November 2016 CE Managers Meeting Minutes

CE Managers Meeting Minutes

11-18-16

Compiled by Laurie Covington, Mary Wagoner and Yolanda Anguiano

Customer Experience Updates and Announcements:  (Laurie)  Liz’s mother passed away suddenly on Sunday morning so she is in New Mexico taking care of family.  The funeral is on Monday, but she is not expected back until after Thanksgiving.  Please keep her and her family in your thoughts. 

Young Neighborhood Library is now open in their new building.  Laurie congratulated Cedric, Jerome, and the rest of the Young team plus everyone in DS, SPACES, Communications, and CE Admin for pulling off the carnival.  It wouldn’t have been possible without them and the other staff that volunteered their time for the event.  Laurie encouraged staff to check out the new building and the technology like the 3-D printers, touch screen computer sign on, and event monitors using REACH. 

Robinson has officially been packed and turned over to the contractor.  Thanks to Mary, Patrick, Dominick, Sara, Pat, Celeste and the other staff who were able to help A-Rocket get the building packed in just one day.  Robinson is getting a complete renovation of the existing space and should re-open in 2018.  If customers wish to know the improvements, direct them to the HPL Website for more information: ROB reno .

Jungman hosted a Veteran’s day event last week.  Tim Siegel brought memorabilia from his time in the armed forces to let customers see it and ask questions about serving in the service.   CE Admin will be looking for additional opportunities to celebrate those who have served in the future.  If interested in helping with a team or to host an event, contact Tim and Dominick.

Promotions:

·         Chris Arrowood is now officially a Librarian III Group Manager for the Hillendahl and Ring Grouping.

·         Jennifer Myers is now a Librarian III over the Heights Neighborhood Library

·         Jose Santoyo is now a Librarian III Group Manager for the Pleasantville and Tuttle Grouping.

Please congratulate them on their promotions.  Vacancies created from the promotions will be posted soon.  Expect additional vacancy postings after Thanksgiving.

Kronos Payroll Approval-Holiday Season:  There was an email sent this week about the upcoming Kronos approval dates. 

·         This week timecards must be approved by 8AM on Saturday, November 19^th (because of the Thanksgiving holiday)

·         Luckily Thanksgiving week is not an approval week so the December 2^nd approval time is the regular noon deadline

·         For December 16^th—Timecards must be approved by Saturday, December 17^th at 10AM.

·         The rest go back to the regular noon on Saturday deadline.

Holiday Schedules:  Remember that we are closing at 6pm on Wednesday, November 23^rd.  Staff that would normally work 11:15AM-8:15PM on that day should adjust to a 9AM-6PM (or 8AM-5PM) schedule.  Kronos should also be adjusted.

For Christmas, we are closed on Saturday, December 24^th and Sunday, December 25^th; all staff should have their schedules adjusted to work Monday through Friday (12/26-12/30) so that they will properly get paid for the holidays.  The actual paid holiday is Monday, December 26^th.  If someone would normally take Monday off and their schedule is not adjusted, they will not get the holiday.  Contact Gloria Edmond (x38856) in Payroll if you need assistance changing that week of their schedules.

Floating Holiday:  Don’t forget that staffs need to take their floating holiday by the end of the calendar year.

IRS Forms:  Locations should be receiving email notification about ordering tax forms—it is that time of the year again.  If locations didn’t receive an email about the IRS forms, contact Laurie.

·         Contact the IRS TFOP Administrator at WI.TFOP.Administrator@irs.gov if you need assistance.

• Include your TFOP account number to help us identify your account.

Librarian’s Guide to Homelessness:  Online workshop:  Suzy Benton sent an email about this mandatory training that all staff should complete by February 6, 2017.  It takes about 2 ½ hours but you can start and stop as it is divided up into units.  Staff must pass the test to get their certificate of completion.  The certificate should be sent to hpltraining@houstontx.gov and include name, e# and date of completion to get credit.

Employee Discounts:  City of Houston employees can still get discounted Harlem Globetrotters tickets for December 26^th and 27^th.  There are also discounted tickets for Kurios by Cirque du Soleil in April and May 2017 as well as discounts for movies and indoor Go Karts.  Check the link: staff discounts.

2016-2017 Wellness Program:  Win for Life:  As a reminder, staffs only have until December 5^th to complete their health assessment and achieve the discount.  Covered spouses can also complete the assessment for an additional discount.  To complete the health assessment, the following biometric values must be reported:  blood pressure, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, height, weight, and waist circumference.  This is the first step in the wellness program.

Online Library Card Registration:  Digital Strategies and HALAN have been working toward creating a way to do library card registration completely online.  As a first step, HPL will be launching a way for customers to renew their cards and update information through a web form.  The target date is December 1^st.  Customers will be able to enter their card number and pin as well as ID number and add or change an email address, phone number, and address.   The information will go to Circ Admin to make the changes.  It may take 48-72 hours to reflect on the customer’s record.  After the first of the year, Digital Strategies hopes to have online registration running.  DS is working with a vendor called Quipu who will provide real time address verification.  Initially, it will launch for customers to do from home, but the hope is to do away with paper forms and set up computers or tablets at each location for customers to complete their library card registrations.  

Djuina:  Djuina will be out on extended leave through at least the end of November.  Each of her locations has been assigned a temporary Senior Manager from among Patrick, Pedro, Mary and Laurie.  Those locations can also contact 3-2707 if they need assistance.

Google Pages:  Communications is in the process of trying to “claim” the Google pages for all of our locations.  If you receive a post card from Google in the mail, please forward it to Communications, Attn: Marjorie Gonzalez.

