SWAN Board,
I am arranging a meeting during ALA with Pam Arnold, our new sales rep Justin Swain, for Saturday, June 24th. Rich has agreed to meet with me and SirsiDynix, and we wanted to see if you have topics you would like to us to raise during the meeting.
Here are the top two issues from my perspective:
1. Enterprise search and relevancy: popular book titles continue to be problematic in returned relevancy and the way display is organized with various formats (audiobooks, hardcover, etc.) needs our direct input.
2. BLUEcloud staff client replacement of Symphony Workflows client: we need some "wins" on this front, as it seems like it will require time for the SirsiDynix software development to reach a tipping point for library staff in SWAN to begin using BLUEcloud instead of Workflows.
If you have other concerns, please email Rich Wolff and myself. Depending on the topics, additional SirsiDynix staff will be included in the meeting.
Rich's direct email is below:
RWolff(a)tplibrary.org
Aaron Skog
Executive Director
aaron(a)swanlibraries.net<mailto:aaron@swanlibraries.net> * (630)326-7022
SWAN Library Services
800 Quail Ridge Drive, Westmont, IL 60559
swanlibraries.net<https://www.swanlibraries.net/> * catalog.swanlibraries.net<https://catalog.swanlibraries.net/>
SWAN Board, Fees Committee:
I most likely will not have an updated document for the SWAN Quarterly meeting next week, June 1. The data needed for the chart must be gathered from the Cook County Treasurer, and I do not have the data yet.
I would also like to talk about the fees with a few of the library directors with the largest increases. This means Oak Park for starters.
Lastly, something annoying happened that I want to alert you to. The Fees Committee was originally operating with Anne Slaughter as the MAGIC ex-officio rep. We utilized an email list feescom(a)swanlibraries.net<mailto:feescom@swanlibraries.net> to share information easily. The draft version of the Fees Document was deliberately not posted online and only shared with the Committee and Board. Anne took the liberty to share the document with the RAILS leadership team, which included the Carolyn Coulter of PrairieCat and Kendal Orrison of RSA. While Dee and others were complementary of the report, I specifically asked them to allow me to work on the document further, to talk with some key stakeholders, and that it was not ready for public consumption. They apologized and requested Carolyn and Kendal not share it further with other libraries. I removed Anne from the Fees email list yesterday once I realized what was going on.
I am very reluctant to get into a Fees overview next week at the meeting unless we have the final document and chart. Due to this, I am going to keep this off the agenda and make a brief comment that we have some additional work and it will be scheduled for an overview with other meetings in June/July and posted online.
Aaron Skog
Executive Director
aaron(a)swanlibraries.net<mailto:aaron@swanlibraries.net> * (630)326-7022
SWAN Library Services
800 Quail Ridge Drive, Westmont, IL 60559
swanlibraries.net<https://www.swanlibraries.net/> * catalog.swanlibraries.net<https://catalog.swanlibraries.net/>
SWAN Board:
As a recap - the completed evaluation form for Aaron will be due to Rich and me by end of business Friday, June 9th. We will then compile them and try to get you a synopsis via email on Monday or Tuesday of the following week, for that Friday's board meeting.
Aaron is working on his self-evaluation and will email that out to you separately, hopefully by end of next week.
Also attached is the SWAN employee performance scores guideline, if this is helpful in determining number scores. If you'd like me to modify this for the ED review process as an official document that can be used year to year, I am happy to do so.
Thank you,
Brande Overbey
Operations Manager
brande(a)swanlibraries.net<mailto:brande@swanlibraries.net> * (630)326-7104
*Please note my new email address, address and phone number*
SWAN Library Services
800 Quail Ridge Drive, Westmont IL 60559
swanlibraries.net<https://www.swanlibraries.net/> * catalog.swanlibraries.net<https://catalog.swanlibraries.net/>
SWAN Board,
I will send an announcement out via SWANcom tomorrow around noon. The MAGIC staff have been informed, as has some MAGIC leadership. The RAILS staff will be emailed tomorrow morning. I have negotiated with RAILS some arrangements I will detail to you all later.
Over the past year many SWAN staff have collaborated with Dawne on a number of projects and everyone is immediately impressed by her abilities.
