Manager's Meeting @ MCH 12/5/16

In attendance: Pedro, Nathan, Shirley (Host), Maggie, LeRoy, Dena, Melissa, and Tula.

We started off the meeting with a tour of Melcher. Shirley has used what little space the branch offers and created privacy in her little area. She is still seeking out help to keep the shelves from overflowing with too much unneeded materials.

ARTICLE DISCUSSION:

The article was about staff and how to cope with those of different natures. Shirley stated that with her move over to Smith as their location manager, she has had to sit down in a large staff meeting and set her expectations in front of all them.

Melissa says she tries to channel the interests of the loners and introverts of her staff; she lets them go with what they like doing.

Nathan says there are different work ethics between people.

Pedro added, "listen to people", document and promote them when necessary. Let people try things out for themselves. Build up trust; Shirley added, "trust goes both ways".

OPEN DISCUSSION:

We talked about the VRR and what it means. Pedro stated that if the program has the name "storytime" in the title, then the VRR format needs to be followed. Be on the lookout for new program additions to the YS approved list.

We also talked about the new application process being done online, or least going to be soon. We talked about "how" the address would be verified and if it actually started up on the HPL website for renewal.

TEAM BUILDING:

We split up into 2 teams threw toilet paper rolls into a delivery bin. The first team to work together to get all their rolls into the bin; won!

Next meeting will @ Park Place on January 11th, 2017!!!! We changed it to the second Saturday of the month due to the NY's holiday.

Manager's Meeting @ YOU 11/02/16

In attendance: Djuina, Shirley, Kitty, Tula, Cedric, LeRoy, Dena, Maggie, Nathan, and Virginia.

The meeting started out with a tour of the new Young Library. The building will house close to 50 computers, not including laptops. It will house a large meeting room, conference room, study rooms, and training/computer lab.

Top news: Kitty and Norola are leaving Smith, for Kendall and Central, respectively. Kitty will officially be moved to Kendall by Dec. 2nd. If anyone can help out with the storytime/crafttime at Smith, let Djuina know.

Virginia mentioned the trouble with outreaches and the community engagement.  It has to do with double bookings; both a library location and the c.e. show up for outreach to sign up cards and it could have been avoided. It also would help with staff scheduling if they knew c.e. was going to be there in advance, that way they would not have to juggle staff around.**Djuina suggests having a link on a site that has a outreach request sheet; 48 hour or more notice would be needed.

Tula and Tega have readdressed the manager's blog to now include the asst. managers of the southeast. If you want to have posting capabilities to the blog, give Tula your gmail address so she can add you to the permissions.

ARTICLE DISCUSSION:

Manager vs. Leader

We talked about the type of leader we felt we were or not.

Kitty stated she was a manager with spikes of leadership.

Dena says "I wanna be a leader buy I'm afraid people may think I am telling them how to live their lives."

BRANCH ACTIVITIES:

Viriginia -  had a fall fest. It was awesome and exciting. 70 to 80 people attended. Also having a little free library that coming Saturday and having an outreach. They are currently short by 1 pt CSC.

Dena - had a halloween bash and kids trick or treated in the library. Santa is coming in December. Open house with hot chocolate. Trying to start a Spanish Computer class.

Maggie - started a crochet class with six people. Visited two of the schools and doing a bilingual presentation about the learning link. Events for Christmas. Been weeding because of tagging and Sally has sending the dead list.

Kitty - outreaches. Norola did a nice halloween craft storytime. Food time was discovered to end at 5:15. Got 45 boxes of booksale items.

Nathan - Halloween deal on monday. Outreach last saturday with petting zoo, karate, cheerleaders, etc. Planning staff party for the holidays and having santa.

Shirley - CMC was successful over $200 was made. Implemented a bilingual computer class; only problem is, they have people but no table. Robert has been doing movie time. Patron complained about the traffic when library is closed; people are surrounding the library building for the free Wi-Fi.

The next meeting will be on Monday December, 5th @ Melcher!

Manager's Meeting @ MNT 10/05/16

In Attendance: Djuina, Nathan, Maggie, LeRoy, Dena, Melissa (Host), Kitty, and Tula.

We started off with a tour of Montrose, which for those of us who are not familiar with its history, was a former church. Afterwards, we came back to the meeting room for a rousing game of LIBRO! Melissa and her A.M. came up with fun questions for us to collect spots for.

The topic for the meeting was Adult Programming.

*Montrose offers a  book club and are looking to start a citizenship class in the future.
*Looscan started a yoga/zumba class. It is great to offer if you can use the DVDs. Otherwise, if your staff or an outside teacher needs to be certified.
*Stanaker started an storytime for adults. Nathan says they set out popcorn and drinks for their movie; the numbers are up and down. Kitty asked about the passive coloring; kids went crazy for the words search and mazes.
*Park Place previously had a retired Col. who offered free meditation, which was successful. People of all ages seemed to enjoy it.
*Johnson- staff go to the senior home (Magnolia) to let them know what is happening at the library each month. They have had a safety talk held by HPD for the women in the area.
*Flores is doing a lego mania. Family movie time is popular.
*Smith has to close the ASMP up at 4:30 on Fridays to clean-up. Only trouble they have is with showing the movies vs. ages. They are setting the televisions back to back to keep the kids and teens on either side.

