MARINet Board Minutes

To: MARINet Board and Interested Parties

From: MARINet Staff

CC: Val Morehouse; Glade Van Loan

Date: 03/30/99

Re: 02/18/99 Meeting at Marin County Civic Center, Room 410B, 9: A.M. (Approved)

Attending:

Board Members---Debbie Mazzolini, MARINet Board Secretary (Belvedere-Tiburon Public Library); Anne Montgomery (Mill Valley Public Library); Carol Starr (Marin County Free Library); Sara Loyster (San Anselmo Public Library). Staff---Val Morehouse (MARINet Systems Administrator). Guests: Jerry Baniqued and Susan Forsyth of the Marin County Auditor's Office; Andrew Yon, Marin County Library; Phil Youngholm. Absent: Vaughn Stratford (San Rafael Public Library); Mary Richardson, Board President (Sausalito Public Library).

Approval of the Minutes was tabled until the next regular meeting due to the presentations scheduled for this meeting. Approved Minutes of previous meetings can be found online at http://marinet.marin.org the MARINet Home Page under "About Us". Copies of the latest MARINet Automation Update was included in Board attachments. There were guests to be introduced. Phil Youngholm presented the idea of MARINet sponsoring a reception at the Belvedere-Tiburon Public Library on Monday evening of the Innovative User's Conference. Debbie Mazzolini agreed to approach III about sponsoring a bus to bring librarians from the Oakland conference site to the Library. MARINet would host the wine and cheese for the reception. Next Jerry Baniqued and Susan Forsyth from the Marin County Auditor's Office were introduced to the group. In turn, Board Members introduced themselves. Val Morehouse remarked that two Board Members were absent with notification. The report from the Auditor's Office was placed at the top of the agenda.

 Final Audit Report from Marin County Auditor's Office on Four-Year Audit of MARINet: 

Each Board Member had copies of the final MARINet JPA Audit Reports, General Purpose Financial Statements and Report of Independent Certified Public Accountant for fiscal years 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96, and 1996-97 from the Marin County Auditor's Office. Susan Forsyth began by explaining the contents of the report, including several letters to the Board tucked into the financial statement booklets. She stated the Auditor's opinion was "unqualified", meaning that major flaws were not present in MARINet's fiscal practices and position for the period of the audit. She then proceeded to step through each of the Auditor's Findings. These consisted of recommendations to the Board, together with management responses, concerning certain fiscal procedures or practices. The Board questioned several of the conclusions in the Findings, as did Andrew Yon from the Marin County Library Accounting Department. Ms. Forsyth's recommendation was that the Board consul t an attorney about each of these matters, and their applicability to the MARINet Joint Powers Agreement.

Val Morehouse then requested that Susan Forsyth step through the financial reports for the Board Members, explaining how the parts relate, and their meaning. Ms. Forsyth did so, explaining the difference between MARINet's cash accounting and the modified accrual accounting basis used in Reports. She discussed the state accounting requirements mentioned in the narrative portion of the reports, and explained how state requirements affected the presentation of salaries and benefits, vacation obligation, and investments. She reviewed certain new accounting pronouncements which may apply to MARINet. Then she explained the Combined Balance Sheets' funds and accounts and the meaning of various category labels, as well as how the assets, liabilities, equities and credits interact. The conclusion is the as of June 30, 1997, the last year of the audit, MARINet's financial position is solid.

 Announcements:

Val reminded Board Members that they were scheduled for a working lunch at the Half Day Cape after the meeting, with the new Larkspur Librarian Frances Gordon. Val announced that the tentative date for the Release 12 Upgrade is Wednesday, February 24th. Val passed out copies of more overdues/bills with incomplete patron information to the appropriate library for investigation. Val inquired whether there were any staff changes, staff who have left employment with the libraries or any who had changed location or duties. The Board Members reviewed their staff changes. 

Request for Additional Budget Meeting Before the Board Retreat 

Val handed out the monthly update Budget Report by Category. She stated that work was progressing on budget development for FY 1999-2000, and that she expected to have everything ready for the Retreat. She requested that The Board add a meeting before the Retreat to review the budget materials. That way, it anything needed to be added or corrected, she would have time to propare it before the Retreat. After discussion, the Board selected March 18th as an all budget meeting.

INTRAnet Progress Report

Val reported that the Public Side of the MARINet INTRAnet is officially up http://marinet.marin.org the new MARINet Home Page. This public side of MARINet Intranet, under construction for several months, was unveiled at the MARIN County Board of Library Commissioners' meeting Feb. 10th. The site had 476 visits between Feb. 10th and 15th. Opening day Home Page contents included:

    1. Links to Newbery-Caldecott Award titles.
    2. Links to events for kids
    3. A homework helper link to Redwood High's "How to do Research" Guide
    1. Link to national bestseller lists
    2. Link to business resources on the web
    3. Link that allows users to contact the government
    4. Link to a selection of resources detailing how to "Cite the Sites", do citations of electronic resources

In celebration of the birthday MARINet created a presentation brochure Accessing MARINet > A User's Guide to Web, Telnet, & Dial Access. Brochure masters have been distributed to member Library Directors for use in creating local brochures. MARINet also produced an orientation document to welcome new members of the MARIN County Board of Library Commissioners.  

Better Committees Workshop Feedback

The Board discussed feedback from Bishow's Better Committees Workshop. Val Morehouse reported that she had received a few committee diskettes transcribing the newsprint sheets from the workshop, but that as yet, she hadn't had a change to get them loaded on the Private Side of the Intranet. The first to respond was the Circulation Standards Committee. The Board mentioned that their write-up from the workshop needed to be included on the Retreat Agenda. Val mentioned that a letter from the Adult Services Committee on their charge/objectives is included in the attachments. 

Final Copy of MARINet Goals

Val pointed out that the final copy of the MARINet Goals which had been revised and approved at the January meeting, is among the attachments. She will be reporting progress on these goals monthly, although she hasn't quite figured out what format to use.

Test of WinSelect and Netscape 4.0 @ Mill Valley

 Anne Montgomery reported that there had been some delay in the installs of the test software. She felt that Mill Valley needed to pilot the software past the original date to get a good feel for whether or not it would work with the other software on Mill Valley's machines. So far Mill Valley has noticed some freezing and attempts to use hotmail cause problems. She said that Phil Youngholm has been in to make some adjustments to the setup. She will report again after they have more experience with the programs in the library setting. 

 MCCMC Joint Powers Program Background

 This was tabled until a future meeting since Vaughn Stratford was not present.

 Since Val had nothing to report on the Books In Print or IAC issues the meeting adjourned.

The next meeting will be Mar. 18th at the Civic Center, Rm. 410B, 9:00 a.m.

 Attachments:

 

 Agenda for the February Meeting

 Draft of the January MARINet Board Minutes & Current MARINet Automation Update.

MARINet Budget 98-99 Report by Category as of 2/01/99.

MARINet Goals (as corrected at the January Board Meeting).

 Adult Services Letter responding to MARINet Board Letter

 Copies of the Audit Report and inserted correspondence from the Auditor

 Joint Powers Coordination Program Handout

 MARINet Letter to Cable Franchise Commission.

 Adult Services Committee Letter 1/2/99 to MARINet Board.

 C:\data\board\990218m.doc 03/30/99 vm

 
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