Tax forms-we will not have instructions this year!

Here is some important information about the tax forms. We will not be receiving the instruction books this year! 

TFOP Filing Season Update

While we had committed to waiting until next year to making changes to the Tax Forms Outlet Program, the situation has changed.  As you may be aware, IRS appropriations were significantly cut in the 2015 Omnibus Appropriations bill recently passed by Congress.  Unfortunately this puts us in a position where we have very few options.  We want to honor our commitment to you by providing some key products, but we cannot deliver nearly what we have in the past.

For this filing season, we will offer the following products:

• Forms 1040, 1040A and 1040EZ
• Publication 17, one reference copy for each participant (Taxpayers will be able to access Publication 17 in English and Spanish online from irs.gov/Pub17 and, new this year, it will also be available as a free e-Pub for downloading from IRS.gov and viewing on most e-Readers and other mobile devices.)
• Publication 1132, Reproducible Copies of Federal Tax Forms and Instructions

No additional products will be available through the TFOP Program. We will not be sending Form 8635-S, Supplement to Form 8635.

We will fill orders for Forms 1040 and 1040A with the quantities you requested on your order form earlier this year.  Because Form 1040EZ was not on this year's order form, we will send you 75% of your Form 1040 A order quantity. For example, if you ordered 3000 Form 1040 A, we will send you 2250 Form 1040EZ.  It is not necessary for you to place an order for Form 1040EZ; we will automatically ship Form 1040EZ to you once the form becomes available.

Unfortunately, we are unable to offer Instructions for Forms 1040, 1040A and 1040EZ. Your patrons can obtain copies of Instructions through:

• IRS.gov/Forms - to view and download
• IRS.gov/orderforms - to order tax products to be delivered by mail
• 1-800-829-3676 - to order tax products to be delivered by mail

The decision to reduce the number of tax products available to our TFOP partners was not made lightly.  We realize this decision is not ideal and we understand it may impact you and your customers. Please offer Publication 4604 (EN/SP) to your patrons to help guide them to tax products and information available on IRS.gov. We apologize for these late program changes.

January Staff Meeting Notes

Collier Staff Meeting

Wednesday 1/21/15

Present: Djuina Hammett, Sara Pope, Julia Bradley, Cyrano Machey, Trish Bratton, Rose Siegal, Lolita Butler

Not Present: Teresa Eshelman, Amethyst Taylor

1. Associated Materials: When you check in/out an item in Sirsi, if there is a message that comes up that says “Associated Materials” and you have to override it using your login password, we need to be recording this. This shouldn’t be happening, but it frequently happens with things like audiobooks where there are multiple discs. There is a spreadsheet at each of the workstations to record the item id, whether you scanned or used the pad, and your initials.

2. Desk:

• We need to be mindful of our conversations at the desk, both the volume and the content. Sound carries a lot in this building, due to there not being any carpet, and it disturbs customers to hear your conversations when they are working at the computers.
•  If you are not scheduled at the desk, don’t be at the desk. If you are scheduled to roam, you should be roaming, not sitting at the desk.
• Walk customers over to where they need to go. When a customer gets a library card or computer card and wants to get on a computer, it is better customer service to walk the customer over to the reservation computer and walk them through the steps. Don’t just give them the card and point at the reservation system and tell them how to make a reservation. When a customer is looking for an item, walk them over to where it should be on the shelf. If it isn’t there, you can check elsewhere, or offer to put the item on hold for the customer.
•    If you are roaming or on shelf check, if a line is forming, you can approach the customer in the line to find out what they need-don’t go behind the desk first. If they have a question, you may be able to answer it without going behind the desk. If you need to look something up, then it is ok to go behind the desk to help the customer.

3. One on one meetings will be happening soon. Look for an email from Djuina for more details!

4. Cross Training: We will be looking at job duties, since there has been a lot of employee movement lately. Every person will have a back-up.

5. Opening: When you are scheduled to do opening procedures, you can turn on the computers and get the cart out. The person that is scheduled on Self Check first thing will unlock the doors and lock the bookdrop. This gives the person scheduled for CSD time to be ready to answer questions for the people that immediately come to the desk.

6. Report Building Issues: Report building issues to Djuina/Sara if you see something broken/needing attention. Lights in the foyer are on a timer and come on at night only, like the parking lot lights do.

7. Lost & Found: The lost and found is located near the lockers. All lost and found items need to go there. The lost and found needs to be cleared out once a month.

8. Open Discussion: Djuina reemphasized that we should be walking customers to the point of service they are looking for. Trish’s last day was Saturday, and James came from Stella Link to take her place. Julia thanked everyone for helping to market Open Job Lab.

Teen Display: Reading BINGO!

What better way to kick off the New Year than with READING? 

We all know how BINGO goes, but there's a twist. Read as many books as you can to get to BINGO and win a PIZZA party! We thought the incentive might go a long way with this passive program. The BINGO slips are available for teens to pick up and play.