CE Managers
Meeting
08-26-16
Compiled by
Yolanda Anguiano
CE Update: (Elizabeth Sargent)
Management
Changes/Updates:
Liz congratulated everyone for a great summer. She added that our next CE
Managers meeting will not take place at Central but at the new renovated
Jungman. It will begin at 9AM instead of 8:30AM to allow staff to meet at
their branch and carpool to Jungman. Because of limited parking, staffs
need to carpool to Jungman. A revised manager presentation schedule was
distributed. We will not have anyone present at September’s
meeting. The new managers that have recently joined our meetings were
added to the group of presenters. Their names are highlighted in
red. A copy of the assignments will be posted with the minutes.
News from
around Customer Experience:
·
Billy
Glasco and his wife are expecting their first baby.
·
Kallie
Benes returns next Friday, Sept. 2nd from her maternity leave.
·
Cedric
Clark is the new Librarian II-Assistant Manager for Smith/Young. He
relocated from Virginia where he worked in various library systems. He
started at HPL on August 1st.
·
Tony
Goodwyn has left HPL to work part-time and dedicate himself to his
writing. Alma Avina is serving as Acting Manager of HIL/RIN while we find
a new manager.
·
Liz
also thanked Drew Alvey (PLE/TUT) and Christy Chang (SWX/WAL) for serving as
Acting Manager while we find replacements.
·
The
vacant Collier Manager position has changed from Admin Supervisor to Librarian
III and will be posted soon. Melinda Campbell is currently serving as acting
manager until we hire a new one.
The
Library asked the Mayor for 7 additional positions: 6 dedicated passport agents
and 1 Library Service Supervisor to serve as Manager of Blue Ridge once it
reopens with the WIC clinic inside. We succeeded in getting 4 of the 7
positions: 3 passport agents and the Library Service Supervisor. Mayor
Turner will consider giving us the other 3 passport agents once we demonstrate
an increase in revenue that would pay for the additional positions. We
are finalizing the locations for these new positions. We plan to have these positions
posted very soon. HR has to create them before we can post them.
The
Library Service Supervisor of Blue Ridge will need to have a background in and
passion for Early Literacy. This position is a Library Service Supervisor
rather than a Librarian II to allow those library professionals that don’t have
a degree from an ALA accredited program to apply, especially school
librarians. The email recruiting staff for this location will go out
later today. Responses will be due by Friday, September 9th.
If you are someone interested in working at Blue Ridge please reply to the
email. This applies even if you are interested in the Manager
position.
Employee
Discounts: Liz made
managers aware of the various discounts City Of Houston employees have and ask
that you share this information with your staff.
The new Working Advantage employee discount and reward program can save COH
employees up to 60% on a huge selection of tickets, memberships, event passes,
travel and more. Guidance Resources Online offers 24/7 access, so visit
guidanceresources.com to register and if you’re a first-timer, use code
HOUSTONEAP. Click “Discounts” in the “I’m Looking For” box on the
homepage and see for yourself.
Visit http://cohemployeenews.com/events-activities/city-nights
for other discounts including some
of the current ticket promotions, like a 60% discount on Houston Museum of Natural
Science tickets. Currently discounted tickets are being offered to the
Kellogg’s Tour of Gymnastics Champions at the Toyota Center on September 30th.
Discounts end September 20. The Sugar Land Skeeters and Houston Astros
offer significantly discounted tickets to select games.
Leadership
Academy: The new
class of Leadership Academy has begun. Those from CE that are
participating include: Alma Chavarria (LMS), Tara Hornbeak (PAR), Candece
Beverly (ALI), Jenny Phengdara (ROB), Emily Scott (HMRC), Dominick Spinelli
(JUN), and Tim Siegel (STE).
Youth
Services: Leftover
SRP incentives need to be sent to Sara Pope. Leftover SRP books should be
sent to Michelle Johnson at CEN. Recycle your leftover certificates,
since they were made from card stock. The Halloween program SCREAM IN is
fast approaching. If you wish to volunteer, get your supervisor’s
approval and reply to the recruitment email when YS sends it out.
Volunteers should enjoy working with teens and tweens. Make sure you keep
reading the YS Blog. The Very Ready Reading Program kit request link is
now live! YS is planning to go live with Very Ready Reading Program starting
September 1, so you can go ahead and request the kits that you want to use that
first week for your Baby Storytime, Toddler Storytime and Pre-K
Storytime. YS hasn’t received as many requests as they’d like, so please
ask your Youth Staff to follow up.