Blogs: In addition, CE Admin would like managers to send in the login for their location’s blog/Google Account to Yolanda Anguiano.  As buildings have closed and managers have left, there has been no one who can remember the blog/schedule login.  A master list will be kept in the CE Admin office. 

Credit Cards: 

·         Remind staff to turn in their credit card receipts with their deposits.  Financial Services reports that several locations have not sent them in.   These receipts should be treated like cash and submitted with the deposit.

·         If there are issues with a credit card machine not taking cards, try unplugging and plugging it back in; if that still doesn’t fix it, contact Wells Fargo at 1-800-451-5717 and select option 2 and then option 1.  They will need your Merchant ID # and the address of the building to reset it.  The Merchant ID # is on the side of the credit card machine.  Dimitri can also be consulted.

Notary:  Things are going well.  There was $24 in revenue in September and $324 in October (approximately 54 transactions).  Continue recording notary stats into the daily stats count.

TECHLink:  The TECHLink Staffing Questionnaire is due no later than 11:59PM on Monday, November 21^st.  Please send responses to Liz, Laurie, and Leah Fraser.

iTeams:  Mary thanked staff on behalf of herself and Robin Cabrera for sending details of the incidents with iTeams with the time, library card number, and computer number.  In several cases, that information has helped iTeams identify a solution.  Some of the staff work-arounds solved issues that iTeams hadn’t anticipated. They are continuing to work on the issues so please keep reporting them to the Helpdesk and CC Robin Cabrera and Mary Wagoner.  iTeams will not be rolled out to other locations until all major issues have been resolved.  Robin will be visiting locations in the near future to listen to your concerns and get more feedback.

Literacy in the Bag:  (Mary) Texas Tamale Company and iWrite Books are partnering with HPL on the 2^nd annual Literacy in the Bag events.  For these events, teams of volunteers will be going to door to door with HEB bags filled with information about HPL and literacy.  HPL is requesting that customers place donated items in the bags.  The donated items will be picked up from driveways by a second set of volunteers a week later. A third set of volunteers will be sorting the materials.  Two schools and the Friends of HPL will benefit from the donations.  If staff would like to volunteer, please let Mary know.  Special thanks to Jennifer, Melissa and Leonore for hosting these events!

Heights Library Event (12/3/16) 12PM-4PM: 1 volunteer for storytime still needed.

·         iWrite Book signing from 12-2 pm

·         I the Guy (how to write your own comic)

·         4 story times and activities (12:30, 1:30, 2:30, 3:30)

·         Set up at 10 am

·          

Montrose Library Event (12/10/16) 10AM-2PM

·         iWrite Book signing from 12-1 pm

·         I the Guy (how to write your own comic)

·         4 story times and activities (10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 1:30)

·         Set up on 12/9 (Friday) and 8am on 12/10

Threatening Behavior:  If staffs encounter customers who are threatening them or cursing at them, they need to report it to police.  Let them know that the customer may be mentally unstable.  Get a trespass affidavit, and try and get the customer’s name when possible.

Surveys:  Mary announced several surveys will be forthcoming!  In addition to a Brainfuse survey, the other survey will cover facilities information like emergency door exit alarms, fire extinguisher tag dates, interior/exterior lighting, number of seats available in a meeting room and the number of parking spots available.  Several of these surveys are so safety concerns about exit alarms, fire extinguishers and lighting can be addressed.  The meeting room and parking spots will help us identify future CE Manager meeting locations.

Bright Ideas:  Mary spoke about the City’s bright ideas initiative. 

The City wants your innovative ideas about ways to save taxpayer dollars and deliver increased value to our constituents. The City is prepared to fund cost-saving ideas from City employees.  The ideas should be innovative and support greater efficiencies in the way the City does business.  The ideas need to be feasible and measurable.

To submit your ideas, go to: Bright Ideas.  For any City employee that submits an idea that is implemented and results in savings, there is a possible cash prize of up to $5,000.

Thought Plan:  This plan will provide a pathway for front line staff to share ideas.  Ideas can be submitted in several ways and there will be an official application.  If an idea with merit is found, it will be presented to the Service Innovation Team committee.  If the idea needs tweaking, the staff member will get a chance to revise his/her idea and re-submit it.  The roll out for this initiative is planned for January and Mary will be doing a road show introducing it with more details in December.

Digital Strategies: (Rick, Saima, Loc) Loc is the tech lead for the Hotspot program.  Saima is overseeing the project overall.  The program will circulate mobile hotspots to customers who don’t have internet access at home.  The kits will include a mobile hotspot and a notebook computer that can be checked out for 3 weeks.  The Wi-Fi name and password will be affixed to the hotspot.  There will be two types of carrying cases that will contain the entire kit (hotspot, laptop, and chargers).  Only the hotspot and laptop will have barcodes.  DS is working on FAQs and check-in and check-out guidelines.  Customers will need to fill out the online form for the checkout of the kit.  An evaluation form will need to be completed after every use because DS wants to gather information on how the hotspots are used.  Internet access will be provided by Sprint, with unlimited data and filtering software like other public terminals.  The hotspot will be deactivated after it is three days overdue. 

The three month pilot will occur at Acres Homes and Dixon.  Only customers with accounts in good standing will be able to check out these kits.  City Council still needs to approve the fines and fees for this program.  DS hopes to launch the pilot in early 2017.  They will be asking for feedback from customers and staff alike to make the process work as smoothly as possible.  Staff may need to have a local waiting list for the kit because they will not be holdable like other items.  Customers will have three days to claim a hotspot kit from the waiting list once they are contacted that it is available.  Hotspots will have to be returned to the original location where it was checked out.  There will be a separate phone number for hotspot help in DS.  Each location will have twenty-five kits to circulate. The next two pilot sites will be Johnson and Mancuso.

