River Forest Public Library
Board of Library Trustees
Committee of the Whole Meeting
April 3, 2007

Call to Order
	President Mark Coe called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.

Roll Call
	Present were Trustees Mark Coe, Joan Cusack, Diane Daly, Elizabeth Fischer and Margaret Horstman. Trustees Molly Ryan and Lenny Soffer were excused.
	 Interim Directors Sarah Hampson and Dee Brennan as well as Alice Calabrese Berry, Director of the Metropolitan Library System, and Kay Speyer, HR Director of the Oak Park Public Library, were also present.  Candidate for Trustee Genie Halloran and Bill Dwyer of the Wednesday Journal were also in attendance.

Old Business
	There was no Old Business.

New Business
A. Interim Staffing Needs
	Board members reviewed the draft contract between the River Forest Public Library and the Oak Park Public Library entitled “Agreement to Provide Library Support Services”, which basically states that “both communities …will be able to make use of senior executive affiliated resources during {the River Forest Library’s}Director Search process.” The contract will be valid for up to six months and will provide support with qualified employees from the Oak Park Public Library. The contract will be ratified at the regular May meeting.
B. Discussion of Executive Director Search
	Alice Calabrese Berry, Head of the MLS, has volunteered to help the River Forest Library in its search for a new director. Kay Speyer, Head of HR for the Oak Park Public Library, provided guidance and structure to the Board as they began the process.
The main question posed to the Board was “What are we looking for in a Director?”
Board members volunteered responses including:
~ Hospitality (especially) to families
~Know-how in managing a facility
~Ability to align the Board and the Staff
~Ability to put a fundraising structure in place as the library is constrained by its budget
~Strength in technology
~Leadership 
~Continuation of outreach with Rotary and other local government bodies
~Understanding and building on constituencies
~Managing what we are with regards to staff, which may be that we are a “grooming” library
~Understanding of the culture of River Forest
~Building a “Team Culture” with the staff
~A good understanding of finance and creating a budget
~Willingness to work creatively with employee compensation/performance pay
~Intergovernmental ideas- ability to think across boundaries
~Willingness to work through and manage the elements of the upgrade of the facility
~Willingness to partner with other local libraries
~Integration of services

	The Board examined the “Timeline/Process for Executive Director Search”.
Ms. Calabrese-Barry and Ms. Speyer told the Board that they would report back as to their progress at the May regular Board meeting.

There was no call for executive session.

Adjournment
	At 9:10 p.m. Ms. Horstman moved that the meeting be adjourned. Mrs. Cusack seconded. A vote was taken and the motion carried unanimously.

Respectfully submitted,
Diane Daly, Secretary