Minutes
Board of Library Trustees (BOLT)
Personnel Committee Meeting
September 29, 2020
2:00 PM
Zoom virtual meeting
Committee Members Present:
Carlo Fassi, BOLT Chair, Ex Officio
Mario Payne, Trustee
Celia Nass, Trustee
Virginia Berg, Trustee
Committee Members Absent:
None
Others in Attendance:
Tristan Denmark, Clerk of the BOLT
Call to Order
Chair Fassi called the meeting to order at 2:00pm.
Discussion
Chair Fassi mentioned that he asked the Clerk of the BOLT to send over the packet of metrics that are to be used for the Director’s evaluation, and before getting into the timeline, he wanted to open up the floor to the group – all of them were part of the evaluation last year and he wanted to get feedback on how they felt it went, how well they felt like these metrics rated the Director, and any other comments they may want to give. Trustee Payne said he thought the process was fine last year, though he felt the Director was very hard on himself, but he liked the process of going through them one by one, face to face. Trustee Berg said she was a part of the discussion last year but did not evaluate Director Rogers, as she had not been on the Board for long. She agreed with Trustee Payne that Director Rogers is very hard on himself, so perhaps we consider switching it to where he doesn’t complete his self-evaluation before we do ours; maybe that way he would not be as hard on himself. She did say it’s good to have a leader that can think critically and knows where there is room for improvement. She doesn’t really think we need to do anything different this year. Trustee Nass agreed that it was good to have someone who can be candid about their performance. She said seeing Director Rogers’ self-evaluation prior to filling out hers was thought-provoking and she liked the way it was set up.
Chair Fassi said last year the group was given two weeks to fill out their evaluations, then came together for a meeting where they compiled all of the results and also reviewed Director Rogers’ self-evaluation; several weeks later it was presented to the full BOLT. He said he has no problem proceeding with that same format. He said barring any objections, he would recommend they give themselves a few weeks, then have a second Personnel meeting the week of October 12th or October 19th to present their personal evaluation and have the Director or the Clerk of the BOLT present his self-evaluation, and at the November 19th full BOLT meeting, formally approve the evaluation. He said he also wanted to remind the group that these evaluations are no longer required by City Administration; we are one of the few Boards that still provides an evaluation. He personally thinks it is appropriate to consider with the evaluation to take a moment to reflect on the Library and how it is conducting itself yearly; the rest of the trustees agreed.
Chair Fassi asked the Clerk of the BOLT to email the evaluation out individually to each trustee, and to let Director Rogers know that his will be needed as well. He said we will know the date for the second Personnel meeting when we find out what day in October everyone is available to meet. We will plan to present it to the full BOLT at the November 19th meeting.
There was discussion about the Governor’s possible extension of Zoom meetings, and Chair Fassi said if meetings return to in-person he will be working with Director Rogers to ensure we are meeting social distancing guidelines. There was also discussion on when early voting begins at the libraries; over half of the early voting locations in Duval county are public libraries. Trustee Payne asked the completion date for the evaluation; Chair Fassi said we don’t yet have a date but he would ask for it to be done by October 12th in preparation for the second Personnel meeting. He said it would be different than last year when we met in-person but he thinks he will have all of the evaluations compiled and sent to one person; that person can then share their screen for the meeting to ensure accuracy.
The meeting adjourned at 2:13pm
