1. CALL TO ORDER
This regularly scheduled meeting of the CLAN Steering Committee was called to order by Chair Kathryn Taylor at 9:45 A.M. at the Warwick Public Library.

Steering Committee members in attendance: Susan Aylward, Carol Brouwer,  John Carney, Fran Farrell-Bergeron, Shirley Long, Anne Parent, Doug Pearce, Pat Redfearn, Regina Slezak, Kathryn Taylor, Ulla Virks. Excused absence: Dan Austin, Peter Bennett

Also in attendance: Elaine Clark (CLAN), Rick Payette (CLAN), Mary Skaba (BUR) and Bob Allen, CLAN's accountant

2. MINUTES OF OCTOBER 27 STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING
VOTED unanimously to accept the minutes of the October 27, 2005 meeting as presented. (Carol Brouwer, Ulla Virks).

3. PRESENTATION OF FINANCIAL REPORTS (BOB ALLEN, CLAN'S ACCOUNTANT)
Bob Allen went through the document titled "Cooperating Libraries Automated Network, Financial Statements, June 30, 2005 and 2004," which had been copied for the Steering Committee at this meeting. He pointed out that the E-rate monies will now be easier to account for because CLAN will be getting the checks directly. The Champlin grants and the pass-through Gates grants are recorded as cash restricted to purchase of computer equipment (on the Assets section of the Financial Statement) and as Temporarily Restricted Net Assets (on the Statements of Activities). There is less cash on hand because we are current or paid ahead on most of our bills.

Anne Parent reminded the Committee that any federal grant money that comes to CLAN from OLIS is not eligible for interest, so those funds cannot be held in an interest-bearing account. Elaine assured the Committee that the $50,000 grant received from OLIS toward Millennium has already been expended.

Kathryn Taylor asked if we should be concerned by NOTE 6 in the accompanying text of the Financial Statements "Concentrations of Credit Risk," in which it is reported that CLAN keeps all of its accounts at one bank. Our deposited assets in the checking and savings accounts at Bank of America exceed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation balance of $100,000. Bob Allen assured the Committee that this note is more of a required disclosure than an issue of concern. Organizations and corporations with far greater assets than CLAN often have account balances in one financial institution, which exceed the FDIC insured amount. He suggested it would be appropriate for CLAN to obtain the current annual report for Bank of America and have it on file in the CLAN office.

The Committee discussed the issue of cash flow and cash on deposit and whether CLAN should be taking a portion of the cash and transferring it into some higher interest-bearing vehicles such as a 12-month CD or a shorter-term CD. Elaine cautioned that we need to be careful about reducing the cash flow, particularly this year as we work through the Triple I migration. Depending on the time of the year and what expenditures are due, there can be roughly between $25,000 and $100,000 of cash on hand at any given time. Bob Allen suggested that we tread carefully on investing cash, particularly as we are a membership dues organization. We need to ask ourselves if we have money to make money, should we be reducing the membership dues? The general consensus of the Steering Committee was that this is an issue we want to bear in mind for the future. At the present the Committee will leave it up to Elaine to investigate whether it would be beneficial to take a portion of the cash on hand and invest it in a short-term CD.

There were three additional issues that Bob Allen addressed, which require some attention on the part of the Steering Committee: a capitalization and depreciation policy; check signers; and personnel policies. The organization needs to set a capitalization and depreciation policy, which will govern how we report the accumulated depreciation and amortization of capital assets on the financial statements. Specifically, we need to decide the minimal amount for items purchased to be considered capital assets and then we need to decide what is the useful life of those items. The Finance Committee has already begun to discuss this issue. Shirley Long said that the Finance Committee will be meeting in January and will write up a draft of the depreciation and capitalization policy, which they will fax to Bob Allen for his review. One issue that will need to be addressed as part of this discussion is who actually owns the equipment at CLAN central site.

With regard to the issue of check signers, Bob Allen recommended that we look at the organization's current practice which has both Doug Pearce and Peter Bennett, neither of whom are officers in the organization, as check signers. Bob suggested we might want to consider making the position of the director of the library that hosts CLAN's offices (if it is a library that acts as host) be an "assistant treasurer" or an ex-officio position of some sort on the Steering Committee. This would require a bylaws change. The Steering Committee will begin considering this question. Bob Allen also recommended that we institute a practice whereby checks over a certain amount require two signatures.

MOVED, SECONDED, AND VOTED unanimously to require that any check written in the amount of $10,000 or greater, would require two signatures. (Regina Slezak, Ulla Virks)

The third issue that Bob Allen raised was the need to establish personnel policies that govern the accrual and carry over of vacation time, sick leave, and personal leave. Kathryn Taylor assured Bob that the Ad Hoc Personnel Committee is working on drafting these policies.