Outreaches: CE Admin thanked those that have
been doing outreaches for HISD this summer. Blue Ridge/Vinson did two
weeks for Elementary School teacher training. Kashmere and Flores did
Middle School teacher training events. Edgar Fuentes presented at Long
Academy with help from Walter staff signing people up for library cards.
Kelly Patton and Jennifer Myers presented for ELA Department Heads, and
Jennifer presented at HISD’s Job Alike day (library in-service).
Food Programs: Without all the August numbers
in, we served 9,500 meals and 3,600 snacks this summer compared to 7,100 meals
and 2,100 snacks last year. We are planning to start after school food
programs at FRX, MAN, and CAR this year, in addition to SMI and PAR.
Through a United Way grant we are getting fridges and microwaves for PAR, JOH,
STE, MAN, FRX, CAR and ALI.
Learning Link: The Learning Link is a student’s
educational passport to all of the resources that HPL has to offer inside the
classroom, at home and at any HPL location. Students can check out books,
eBooks, audio books, classic literature, animated books, comic books, access
online homework help and tutoring, music and video streaming, and have access
to free Wi-Fi and computer access at HPL locations. There is no launch
date yet but we hope to get it out mid-September or early October. It is
an initiative that isn’t widely known yet by
schools. We will have a dedicated webpage for Learning Link. HEB is
sponsoring this program and paying for posters for each location.
Students will be able to borrow up to 10 items at one time. There will be
no fines. The loan period will remain 3 weeks. The maximum loan
period, including renewal is 6 weeks. Students will be able to access
digital materials including eBooks, eAudiobooks, and specialized online research
tools. If items are lost or damaged, they will be charged up to $10 per
item. Accounts will become inactive once a student reaches $50 worth in
non-returned books. HPL is still trying to develop a way to earn down or
read down charges on a student’s account.
The Learning Link library account is connected to the student’s HISD ID and the
first initial of their last name. The PIN will be the month and day of
their birthday. Pre-K through 5th grade will receive a card on
which to write their account number. Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers
will not get a physical library card but use their HISD Student ID.
Elementary students will be able to check out juvenile materials only.
The other students will be able to check out juvenile, teen and adult materials.
We are working on guidelines for staff override of exceptions.
There will be three resources per age group that HISD wants to highlight and
will be placed on the hub or portal. For Elementary kids, Tumblebooks,
National Geographic Kids and Explora were selected. Tumblebooks offers animated
talking picture books. The picture books integrate sound, animation,
music, narration, and activities to keep kids engaged in learning.
National Geographic Kids engage kids and take them on adventures in science,
nature, culture, space and archaeology with age-appropriate content. It
offers videos, articles and kids’ books. Explora is a child-friendly and
graphically fun database to search newspapers, encyclopedia, magazines and
more. It is similar to Kids Search.
For
middle schoolers, Explora, Britannica Library for Young Adults, and E-Books
were chosen. Explora aids in research and has articles, pictures and
videos in magazines and newspapers. It also offers teachers lesson plans
and Lexile reading levels. The resource has an elementary school version and a
secondary version. Britannica for YA has a variety of topics from art to
technology and more. It’s easy to use, conduct research, complete
homework assignments and special projects. It also helps students explore
and compare countries from around the world. It includes an on-line
dictionary if you encounter unknown words in their resources. E-books –
Overdrive is the most robust and oldest platforms. You can borrow eBooks,
audiobooks and more from HPL anywhere and anytime. There is a 10 item
checkout limit. It offers items in English, Spanish and other
languages. The checkout period for eBooks is 14 days.
For
High Schoolers, Literature Resource Center, NoveList and e-Books were picked.
The Literature Resource Center offers up-to-date biographical information,
overviews, full-text literary criticism and reviews on writers in all
disciplines from all time periods and from around the world. Students can
use citations and other material offered to support their thesis.
Information is also downloadable or students can email it to themselves.
