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By Editor Becky Watts
ZEBULON - I attended the November 8, 2018 meeting of the J. Joel Edwards Public Library Board. Many Library Board members were present at the meeting as well as Library Manager Rosemary Bunn and the Flint River Regional Library Representative Natalie Marshall. Brad Vaughn was the guest speaker. I was the only visitor. Audrey Lanier, Susan Goodwin, Curtis Ward (came in a few minutes after the meeting began), Gillian Appleton, Tina Venus, and Rhonda Morgan were there at the meeting. Rhonda took the minutes.
Brad Vaughn was the guest speaker for the Library Board. He said that he is trying to serve well here in Pike County. He said that the CIE Report on Impact Fees is due. It will be due again in the spring of next year. He wanted to verify that he had numbers right before he began work on the new Impact Fee record. There was a short discussion about the coming VA Clinic. He told them that the first hearing for the properties north of town in the county at the next county commission meeting.
Gillian Appleton is in charge of the building project for the library so this was a way to touch base and put everything together for the library through Impact Fees.
Natalie gave an update on the Open Enrollment Grant for publicity and speakers: How citizens can enroll in the Open Enrollment for Medicare this year. A speaker will be coming to help with speaker and promotional materials. It’s November through December of this year.
Rosemary gave a report on the library.
$4565 received in a Tech Grant. This state grant will go through the region and come to our library to pay for technology only. We will be getting computers to replace those that are old or not working. We are going to test out Chrome Boxes too. We are going to add two of these here. It is $400 for Chrome versus $1000 for Dell. There is a little of a learning curve on this. The Barnesville Library is almost all Chrome Box too. It takes up a lot less space.
There was about $3000 for computers in the back room and front desk.
Kay Landers has resigned, and Janice Allen is now doing her job for the county.
Friends of the Library gave $900 to the library and that donation bought 167 books. We have to pay to catalogue items. Money from the Board of Education is used to pay for these processing fees.
She thanked Board members for volunteering at the Concord Jubilee. The upcoming Big Band Dance will be just for our library. They will need help from board members.
On October 22, she was a guest speaker for the Retired Educators. She is trying to do as much out reach as possible. A past board member in attendance at the meeting was pleased with the progress here, and they came to put a display in the foyer of the library.
There was an author event at the middle school yesterday. Holly McClure is a Cherokee and spoke in honor of National Native American Heritage Month.
Grant Open Enrollment is coming up here on November 22.
On November 29, Julie Bragg will be here. Bragg Jam is in its 20th year in Macon. Presentation and book signing is coming up.
David Fitzsimmons is a phenomenal photographer and has a series of children’s board books called Curious Critters of Georgia. He will already be in Atlanta and will come to our library during that time. Date and time to be announced. We will be reading a rooster book at the schools in preparation for this. A question was asked about whether there would be cost to the library and Rosemary advised that there would not be.
There was a discussion about the chart on the back of the Manager’s Report with Curtis Ward. Some of the columns are off. Ignore this spreadsheet for this month. The rows didn’t format like they were supposed to because it went from one computer to another.
The board was advised that a discussion was held with the auditor on how to enter entries so the payroll is done correctly now that payroll is being done offsite instead of at the library now. Cash disbursement and taxes and payroll are there for the board to see. Curtis said that we are working to align things and it is working itself out slowly but surely.
Our accounts do reconcile, and we are in good shape. [Note from the Editor: Thank you to Rosemary Bunn for sending six months of minutes by email as I requested first of all because they explained why this was even being discussed. The library has been working with the bank for the past couple of months to get their bank statements because there has been some sort of a snafu with a new computer scanning system for the mail. It has caused some issues, but the bank has taken care of things for the library.] It’s not our fault and it’s not the bank’s fault… All of our statements were being rerouted because of a new mail scanning system, and they are working to get this fixed.
Draft of the library audit. No findings on this that we know of. This is just the raw data that they are working with on our audit. Question was asked, Will we have a separate audit or be in with the county? After December 10, we will find out what the new CM’s vision is for our finances. They have also provided the adjusting journal entries. Audrey has a letter to sign that says that we have sent everything. There is a record of everything that was sent for the audit.
Old Business: We are revising our bylaws Constitutionally. Audrey took the last revised edition from 2013 and put today’s date on it. This is a draft. The Governing Board is now Advisory Board.
Curtis is the Treasurer, and there are some things that we don’t do now that need to be looked at. Audrey asked to spend some time going through this. The Library no longer makes hiring and firing decisions. Payroll is now done by the county.
There was bond before when this was a governing board. Each library must keep a board according to what was read to the board. The regional board does this and maintains a bond that would cover the regional board. Add a sentence that the bond is held at the regional level. Rosemary is a Library Manager.
They went through this line by line through this document and talked through each section.
Patty Talley came in at 5:24 p.m.
Discussion that the legal name of the library is the J. Joel Edwards Public Library, and it needs to be called the same in both the county and on the bylaws. Consensus to be called the J. Joel Edwards Public Library and to make this recommendation that the county to refer to the library by its legal name and not as the Pike County Library.
Gillian Appleton had to leave at 5:33 p.m.
Discussion of getting written appointments with the Board of Education.
Curtis Ward had to leave at 5:41 p.m.
New Business:
Welcome to Tina as a new member.
Leigh Kite has resigned because she has moved so we have a board vacancy. We need a secretary. She was a county appointee. Rosemary is going to contact the County Clerk and get this advertised.
Motion to appoint Susan Goodwin as secretary. Approved.
Motion to adjourn. 5:53 p.m.