The new Support Services Manager, Kerrie Goeden, Char Paglini, and Martha Van Pelt met with David Odahl of Wegner LLP on September 20. Points of discussion included the annual audit, bill payment, monthly financial reports, and year end budget adjustments. The same group met on September 26 with Wade Hanna of First Business Bank and September 27 with John Erickson of Houseman Insurance. The meetings were to introduce Kerrie to our business partners and help orient her to the new position.

The System Board’s allocation of representatives was reviewed by SCLS staff since the board by-laws refer to the 2000 census figures (Article IV; Section 2a). Representative numbers based on the new 2010 census will not change the make-up of the System Board. This was confirmed with DPI.

Due to the elimination of the requirement for maintenance of effort in 2012, member libraries will be signing new membership agreements with SCLS. They will also be signing new ILS and technology agreements for 2012. Copies of the new documents are included with the board packet.

The addition of the Fitchburg Public Library has impacted the cluster allocation of the Administrative Council and committees. The Administrative Council voted to realign the clusters to maintain the population balance within the clusters. In 2012 Fitchburg will join cluster 11. Marshall will move to cluster 5; Deerfield and Oregon will relocate to cluster 12.

SCLS staff is working to complete their annual visits to each member library before the end of the year. The director has her four final visits scheduled. When they are done, I will have visited every member in SCLS.

The ILS staff has re-vamped the ILS website in order to streamline the way information about Koha is reported. It includes changes to the “SCLS Status wiki”, “The Koha Known Problems” page and using the “ILS Home Page” for news items on the ILS. The news items will be updated frequently.

Another upgrade to Koha occurred on September 21. The upgrade fixed problems with the “Suspend All” button for holds; lost items with no holds and patrons may now log into the PAC using the last 8 digits of their library card’s barcode. The newspaper index database is now available via a link in LINKcat. The newspaper database provides access to indexes of local newspapers and magazines from Baraboo, Madison, Mount Horeb, Portage and Reedsburg.

The Kraemer Library and Community Center in Plain is advertising for a new director. Kaia Fry, the Director of the Deerfield Public Library, has announced she will be retiring at the end of this year. Lee Schauer, the director for LaValle will also take on the directorship for Rock Springs. Cheryl Becker, SCLS Public Library Administration Consultant, will be retiring December 16, 2011. Mike Cross, Director of the Public Library Development Team of DLTCL retired September 14.

Respectfully submitted by,

Martha Van Pelt