NoveList connects readers to their next book by making recommendations with
read-alikes, book reviews and book discussion guides. Students can search for
read-alikes by titles, authors, plot, series and more. This database
doesn’t include the full narrative or books, but has plot summaries and
reviews. It’s good for readers advisory. E-Books are available with
the same guidelines as for the middle-schoolers. This service is not streaming,
but you can place a hold on an item. It has a good source of teen
fiction. If the book icon on the book title is greyed out, it means the
item is checked out and you will need to place a hold. If the icon is dark,
it means it is available for check out.
Additional
resources were also covered in the presentation. Brainfuse is a free
online tutoring service HPL offers. It builds skills, offers a writing
lab, job and career resources and adult learner resources. The live
online tutors are available every day from 2PM-11:59PM for 20 minute sessions
in English or Spanish. This service matches the grade level and subject
to the child and teacher. It offers tutoring for elementary
through college prep and some adult learning. SkillSurfer gives practice
sessions to learn more about the subject. In the writing lab, students
can submit resumes or essays and get suggestions on improvements. Career
Resources are offered through Brainfuse as well. JobNow can help match
careers to student interests, offer resume templates, and other job
resources. For the adult learner, it offers tutoring for GEDs,
Citizenship, Microsoft Office, Career and Resume writing.
Another
resource is the Learning Express Library which offers help with math, reading,
science, social studies, vocabulary, spelling and writing skills and test prep
for STAAR and college exams. It has a carousel that offers different
platforms for different age groups. You first need to set up an account
with them. Students can take pre-tests, study and then take post-tests
and get recommendations for improvement. This service can help the child
that struggles as well as the one that excels. It has a college prep
center component and job and career accelerator that helps students with
internships. The Adult Learning Center helps with writing, speaking, and
citizenship. Services are also offered in Spanish.
E-books
options were given that included Overdrive, Axis 360, ComicsPlus, and
Hoopla. All but ComicsPlus have apps available in the Apple Store, Google
Play, or Kindle Fire. ComicsPlus can be accessed through the HPL app
only. You can create an account with your library name and card in all
but Hoopla. Hoopla requires an email password as well.
For
help with reading and writing, Brainfuse, NoveList, Literature Reference
Center, Literary Criticism Online, Something About the Author and Mango
Languages are recommended resources. For math help, students should
access the Learning Express Library and/or Brainfuse. For Science,
students can search for services like Facts on File Science Online, Teen Health
and Wellness, National Geographic Virtual Library, and National Geographic
Kids. Social Studies resources are offered through CultureGrams, Gale
Power Search, Press Display, Historical Newspapers, 19th Century
U.S. Newspapers, and Houston Area Digital Archives.
HISD
staff members are also getting a Learning Link account, too. The accounts
will be virtual library accounts only. They will be able to access HPL
electronic resources but not physical items, like books, DVDs or CDs.
HISD staff can check those items out with their own library card.
Schools
can schedule visits to or from their local library. CE Admin asks that you
accept all outreach requests. If staffing is a problem, consult your Sr.
Manager. For more details, look to the handout posted with the meeting
minutes.
Digital
Strategies: (Rick
Peralez & Roland Lemonius): Rick introduced the new Senior Manager of Tech
Link Roland Lemonius. Any suggestions you may have for Tech Link should
be addressed to him. Roland said he’s looking for Tech Link staff members
that are comfortable with customer interaction and good with reference
interviews. Staff will need to know about digital and audio recording and
be able to configure these instruments, but not necessarily play them.
They need to be multi-taskers and be willing to work at the new pilot site
Scenic Woods.
Rick
informed the group that the wireless issues are being addressed. They are
working with HITS to prioritize the issue and hope to have it resolved by next
week. The Hot Spot lending program is still being worked on. DS
needs Council approval for the fines/fees structure. Rick hopes to have
this resolved and launched at Dixon and Acres Homes next month. Rick
added that the issue TDI is having with losing remote access to HVAC is related
to the wireless transition problem. The new printing services Request for
Proposals (RFP) arrangement was originally canceled, but a new one was released
last week and Rick is waiting on the vendor response. The new reservation
system is being rolled out soon. Staffs are welcome to suggest any
improvements and Rick will look into possibly making adjustments. The
staff suggestion of being able to assign computers to specific customers is
being considered as a walk up feature and is being tested out.
Staff
Motivation: (Billy
Glasco, Jose Santoyo, Derrick Spearman, Leonore Hu) Motivation is the
process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. It
involves the biological, emotional, social and cognitive forces that activate
behavior. The reason why people do something is extrinsic or intrinsic.