Virtual Library Update:  Event Module training occurred yesterday and will be offered every third month from now on. (Feb, May, Aug, Nov) Virtual Services is now responsible for all intranet related matters.  If intranet pages need updating, email Virtual Services.  A new survey asking how DS is doing will be coming out soon.

Youth Services: (Kallie) Please ensure that all 20 Very Ready Reading storytime kits are done by June 1, 2017.  If youth staff members want to do their own storytime, make sure they follow the VRR format.  The YS team is visiting locations to offer support and answer staff questions.  Sara Pope and Angela Barratt are working on a four hour VRR training for next January.  Kallie asks that new YS staff and those who are back-ups attend this training.  Managers can go to the training portal to register them.  Kallie recommends that YS staff enact the ACE storytime rules when doing any type of storytime.  Explain to the audience that they need to be Attentive, Considerate and Engaged.  They should sit, sing and play together. 

An email regarding Flip kit rules was sent by Kallie to YS staff on 11/16 around 9:20AM.  She wanted to remind staff about the Flip kit rules.  All staff should be familiar with them.  A customer can check out as many Flip kits as desired.  A Children’s Museum pass is earned when a kit and a completed survey are returned.  If a customer returns several kits but only one evaluation, they can only receive one pass.  Each kit that is returned should be checked out to the refurb account the same day it’s returned and sent to CMH for refurbishment.  There is a return checklist included in each kit, so customers and staff know what should be in it.  Staff should only charge customers if the kit’s book is unreturned.  If parts of a Flip kit are returned separately, please send them to CMH, so they can be reunited with the proper kit.  If a customer can’t find a kit, they can browse the Master Flip Kits list and place a hold.  Every location should have Flip business cards in an acrylic card holder.  If you are low on cards or CMH passes, contact Evelyn Dravis.

The SRP 2017 theme is “Let’s Play” and will have old school board games and video games incorporated in the programming.  It spans all age levels.  The next YS meeting will be at the CMH on Friday, 12/9 from 8:30AM-12PM.  Make sure YS staff attend because there will be a showcase of potential SRP performers.

De-Escalation of Staff Conflicts: (Alma, Felicia, Sue, Nathan) In order to restore peace and harmony in the workplace, managers should address issues up front.  Conflict is created when there is an expressed struggle between two or more parties who perceive incompatible goals.  Conflict can be internal (with self) and external (with other parties).  The problem can be conceived on the micro-level or macro-level and have positive and negative effects.  Conflict escalation can happen when 1) a disagreement leads to polarization; 2) communication breaks down;  3) a manager is perceived to favor a staff member; and 4) lack of team work or support occurs and resentment of classification leads to a lack of consistency.  All of this results in poor productivity and team dysfunction which is felt by customers.  Good employees will depart and brand value will weaken.  If managers don’t address the conflict, they well be perceived as weak and staff won’t respect them.

Dealing with conflict should be seen as a coaching or mentoring opportunity.  The group provided guidelines on how to defuse workplace tension, which will be posted with the minutes.  Managers should address conflicts directly, listen to both sides, bring all parties together, find common ground, encourage compromise, confront negative feelings, and be positive.  Respond rather than react, evaluate the situation, be non-judgmental, know your team personally and how they work and perform.  Focus on how the issue is presented when confronting staff.  How the message is worded and presented is important.  Put ownership of observation of wrong doing on self not co-workers.

Diffusing Difficult Situations:  (Diane, Tega, Karen, Helen) Difficult situations involve new customers, children, students, staff, regular customers and those that are physically and intellectually challenged.  Different types of situations involve anger and frustration, awkward situations and potential embarrassment, and long-term conflicts between staff and manager.  Guiding principles on how to handle these situations are diagnosing the problem, being brief and to the point, focusing on the situation, issue or behavior not the person and build trust.  Staff should deal with their feelings first, apologize for the issue, put themselves in the customer’s place, show customer’s their listening, don’t become defensive, focus on the problem, reflect the customer’s feelings back on the situation, summarize the facts, empathize, ask questions to focus on the issue and try to reach an agreement.

For awkward situations and potential embarrassments, the group introduced “8 steps to say anything to anyone” by Shari Harley.  She recommends introducing the conversation, empathizing, describing the observed behavior, sharing the impact or result of the behavior, having some dialogue, asking for the recipient’s perception of the situation, making a suggestion or request for what you’d like the person to do, building an agreement on next steps (if any) and saying  “Thank You.”  Have a way to structure the conversation.  Develop listening skills. 

The group mentioned an article by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman on “What Great Listeners Actually Do” that was in the Harvard Business Review.  Good listeners make the other person feel supported and convey confidence in them.  They create a safe environment in which difficult, complex or emotional issues can be discussed.  The listener seeks to understand the substance of what the other person is saying. They capture ideas, ask questions and restate issues to confirm that their understanding is correct. Good listeners tend to make suggestions. They provide feedback in a way others would accept and that opens up alternative paths to consider.  For more details, the presentation will be posted with the minutes.

The group also reminded managers that for an angry customer, staff is sometimes a convenient victim because they may be having a bad day.  It was suggested that there be standardized language when dealing with fines which seems to be a common trigger.  Sr. Managers instructed staff not to cite policy when there is nothing on paper formally stating it; like only teens in the teen room or only parents with children in the children’s area. 