I am very excited and in fact honored Dawne wanted to join SWAN. She is precisely what SWAN needs for an Assistant Director.
I would ask you to wait until the SWANcom is sent before discussing this with non-SWAN Board library directors.
Aaron Skog
Executive Director
aaron(a)swanlibraries.net<mailto:aaron@swanlibraries.net> * (630)326-7022
SWAN Library Services
800 Quail Ridge Drive, Westmont, IL 60559
swanlibraries.net<https://www.swanlibraries.net/> * catalog.swanlibraries.net<https://catalog.swanlibraries.net/>
From: Aaron Skog
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2017 2:45 PM
To: All SWAN Staff <allstaff(a)swanlibraries.net>
Subject: SWAN Employee Announcement
Hello team,
We have an exciting staffing announcement for you all. We have officially hired our new Assistant Director for SWAN. Dawne Tortorella will be joining us starting on Monday, June 4th. For the duration of the ongoing LINC & MAGIC migration project she will be devoting much of her time in her new role to overseeing this process, and to ensuring that MAGIC continues to have the support that it needs for success.
Dawne comes to us with a wealth of library-world experience, including having most recently helped to leading the MAGIC consortium under while working for RAILS. She has also worked for OCLC, taught MLS and MIS coursework for Dominican, San Jose State, and DePaul, and led her own company Bellcow which provides tech support and IT strategy for libraries and other organizations. We welcome her expertise with libraries, consortial operations and strategy, SirsiDynix, and IT, and feel truly fortunate to have her join SWAN.
I will send out an email to the SWAN membership tomorrow around 12 noon. Until that time, I would ask that you hold off on sharing this information with anyone other than your teammates.
Aaron Skog
Executive Director
aaron(a)swanlibraries.net<mailto:aaron@swanlibraries.net> * (630)326-7022
SWAN Library Services
800 Quail Ridge Drive, Westmont, IL 60559
swanlibraries.net<https://www.swanlibraries.net/> * catalog.swanlibraries.net<https://catalog.swanlibraries.net/>
SWAN Board,
The SWAN Fees Committee has completed its recommendation and is proud to present its report. I have attached this to this email for discussion on Friday.
Based on SWAN Board feedback, we can proceed to issue the report to the membership for June 1, 2017 Quarterly discussion. Until we meet on Friday, I ask that this report be used only for SWAN Board discussion.
For reference, the 2012 Fees Committee issued its final report and is available online. SWAN plans to update this webpage for the 2017 report once it is final.
https://support.swanlibraries.net/content/swan-fees-committee
Thanks again to the Fees Committee that has spent the past year meeting and studying fee formulas.
Aaron Skog
Executive Director
aaron(a)swanlibraries.net<mailto:aaron@swanlibraries.net> * (630)326-7022
SWAN Library Services
800 Quail Ridge Drive, Westmont, IL 60559
swanlibraries.net<https://www.swanlibraries.net/> * catalog.swanlibraries.net<https://catalog.swanlibraries.net/>
SWAN Board Members:
The Friday, May 19th board meeting packet is now available for you:
https://support.swanlibraries.net/sites/default/files/meeting/2017-05-19/pa…
The packet this month is 30 pages long. The Fees Committee has just finished work this afternoon at their final meeting, so that narrative is currently being assembled and will be sent along to you via a separate email. At this month's board meeting, we will be discussing the final fees recommendations, reviewing the Executive Director yearly performance evaluation and assigning this to the group for completion before next month's meeting, and reviewing two new proposed SWAN policies.
We hope to wrap up by lunch time so no lunch will be planned - Aaron will email a follow up with the Fees info as soon as it is available. Let us know if you have any questions!
Thank you,
Brande Overbey
Operations Manager
brande(a)swanlibraries.net<mailto:brande@swanlibraries.net> * (630)326-7104
*Please note my new email address, address and phone number*
SWAN Library Services
800 Quail Ridge Drive, Westmont IL 60559
swanlibraries.net<https://www.swanlibraries.net/> * catalog.swanlibraries.net<https://catalog.swanlibraries.net/>
Hi SWAN Board,
I thought it would be helpful to send out a compiled document for Friday's bylaws discussion. I have numbered it as a handout.
