Read the board packet for this month’s meeting, and sent a message to the library director in preparation for next week’s 6-hour strategic objectives planning meeting. The library is heading into a big planning sequence, considering where we are and where we want to go next; it’s been almost two decades since the last one.
The director asked the trustees what concerns they wanted to bring into the strategic planning meeting. Just as a note, these are the sort of things I’m asking about. I’m looking forward to vibrant discussion, as the trustees and staff work together to balance
a) budgetary constraints and continued attention to keeping property taxes manageable, with
b) focus on our mission goals and excellent and conscientious service to all members of the community.
Some of the things I’d like to see may not turn out to be fiscally feasible, but at this stage, we’re putting our priorities on the table, really hashing out what best service to the community would look like. Then we’ll see which of those we can actually afford, and which may need to be saved for the future.
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a) This year, we went through and asked part-time staff how many of them might want to go to full-time. I’m wondering if we’ve put any mechanism in place for future hiring (and/or review of current part-time stuff, perhaps annually), to ensure that the library continues to have a commitment to hiring staff into full-time benefited positions whenever possible?
b) For the strategic planning meeting, my main current questions are centered around access and expanding hours at the current library branches.
c) I also continue to be concerned about lower-level staff wages (personally, I’d like to see a faster rate of increase to the living wage, if possible).
d) And at some point I’d like to circle around to an idea I mentioned briefly some time back — whether it’d be possible to open up a new storefront branch of the library, something small, in areas that may be underserved, such as the SW corner of Oak Park, south of the highway. Just some place where people can pop in and check out even a small range of popular and children’s books (and return books) might be a great way to broaden our reach and increase access.
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Looking forward to the discussion, and seeing what other trustees and staff bring to the table.