Extrinsic
behavior involves earning a reward or avoiding punishment and intrinsic behavior
is done for its own sake, personally rewarding. Everyone is different and
has a preferred motivator. It’s important to get to know your staff, know
yourself and evaluate your resources. Motivation matters because lack of
it results in increased absences, wasted time, lower quality of work, decreased
responsibility, reduced creativity and staff tension, which all could lead to
increased customer complaints. This can also affect the manager’s
productivity, efficiency and morale.
To help motivate your staff a manager should lead by example, interact with
staff and have a presence. You should focus on finding solutions instead
of dwelling on the problems. Show a humanistic side. Take a few
hours at the service desk and shelve a few carts. Empower your staff by
giving them projects to lead, forming teams to tackle projects and designate
staff as team leaders in meetings. Allow staff to interact freely and
step into the manager’s shoes. Other ways to motivate staff include
praising their accomplishments, taking opportunities to teach and learn, having
clear staff expectations and making the environment feel safe. Be
approachable. Managers should build and enable their staff to
succeed. Leaders should be able to acknowledge mistakes and ask for help.
Celebrate small accomplishments with your team. Use food or chocolate to
reward yourselves or have an occasional lunch together to invite
conversation. This encourages a motivated team that isn’t afraid to fail,
is eager to learn new things, able to work harder with less, and is focused and
determined. The team will feel encouraged to grow and face new challenges
so it will produce more.
Staff Appreciation: Each location
was given their staff appreciation budget. The budget numbers were based
on the number of staff at your location or grouping. Guidelines, sample
petty cash form, and a tax exempt certificate were included in the envelope
with the budget memo. If you do spend something before the September
meeting, get with Laurie or Celeste on how to do the paperwork. At our
next meeting, Financial Services will conduct training on how to process the
paperwork. Remember that the amount for reimbursement has to be the same
as what’s on your receipt. You are not allowed to have personal items
that you purchased on the receipt especially if you used the tax exempt
form. Any expense reimbursement for $100 or more needs to be processed
with a check request. You need to work with Financial Services to create
a third party check for payment. The vendors need to be City approved
vendors and agree to take the city check. HEB is one. More details
will be given during the training next month.
Booksale: If your booksale inventory is
robust, reach out to smaller locations to share your items. All the money
earned from the sales go to the same fund. All the earbuds and flashdrive
sales profits go into the same account. Special Collection locations are
welcomed to sell these items too, just speak to Celeste.
Commitments: (Jennifer Sessa) Jennifer focused
on teamwork, communication and training at her location. She initiated a
“Group Project Friday” event. Every other Friday her team works on a
project. It builds teamwork and gets things done. A new project
will begin in September and she is taking staff suggestions on what it should
be. She is also working on her blog to communicate better with
staff. She is updating and overhauling it to include links and external
resources and make it somewhere staff can go daily for information and
announcements. Jennifer wants to get beyond the standard HPL training and
include more professional development. She is asking staff with specific
skills to share their expertise and conduct trainings and best practice
teachings.
(Kelly Patton)
Kelly committed to giving staff time to implement and execute projects.
She gives staff small blocks of time off the desk to complete their
goals. She has taken time to celebrate staff birthdays by decorating
their cubicles or having cake. She also celebrates different occasions,
like having a Jazz Day, Star Wars Day, or Talk Like a Pirate Day to keep things
fun.
(Dena Melvin):
Dena has taken to emailing staff important information and using the blog for
meeting notes. She works on morale by having parties, food and holding
team exercises. She spends extra time with customers. More one on
one staff meetings have led to good discussions on job performance. She
discovers what staff like and don’t like to do and works with that to create
new challenges.
The next three
commitment presenters are Derrick Spearman, Laney McAdow, and Alma Avina.
City Savvy: Liz recommends reading the City Savvy
when it comes to your inbox. It has great information on all City
Departments. The site is City
Savvy. It often
has features about HPL that you won’t find elsewhere. It had articles on
the recipients of the ACE scholarship, the Citizenship Institute class training
held in Tomball, Gregory School exhibit of church hats, and the little library
project called “Groomed for Literacy”.
