Thursday, October 12, 2017

Staff Meeting Notes 10/12

In attendance: John Hong, Melinda Campbell, Angela Barratt, Russ Wagner, Cyrano Machey, Nicole Lewis, Leona Hoegsburg, Ray Williams, Eric Marques, Antoinette Lee, Elisa Baker.

                Our second Team Meeting since the hurricane closures.

1.       Article Discussion-  About workplace negativity. Through feedback will help John and the others become better managers. The article has skills that are very relevant. Giving staff opportunities to make decisions on their work, or allowing employees to grow. Communication, especially. The article says there is no way to over communicate.

John invites opinions on anything that stands out from the points of the article.

-Ray-  Brings up verbiage, how to say things in a non-negative manner and to rephrase into alternatives. “Walk please” not “Don’t run!”
- Antoinette- treating employees like adults and not children, with fairness and consistency. Don’t automatically assume something.
-Angela- Diagnosing workplace negativity, knowing what people are negative about and talking about this will help employees understand their behavior in certain aspects.
- John- treating employees with consistency, and not playing favorites. No favoritism.

2.       Clock in/ out- Library System Wide initiative. All staff required to clock in and out at the 15 minute period. Must clock in at 9:15am, clock out at 6:15 pm. If clocking in at 9:23 am, you must inform your supervisor. Please notify managers beforehand if you are running late. One or two minutes late is okay, we can be flexible for that. But not at 9:18, for example. This or later must be followed up with an email. Situations for exceptions also require notification to supervisor. Clocking in early also is not permitted. Don’t clock in at 9:10, for example.

This is system wide for all HPL staff. Between the time we have before 6:15, there are tasks to be performed, particularly an anti-clutter effort in the staff workroom, the computers for example, to make sure they are not cluttered with papers or books. Also, Melinda would like us to be ready leave promptly at 6:15.

Ray brought up Kronos issues, when clocking out at 6:15, but Kronos recording it at two minutes later by mistake. This also should be checked through your timecard and any discrepancies should be referred to the supervisor.


3.       Smart Money- Closing Batch.  Make sure to close the batch at the end of the evening. The batch report receipt should be placed in the envelope with the Fines reports and money.

4.       Cotton Club- Team project, called Wanted Poster. Use your imagination to create a 1920’s theme and images of your location and team members. John asks for three staff members to take lead on this project. If interested, let John know and think about ideas for a type of collage or styles we want to use for next meeting. Due date is November 13th.


5.       CMC- Antoinette- Has created a pink poster for pictures of all staff members, and collecting donations for fall festival. Cash donations is fine, give to Antoinette for collections for library location. Bakeoffs, too. Anyone can bring home baked or store bought. CMC will also sponsor a talent show and pumpkin decorating contest. All ideas, donations should be given to Antoinette. Fall Festival is Nov 27th.. .
-          Laptops checkout has changed. Now, checkout is done digitally. Angela created laminated forms with pockets on back for ID’s to be placed in and put in computer cart until laptop has been returned.


6.       Open Discussion- Meeting ran long, no time for open discussion.

Staff Meeting 10/5/2017

In attendance: John Hong, Melinda Campbell, Angela Barratt, Leona Hoegsburg, Russ Wagner, Cyrano Machey, Eric Marques, Nicole Lewis, Richard Ford, Ray Williams, Antoinette Lee.

Not Present- Kameshia Smith, Teresa Eshelman

-          Halloween- Optional dress up costumes

Staff Emergency- How staff would like to be contacted, by phone or text.

Vacation Schedule- Confusion about staff vacations during their normal Saturdays during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. Suggestion to swap weekends. Careful about taking too much time at one holiday for another.

Melinda’s Saturday staff will work two weekends, and John’s will work two others at a time. January 13th and 21st.

Incident Report- Homeless person became aggressive, Eric Walters. If he comes back, staff should call the police. John also requested a trespass sign to put out front.

Cigna Reminder: Health assessments extended to February 2nd. Tell Melinda if you want to take Wellness time to go downtown at Central for travel time.

Monthly Reports- September reports due October 12th. Please submit to John and Melinda before this date. John can provide report template for new staff if needed.

Desk on Time- John wants everyone to report to the front desk on time when scheduled to do so. Any changes to the schedules will be announced by John, but remember to refresh schedule.

Cell Phone Usage- Limit cell phone usage to not on the public floor. 1st impressions are important, cell phone usage detracts from customer service on public floor. Usage is okay in back staff area.

Tagging Holds- John reminds everyone to check books for tagging and program them on any books that staff come across through the day.

Temporaray Barcodes- These should be printed for customers with proper ID, also for learning link accounts. The barcode generator is bookmarked on the browser.

