Staff Suggestion Box

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New Credit Card Machine Information

HITS (Houston Information Technology Services) is rolling out new equipment to add to the existing TeleCheck machines to allow for the new chip technology in credit cards.

 The installation will be conducted by a contractor, not a City of Houston employee. 

-       They will need access to the TeleCheck machine and access to the Network/IT closet.

-       They will be adding a pin pad to the TeleCheck machine and a device to communicate to the pin pad.

o    Once the new pin pad is installed staff should use the new pin pad to either insert or swipe all credit cards and follow the on screen instructions.

-       Locations with Self Check and credit card capabilities (Stanaker, Kendall, Frank, Bracewell, Robinson-Westchase, Oak Forest, and Walter), the Self Check functionality and hardware will not change. The contractor though will work closely with HPL IT staff to connect Self Checks to a new network. Please report all Self Check issues to the HPL IT Helpdesk.

-       If they have any issues during installation they should contact the HPL IT Helpdesk either via email (HPL.HelpDesk@houstontx.gov) or phone (832-393-1570).   

After installation, if your location has any issues with this equipment, please contact the HPL IT Helpdesk either via email (HPL.HelpDesk@houstontx.gov) or phone (832-393-1570) or contact Customer Experience Administration via phone (832-393-2707).

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Both PLE and Tut have this scheduled to be installed on Tuesday December 22nd.

I will be out that day so any questions that arise at installation need to go to Drew first and the NL Office at 3-2707

Thanks,
Brandon

Staff Meeting December 2015

The meeting was held at the Tuttle neighborhood library Friday, December 04, 2015 at 8:15 AM.

I.                    Brandon began by covering staffing changes at HPL

a.       Staff changes discussed included welcoming Rodger “Drew” Alvey to the Pleasantville/Tuttle branches as well as noting the new hires of Alexandra Drake (HEI) and Jenny Phengdara (ROB).

b.      Brandon also introduced Parent Resource Library’s new manager Beck Gorman, who also manages the FLIP program.  She can be reached at 713-535-7254 or bgorman@cmhouston.org

c.       Shammi Gill is retiring and Melcher Assistant Manager Michelle Perry is also leaving us to join the team at United Health Group Insurance.  It was also revealed that Kallie Benes is expecting her second child, due in June.

d.      Lastly, Brandon announced the new hire of Jennifer Snoddy, our new fulltime CSC at PLE/Tuttle who will begin on December 21^st. Brandon will be on vacation at that time so Drew Alvey will begin her orientation procedure.

II.                  Brandon moved on to old business

a.       The no smoking signs that we are expecting are being delayed and hopefully will be installed after the holidays. The concrete needs to be power washed so the adhesive will stick and the signs will reflect the new city policy banning smoking on city properly entirely.

b.      Staff who may be going through tough financial times that they can apply for the Julia Ideson Fund.  You can find the application on the intranet under the Forms tab in the Human Resources section: https://hplnet.houstonlibrary.org/forms/JI-Fund-Guidelines.doc andhttps://hplnet.houstonlibrary.org/forms/JI-fund-form.xls. It can be used if a car is damaged while at work as well as other personal hardships. 

c.       Brandon discussed the improvements made in making the IT department more open and responsive and invited staff to reach out to them if they had any issues they needed technical support with.

III.                Brandon moved on to reminders about existing policies and best practices.

a.       Brandon encouraged staff to promote our system programs more, like Season’s Readings, Children’s Book Celebration, etc.  Display the flyers advertising the programs at the service desk or appropriate shelves that have items related to the topic. Talk to customers, share the information with your civic groups, and place a bookmark or flyer in the books your customers check out. Brandon encouraged more of this type of point of sale marketing.

b.      Brandon reviewed the Cell Phone policy and reinforced that customer service comes first and called for everyone to be more vigilant in keeping their cellphones in the back or failing that leaving it in their pocket until they are on break.

c.       We discussed the importance of gathering accurate statistics as we answer reference and directional questions throughout the day as well as for program attendance and pulled or processed holds. The staff discussed it and said that their biggest obstacle was simply remembering to input the stats. One solution suggested that we decided to try out was to print a statistics sheet for each terminal and combine them at the end of the day so both people working the service desk could write down the information without having to get up.