The
7 Academic and Continuing Education (ACE) scholarship recipients were Sr. LSS
Lauren Ray, Archivist Valerie Wade, CSC Monique Pickrom, LSS Savannah Dorsett,
Sr. CSC Debra Allen, Sr. LSS Carrie Tombs, and Tech Hardware Analyst Robin
Cabrera. These funds were provided to further their education through
continuing education courses, seminars and degree plans.
The
Citizenship training helped prepare 30 staff members to conduct future
citizenship classes at our library locations.
The
hat exhibit at Gregory celebrates “the domestic engineers that have come before
us, and the history of why African-American women wear hats to church.” The
exhibit opens on Saturday, Oct. 29 and the final day of the exhibit will
include a fashion show and reception. Everyone visiting the exhibit is
encouraged to wear their hats.
The
Groomed for Literacy program is a partnership between HPL, Put It In A Book
Foundation and local barbershops. It will address literacy for children
and promote a love for reading by putting books in community barbershops where
there is a high population of individuals with low literacy, low income and low
access to books. The kick-off will be at Scenic Woods on Saturday, Sept. 24 at
10AM-12PM. More details on all these events are found at the City Savvy
website.
Innovation
Lab: Liz also wanted to
mention how our Tech Link library project could be just as successful as the
Innovation Lab at Clear Lake City-County Freeman Branch Library. She
focused on the news article about a girl who traveled from Victoria, Texas to
Clear Lake to use their 3-D printer to create a prosthetic hand. With the
help of staff and volunteers, they took design plans from the internet and
after several attempts were successful in creating her prosthetic hand.
You can find more information at http://www.click2houston.com/news.
CMC 2017: CMC time is coming.
The theme this year is “Compassion in Action”. Please make sure you
select a CMC coordinator for your location and send this information to HPL CMC
Coordinator Candece Beverly at Alief. You can select more than one
coordinator. Liz encourages you to select someone new this year to give
more people the experience. The CMC Coordinator Training will be Friday,
September 9th and Wednesday, September 14th from
9:15AM-11:15AM at Central’s Program Place. Coordinators need only attend
one of the meetings. A link with the dates will be sent to you to
register your coordinators for the training.
The CMC Fall Festival will be on Friday, October 28 from 11AM-2PM. Dr.
Lawson has approved a 1 hour delayed opening for every location with the
exception of Central and Clayton. We are requesting 100% participation
between all groupings/locations by sponsoring a booth or entering the Carved
Pumpkin Contest. There is a $5 fee for each activity. Your CMC
coordinators will receive more information at their training. This event is
the same day as our CE Managers Meeting. We will adjust the schedule to
accommodate it. More details will follow.
Our CMC goal is $50,000 in donations, 100% participation, and an increase
number of Above & Beyond Donors. To be considered Above and Beyond,
you need to give 1% or more of your gross salary. Last year we met all of
our goals.
Good news
from HPL: Clayton
is having an open house Oct. 8th, where they will have getting
started sessions, genealogy society tables, historical re-enactors, etc. along
with a full month of genealogy programming for Family History Month.
Handouts will be available at our next meeting.
HMRC is having their next exhibit August 27-November 12 entitled “We Serve
Humanity: Stories of Hope and Commitment”. HMRC salutes its 40th
anniversary with a gallery of individuals who strived to make the world a
better place for future generations. The exhibit includes photographs,
documents, audio-visual media and ephemera from the fields of business,
medicine, civil rights, social justice, the arts, journalism, environmentalism,
education and government service. Programming and tours will coincide
with Hispanic Heritage Month and Citizenship Month.
HMRC has recently been awarded a TexTreasures grant through TSLAC for the
digitization of additional KHOU-TV film reels. This is important because
without digitization these film reels will deteriorate to a point where they
are unusable.
Gregory School is collaborating with HISD and HPLF to coordinate field trips
for 4th graders across the district that will fulfill Texas history
curriculum requirements for the 2016-2017 academic year. They hope this
encourages more teachers and students to visit the location. Students who
visit will have access to a number of books, worksheets, and learning
activities to help them understand the themes presented in the galleries.
Central held its first Housing Assessment last month and it was a
success. Homeless individuals were assessed on a variety of aspects of
their lives to determine the best housing intervention. In the 2 hours
that assessors were here they were able to interview 23 people. They were
also able to make contact with 6 people that they had not been able to find
before. The assessors were pleased with the facilities and the programs
we have at the library. They added that our customers were really a good
group of people, less unruly than others.
