Meeting Notes

Staff Meeting

June 5, 2015

Place: Tuttle

Attendance: Brandon, Tula, Jeremy, Neshia, Rosa, Ashley, Nadine, Wendy, Brittany, Courtnie, Shinetra, and Pedro.

1)      Julia Ideson Fund – the Julia Ideson Fund was started by the very first director of the Houston Public Library. This is Fund is for all employees, part-time or full-time, and is to help them if they have experienced a financial hardship or unexpected expense that can be a burden. Your job title does will not prevent you from qualifying for the fund. There is a limited amount in the funds and only so much of it can actually be used, so the funds are handed out based upon need and availability.

To apply, the applicant must submit the completed form online via email and ONLY correspond with the committee through email. If an applicant makes contact with a committee member in person or by other means, it will be an instant disqualification.  

Only the applicant and the committee will know they applied, no one else will need to know nor will the information be shared.  It is completely confidential.

Because Food, Utilities, and Housing (rent, mortgage) can get high there is cap off limit on how much a person can receive. This does not mean those are the only things a person can apply for money for; although, the following items will denied assistance: telephone bills (luxury), car notes (luxury), bounced checks, tuition and daycare.

The money that is granted is a gift and not a loan. This does not have to be paid back.

The form and the guidelines can be found on the intranet under Forms -> Human Resources -> Julia Ideson Fund Form. 

2)      HOLDS – the new holds label printer will be ready for distribution in July. The size of the machine itself will be slightly bigger than the Star printer we use for check-out receipts already. The new label will be a sticker and it will make send and receiving holds much easier for all staff members.  When the printers are installed, there will be a training if you are not scheduled to work that day, that is fine, the rest of the staff will pass the information on.  One thing to keep in mind though, is deciding which computer to place the printer at. Wherever the printer is at the holds MUST be done at that station, no exceptions. 

3)      Quality Management System – This is the project  that Michelle Gorman has been mentioning a lot lately at meetings. You may have recalled previously, a few months prior, Brandon going around asking for input on what we do on a daily basis (basic procedures); get the holds, check the bookdrop, open the doors, open the gates, etc.

The idea is that eventually we are going to have a folder that is going to have all the procedures that is done by HPL staff and the exact method to complete that procedure. This way when you go to another location if someone asks you to do something, you know exactly how to do it, because it is done the exact same way at your location. This is not what is happening right now; what happens is that you visit a location and you find out that their procedures and methods are completely different from your procedures.  

Michelle has asked for a committee to come together and help input their knowledge of the procedures into the QMS. This type of work is not possible from a top to bottom mentality; she wants input from staff members in all areas. If you are detail-oriented, have an eye for detail, or  if you know that you are familiar with a particular procedure (i.e. serials, applications, meeting room requests, etc.) then please, do not hesitate to help out. You can email Brandon, Tula, Pedro, Michelle or Laurie if you are interested in helping out. This process of the QMS is not going to be done overnight, it will take time and the more people that help out the better. Also, do not be afraid that you might be doing a procedure wrong, you might have found an easier way and no one else knew about it. With this collaboration, procedures might become simpler and more effective because someone shared that secret shortcut.

The committee does not meet in person, it is completely online and is amended in real-time, so there is no worry about having to travel. Just think about it and let us know!

4)      Manager’s Meeting Information –

One quick thing, there has been a change to the Correction Action Program. The biggest change is that if you get a reminder 1, it will no longer be a formal written reprimand, it will be a verbal action. It also changed some of the language. If you get a chance, please look over it if you are interested, so you can understand what’s going on. 

a)      Volunteer Program (Wendy) –  One of the biggest goals for the 2016 Fiscal/Volunteer Year, is for all the branches to fully participate in the volunteer program.  Now, this doesn’t mean volunteers can just come be walk-ins; they have still have to apply through the website and talk with Andrea Lawrence. The background check still must be completed and so on. In the past, libraries could have the option to say yes or no if they needed a volunteer, but now, if the volunteer has passed the screening and is requesting to work at the location, then the library must obliged.

Volunteers don’t just have to do shelving, they can do discards, SRP, crafting, etc. but the things that they are restricted from doing (circulation, patrons records) is the same.

b)      Contact List for LMS –  Since the reorganization of LMS has taken place, people may not know who to contact about certain items or questions. This list will help you with who is in charge of what area. This list will be emailed out, posted on the blog and posted in the workroom.

c)       Branding – One of the big things about branding is NO TAPE. Recently, they sent out samples of tape alternatives. Try using these to see if they work or not.

i)        Survey – With those came a survey, complete it and turn it in by the end of the day (Friday, June 5^th). 

ii)      Email Signatures – This is the next step. They want all our signatures to look the same; that way if someone sends out an email to an outside liaison, the person will know it is from an HPL employee. They have adapted a signature that will work in the Outlook Web Access version as well, so everyone will be able to see the signature no matter from what version of Outlook you are using.

5)      Float Discussion and Weeding – Tuttle says they are getting too full in the audiobooks area.  Brandon can contact the person on the LMS sheet in charge of floating to let them know about the audio books. As for floating out stuff, we can float out up to 3 bins per week to LMS. Try to float out duplicate copies before we float out anything else.