IV.                Brandon covered important Policy Clarifications

a.       The repeal of HERO was discussed in relation to Executive Order 1-50. The distinction being that HERO was passed with the intention of extending the rights already afforded to city employees and civilians on city property were already protected under Executive Order 1-50 included protections for city employees and civilians to use bathrooms that reflect their gender expression. The repeal of HERO removed these rights outside of city property but did not effect EO 1-50.

b.      The Severe Weather Policy 7.1.2 and 7.2.3.6 was reviewed to clarify that that staff can make up missed time or use accrued paid leave time when they can’t report to work due to legitimate severe weather conditions.  Staff should stay in contact with their supervisors during these severe weather situations. If a staff member will be late or is unable to report to work due to severe weather, the staff member is still expected to notify their supervisor in advance of their reporting time just as they would if they were going to be late or out on any other day. The weather alerts that John Middleton sends via email are informational in nature not free passes to not report to work. In instances where the Mayor has declared an emergency and asked only staff of a certain tier to report to work, those staff who already had scheduled time off will not be entitled to the disaster time pay (Section 7.2.3).

                                                               i.      Brandon emphasized that severe weather conditions would be taken seriously by management and that he would not put staff at risk to cover a shift.

V.                  Brandon covered the following new Information

a.       The Library Information Sheet is now available for the staff to review. Brandon encouraged everyone to take a look as it contains valuable insight into changing trends and statistics at our library as well as how our branches compare to other branches in HPL. He reminded staff that these are internal documents only and are not to be shared with the public.

b.      Covered the Open Carry Law which goes into effect January 1^st.  The law permits those citizens that have a license to carry a concealed hand gun to openly carry their weapon in a holster.  We must assume that those individuals that come in to our location sporting a gun in that way hold a license to carry.  If a customer does anything in a threatening manner while carrying, we should dial 9-1-1, not approach them.  We chose “can you grab the blue folder in back” as a signal with staff to let them know they should dial 9-1-1. The law stipulates that customers can’t openly carry their gun at school sponsored events, like if a class goes to the library for a research project however the After School Zone is not considered a school sponsored event.

                                                               i.      Staff members raised concerns about people with guns turning suddenly violent and frustration that they had to keep their own guns in their cars. Brandon emphasized that this is a developing situation and that groups are making efforts to change the law to exempt libraries and that HPL is developing strategies and training for dealing

with armed customers.

c.       Announced that Financial Services has replaced Paypal with Pro-pay for their online payment system would should resolve a number of recurring errors in the system, however customers will now be charged a .50 cent transaction fee for each online payment.

d.      Announced that TriStar Risk Management is now in charge of overseeing Workers Comp. This will have no direct impact on the staff. Brandon took the opportunity to remind everyone that if you are injured on the job it is best to immediately tell him so he has the most up to date and accurate information to submit in a report.

e.      The floor was opened to suggestions for new After School Zone programs as well any other programs the staff would be interested in adding, changing, or removing.

                                                               i.      Some staff felt that the middle schoolers were left out from the After School Zone programs and suggested switching out the game systems for the exclusive use of the middle schoolers. Others felt that the middle schoolers were not interested in our game selection at all, due to the fact that our selection is restricted to Teen and under which eliminates a number of the most popular titles. We agreed to brainstorm new programs geared towards the middle school kids which we will discuss throughout the month and at the next staff meeting.

                                                             ii.      Also suggested was a baby-lap-sit scheduled story time for when we begin our planned Early Literacy Story time. It could take place before a more toddler focused story time. This was included in Drew’s notes on story time planning to be implemented at the first of the year.

VI.                The staff meeting adjourned with a staff potluck.