Locations
are doing great at supporting each other when short staffed. ROB has lent
ACR/OAK staff. Richard and Drew did a great job working together to get
staff HEAR reviews done. Drew has lead by example and is working
Saturdays.
Dominick
and Isabel are doing an excellent job of getting Jungman ready for opening.
Marcia
and her team have done a great job of getting the books on the shelves at ALI.
Chris
and his team have done a great job of weeding the ROB collection and preparing
it for closing for renovations.
The
ALI and ROB teams held a special team bonding event last month by celebrating
their diverse culture. Each staff member brought a dish either from their
country of origin or US state within which they were born. They shared
why they picked the dish and the importance it held for them personally or
their culture. They realized that for most of the dishes the same
ingredients were used, just prepared differently, which tells us that we are
all very similar, just based on different cultures, religion and place of origin.
Please see pictures on their Yammer page under Henington-Alief Regional
Library.
Collier
made $5,000 in its first month of doing passports. Also their Star Party
is this Wednesday, Aug. 31. Explore the solar system at their community
Star Party. They are borrowing the Lunar Planetary Institute’s walk-in
Planetarium and are having activities, snacks, and crafts for all ages.
They have also begun training new hires, having them spend their first week at
HPL at Collier and reporting to their home locations the following week.
Feedback from new hires has been extremely positive.
Stanaker has
received a new PS4, and has placed it in their teen area to invite more teens
and to provide additional programming without overtaxing staff.
Melcher
has added Family Movie Time on Thursday afternoons, which has become very
popular with patrons.
Bracewell
has conducted several outreaches with more to come.
LOO/MNT
will be piloting the Neatoscan project starting September 12th.
The Friends have it at their warehouse. It tells them if the item is a
“hot item” at Amazon. Senior Managers took the training. Staff will
be asked to set aside the hot items in a green wrapper and place in a
bin. FIDS will pick up the bin and ship it to Friends twice a week.
This will help clear items from the location more quickly.
Staff
Development Day: Staff
Development Day is October 10th. It is mandatory for all
staff. We are encouraging carpooling. Laurie will send out a survey
to managers/assistant managers regarding parking. There are a limited
number of parking spaces at Central and staffs that are carpooling with 3 or
more people will be given priority for those spaces. Everyone else will
need to park at Lot H. Staffs that work at Central need to use their
regular parking arrangements (bus, Lot H, Hobby etc.). All staffs need to
have an employee badge to get access to the building for that day. It’s
the manager’s responsibility to ensure that all staffs have a way to get to the
event. The survey will be sent out September 13 at around noon and
carpools will be taken on a first come, first serve basis. It will be due
by COB September 16th. A list of everyone in the car will be
needed as well as the driver. Security will only allow the staff on the
list entry to the garage.
Annual Reports: Laurie will be
sending out an email regarding annual reports soon. They are due by COB
Friday, September 16th. The guidelines that have been used in
the past will be the same: trends, challenges, etc. The report should
only be one page long.
Notary
Service: HPL is
launching notary services in mid-September. They are looking to begin
services on the 19th, but more information will follow.
HEAR: Because some HEAR plans didn’t
get done and were canceled, the FY16 plans will be re-opened. You have
until September 30 to do the reviews. Remember if you have an approved
plan in place but you alter it in any way, it will be kicked back into draft
status and you will have to go through the approval process again. You
will need to get your 2015-2016 template done, reroute it for signatures
(reviewing authority and staff signatures) which will get the plan active and
then do your HEAR evaluation. Refer to last month’s minutes for the
behavioral factors standard. Also refer to Suzy Benton’s email to create
the plan. Liz is working with the Senior Managers for standard goals and
behavior factors for supervisors. This will come out next week.
This is important to get done because not getting a HEAR evaluation for an
employee is a grieveable offense. On October 1st, HOPE will go
after staff with no reviews and encourage filing a complaint. Part-timers
also need reviews. You also have until September 30 to have the 2017 HEAR
plans in place.