Weeding, this month we can and next month we can only weed and discard Juvenile books. The Friends of the Library are getting ready for the September Children’s booksale and they will be able to pick them up in August. If you box up any adult books, please keep them separate from the children’s boxes.

NOTES: Mr. Jim has brought a message back from GSD requesting that we start being careful about the food in the workroom and around the circulation desk. When the pest people come out to spray, they see the food in the trash cans around the front area and simply say it is because of all the food in the trash that is attracting the bugs. If you eat at your desk or drink at the circulation area, please throw the trash away in the kitchen, to limit the food trash to one area.

Also, you may want to store your food in the fridge or in a Ziploc if you keep in a drawer, because if they spray around the desk area, you don’t want the chemicals or bugs to get on your food. The little bit we can do to help minimize the crumbs, will minimize the bug problem.

Last thing, service animals, there is a man that has been coming at Tuttle with a dog, he says it’s a service animal and has offered to show the paperwork. The paperwork is not necessary and it is meaningless. Remember that HPL goes by the ADA policy and only dogs and miniature horses are allowed. This dog is well-behaved and stays right by the man’s side, he is not a bother to anyone and is under control. As long as the animal remains under control by a leash, harness, hand signals or voice command, it is fine.

If people complain about they have allergies or they are afraid of dogs, this is not library, city, or state regulations; this is Federal ADA compliance. If they are just complaining about the presence of the dog alone, we just say it is ADA compliance, if is because “the dog peed on my bag” that is different, we can confront the customer and say something, but this has yet to be the problem.

Questions: Wendy asked if she had a right to tell the kids to go to summer school, if she knew they had to be in summer school.

Answer: Pedro replied that since it was the summer, it is up to the parents to make sure their children are attending summer school. We are only concerned with truancy during the regular school year where the school hours are between 9 and 2:30. Now, if you know the parents and you know the kids, and if you have the parents number, then give them a call, if you know the parents would be concerned about where their children are at. But, you are not responsible for their schooling.

One final thing, remember we are not the police, the incident at Tuttle with the man having his phone stolen. He can’t just request to have the footage pulled, there is a process that has to be done in order for the footage to be pulled. We do not even get to see the footage either so if people ask we can honestly say we do not have access to the camera feed. If something is stolen or if any trouble arises call the police and if you are unsure, get Brandon or Tula to assist. 

This is the link for the Quality Management System. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to call or email me. You can also contact Laurie Covington for more info.

https://sites.google.com/site/dailyprocesses/home

- Tula!

Today for Arts & Crafts at Pleasantville, we created No Bake Play-Dough with glitter! It turned out to be a great success for all the kids and teens and HUGE mess!!! But you wouldn't know now after staff cleaned it up like no tomorrow.

Email Signature

Just to repeat what we went over in the meeting.

There will be a standard for email signatures.

In July, the Branding Liaisons will be given specific training for this.

Until then, please consult the following link for a template for your email signature.

http://houstonlibrary.org/hpl-brand/visual-style-guide/photography

Weeding Correction

Today at the staff meeting I said that we were limited to 30 boxes.  I made a mistake.  We are actually able to send 50 boxes of weeded materials.

Meeting notes

Apologies for the lateness of these.

if anyone has any questions, please let us know,
Brandon

Staff Meeting

May 08, 2015

Place: Tuttle

Attendance: Brandon, Tula, Jeremy, Rosa, Ashley, Nadine, Wendy, Brittany and Courtnie.

Absent: Neisha

1)      General Information: Rosa, Tula and Brittany will be out on Wednesday for a meeting with the Deputy Director. Jeremy will go over to Pleasantville to help with coverage.  Brandon asked if anyone was having trouble with the signing in or out of the new Kronos system. Just keep documenting what is happening or what messages are showing up, if any, so Brandon can make sure your time is accurate.  

a)      Tier Designation Form – Email from Laurie Covington about the tier designation system needs to be completed. Tier 1 is for emergency responders, medical personnel, etc. Tier 2 is what they call support personnel; Tier 3 is relief staff. We are all considered Tier 3; this is for when emergencies happen (i.e. Ike). Basically in the case of an emergency we are still evacuated but in the aftermath, we may be called back to work at Central or other locations to help out.

b)      Staff Development Day feedback –  Some felt that the speakers were too long, possibly a break was needed between the two afternoon speakers. One of the breakout session speakers was good and should have been the main speaker. Some mentioned that the breakout session should have been longer to gain more information.

c)       Centralized Floating – As of Monday, there will no longer be float hubs. Anything that we get floated into us will be coming from central and will be coming specifically for us. If you think we are getting stuff we do not need or getting too many copies of, let Brandon or Tula know so that a note can be made. Continue to weed based on condition, if it is really old, let Tula or Brandon know. Continue to follow the 2/3 full or 20lbs limit on the boxes for the Friends/Discard boxes. As books come in, please do not forget to check it in; same thing for the new books as well. If it is a Biography, the dated books can be weeded as follows: If the person is living then the publishing date needs to be less than 5 years old; if the person is dead then the publishing date needs to be less than 10 years old.

