am, will leave Oshkosh at 6:35 am and Fond du Lac at 7:00 am. Don't be late.
   • The bus will leave Chicago about 4:30 pm and, after a quick stop for dinner (probably near Kenosha), will arrive back in Appleton around 10pm.
   • We thought juice boxes, fresh fruit, and bottled water would be appropriate snacks to have along.
   • We set the trip at $10.00. Registration and payment will go to OWLS.
   • Beth will blanket the FVLC listening area with advertising in January.
   • We had an inconclusive discussion about funding the bus trip. It seemed good for the systems to share in the cost. We'll settle the issue at our January board meeting.
   • We discussed the possibility of a larger bus, anticipating a wait list for the 56-seater, but Beth reported that the next option up would be to rent two 36-passenger buses at a much larger cost. We declined.
6. FVLC Education Grants
   At the October meeting we discussed possibly increasing the amount of money available for education grants, if the demand was there. Turns out the demand is there. Joy has received 4 more applications. On a motion by Judy, seconded by Erin, we agreed to add $300 to our education grant fund for this year. We'll reassess the amount at budget time.

   We also discussed the possibility of asking the grant recipients to be part of a "trip report" program at an FVLC meeting next year. We agreed this was a fine idea and referred it to Erin for implementation.

7. Online survey
   We collectively customized the survey we did last year to be more appropriate for school and special librarians -- our target audience. Joy agreed to make the changes and let us look at the next draft. We're still planning to "distribute" the survey in February.

At this point, Our Beloved Secretary arrived. She had kept her temper.

8. Status of invoices
   While Evan was not able to attend this meeting, Joy had talked with him at another meeting and had some updates. The invoices are nearly ready to go out. They will include:
   
   • A cover letter from Our Beloved President (with a note to "please remit by Dec. 15")
   • The fancy promotional brochure
   • The calendar of events (with the bus trip info edited)
   • The directory printout
   • And last, but not least, the Bill.
   In this way, FVLC singlehandedly keeps the Postal Service alive for another year.
9. 2004-05 Programs and Meeting Schedule
   We discussed what needed to happen at the upcoming FVLC Business Meeting (answer: Not much).

Old Business:

10. Reports from Directors at Large
    
    1. Intellectual Freedom (Evan)
    2. Resource Sharing (Gretchen)
    3. Advocacy and Legislation (Judy)
    There were no reports, but Judy will forward WEMA legislative alerts, should any arise.
11. Insurance fund request
    Our Courtesy Card procedures (http://www.focol.org/fvlc/handbook/policies.html#courtesy) state that "In the case of lost or missing materials, when the issuing library has exhausted all reasonable efforts to secure return of materials or replacement fees from the patron and when the lending library has submitted a statement of replacement charges, the issuing library or the lending library may petition the Executive Board of the Council for reimbursement to the lending library." An issuing library has done so. On a motion by Elizabeth, seconded by Gretchen, we approved the reimbursement in the amount of $82.00.
12. Next Board meeting date
    Tuesday 11 January 2005 at 1:30 p.m. at Neenah Public Library.
13. Adjournment
    On a motion by Erin, seconded by Gretchen, the meeting was adjourned. To our amazement, there were, once again, donuts left over.

Respectfully submitted,

Pete Gilbert
Second Assistant Secretary