International Services: (Helen) Citizenship materials that were ordered are coming in December.  Helen thanked staff for completing her survey.  Translated documents are now available from the Print Shop for three of the five documents: 10 Cool Things, Library Rules, and All About Your Library Card. The documents are also available for download on the Intranet on the International Services page. Helen wants to build a binder that holds all translated documents and a bin for citizenship materials.  She spoke about the need to have HPL help make Houston a home for all people.  The Library serves a diverse community and she shared the City population statistics to reiterate her point.  She wants to expand the Citizenship Corners into an area that offers a range of information for immigrant needs, not just citizenship.  Items on language interpretation, language learning materials, community services information are some of what she is considering.  Helen wants to continue to support staff with ESL and citizenship classes, but she also wants to extend services to offer a place for knowledge and understanding.  If staff has ideas about this, they should email Helen.  The “Go Vote 2016” display contest was won by Carnegie.  Go to the HPL Instagram account to find pictures of the entries.  Helen also wanted to recognize Carnegie for their civic engagement event where two students participated in a Lincoln-Douglas debate on National Night Out on how a two party election undermines democracy.  Kudos went to Kelly Patton for running the program.

HPL Foundation: (Sally Swanson) This Tuesday, November 29^th the HPL Foundation will participate in #GivingTuesday, a global day dedicated to giving.  Both the Friends and the Foundation are combining forces toward the common goal to support and create awareness for HPL’s programs.  The Foundation is asking the public to make a donation on that day at HPL Giving Tuesday.  They want people to share their reason for giving and spread the word on social media. 

There is another part of the campaign involving #unselfies.  Sally gave the group cards to use in taking their unselfie.  She wants people to write on the card why they love the library, take a picture with it and post it to social channels, and hashtag the post with #GivingTuesdayHPL and #unselfie.  She wants this to inspire others to be part of the giving campaign and discuss the importance of HPL’s work.

The public can also participate in shopping programs where a portion of what is purchased on-line or in person will go to a designated charity.  Amazon Smile was mentioned as well as Kroger Community Awards. Customers can go to smile.amazon.com and search for Houston Public Library Foundation.  Purchases made will give 0.5% of eligible purchases to the Foundation.  Kroger Community Rewards allows you to identify the Friends of HPL as an organization that gets a portion of your purchases donated to them.  The organization is attached to your Kroger card.   iGive is another on-line platform that connects the consumer to other stores where a portion of the revenue goes to charity. 

ULC Conference Takeaways: (Mary W, Mary H and Laurie) The Urban Libraries Council Conference was attended by Mary Hammond, Mary Wagoner, and Laurie Covington in October.  The Conference focused on one theme: Impacts and Outcomes.  Impacts are what we hope for and outcomes are what we work for.  Programs and services are what the library does.  Inputs involve library resources that go into a program/service.  Outputs are what the library produces.  Outcomes are the beneficial change that occurs because of the library, and impacts are the long term effects of outcomes. 

CE Admin wants to tell the story of HPL better for customers and the organization.  The effort will illustrate library statistics better and will be more easily understood.  The group cited several library systems like New York PL who have stories about how the library changed people’s lives readily available.  CE Admin is asking for staff to ask customers to share their stories of how HPL has changed their lives.  Staffs need a media release in order to record their stories.  Use camera phones or other tech to record customers’ stories or staff can ask the customer for permission to share their story.  Please place the videos on the Google drive or the G-drive.  Send the media releases to Yolanda Anguiano.  The videos will be placed on the intranet first.  A suggestion was made to have an all-encompassing media release sign posted during big library events informing customers that they may be video recorded.  A request will be presented to Marjorie in Communications.

LMS Update: (Fred) Some Learning Link cards were accruing fines but that problem has been fixed.  If staffs notice fines other than unreturned item charges on a Learning Link account, please cancel the fine.  Please share with your staff the information on Floating accounts discussed in emails dated on 11/4 and 11/17 from Fred and Sara Karow.  Sara updated the FAQs.  Renewals are now available immediately as long as there is no extended hold.

Shared Commitments:  The next presenters for the Shared Commitments section of the December meeting will be Sue Kaufman, Diane Doyen and Richard Hurst.

In attendance:  Nhu Le, Felicia Brisco, Sue Kaufman, Chris Arrowood, Shirley Singletary, Melissa Gwinn, Alma Avina, Leonore Hu, Melissa Hayes, Sara Pope, Jennifer Myers, Jayla Parks, Cedric Clark, Virginia Williams, Erika Cardoso, Donnie Byrd, Drew Alvey, Mercedes Mayne, Michelle King, Melinda Campbell, Tega Zoma, Monica Siboldi, Christy Chang, Kallie Benes, Robert Lewis, Maggie Sepulveda, Vanessa Gempis, Patricia Ogea, Derrick Spearman, Rebecca Denham, Cylenthia Hoyrd, Marcia Cameron-Denton, Jerome Hurt, LeRoy Robinson, Fred Schumacher, Helen Chou, Jennifer Sessa, Jose Santoyo, Iona Joseph, Nathan Stokes, Craig Bertuglia, Tula Gorden, Ana Frade, Edgar Fuentes, Karen Luik, Laura Montegrande, Hellena Stokes, Jesus Villegas, Gary Lackey, Christopher Patrick, Sylvia Espinosa, Kelly Patton; Guest: Rick Peralez, Saima Kadir, Loc Huynh, Sally Swanson, Phyllis Hodges; CE Admin: Laurie Covington, Mary Wagoner, Patrick Atkins, Pedro Fonseca, Leah Fraser, Celeste Diaz, & Yolanda Anguiano

Next meeting will be at Park Place Library, December 16th 8:30AM-12PM

8145 Park Place Blvd, 77017

October 2016 Managers Meeting

CE Managers Meeting

10-28-16

Compiled by Yolanda Anguiano

CE Update: (Elizabeth Sargent)

Liz thanked Dominick and Jungman staff for a successful opening on Thursday, October 13^th at 10AM.  There was an additional grand re-opening celebration for the community on October 15.  Liz also recognized Ana Frade as the acting Assistant Manager.

