Call to Order: This regularly scheduled meeting of the OSL Steering Committee was called to order by  President David Macksam at 9:35 a.m. in the Ocean State Libraries Office.

Present were: Patti Arkwright, Susan Aylward, Howard Boksenbaum, Kathy Ellen Bullard, Paula DiBiase, Joan Gillespie, Diane Greenwald, Chris LaRoux, Shirley Long, David Macksam, Leslie Page, Eileen Socha, Doug Swiszcz.

Also Present: Fran Farrell-Bergeron, John Carney, Liz D’Amore, Anne Grealish-Rust, Barbara Neri, Regina Slezak.

Minutes of the July 15, 2010 meeting: Voted to approve the minutes of July 15, 2010 on a motion by Shirley Long, seconded by Susan Aylward.

Treasurer’s Report: Shirley presented the Treasurer’s Report and there were no questions.

Executive Director’s Report:

-the Circ Heads meeting will address Warwick’s request for an additional loan rule and Providence Public Library’s request to set a cap for fines on their children’s books.

-OSHEAN received $21.7million in stimulus grant funds to increase broadband capacity in RI and MA.

- Server Logic has offered OSL libraries a discount on their Library In A Box web site development product: 1 library-$9500, 2 libraries-$8500, 3 libraries-$7500, 4 libraries-$6500, 5 or more libraries-$5000.

-Cisco has a new training tool similar to the iPad which can be docked to a phone or computer, can be used for streaming video. Joan will be going to a demo.

-received a proposal from American Teleconnect Services, the company from whom the telephone system was purchased. The maintenance period is about to expire and they will extend the warranty for $891/year for repairs and support.

System Staff Report: there are no new reports.

Old Business:

a.)    Stimulus Grant status: all routers and switches have been ordered, couldn’t add smartnet but have bought spares to use as backup. $107,625 was left over from the total allocated for the purchase of routers and switches. Joan is proposing to spend this amount on a new central router for the OSL office, accounting fees for the federal audit of the grant, Airpac and 5 languages for the OPAC (although there is a Syndetics product that is similar to Airpac that we may purchase instead), funds for several outreach events and legal fees related to policy approval. There will be an outreach event at the Cranston Public Library on October 25 that will include George Loftus of OSHEAN and Stuart Frieman of the RI Economic Development Corporation. Will advertise the two trainer positions in October.

b.)   Status of OSL job searches: After 2 rounds of interviews to fill the System Administrator’s position, and not finding a suitable candidate, the search committee discussed a reorganization of current staff that was presented to the Personnel Committee. The Personnel Committee agreed with the restructuring which included creating an Assistant Director’s and ILS Manager’s position, and changing the organizational chart. The reorganization will decrease this year’s salary budget by $10,000. A motion was made by Susan Aylward, seconded by Eileen Socha, to approve the organizational chart, approve the revised job descriptions and approve the revised salaries. The motion was voted on and passed.

c.)    Update on Baker and Taylor project: OSL is nearly ready to begin the trial with WAR.

New Business:

a.)    Organizational Study: David appointed an Organizational Study Planning Committee charged with mapping out what the study would entail, approaches we would like consultants to use, possible consultants, time line and budget. Eileen will chair and Diane Greenwald, Leslie Page and Patti Arkwright agreed to serve on the committee.

Member Comment and questions: The regional reps met to discuss how representation among the four reps should be distributed. They are proposing that the OSL membership fee should be used to create the four new regions: the top 25%, bottom 25%, middle 50% divided into two groups. To implement such a change requires a change to the bylaws so the proposal will be presented to the membership. Doug expressed a concern brought up at the Database Management Committee meeting that some requests for changes are brought to the Steering Committee and presented to the Membership for approval without being sent to the appropriate committee first.

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 10:44 a.m.

Respectfully submitted:

Leslie A. Page, Secretary

Next Meeting: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 9:30 a.m., at the OSL Offices.