Maggie is looking for Christmas cards and Children's books for December.

Next meeting will be at the NEW Young on November 2nd.

Manager's Meeting @ JOH 09/07/16

In attendance: Djuina, LeRoy (Host), Dena, Maggie, Nathan, Shirley, Virginia, and Kitty

LeRoy led the group in a very interesting ice-breaker game utilizing coins. The object of the game was for each person look at the year on the coin and tell the group what they were the doing during that year. Years ranged from the late 70s to current year.

After the game, LeRoy then opened up the floor for article discussion. The group talked about the importance of libraries in the community both Houston and in general. It was stated that we provide things for our communities, such as technology and the internet, which a lot of people may not have access to at home or anywhere else. Nathan mentioned a story about a young boy who saved his sister’s life with CPR that he learned at a free class hosted at his local library. Kitty mentioned how libraries are a way for people to “try out” a book or item first, prior to purchase. This discussion led Djuina to ask us to start thinking about resources that would be helpful to have on hand for both Veterans and the Homeless.

For the Team Building exercise, Leroy had brought up a situation that has happened in the past, at other various locations; and asked us to talk about how we would handle the situation. The situation suggested was the reservation issues. What would you do if two customers had been double booked for the same computer, especially when the computer will only let one of them sign on? Suggestions that came up were: Offering the customer a laptop in place of a computer. You can point out that it gives them 2 hours instead of 1 and they can sit anywhere in the library, if they want. Another suggestion was to find out if they could get their work completed in 15 minutes or less and offer them the Express Computer. Call IT… make sure the issue is logged; for a paper trail, email IT directly and CC Djuina.

Another situation was when you as a manager are trying to get your staff to think of other solutions to problems or issues. Shirley suggested that is important to let staff know at your meetings that sometimes the judgement call is necessary for the moment. LeRoy suggested that talking with the staff member (if it is just one), and reminding them to think about the big picture. Djuina stated the importance of defending their own decisions.

Djuina wanted to talk about desk schedules; it is great if you choose to do your own scheduling for your location(s). Consider delegating this task unless you don’t have someone else you can trust with it. If you already delegate it or choose to do so later on, be sure to communicate with the scheduler.

Also, as a reminder, it is okay to tell people no, for time-off requests. Think about what amount is needed for you branch before approving and plan for a possible “out sick” moment. If you are shorthanded, call around to your sister libraries and ask if they can spare someone before calling Djuina.

Meet with your assistant manager at least once a month; allow them to drive the meeting partially.

Djuina wanted to let everyone know that if we get an email about comments/complaints and it was requested to contact the customer, please do so same day. 

Not mentioned at the meeting: The next meeting will take place at Montrose on October 5.

Manager's Meeting @ Mancuso 07/06/16

In attendance: Djuina, Shirley, Melissa, LeRoy, Tula (host), Maggie, Nathan, Kitty, and Virginia.

The group started out with a game of "Whose line?" guessing which book or movie the line is from. No score was kept, it was just for fun.

Afterwards, Tula gave a tour of the library pointing out the hard work her staff has done on the displays; and the continuous work that the volunteers are doing to help with shifting and straightening of the shelves.

The book discussion for the meeting was on the Power of Nice by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval. Examples were given on how the managers have used the techniques as a result or even prior to reading the book. The overall lesson that was taken from the book is, "treat others like you would want to be treated". During the group discussion, the question of  after-hours relationships with co-workers was brought up and discussed.

The group talked about bedbugs and how we need to be aware of what they look like. Locations are getting them as books are returned but are not noticed until people start to get bitten.

Djuina asked if we wanted to have a break in meetings for August, which we all agreed.  It was decided that next meeting will be on September 7th @ Johnson.

Booksale items - it was mentioned that some items may be turned over to LMS to be added to our location. Items such as paperback classics, which can be a hot commodity when the reading lists come out. Keep in mind though, they do need to be in good condition. Djuina also asked if any of our locations had held or has plans for holding a giant booksale. A few stated they were planning on it. Use the meeting room for a day to put out your booksale items and see what can be sold, to help clear out your area. Also, it was discussed about the need for a unified price list across the system, to make things fair (i.e. a magazine at some locations costs 10 cents, while others charge 25 cents).

Maggie has asked if anyone would like to donated good condition children's books for a December 11th outreach that Bracewell is trying to do for military families.

SUMMER READING PROGRAM

Be aware that when handing out the Chipotle coupon, that some parents may not be aware that the coupons can only be used separately. Let them know that if they have multiple kids, they may have to improvise how they use the coupons all at once.

Be aware that Sara Pope has found several duplicate records in the SRP registration. One family in particular had created 2 different accounts, one set with their names and the other set with their nicknames. Double check for phone numbers, addresses (if applicable), or any other information to make sure the customer does not already have a SRP account set up. Remember, they may not know they have already signed up.