Young Library is scheduled to open Saturday, November 5^th.  Liz will be sending out an email to staff asking for volunteers to work the grand re-opening.  They will need three different shifts.  Djuina shared that the celebration will be carnival themed. 

Staffing Changes: 

·         Young will become a stand-alone location.  The Manager will be Cedric Clark and Jerome Hurt will be the Assistant Manager. 

·         Smith and Melcher will be paired together.  Shirley Singletary will be the Manager.  The Assistant Manager-Sr LSS position will be posted soon. 

·         Karen Luik will become Manager of Southwest Express/Walter.  Kitty Myers will be serving as interim Manager of Kendall while the position gets filled. Transition will happen by December 1^st.

·         Billy Glasco from Gregory School has left the system and moved to Georgia to be with family.  Miguell Ceasar is the interim Manager until Danielle Wilson returns to the position from maternity leave at the end of November. 

                                                                                                          

Learning Link:  The initiative was launched on October 3^rd.  Please allow students to use their account.  If there are questions regarding the program, Fred Schumacher or CE Admin can be contacted, so the answer can be given and disseminated to all staff.  So far, the feedback received has been positive.  Library tours of HISD students have now been able to leave with items checked out on their Learning Link account.

Staff Development Day:  Please make sure all staff completes the Staff Development Day survey.  All feedback is welcomed.

CMC 2017: Managers need to remind staff that CMC ends on Monday, October 31^st.   HPL’s CMC goal is $50,000 in donations, 100% participation and an increase in the number of “Above and Beyond” donors, or those staff who give 1% or more of their gross salary. 

            This year the City is recognizing those employees who have been “Above and Beyond” donors consistently over the years.  Those employees who done so for 5-9 years, 10-14 years, and 15 or more years were placed in the “Hall of Fame”.  Clayton’s Irene Walters was featured because she has been that type of donor since 1998.  Other CE staff members that were acknowledged were Kitty Myers and Fred Schumacher for the 10-14 years club. 

           

Employee Discounts: Liz informed staff of a new employee discount on Harlem Globetrotter basketball performances held on December 26-27.  There are also discounts if employees use the “Parking Spot” parking garages at both Bush and Hobby airports.  Staff can show their City badge and receive a 25% discount in parking charges. There is also a 10% discount on all other “The Spot” facilities across Houston.  Visit http://cohemployeenews.com/events-activities/city-nights for more information on other discounts.

Pensions:  On Wednesday, 10/26 City employees received the following email about Pensions.  This email followed up on a message received from Mayor Turner on Monday, 10/24 that included a video message to staff.

City Council Endorses Historic Pension Reforms

On a 16-1 vote, Houston City Council has endorsed Mayor Sylvester Turner’s historic package of pension reforms.  The vote clears the way for the City to move forward in partnership with the pension systems to seek legislative approval of the reforms.

“I am bubbling over on the inside,” said Mayor Turner.  “I am thankful to everyone who has helped get us to this point.  That includes City Council, the pension systems, our City employees and many others.  This plan is historic, transformative and budget neutral.  We are solving our pension problem permanently and we are doing it without needing a tax rate increase.  There is no other plan out there offering the same benefits.  The Houston solution can be the model for other cities with similar challenges.”

The police, fire and municipal pension systems all signed off on the package of reforms prior to today’s City Council vote, marking the first time that the City and all of the pension groups have been united.  The plan immediately reduces the City’s nearly $8 billion pension debt by over 30% and then sets a 30-year fixed payoff schedule for the remaining $5.3 billion of debt.  This immediate reduction is accomplished through a combination of benefits changes that include scaling back cost-of-living adjustments, higher employee payroll contributions and phasing out the Deferred Retirement Option Program, known as DROP, which allows employees to accept retirement benefits while continuing to work for the City.  In return for the concessions, the City has agreed to issue $1 billion in Pension Obligation Bonds to make up for years of prior underfunding of the pension systems.

“It is a big deal that employees have agreed to these benefit changes,” said Turner.  “I know that it has not been easy, and I thank each of them for their patience, understanding and service.  This plan will provide stable and sustainable retirements at an affordable cost to the taxpayers who foot the bill.  Retirees won’t have to worry if the check will be there.”

Moving forward, predictions about the anticipated performance of pension system investments will be based on a more conservative 7% assumed rate of return.  If there are market changes that cause costs to exceed pre-agreed limits, there is a mechanism to force additional changes in benefits to bring everything back in line.  A requirement that both sides share information will ensure compliance with the required 30-year payoff schedule.

State Senator Joan Huffman and State Representative Dan Flynn are expected to carry the Houston pension legislation.  Bill filing for the 2017 legislative session begins mid-November 2016.

As far as the direct impact on staff, Administration doesn’t know that at this time.  For more details, staffs are encouraged to view the Mayor’s press conference or City Council meeting online.