* The first group of documents are thoughts shared by SWAN Board members. (exhibit pages 1 -11)
* Brande summarized those into a single document (exhibit page 12)
* She then made redlines and inserted comments into the bylaws. (exhibit pages 13-27)
Thank you all for taking time to review the SWAN Bylaws document and provide this feedback.
I am concerned about the length of time needed to revise and get precise wording of the bylaws. I think we have a great start with this what has been organized by Brande. I would like to get a sense from you all on Friday if a smaller group should finalize changes and present those in a redlined document to the SWAN Board in May. Brande has offered to coordinate with this group and make all edits.
My opinion is that there should be an second extensive rewrite of the bylaws in 18 months after we determine some of the strategic direction as a 97 member consortium. We should absolutely make some edits now, but identify some that are to be worked on later.
On Friday we should decide if our time should be spent discussing the four strategic imperatives that I wrote, or work on the bylaws. As another approach, I think we can also divide up those four strategic ideas I shared to discuss over several meetings.
Aaron Skog
Executive Director
aaron(a)swanlibraries.net<mailto:aaron@swanlibraries.net> * (630)326-7022
SWAN Library Services
800 Quail Ridge Drive, Westmont, IL 60559
swanlibraries.net<https://www.swanlibraries.net/> * catalog.swanlibraries.net<https://catalog.swanlibraries.net/>
SWAN Board Members:
The Friday, April 28th board meeting packet is now available for you:
https://support.swanlibraries.net/sites/default/files/meeting/2017-04-28/pa…
The packet is 62 pages long. This month we will be getting updates on RAILS Consortia Committee, Fees Committee, usability study, and doing our first round of bylaws review as a group.
Over the past month, you have sent me your very thorough and detailed bylaws feedback and I've done my best to get a rough rough draft of a redlined document ready for your review together on Friday. However, because many of the comments were suggestions of a more vague nature I simply included a comment or highlight for certain areas. I will walk you through the document in what I hope is the easiest way possible Friday. I did not include this redlined document in the board packet since these notes and changes have not yet been reviewed by you and may very well be struck or changed significantly. Once we get this document where we want it to be we can include it in next month's packet and vote to recommend it for membership review if you feel ready to do so.
I am hopeful we'll be concluding by noon so we don't have lunch planned, but if the bylaws review runs over (there are a lot of changes to cover) I will be happy to get a food order placed for us.
See you on Friday!
Brande Overbey
Operations Manager
brande(a)swanlibraries.net<mailto:brande@swanlibraries.net> * (630)326-7104
*Please note my new email address, address and phone number*
SWAN Library Services
800 Quail Ridge Drive, Westmont IL 60559
swanlibraries.net<https://www.swanlibraries.net/> * catalog.swanlibraries.net<https://catalog.swanlibraries.net/>
Hi SWAN Board,
I'm getting started on compiling all the wonderful bylaws feedback I've received so far, and will take a stab at creating a redline doc for you for April's meeting if I'm able to do it in a way that makes sense (otherwise, we can do it together at that meeting if that works better).
If you have any last feedback to share with me, please share it with me by week's end. I hope to have the project all wrapped up by next week.
Thank you,
Brande Overbey
Operations Manager
brande(a)swanlibraries.net<mailto:brande@swanlibraries.net> * (630)326-7104
*Please note my new email address, address and phone number*
SWAN Library Services
800 Quail Ridge Drive, Westmont IL 60559
swanlibraries.net<https://www.swanlibraries.net/> * catalog.swanlibraries.net<https://catalog.swanlibraries.net/>
Hi All,
I want to thank all of your for a productive meeting today and for a very good discussion. I appreciate all of you feeling free to speak your minds, as I feel it helps to build a strong team with a good sense of trust. Thank you too Aaron for being a part of that discussion.
The review list is attached-please send your items over to Brande and we will address them at our April meeting. Thanks for the birthday wishes and I hope all of you have a great weekend!
Rich
Richard A. Wolff, Administrator
Tinley Park Public Library
17851 Timber Drive,
Tinley Park, IL. 60477
708-845-5718
