APLE General Membership Meeting - Friday, November 20, 2020 via Zoom

Chairpersons: Brooke Cox and Teresa Alvarado

Start time: 7:04 p

Roll call: no Eisha Hearn

Old Business -- Legal Services

Recently, a member asked about the legal services that CWA has access to, and asked if APLE had something similar. The answer is no, currently APLE does not have any legal services, but Emilio is checking on this for us. TAAP has offered to pay for a program, if we can find one. Any suggestions?

David Lutz explained that CWA has these services as part of a program they were using to manage their member benefits and had some basic union discounts. If it is still a thing, you can sign up yourself. Also mentioned Legal Zoom as an option. The EAP does say APLE has legal services, but no one is sure what that means at this time. BC will be checking into it.

Updated Dress code

New dress code still needs to be branded, so there is no final copy at this time. New dress code will include some picture examples. The first part has been added since the original draft -- excludes staff from wearing things with phrases/words. This includes political, religious, sexuality, race, age, gender, ethnicity, and profanity phrasing.

Library logos are acceptable. Some Library branded items (ie. for Pride, Black Lives Matter, etc) are acceptable to wear. Program things are okay. The new dress code was sent to the prosecutor's office, and they said that for public service employees, this is fairly common language.

Brief preview for women: Sleeveless okay, but must cover your shoulder. Very dark blue or black jeans acceptable, no tears or fading. On casual day can wear a wider variety of jeans. Pants length, can show ankles. Tight pants with dress cover up. Shoes - some athletic shoes are okay as long as they don't look like running shoes; peep toe sandals okay. Some boots are okay, more casual boots (like UGGs) can be worn on casual day.

Brief preview for men: No mention of a collar, no tie, so but be professional.

Reminder -- if you are not if something toes the line, please change! Business casual works better for the work staff is doing. Casual wear will be allowed through the remainder of 2020. New dress code will start in the new year. Still working on getting some clarification for a few details, but if you have any more thoughts, you can bring them up in the town hall, Tuesday, November 24.

New Business

APLE matters -- What’s up?

Since we are not able to see each other as often, if you have anything to share with the rest of APLE -- graduation news, life changes, fun webinar, articles, etc. -- please send to us!

You may have noticed the articles added to the latest APLE matters. Brooke included one called the Weight We Carry, about vicarious trauma and how it affects our lives, and it includes some changes you can do to take care of yourself.

Staff Awards

Reminder -- Don’t forget to write something quick for one of your fellow coworkers! You don’t have to answer all the questions, just a few sentences. You can find the form on the Intranet landing page.

Annual Leave by Seniority

November 30 is the last day you can submit your time off for 2021. Everyone can put in for their time next year, but managers probably will not approve it right away. Chairs are aware that there are different ways leave is approved.

PCs for People

With this program, only expecting a couple people, but we have gotten 30! This partnership with the Library is making the community see that this is a legit program. LIL has been getting a ton of questions about it, so push it to customers who need it. There is currently a waitlist, which is great!

Staff Well-being

Library will be closed the entire weekend of Thanksgiving for some down time and to de-stress. Saturday after Christmas and New Years off as well. Thanks for the Board and Admin for approval.

Bereavement Leave

Brought to APLE attention that while there is BL for stepchildren, there is no specific time for step parents. In the next contract, APLE will look into this as the nuclear family is not what it has been in the past. If you or a coworker is getting pushback, please reach out -- Jeff Godzak said if not given time off, just means it might need to be AL or PL. No one wants you to not be able to grieve, but APLE can’t help you if it's after the fact.

COVID Protocols

If you have not seen the chart, Jason has put together a chart with different scenarios for what could happen with the Library and services in regards to COVID. Order of scenarios is weird, but the biggest thing is that the library does not have any indications that the library will close unless Gov. Dewine says we need to. May need to alter services, but the goal is to keep people working and keep us safe.

We are currently (as of November 21, 2020) back to Carryout only, with telephone and virtual reference. Our Safeplay Workbook has been working -- we have only had 10 people have been sick, and no community spread from the library! APLE understands that there is still fear, but the State is not going to send us home for months and pay us again. If we offer computer use, we can stay open. Reality is that we have to be open for staff to be secure in our jobs, no one wants to be furloughed or unemployed during the holidays. If we were to close again for less than 30 days, we would be okay, but if the library was to be closed again for months, staff may need to worry about jobs. We will be doing Carryout until the end of the year and into 2021, and we will see how it goes.

Questions:

Rolling back services: Some branches are busier than others. The Library has rolled back services to show that we are in coherence with the Governor. If we do nothing, it will look bad for the public institution. It is not possible to keep the public separate at all branches.

Frontline staff and masks: Biggest asset is your voice. Use your voice to set your boundaries, do not need to be under 6 feet to tell people to put their masks back up. Use common sense, be stern, but polite, and offer a children’s mask to adults if the larger mask is too big.

Workgroup for masks? BC not sure if there is a work group to deal with people who do not want to wear masks, but will check. Kent Branch staff does the three strikes rule, then the customer is asked to leave -- all Kent staff agree on this tactic. Staff should feel empowered to address customers, while also not getting into your space. Use Veyon to help patrons! Grab a glove, use a pencil eraser. Practice Zoom for programs and ask for help if you need it.

Branch closing: Birmingham was closed today (Friday), and other branches were fielding calls about it but did not know why or that Birmingham had closed. What are you supposed to do about that? Marketing and Public Services notification was to email ALL+, so everyone could know. Should have been communicated but it wasn’t. If not enough staff, a branch will just not open. If the branch is getting deep cleaned, it will not open to the public.

Healthcare costs: No increase in healthcare costs next year! Board approved healthcare costs.

Deep cleaning: Branches used as polling centers were deep cleaned by a COVID approved company for us by the election people.

Dress Code pictures: Why is there no diversity in the pictures used in the new dress code? Pictures put in by committee, but agree that there should be more inclusion.

Last call?

End time: 7:59p