Digital Strategies: (Rick Peralez & Judith Hiott): There will be a system maintenance Symphony upgrade occurring next Wednesday, 11/2 and Thursday, 11/3.  Digital Strategies ask that staff leave their computers on but logged off.  The new clients will be pushed out Thursday morning.  The system will be interrupted for 4 hours starting at 12:30AM.  There will be a renewal change coming with this update, but staff will be notified before it’s turned on.

            There will be a platform migration on 11/14 at 9PM.  The system may be down for 5 minutes.   The changes should alleviate the slowness.  Digital Strategies should be notified if something doesn’t work on the 15^th.

            Open Athens was implemented for remote database access on September 1st.  It requires customers to enter both the library card number and the PIN.  PIN change instructions will be posted with the minutes.  To report issues, staff should provide the name of the database, whether the customer is accessing it in the library or remotely, if the computer with the problem is Staff/Public/BYOD, Wired or Wireless and the IP Address of internal computers.  Digital Strategies will also need to know if a library card prompt or a vendor prompt appears and staff need to report any error messages received.

Judith hopes the EBSCO Discovery Service will go live by early December.  It needs to move to the production system and training needs to be developed.  This will allow customers to search articles and e-books from the catalog.

With the start of Learning Link, every HISD student and staff have an account in Symphony.  Student barcodes are the first letter of the last name followed by HISD ID number: H123456.  The Staff barcode is F and the staff ID without the dash: F12345.  PINS are birth month and day: 0926.  The School Number is found in User Category 8.  Staff can look up the school number from this link: https://hplnet.houstonlibrary.org/cgi-bin/hisd/school_num.pl.  Student accounts allow database access and checkout of 10 physical items and there are no fines unless a book is lost.  Staff accounts only give access to e-books and databases not physical items.

Blue Cloud visibility is a Linked Data project with SirsiDynix and Zepheira.  The goal is to make system data findable in Google.  It includes Novelist data.  In September, 8 Separate Library Instances were created.  The Library is seeing new visitors in Google Analytics, but finding specific things in Google is still not consistent and the size of HPL makes it more difficult.  Eventually, customers will be given full library information when searching for a specific book title on Google when they include “library Houston TX” to their search parameters.  The home page for the visibility project is: http://link.houstonlibrary.org/.  You can test the product by searching Google or other search engines for book tiles with the words “Houston Library”.  Example: H is for homicide houston library.

Youth Services: (Kallie)

·         Very Ready Reading Kits:  Locations should use all 20 Very Ready Reading kits by June 1, 2017 for each age group.  You should request a kit 2 weeks in advance via the YS blog.  Staff can develop their own storytimes as well but need to follow the VRR format including books, songs, fingerplays, etc. 

·         Movie Licenses:  Kallie asks that staff make sure they show only movies that HPL has a license for.  If unsure, check the YS blog.  There is a link on the left hand side labeled Movie License that has the necessary information.  Kallie added that when YS recommends certain movies for a program they are included in the license.

·         Learning Link:

o   HEB is working to print out flyers advertising Learning Link. 

o   Staff should make contact with their assigned HISD schools by 11/1.  There is no need to visit or even schedule an outreach, just make contact with the school and offer to come out and share info with school staff on the Learning Link.  This applies to all schools: Elementary, Middle, and High Schools.  A list of the assigned schools is here: School Contacts.  The Power Point on Learning Link is on the YS blog and can be used to educate HISD staff and families about the program. 

o   Kallie added that if a student doesn’t remember their school ID number to access their Learning Link account, it is the same as their lunch number.  That may be easier for a student to recall.

·         Monthly Due Dates:  Monthly programming requests are due the 1^st of the month.  Monthly discretionary purchases are due by the 15^th of the month.  Youth Services sends out requests for monthly programming 4 months in advance.  It is typically due by the 15^th so staff can get them entered into the event module.  Staff should be working on March now.

·         Programming and Events on the webpage:  Lists of events that are showing on location web pages were distributed; any monthly programming information not in the online calendar should be shared with the location’s event publisher and editor and added as soon as possible.  Remember that if the event is listed as “other activity” and it doesn’t fit under an existing program title, staff can submit it as a new program for approval.  Managers asked that the 2017 Holiday Calendar be shared with them, so they can plan ahead.

·         Youth Services will send Managers and Assistant Managers a link to the monthly programming submission document.  The FY17 In house program list is on the YS blog: FY17 In house Pgms.  Each Evanced Calendar editor and publisher should review the list and use the listings to complete their events submissions.

·         The Parent Resource Library’s new manager was introduced: Evelyn Draven.  She was a HISD school librarian before serving in different positions at the Children’s Museum Houston.

LMS: (Fred Schumacher)  Fred is working on updating the power point.  Texshare databases are not allowed in schools.  The terms of use for Tumblebooks need to be shared with HISD.  Fred also offered options to use when a student doesn’t remember his/her school ID number and there is more than one user with the same name.  The “Category 8” number in the user record can be used to look up a student’s school campus number and uniquely identify the student along with other information like a birthdate. 

            The floating hub policy will be revised.  Some of the items sent to the floating hubs are showing up in the system as missing.  Each location will be getting a specific floating account to check out items to so they will not show as on the shelf at the location.  More details and instruction will be coming next week. 

Fred also mentioned that between 30 and 40 percent of the items sent to the float hub are things that should have been weeded, so he asks staff to evaluate material before sending them.  A weeding workshop is forthcoming at Johnson.  Encourage those who are unclear about the process to attend.  There is a 30 person limit.  Staff can sign up on the training portal.