Kathryn asked Bob if we have appropriate internal controls. He responded that we do; largely because Elaine, who is the person who opens the bank statement and reconciles it, does not also have check writing authority. Also, since CLAN has a budget and therefore knows the amount of revenue it expects to receive and also has a general idea of expenditures, there is not a lot for him, as accountant/auditor to reconcile. He suggested that we might, from time to time, have one of the officers, or Doug Pearce because he is on site, open the bank statements randomly. Elaine reminded us also, that we have the kind of checkbook that has carbon copies, which is another protection. She also felt it would be very easy for her to save the bank statement unopened and bring it randomly to a Steering Committee meeting to have someone else open it.

Bob Allen recommended that we switch to Quick Books as the software package to keep CLAN's accounts and send Elaine for training in that software package.

Kathryn Taylor reported that as part of general accounting practices, Bob also did an informal review with Elaine and found no instances of fraud on the part of CLAN staff.

4. SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT (Peter Bennett)
Peter was unable to attend the meeting, but sent a written progress report for the Steering Committee to review. Rick Payette elaborated on the report, saying that it is all very good news and things are moving along well in terms of the migration process.

5. CLAN STAFF REPORTS
Rick explained that the Millennium client update will happen automatically once you log into the software. Libraries may experience problems if particular user accounts do not have administrative or power user rights. If any staff member has difficulty, they can call Rick and he will lend assistance. Rick clarified that the Champlin amount awarded to CLAN includes the funds for Millennium that we requested. Since it appears that individual libraries did receive notice from Champlin about the specific amounts of their share of the total CLAN grant as well as the amounts for non-CLAN projects, it will be easy for each library to do its own press release, if they so desire. CLAN will prepare a press release on the total Champlin grant to CLAN, but will not do separate press releases to local newspapers for individual member libraries, as we thought we were going to have to do.

6. TRAINING UPDATE/ISSUES
There was discussion on the RICHI Committee's efforts to develop training for reference and children's staff, primarily in searching the OPAC. The RICHI Committee's report reflected concern on their part about the efficacy of training from HELIN staff since reference service at academic libraries is markedly different from reference service at public libraries. The RICHI members wondered about the possibility of contracting with a public library or libraries in one of the Massachusetts consortia that use Triple I. There was also concern about the effect on training of other consortia using different versions of the OPAC since many consortia have not necessarily upgraded their OPACs every time they have upgraded the other components of the Millennium package. The Steering Committee was very much in favor of the RICHI Committee pursuing contacts with the Massachusetts public libraries with an eye toward developing a proposal for what kinds of training we need and asking the Massachusetts folks as well as the HELIN folks to respond to the proposal. The responses would include what the charges would be. Mary Skaba, speaking for the Circ Heads Committee, said that the Circ Heads can easily train the Reference and Children's staff on what they need to know from a Circulation function point of view. The Circ Heads just do not feel comfortable doing OPAC search training since this is out of their specific area of expertise.

Mary Skaba distributed a draft of the flyer that the Circ Heads have been creating to advertise the system-wide fine free period in January. The Steering Committee had a chance to look at the flyer at the very end of the meeting, after Mary had left, and had several comments and suggested revisions.

7. REVIEW OF LEASE AGREEMENT WITH WARWICK PUBLIC LIBRARY
There was a great deal of thoughtful discussion over the lease agreement with the Warwick Public Library, which had been drafted by the Warwick City Solicitor, and presented to the Steering Committee prior to the October Steering Committee meeting. Discussion centered on four main points: the absence of a clause for both parties to get out of the lease; the reasons for the lease; the amount of the rent; the length of the term of the lease. There was a copious amount of frank discussion on all of these points which resulted in two motions as follows:

A MOTION was made by Fran Farrell-Bergeron, SECONDED by Regina Slezak that CLAN propose that the terms of the lease be for five years, with an automatic renewal for another five years, and that the rent amounts as specified in Article III on pages 5 and 6 for the ten- year period outlined in the lease agreement as presented, remain the same. There were 3 AYE votes; 5 NO votes; and 1 ABSTENTION. The MOTION DID NOT PASS.

A MOTION was made by Carol Brouwer, SECONDED by Ulla Virks, that CLAN accept the 10-year lease with the Warwick Public Library as drafted by the Warwick City Solicitor and presented to CLAN. There were 8 AYE votes; 1 NO vote; and 1 ABSTENTION. The MOTION PASSED and Kathryn Taylor signed the lease.

8. TREASURER'S REPORT
Because of the late hour, the Treasurer had nothing additional to report, beyond her written report dated 7/1/05-11/1/05.

9. AD HOC PERSONNEL COMMITTEE REPORT
The Ad Hoc Personnel Committee presented a draft of a job description for the Executive Director position. This job description will be reviewed at an upcoming Ad Hoc Personnel Committee meeting  

10. OTHER
There was no other business to come before the Steering Committee

11. ADJOURNMENT TO EXECUTIVE SESSION TO DISCUSS PERSONNEL ISSUES
MOVED, SECONDED, and VOTED to adjourn to Executive Session to discuss personnel issues. (John Carney, Pat Redfearn)

The meeting was adjourned at 12:25 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

Susan Aylward
Secretary