Buildings: (Mary Wagoner) Robinson has already
stopped passport services in preparation for closing for renovations on
Wednesday, August 31. Collier is getting a new roof and will take longer
than originally planned because of documented leaks. They expect it to be
done in ten weeks. Alief opens on Tuesday, September 6 with a grand
opening Saturday, September 10. CITGO has provided funds for the grand
opening. We are still not certain on when Jungman will be opening because
we’re waiting on the Mayor and City Council. Young grand opening is set
for Saturday, November 5. Blue Ridge will be opening with a WIC clinic
inside and the opening is yet to be determined. Dixon will undergo
interior enhancements that were funded by City Council but the dates are not
set yet. The new Tech Link renovations are scheduled for Scenic Woods,
but no specific date has been set.
Houston
Housing Authority Voucher Program:
HPL will be participating in the Houston Housing Authority Voucher Program this
year as we did four years ago. We will offer internet access to the
program applicants. This is a lottery program for public housing.
The program dates are Monday, September 19 to Sunday, September 25. The
applicants will need an email account, so staff will assist them in getting
one. We will have a webcard on our website advertising the program.
It will have a link to the application website and a few sentences about what
the program entails. We are working to get a training webinar where staff
can get training credit.
This
is a pre-application process. The application requires personal
information on the customer and his/her family like social security numbers,
income, birthdates, etc. Income can be estimated. HHA will not
disqualify an applicant if their application is incomplete. They can get
all the required information further into the process. Customers will
receive a confirmation email from HHA, so they don’t need to print their
confirmation. They will be notified of the next step through email.
There is typically a high volume of applications in the beginning of the week
and the program only takes 20% of the applicants per day, so it may be better
for applicants to file later in the week for a better chance of
selection.
Computer
labs will be open to applicants, but Mary doesn’t want you to cancel any
pre-existing programs to accommodate this. The application will be mobile
friendly and the program website will be in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and
Mandarin.
Helen: This is an election year and we already
offer all customers the opportunity to register to vote with each
transaction. Customers can register to vote now through October 11.
HPL is partnering with non-profits to do voter registration at our locations
with volunteer help. Helen asks for you to create and expand displays
around the League of Women Voters Voting guides. HPL will have web banners and
webcards regarding the elections. Helen will email you about the
different efforts surrounding voter registration we will have in September and
October. Early voting runs October 24th-November 4th.
In attendance: Chris Arrowood, John Merullo, Tim
Siegel, Iona Joseph, Jesus Villegas, Felicia Brisco, Melissa Gwinn, Leonore Hu,
Mercedes Mayne, Maggie Sepulveda, Cedric Clark, Melinda Campbell, Shirley
Singletary, Robert Lewis, Patricia Ogea, Melissa Ryans, Jennifer Myers, Jose
Santoyo, Jayla Parks, Helen Chou, Alma Avina, Drew Alvey, Monica Siboldi,
Richard Hurst, Dena Melvin, Michelle King, Kathrine Myers, Craig Bertuglia,
Laura Montegrande, Sara Pope, Alexandra Drake, Kelly Patton, Laney McAdow,
Erika Cardoso, Virginia Williams, Nhu Le, LeRoy Robinson, Rebecca Denham, Billy
Glasco, Vanessa Gempis, Christy Chang, Donnie Byrd, Nathan Stokes, Edgar
Fuentes, Hellena Stokes, Dominick Spinelli, Jennifer Sessa, Sue Kaufman, Karen
Luik, Gary Lackey, Christopher Patrick, Beck Gorman, Fred Schumacher, Sylvia
Espinosa, Maurina Powers, Tega Zoma, Cylenthia Hoyrd, Melissa Hayes, Tula
Gorden, Marcia Cameron-Denton, Derrick Spearman, Diane Doyen, Paty Bustamante;
From Youth Services: Michelle Johnson, Jacqueline Thomas, Shanti Rao, Lisa
Swan, Erica Moreno, Jerome Hurt, Nagma Akbar, Alexandra Zengotita, Irene
Resnick; Guest: Rick Peralez, Roland Lemonius; CE Admin: Elizabeth Sargent,
Laurie Covington, Mary Wagoner, Patrick Atkins, Pedro Fonseca, Djuina Hammett,
Leah Fraser, Celeste Diaz, & Yolanda Anguiano
Next meeting will be at the Jungman
Neighborhood Library
at 5830 Westheimer Rd, 77057 on September
23rd 9AM-12PM.
Remember to carpool!
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