If a library comes up short in the till of $25 or more, the police NEEDS to be notified and a report needs to be done immediately.

BRANCH UPDATES

Virginia from FLO/FIF stated she is getting a new staff member on July 16th and is very happy. They just finished up their 1 month Summer Food Program at Flores.

Kitty from SMI/YOU talked about the new staff is going to be receiving soon; a new YA person and a new Asst. Manager.

Nathan from STA said that his location was finally fully staffed and because of that, he has been able to help out at other locations that have needed help. The new P/T person has been real flexible with their hours to help out the location. They also received a new PS4 in the YA section; they are trying to devise a system that would prevent the kids from leaving the controllers on the ground instead of returning them to the desk. Suggestions are welcomed. They will also be holding a new Para los Niños group this coming month. They did have a landscaping issue when parks came out and cut down limbs but left all the debris in the library parking spaces. This caused their small parking lot to become even smaller and several calls were made before trash came and picked it up.

Maggie from Bracewell said they have a new staff member who started the day prior. Right now they are staffed but in December she is aware two of her P/T 'ers are graduating and possibly leave shortly after or before. The citizenship classes are going on but not as well as possible.

Tula from Mancuso said that the Summer Food Program is going good, on average 15-24 kids may show up. A little more or less based on weather. Mancuso held Facebook and Twitter classes for adults this past month, but not many interested. It could possibly be because the name used in the booklet is "Social Media".

LeRoy from Johnson stated that his branch does the Summer Food Program on Tues, Wed, and Thurs, each time they have good numbers. They host a craft hour on Wednesdays and their computer classes are still going strong. Open Job Lab is on Thurs which is conducted by Darryl.

Melissa from LOO/MNT said that Darryl from Johnson has been helping out on Mondays. She asked if anyone else was having issues with the interns timesheets. She will be attending the citizenship training class in Tomball coming up.

Shirley from MCH said they have finally received their bicycles, they have very little room but they are making it work. They are trying to regroup since being out of their location for a few weeks due to A/C issues; there are concerns about the smell. Robert has added a movie time on Thursdays and it doing good. There are issues with patrons still wanting their fines taken off claiming they didn't know MCH had reopened nor that they could return the books to another location.


The meeting ended with questions about the possible upcoming door count and whether the annual report will need to be done.

Manager's Meeting @ Collier 6/1/16

In attendance: Kitty, Djuina, Melissa, Maggie, Nathan, Shirley, Julia (Host)

We started off with a tour of Collier followed by light refreshments.

Craig Bertuglia will be at Park Place while Dena is out.

Scenic Woods will be the 1st Techlink location and might be closed for renovations. Check out the email from Dr. Lawson about more Techlink information.

The interns will be overseen by Ophelia, for HPL, if you have any questions or concerns.

Interviews for FT CSC positions will be conducted next week over a 2-day period.

Dominick is the new manager for Jungman location and Isabella will be joining him from Collier.

If you were expecting a self-check system, they are on hold and waiting for the new FY fiscal year to start.

HEAR reviews are due. Take your time and if you need a quiet space, utilize one of your nearby locations to work at instead of your own branch(es).

*DJUINA'S COMMITMENT* She is going to schedule at least 1 visit per month per location. Sometimes circumstances and meetings happen which prevent her from making it to all her locations each week or bi-weekly.

What are the new programs that are going on at your locations:

Julia from Collier said that both her and Angela went to the planetary conservatory and have gotten some great ideas. At the end of the Summer they will host a "Star Party" in the meeting room, setting up their own planetarium. Collier has also been doing shifting but it is helping the staff. (Djuina suggests contacting Esther about borrowing a scanner to use for the books to help with missing or lost items.)

Maggie from Bracewell said they brought little fish water squirts, bubbles chalk, etc and had their 2nd annual outdoor bash the previous day. The kids have fun and get to enjoy all the sun and games.

Shirley from Melcher said her location is currently closed due to A/C but prior to closure Robert and other staff members were doing outreach to schools in the area and were expecting a large crowd for their summer programs.

Nathan from Stanaker was able to do outreach to schools, business and apartments. He is anxious to see the results of his work for the summer programs.

Melissa from Looscan/Montrose stated that Looscan will host adult storytimes. Montrose will by hosting publishing workshops on how to upload their books to kindle and connect to writing groups.

Kitty from Smith/Young said Young had cancelled all their programming b/c they were expecting to be closed by the time SRP started up. Now they have been doing short notice programs. Smith has done weeding but has an empty range so they are going to work on getting that spread back out. The ASZ food program was a great success, especially after staff created a "share table".

Tula from Mancuso said her branch was hoping to start doing citizenship classes. (Djuina suggested to email Helen Chou first, because she is trying to see which locations are interested in getting citizenship classes and may want it to be more unified and standardized) Also, getting ready to be doing basic FB and Twitter classes for adults, which Robert will be teaching.

In the end the group discussed the article. We talked about how manager's can't delegate everything (i.e. Kronos, HEAR) but those are things that do keep you busy.

Feel free to add anything if you have your own notes!!!