Security Door/Staff Entrance- Entrance to library is an issue: top latch needs to be checked at night. Staff entrance needs to be closed and secured, not propped open. Customers are not to enter back staff area.
Safety- John wants to make sure all staff can drive their cars at night, and have no mechanical problems.

Collier Kudos- Ray commended for straightening shelves and correcting endcaps, Russ for jumpstarting Nicole’s car and changing John’s flat tire.

National Night Out-  very successful outreach, 500 people or more.

Kids’ Corner- Angela- flipkits need to be sent back, Spanish board books to be in the left most cubby are for Spanish board books. Teen room only for kids after 3:00, Kids area ONLY for kids and parents with kids. Treasure Chest- Angela suggests bribing kids with toys from treasure box to help clean up Kids’ room in the evenings.

Open Discussion-

Antoinette attended CMC meeting, will be having Fall Festival, and needs Collier staff to contribute some kind of food. Central 100% contribution from all HPL employees. Also will take staff photos. CMC donations located on ESS portal, make contributions there. Due by October 31st. Consult Agency List booklet to find organization to contribute to.

Cyrano- Djuina will be here on Friday with the Creepy Coin Collector.
                Holds at Collier, holds labels should be placed one inch from the bottom.
                Resume MBK. Held outreaches with community programs, like Scarborough High School.

Kameshia will be out from work for a while. Her volunteers will need direction for shelving and other tasks.





Thursday, September 28, 2017

Staff Meeting Notes/ Nicole’s Birthday, September 28th 2017
John- celebration of Nicole’s Birthday. She is 48 years old today. John welcomes all the new faces to our library branch. He points out that Collier is the Learning Lab for HPL.

We all sung Birthday song to Nicole, and Group photo follows. Djuina promises to take a selfie later. We’ll see how that turns out. Food is then served in buffet style. John passes out ice breaker clues to everyone.  Everyone participates in the Ice Breaker activity.

John Hong, Manager of Collier. Been with HPL for six months
Kameshia Smith. Been with HPL 2 years.
Leona Hoegsburg, 12 years with HPL.
Melinda Campbell, 18months with HPL.
Richard Ford, 3 weeks with HPL.
Nicole Lewis, 9 months with HPL.
Cyrano Machey, 4 ½ years with HPL.
Djuina Hammet, 8 ½ years.
Alisa Baker, 10 years with HPL
Russ Wagner, 5 years with HPL
Angela Barratt, 3 years with HPL
Ray Williams, 4 years with HPL
Eric Marques, 10 years with HPL

Antoinette and Teresa not present.



Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Staff Meeting Notes 8/16/17

In attendance: John Hong, Melinda Campbell, Angela Barratt, Russ Wagner, Cyrano Machey, Nichole Lewis, Teresa Eshelman, Kameshia Smith, Eugene Rodriguez, Djuina Hammlet.

Welcome to Eugene. Previously worked as part time worker at Tuttle. Now full time at Young.

Camp Stream Survey- John requested all staff to do survey. Evaluate how they experienced and utilized time at Collier.

Monthly reports- Make sure to fill out and submit report. John asked for suggestions about the monthly report. Djuina noted that submitting and evaluated HEAR plans are difficult without thorough reports from staff for best evaluation practices. Cyrano asked when reports are due. Reports due by the fifth of the month.

Open Job Lab- Mary sent out presentations to formalize OJL’s to go over modules with staff. John will test staff on modules throughout meetings. Russ will train staff members on the contents of these OJL modules.

Kitchen Mess- John noted many spills in fridge and on counter table. Please clean up after yourselves.

Garbage Disposal- balloons and paper clips found in disposal. John wants staff to be careful about staff throws away through sink. Russ and Teresa both note how CAMP Steam was likely responsible for paper clips in disposal.

Discharging- Staff found books not properly checked in. John wants all to double check items, pop up windows may be the problem. Cyrano notes how SC  not printing receipts correctly and this may be the problem. Djuina notes how DischargeBookdrop not recording time stamps for books returned. Direct recommendation from Fred at CEN. John wants staff to double check items if on the tables and front desk.

Prg Team Questions- Program Team at CEN will visit Aug 28th.  Will observe computer class program on that day. John welcomes feedback and questions about future programs here at Collier.

Childrens’ Programming- Angela notes Ian top reader at 91 hours. Heart party reminder, invitations hand out to public. Storytimes will change in September back to regularly scheduled Fall programming. Back to School, WhiteOak back to school. HISD and Aldine go back Aug 28th.
Angela notes that we have no Solar Eclipse glasses as yet. Notes about KAHN academy partners with College Board for SAT practices through KAHN. Free of charge, questions refer to Angela.