2)      Manager’s meeting information:

a)      HPL Stories – Keep an hear out for more HPL stories, either from your own experiences or from a patron’s. The library really wants to hear more about them, how they have linked people to information or books, computers, etc. Brandon shared a few stories that was mentioned at the manager’s meeting, how the library has affected people over the past few years.

b)      Sprockets – Mary Hughes had come to the manager’s meeting and talked with us about how to do a sprocket. We can just continue to do how it is (make sure though that you are detailed about the information, e.g. if it is a leak, where, for how long, how much, any damage, etc.).  Also, be sure to not keep submitting sprocket reports on the same issue. If it is something that is not getting fixed, then let Brandon know so that he can contact SPACES, Pedro, etc. to find out what can be done. Also, keep in mind that GSD and custodial staff are not part of the HPL staff.

c)       Training Portal – The new portal is up and running, please get on it and check it regularly, to see what can be beneficial for your training. It will be to everyone’s best interest to become familiar with LMS, that is possibly the way HEAR may be conducted in the future.

d)      Survey – Dept. Director, Michelle Gorman, will be sending out a survey in the near future. It will be anonymous and unless you make it obvious who you are (i.e. as a large red-headed man, working at the TUT/PLE grouping…), they won’t know who sent it. The survey is just to see how people feel about the changes that have taken place within the past few months and how they see the future.

e)      New Managers- Johnson/Mancuso is officially split. Tamieka Price is over Mancuso and LeRoy Robinson is still over Johnson. Each of the branches will have their own manager but they will still work together and share staff conservatively, when needed. This is a pilot program, if it works this might be the first steps to getting the libraries back to individual managers. There are two new ones Vanessa Gimpes at Frank/Meyer and Dominic Spirelli at Smith/Young.

f)       Robbery Suspect – They caught the main suspect who primarily hitting all the libraries. He has been given 2 years in prison, we are still waiting to hear back about the lights so continue to keep them on until further notice.

g)      Youth Services Librarian – The interview process is coming to a close and we will have one in time for SRP.

h)      Quality Management System – This goes back to the unification of the way things are done procedurally at all the locations. If anyone wants to be involved with this process please let Brandon know so he can let Michelle Gorman know. The process will be done virtually and they are looking at how do we do things, what is the best way to do things, how to streamline the process.

3)      Nuts and Bolts:

a)      Statistics – Last month we have gotten pretty lax about how many books were being brought in or sent out for delivery. Also, we have been letting the count slip on how many questions were asked throughout the day. The reason statistics is important is that this is how they determine staffing levels so we need to be as accurate as possible.

b)      Training on Library Security – 5 things to do maintain security in libraries. 1) complete incident reports, which we do. 2) Keep the Rules of Conduct posted in a public area. 3) Behaviors are more important than profiles. 4) Peace is more important than justice. 5) Chain of command or not, if you feel threatened, you are all empowered to call the police. You need to keep yourself and your coworkers safe, you do not need to wait for the manager to get help, if things are escalating out of control. If someone is getting upset and they are being difficult but they have a good relationship with a fellow coworker, let that coworker possible see if they can calm them down in a gentle way. We have to work on our acting skills; some of us may be introverts but when we are on the floor, we have to be extroverts with the public. We have to be able to enforce the consequences, to keep things from getting worse. Language to keep in mind is to Introduce, Explain, and Ask; this will give the people the choice to either leave or stay and obey the rules. Also, come up with code word or phrase to refer between your coworkers to signal when 911 needs to be called. Remember when calling 911 to be as specific as possible. Brandon has suggested to use the phrase “purple folder”.

c)       Summer Vacation and SRP  -  People have already requested the end of June and start of July.  If you plan on taking a vacation this summer, go ahead and request it on Kronos, if you have trouble with the new Kronos, send Brandon and email. If you are not familiar on how to sign up the kids with SRP, please get with any staff member who is familiar with the process to ask for help. Registration started May 1^st, but prizes cannot be claimed until June 1^st. We are not the book police though so it is not our job to decide whether they actually read the books or not.

d)      New Hire –  We have a new hire, Shinetra Castillo, who started May 11^th. She was a substitute for HPL and has been hired as a PT CSC. She will be at both locations so make her feel welcomed!

e)      Tuttle door – The back door to Tuttle lately has been found unlocked during lunch time. It is because some people may think the door locks automatically just like at PLE but it does not. You have to turn the key back around the opposite way in order to lock it once you opened the door. So just double check it, especially before you leave the building for lunch or the night; so far no one has come in the morning to find the door unlocked.

Also, be aware that the notes from the manager’s meeting are available to you for reading so you won’t be left in the dark. Feel free to read through them and if you have any questions just ask Brandon or Tula.

Training Part 2

Please make sure that you have confirmed with Tula or I that you can go to a training before you sign up for it.

This will make sure that we don'[t run into any scheduling snafus.

Thanks,
Brandon