Sage Council Meeting Minutes

March 19, 2024

Recording Link: https://vimeo.com/948495153

Attendees: Beth Ross (Sage), Dea Nowell (UCSLD), Jon Georg (Sage), Maggie Pando (The Dalles), Cheryl Hancock (Harney County), Carrie Bushman (Cook Memorial), Delia Fields (Hermiston High School), Mary Reser (Gilliam), Kristin Williams (BMCC)

Request for agenda items: No additional items given

Approval of January 2024 minutes – Carrie motioned to approve the minutes as presented. Delia seconded. No one opposed. Minutes approved.

Committee Reports
Cataloging Committee – met on February 6 th . The CatExpress migration to WorldShare Record Manager has finished and the tutorial is completed. Additionally, catalogers were notified to be on the lookout for 490’s with a second indicator 0 and to correct those. The series guideline document was updated, and to go ahead and remove local subject headings when importing records.

Circulation Committee – Met February 13 th . Long overdue in transit reports were largely completed. New copies were going to be sent out. Beth had asked about details related to the lost item reports. There was a discussion about physically checking the shelves for lost items, and that libraries should not reach out to non-local patrons. They should let the patron’s home library handle that. The importance of having current lost/missing reports available when discussing billing with other libraries was also brought up.

Patron cleanup was discussed and how it needs to be coordinated with the libraries, since each library has their own policies and some libraries use physical media like registration cards. There was a discussion about extending patron renewals and how it should not be done for materials that belong to another library. An exception could be made if it was only a day or two though.

One thing that some of the libraries do is to have the patron come in with the item when renewals are exhausted before renewing the item again [provided there are no holds], as this allows them to verify with the patron that the patron still actually has the item and what state the item is in.

Lastly, there was a discussion about trying to get an accurate count on courier bags and DVD boxes.

Scheduling Next Evergreen Software Upgrade – The original time frame of Spring Break for the upgrade did not end up happening. We still need to get that scheduled and will be contacting Equinox to see what their schedule is like. Beforehand, we’ll make sure to notify everyone of what new features are available and coordinate any training that is needed. We still have some questions regarding the bootstrap customization and how long that will still be available.

Draft Budget – Perry was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict. Beth provided a summary and then the spreadsheets Perry had sent her. The idea was floated that a separate budget meeting in April could be scheduled later if it was warranted.

Because Beth has not opted to retire at this time, there were extra funds related to health insurance left over. Additionally, some of the funds were moved from the checking account into a state investment pool. As a result of that interest was gained [more than expected] and is reflected in the spreadsheet.

An additional $20k will need to be raised to cover the rise in salaries and benefits since everything is going up in cost.

The courier grant will be submitted at the end of March. There is expected to be an increase in costs, and Beth was going to verify with Orbis Cascade what those cost drivers were. A 5% cost of living raise is proposed and a 7% health insurance increase.

Overall we’re in a good financial situation. Regarding member fees Perry has some equity concerns as a result of the variable fee formula based on population growth. While it reduced per capita disparities between tier groups it has created unacceptable disparities within tier groups that will need to be addressed.

Some options are to return to the tier fee structure that was not based upon population growth. A 9% median increase or a new formula may need to be developed to reduce the per capita disparity.

The spreadsheet contained a separate tab regarding making Jon Georg an employee. There was a brief discussion regarding that proposed change.

No additional topics regarding the proposed budget changes were discussed. Everyone needed some time to digest the proposed changes present in the spreadsheets. There was one minor edit that Beth was going to pass on to Perry to change.

Open Council Seats – Emails were sent out regarding those members whose terms were expiring and were willing to stay on. The needed approval was given by the various constituencies for them to do so. No update was given regarding the discussion about potentially reducing the number of council seats temporarily.

Meeting adjourned at 10:31 am Pacific Time.