Collier Kudos- John recognizes Russ for teaching kids to play Chess in the TEEN room. Recognizes Teresa for helping to get holds lists down when computers were non-operational. Cyrano recognized for staying on top of PP questions and issues.
Djuina notes compliment about having newspapers out on time, staff very friendly and knowledgeable. John notes how Zoomba instructors enjoyed Cyrano’s assistance. Djuina also noted that HPL has a Tagged Wand that can be checked out for three weeks at a time to scan for tagged and non-tagged items.
New PP Agent starts on Aug 28th, Richard Ford. Very experienced in PP applications at former job.

Open Discussion- Cyrano notes how customers constantly like Kameshia and Nicole’s service to PP customers. 
Djuina notes how COL will have a Roving Reference tablet and will pick it up at CEN on Friday.
Teresa notes that any Spanish Novellas should be housed in the Spanish Section.
John notes that he is in the Leadership Academy.

Kameshia notes her new volunteers need proper supervision and requests staff to help them improve their efficiency. New volunteer Tyler is autistic and may need more patience and help from staff as well. Coy, a volunteer from the Chinese community, is unsure at this time about where he may volunteer his time. 

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

August 9th Meeting Notes

Collier Regional Library
   Weekly Staff Meeting
      09 August 2017 / 11:15 am

ATTENDEES


M. Campbell, A. Barratt, R. Wagner, C. Machey, N. Lewis, T. Eshelman, K. Smith, A. Lee
AGENDA

Open Discussion

Melinda
●        Thanks to staff for all the help with SRR
●        Items from the summer are being returned. Please let's shelve the items that are on the cart
Teresa
●        Magazines: Do not check out the current issues. Also, if the new issue is due to be on the shelves, please do not check out previous issue if the new one has not arrived
○     Magazines that are tagged can circulate. If an issue is not tagged, it is not able to circulate
●        Cabinets: Please keep cabinet doors closed
Kameshia
●        Volunteers are gone, but more are on the way. There are two or three more coming to COL
●        Volunteers will also be coming in to get their pineapple cups




Cyrano
●        We will be launching citizenship classes here at COL in November.
●        Cyrano will be the primary teacher, and Antoinette and John will serve in the assistant capacity

Welcome Sierra! She is training with us this week. She will be working at the Johnson Neighborhood Library

Angela’s Corner

●        Pickup items that are just laying around, and tidy the shelving carts
●        The top readers were selected. The kids’ top reader was Ian Flores. The teens top reader was Alexis Monge
○     Top readers can only pick up their prizes from the location that they registered at
●        Staff can still pass out prizes. No longer can customers log books or sign up

Returning ILLs

●        Wrap AV materials in bubble wrap and slip them into the ILL manila envelopes
●        For ILL books, just place them in the bins going to CEN

Stats

●        Remember to record your stats on the stats sheet
○     Refer to the previous day(s) to be sure that you have plugged in stats for the day
●        Also, use the ESL and Citizenship Class sections and record the questions pertaining to these subjects

Checking in AV materials\Holds

●        When checking in AV, be sure that the DVD inside of the case matches what is on the case. (i.e. barcodes, titles, etc.)
●        When filling holds, make sure that materials we are sending out are in good condition



Thursday, August 3, 2017


Collier regional library
Team Meeting Minutes august 2, 2017
11:15-11:50Am

Present: John Hong, Melinda Campbell, Russell Wagner, Cyrano Machey, Nichole Lewis, Teresa Eshelman, Kameshia Smith, Anthony Howell.