Dealing with Problem Patrons:  (Alex Drake, Melissa Hayes, Cylenthia Hoyrd, Shirley Singletary, Drew Alvey, Sylvia Espinosa, Robert Lewis)  The group shared that sometimes the difficult patrons are staff.  They presented different examples of how to handle these difficult situations.  One situation was how to deal with a customer that comes in with a service dog and other customers/staffs are afraid of the animal or allergic.  They suggested not jumping to conclusions when a customer appears to be having a seizure or an outburst of obscenities.  The behaviors may be attributed to an illness or condition that is uncontrollable by the customer.  Tourette’s syndrome and narcolepsy were mentioned. 

An example of the proper and improper way to handle a customer who is smoking on library premises was presented.  It was recommended that there be more consistency in how staff handles rule violations throughout the system. 

Mary Wagoner and Jerome Hurt volunteered to perform a sketch on how to deal with teens trying to get a library card.  Even though they may think they’re adults, they aren’t until they turn 18 (or have emancipated minor paperwork) in the eyes of HPL.    

Cylenthia offered advice on how to deal with homeless customers.  Staff should approach them in pairs, introduce themselves, ask the customer’s name, explain the rules, and offer assistance.  For mentally ill customers, staff shouldn’t touch them or play into their fantasy.  Keep them at arm’s length and set boundaries but do provide quality customer service.  If staffs need to call HPD, let them know that you require MHMRA assistance and tell them the issue involves a customer who may be mentally ill.

The links to several of the video examples provided by the presenters are listed here: Eating in Library, Mentally Challenged Customer 1, Mentally Challenged Customer 2

Safety Minute: (Laurie)  A new Safety Campaign begins in November.  A handout regarding the first topic “REDUCE slips, trips and falls” was passed out and will be posted with the minutes.

Emergency Alerts and Active Incidents:  Liz encouraged staff to sign up for Emergency Alerts from the City.  A month ago, staff contacted CE Admin regarding an Active Shooter incident in the West University area.  Staff wondered if there was a way to be alerted to emergency situations in Houston.  Another example of why this would be helpful was the situation at 611 Walker that had people conjecturing about what was really going on. 

            AlertHouston is the City’s emergency notification system that quickly sends out an email to residents who have registered with the system.  It is used to communicate when there is an isolated emergency in a resident’s neighborhood, as well as when they affect the entire city or region.  Anyone who lives or works in Houston can sign up by visiting http://houstontx.gov/emergency. 

            Additionally, the Greater Harris County 9-1-1 Emergency network operates the region’s 9-1-1 emergency notification system, which allows public safety agencies throughout Harris and Fort Bend Counties to send automatic notifications to telephones about local area emergencies.  If you would like to receive notification on your landline phone or cell phone, you MUST register your phone with the system in order to receive them.  Visit 911.org to register.

            There is a third way to keep up to date with what is happening around Houston.  It is called the City of Houston Active Incidents: Active Incidents-Houston.  This page contains current information about active incidents being handled by Fire, Police and EMS Personnel.  The contents are updated on five minute intervals and generated by the Central Command dispatch system.

                                                                                                                                                            

Drug Test Policy/Reasonable Suspicion:  Last month we discussed the Drug Test Policy and the Reasonable Suspicion clause.  We are still waiting on information about how exactly the process is supposed to work once a report has been made by a supervisor.  Human Resources is currently reviewing how to handle this across the City to standardize the process.  More will be shared once received.

Wellness 2016-2107:  The health assessment part of our Win For Life wellness program is open until December 5^th.  Only 29% of city employees and 9% of covered spouses have completed it so far.  Remember to complete the health assessment employees need to have blood pressure, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, height, weight and waist circumference measurements.  This is the first step in the wellness program.

Fake emails:  Liz said to take notice of emails coming from the @hous.hr-resources.org address.  This is a fake City account.  Please delete all emails received from that sender.

FIDS:  (Laurie) Managers need to make sure updates to the FIDS Box counts are happening each Friday.  The totals should include all of the boxes at each location and not just the new boxes that have been added since the previous month.  For example, if there were 30 boxes in Sept. and 25 more have been added, the box count should read 55 in the total in October section.  FIDS will complete the column for picked up.

Financial Services:  (Laurie) Make sure all checks are run through Telecheck.  If unsure of how to do this, please check with Financial Services or another staff member.  Make sure that once cards/checks are run through Telecheck, they are properly entered into Smart Money.

Notary Service: (Laurie)  Please make sure notary stats are being recorded in the daily stats.  There is a column on the main page next to Outreach.  Laurie reviewed the stats for September and only some of the notary transactions have been entered.

iTeams:  (Mary)  Mary needs those locations with iTeams to send details of their incidents.  When possible, please include the time, library card number, and computer number.  Send information to the IT helpdesk and copy Robin Cabrera, Mary and Celeste.

SPACES: (Mary) Make sure staffs are submitting the correct Sprocket work orders and adding them to the Facilities Checklist.  Submit the Work Order first, then follow up with an email to Mary and copy Celeste.

If the issue doesn’t fall under Sprockets, consult with the Senior Manager.  For furniture and salvage, please share with the Sr. Manager; then contact Mary and Celeste.  Please do not contact Jason Stephens directly.  CE Administration uses the Facilities Checklist to review with SPACES what needs to be done for every location.

Location Highlights:

ALI:  On September 30th, Henington-Alief Regional Library participated in LibroFEST with Author Rene Colato Lainez and 156 children of the Martin Elementary School, part of Alief ISD.  This event highlighted Hispanic Heritage.  Special thanks to Carmen Abrego from the programming department, Jayla Parks and the sponsors who ensured that each child left with an autographed copy of the author’s book.  We have restarted our open job lab in October and have two customers who have found jobs so far.  All Alief team members have signed up for Yammer.

