January 2023 Minutes

APLE General Membership Meeting

January 20, 2023, 6:30 p.m Zoom

Agenda

1. Officer Roll Call

• Teresa Alvarado

• Steve Nichols

• Carlye Seybold

• Michelle Eggert

• David Lutz

• Kim Fisher

• Morgan Rinckey

14 people present

Come to order at 6:34

2. Officer Reports

   1. Chairs

      1. UAW Runoff Election

         1. Denise Barber from UAW talked to us about runoff election. Ballots have been sent out. Please contact the monitors office if you have not received one: call 8554338683 or go to www.uawvote.com. We switched from a delegate system to a voting system. You can find a list of candidates at uaw.org. Please consider voting in this election. Monitor is the one conducting the election. You can find the debate FacebookLive.

      2. VASE Committee - January 23 Meeting at Main Library from 5:00-6:00

      3. Staff Awards – January 27 at 6:30pm at Main library.

   2. Treasurer : $263.40

   3. Sold a Story - the science of reading article will be in APLE Matters.

3. Old Business

   1. Contract Books

      1. Everyone should have one.

      2. If you haven’t, please let Teresa and Steve know.

   2. Safety

      1. Recently had a Safety Meeting.

      2. First aid kits – each department and branch should have had it checked by local safety. Will be kept up and monitored by local safety.

         1. Please be aware of where they are located in your agency.

         2. Training or drills on bloodborne pathogens requested.

      3. PITS is the new system for reporting safety issues.

      4. Discussion about sharps bins, should they be put in the public spaces?

         1. Maybe get training on coming into contact with sharp objects like needles.

      5. If there is anything safety related that is not being handled well, call APLE chairs or HR.

      6. A gun threat was made at Sanger. Communication among staff, patrons and safety personnel was not handled well. APLE should have been notified, but was not.

      7. Training or drills on de-escalation and security issues is being pushed for.

      8. When a library closes for security issues, please send an email, even if it’s a simple form email, to let the system know everyone is safe.

         1. Maybe have a color code to let the system know.

      9. Harassment should not be tolerated in the library. If your complaints are not being taken seriously, let APLE chairs or HR know.

         1. In new hire training, are they being told to be empowered in situations like this? May not be happening with new hires, especially training with managers. Should be included in training. Maybe include training for other staff as well.

4. New Business

   1. Exempt Salary Schedules

      1. Switching to a once a year annual increase. There is also a merit based increase.

      2. We used to have merit increases for librarians, but was done away with for fairness.

      3. Determined by your evaluation ; will not get an increase if they are in corrective action.

   2. Probationary Employee Attendance Policy

      1. There are several stages they go through before they are terminated.

   3. Open Positions

      1. 13 open positions – 10 regular open positions.

      2. Focusing on filling youth positions first.

   4. Professional Membership Dues

      1. Remember to fill out JotForm so you can renew your membership. You don’t have to do the report if it is ALA or OLC.

5. Open Floor

   1. Free online courses are available through UAW. Chairs have information if you are interested. There are limited spots, so sign up if you are interested.

   2. UAW has a local women’s committee overseen locally by Denise Barber. There are Zoom sessions about different topics. You can view it on FacebookLive. Men are welcome as well.

   3. Managers should not be asking staff to be at their jobs earlier than their scheduled work time. Also, it’s always good to leave with other people, but you don’t have to wait for everyone if someone is taking too long.

   4. Original branch level programming–

      1. Sylvania is being told they can only do storytime, one teen program, and the rest are centrally planned programs.

      2. Youth Services is saying that branches can do their own programming ; librarians are getting conflicting reports.

      3. Also getting requests for visits to schools. The restriction is one visit per semester per teacher. Nancy said as long as it works with the schedule you can do it.

      4. Contact regional for help if your manager is telling you not to plan original programming.

      5. Youth Services hasn’t sent out any notices on returning to pre-pandemic programming. We need clarification on programming and school visits.

6. Adjourn at 7:42pm.