1. Welcome: Anthony Howell
John Hong introduced Mr. Howell who will be working at Moody with a focus on YS.  He explained he has 17 years retail experience and decided to apply to HPL because of the great things he’s heard from friends.  He is happy to be here and appreciates all the trainings.
2. Camp Stream
John informed staff that there was a Camp Stream Field Trip today and tomorrow.  He reminded staff that on Friday, 8/4 the parking spaces to the right of the staff entrance should be unoccupied.  Camp Stream will be parking a Snow Cone truck there on Friday from 12-2pm.  Camp Stream is currently using the projector, both TVs, extension cord.  Staff should email any other equipment that is in use.  Russell Wagner offered to open the library for them at 8am on Friday, 8/4.
3. Citizenship Classes
Recognition to Cyrano Machey and Antoinette Lee for taking on the opportunity to teach citizenship classes.  John will be acting as backup instructor.  All three will attend the training on Friday, 8/4.  Class will be popular with our community.
4. Suspension
John announced two suspensions that occurred on Monday, 7/31.  Israel Cotton: black male, 6’ 1”, beard/glasses, skateboard, has been suspended indefinitely.  James S. Meadows III: white male, mid 50s, 5’ 9”, shaved head, has been suspended for 90 days.  If you see both trying to enter building call the police.  Cyrano, Kameshia and John are familiar with their appearance. 
5. Incident Report/Trespass Warning
Everyone is accountable for filling out an incident report.  Please include as much detail such as names, description, time and witness accounts.  The Incident Report (IR) is available on the Intranet under forms and it is recommended you email a copy to your supervisor for review.  You have 24 hours to report the IR but time will be adjusted to allow you to write a report.  The Trespass Warning is given after a suspension and it is important to give a copy to the individual.  If they refuse, simply notate it in the IR.  If the situation is unsafe, clear the area and call police.
6. Medical Rate Discount
Wellness program is offering its annual $900 annual medical rate discount.  If married, you and your spouse must complete the objectives which are; Biometric screening, online health assessment and four wellness engagement options.  COH employees receive one free annual physical a year.
7. Collier Kudos!
John mentioned that the passport team received a compliment from a customer which read; “my friend and I went for our passports and we received the best service! Both ladies were so helpful and knowledgeable about the process! It was a very good experience!”  Also, Teresa and Russ were recognized for their programs which are gaining in attendance.  They were also flexible to host programming in the foyer and adult space during Camp Stream.
8. Open Discussion
Staff brought up the deposit procedure and why it couldn’t be completed at closing.  Feedback included; being rushed to do the deposit, mistakes still occur in the morning and the need for a training from Financial Services.  In the end the team agreed that deposits can be done at night.  The CSD and SC would be assigned to deposit.  Everyone else would help with cleaning the library at the last hour.  The second person must closely verify the amounts before signing.  It was repeated that amounts don’t need to be written on envelopes and all receipts can go into fines.  It was understood that training new hires on deposit may occur in the morning if necessary.  John will communicate with Dimitri to setup a Smart Money training as requested by staff.

John Hong

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Staff Meeting Notes 7/26/17

Here is a copy of the Meeting Notes from this morning.

Present: John Hong, Melinda Campbell, Angela Barratt, Russ Wagner, Cyrano Machey, Teresa Eshelman, Ashley Ellis, Kameshia Smith, Destiny Stewart, Djuina Hammet, Nichole Lewis,  Chocolate Cake,
John Hong appreciates all the work we do here, Ashley in particular, with all the customers and passports, and training John in particular. Gifts  presented to Ashley. 

Agenda:  Staff Appreciation.  Chocolate Cake cut at the beginning of the meeting.

SRP: Angela  noted that kids can continue to sign up for SRP as late as July 31st, can pick up prizes all the way through August but cannot log more reading hours or books after July 31st. Angela will request more prizes before she leaves next week. Angela much appreciates all the efforts on staff. Beanstack automatically shuts off in August.

Camp Stream: John, starts next week on July 31st. Stream staff will need computers for KRONOS. Computer in lunch area designated as their computer for usage and Angela’s. STREAM were using ALL of our computers last year, too many. We’ll try to avoid problems from last year. John invites info on any Camp Stream issues from staff. John will be at citizenship training on Friday, Aug 4th. STREAM requests parking space for Sno cone truck, cones to be requested for this. Melinda mentioned that we must choose a place safe for the kids, right near the back door. We should keep this area open at 12pm before the library opens.

Safety Issues: John brought up safety issues and recent break in from the parking lot. Don’t leave valuables in sight of locked cars. Joh n will put in request for cameras in parking lot. Be very careful.

Cell Phone Usage: John brought up phone usage out on floor during open hours. Refrain from using cell phone usage out on the floor during business hours. If you must make a call, keep in it back away from customer viewing. Phones can be used for programs as cameras, but this is the only exception. We must set good example for new hires. Djuina brought up debate about phone usage at another branch, but emergency calls should be used on the branch’s private line.

Cyrano brought up the scenario about ordering lunch on cell phone. Melinda suggested doing it in staff area in back. Joh n asks for suggestions. Djuina suggested asking another coworker to cover for you quickly. Joh n simply asked for clarity on this issue. If you must check your order, use private line or website. Limit website usage for food perusal. Djuina suggested: as long as food perusal does not interrupt customer service capacity, use good judgement. Keep customers first and foremost in mind. Keep cell phone usage to a minimum, order food in staff area and keep food update checks to a minimum as well. Kameshia also commented that volunteers follow our example, and we should set a good example.  

Monthly accomplishments: John would like you to think about things that happened this month in terms of training, outreaches, programs offered, particular achievements. All of these will be entered into monthly narrative for Collier to Djuina. John mentions using email to conglomerate numbers and events, to be processed at a later date and not on the spot. Angela mentioned how we stole of OAK’s babies; baby Storytime numbers now very high at 41 babies. Passport services slowing; so far for the month of July Collier has processed 280 passports. QLess; most people using it in house to sign in, John gently reminded Cyrano about passport verbiage, and will be getting it out to the front desk.
John asks that any real achievements be emailed to him by Wednesday night. Kudos to Collier’s politeness as a team, Nicole in Passports in particular by a customer’s comments form.

Meeting halted at 11:52am.