BRA: BRA participated in four outreaches in October.  Staff has started a crocheting/knitting class for customers.

CAR:  Carnegie had a great Halloween haunted house. They utilized the hallway and staff worked together to decorate and make sure kids came out scared and laughing.

FIF/FLO:  FLO had a successful Halloween Bash on 10/27.  Between 70 & 80 customers participated in crafts, movies, and trick-or-treating around the library.

FRX/MEY:  Frank hosted a Refugee Leadership Academy, presented by Refugee Council USA on Saturday. The workshop included information about public speaking, media/civic engagement, and community building.  Manager Felicia Brisco was also on the agenda and shared information about library services and programs, and we registered several refugees, they were also very excited about several of our services, namely passport, citizenship classes, computer training classes, etc. There was a very large turnout.  The tagging of Meyer was completed thanks to LMS and the RFID team.

HMRC:  HMRC is having a public event on Saturday, November 12th.  It’s a Closing Day lecture series to accompany the exhibition, We Serve Humanity: Stories of Hope and Commitment.  Historians will address aspects and themes of the exhibition:

• 10:15AM-11:00AM, Barbara Humphreys -- "The Intrepid Miss Ideson."

• 11:15AM-12:30PM, Thomas Kreneck -- "Felix Tijerina, Alfonso Vazquez and the Mexican-American Collections at HMRC." A screening of the film Forgotten Minds, the 13-minute promotional piece for Felix Tijerina’s Little School of the 400, will accompany the lecture.

• 1:00PM-1:50PM, Bartee Haile -- "Edward Mandell House: The Colonel Behind the Curtain"

• 2:00PM-3:00PM, Betty Chapman -- "Breaking Down Barriers: Houston Women and the Road to Equality"

JOH: JOH is hosting a weeding workshop conducted by LMS 11/10.

KAS:  Kashmere had a great election program. Four kids from the Kashmere Elementary school came over and were asked questions concerning school policies. They spoke about where they stand on the policies and why. Community leaders, the principal, and teachers all attended the event with their students.

LOO/MNT: MNT has wrapped up a successful self-publishing series.

MAN:  After school food is going well about 40 meals served daily.  

MCH:  The Little Library that could:  The Melcher team raised almost $300 for CMC at the Fall Festival.  They have started bilingual computer classes.

MOO:  Moody had a build party in October. It was a great partnership with the Council Member Cisneros office and building a lot of Little Free Libraries.

PAR:  The new Baby Time program is popular.  They are planning a Holiday Open House for customers on December 12th, complete with a visit from Santa!

SMI:  SMI participated in the Touchdown Tour Houston outreach on 10/22.  Staff are currently weeding in preparation for RFID tagging.

STE: Halloween Happening:  The Youth Services Team organized a special Halloween event which featured crafts, games, a monster-themed storytime, and a costume contest. Lots of children came dressed in their costumes. The YMCA next door provided volunteers who acted as judges and also helped give out candy during the trick-or-treat portion of the event. There were about 231 visitors that attended the event!

SWX/WAL:  New initiative at SWX, staff collaborated with the Chinese Community Center, Senior programs department to provide 8 sessions of the senior exercise workshops on Fridays ( 4 sessions in Sept and 4 in Oct) at the Southwest Multi-Service Center (SWMSC).  A total of 215 seniors attended the workshop and received the completion certificates on the last day, Oct 21.  At SWX, 10/13, staff raised more than $200 for their team CMC fundraising garage sale and bake sale at the SWMSC parking lot. SWMSC Health Dept. joined the event.  Walgreens donated 25 free flu shots to employees and customers.  At WAL, Saturday, 10/22, staff member Ivy Bao hosted the Halloween costume contest and trick or treat parade, more than 100 children and families attended.

VIN:  We have added a whole track of Monday intermediate computer classes.

Congratulations to all the locations that had a successful Halloween party and great displays for their customers.

In attendance: Chris Arrowood, Melissa Ryans, Jennifer Myers, Shirley Singletary, Jesus Villegas, Mercedes Mayne, Melissa Hayes, Monica Siboldi, Dominick Spinelli, Cedric Clark, Robert Lewis, Derrick Spearman, Leonore Hu, Angela Barratt, Craig Bertuglia, Jerome Hurt, Sara Pope, Kallie Benes, Miguell Ceasar, Jayla Parks, Jennifer Sessa, Ana Frade, Melinda Campbell, Laney McAdow, Michelle King, Cylenthia Hoyrd, Karen Luik, LeRoy Robinson, Felicia Brisco, Kelly Patton, Alexandra Drake, Maggie Sepulveda, Iona Joseph, Diane Doyen, Helen Chou, Dena Melvin, Fred Schumacher, Sylvia Espinosa, Vanessa Gempis, Hellena Stokes, Christopher Patrick, Rebecca Denham, Jose Santoyo, Erika Cardoso, Virginia Williams, Tara Hornbeak, Drew Alvey, Gary Lackey, Edgar Fuentes, Donnie Byrd, Nhu Le, Maurina Powers, Christy Chang, Marcia Cameron-Denton, Nathan Stokes, Tula Gorden, Tega Zoma; Guest: Rick Peralez, Judith Hiott; CE Admin: Elizabeth Sargent, Laurie Covington, Mary Wagoner, Patrick Atkins, Pedro Fonseca, Djuina Hammett, Leah Fraser, Celeste Diaz, & Yolanda Anguiano

Next meeting will be in Program Place on November 18^th 8:30AM-12PM.