Staff Meeting July 18^th 2018

In Attendance.: John Hong, Alisa Baker, Aysia Selders, Aric Jakcson, Leona Hoegsberg, Britney Scott, Edith Partida, Melinda Campbell, Kameshia Smith, Cyrano Machey, Angela Barratt, Nichole Lewis, Djuina Hammet, Russ Wagner, Eric Marques, Richard Ford, Teresa Eshelman.

1     Celebration:  Cyrano’s 30^th Birthday, Happy Birthday party and food served.

       Closure of customer interactions: Many situations around the library become almost hostage emergencies, particularly when people get our help and then spend more time rambling about non-question material

Example:

a.       Customer A requests assistance on the computer for printing documents, then talks about her chewing gum and how different the taste is now from the 1960’s, and keeps speaking about the quality and color of chewing gum.

b.       Customer B requests assistance making a passport appointment, then talks about how his bicuspid is bothering him, but how he’s too cheap to buy health insurance, plus his boss is a penny pinching crab that doesn’t pay him enough to afford it in the first place.

c.       In both cases, the library related problem is resolved, but the customers keep talking and cannot stop. Perhaps they are lonely, or paranoid, but keep talking in a more conversational way and waste staff’s time that could be better spent helping others’ needs on library related problems. A simple clean cut off is required. Staff may be able to step aside to help someone else, or refer the rambling customer to another staff member. Politeness and professionality is key to customers’ needs, but staff must also keep in mind the issue of time management.

3.       Consistency at Service Points:

a.       Drinks on the floor: water only, and should be kept under the desk.

b.       Slow times during the day: Roaming can be done, books picked up and marked as used, customers can be helped on computers, books can be shelved.

c.       Voceras: Larger locations, such as Regional libraries, are recommended to get these to call for service or for manager help in emergencies.

4.       Open Discussion:

a.       Refrigerators should be cleaned out every Friday.

b.       Security cameras? : John has requested them, but Collier is unlikely to get them. Djuina mentions that consistent incident reports filed can help to solve this.

c.       Stat Sheets: Cyrano mentions that only he should be the one to make them. If one for the assigned day is not there, he should be informed.

d.       Air Quality binder is present at the front desk if anyone asks.

e.       Collection Development wand is on the way as well.

Staff Meeting July 11^th 2018

In Attendance: Melinda Campbell, Leona Hoegsberg, Eric Marques, Russ Wagner, Aric Jackson, Aysia Selders, Britney Scott, Cyrano Machey, Nguyen, Edith Partida, Nichole Lewis, Richard Ford, Kameshia Smith.

Substance Abuse Policy:  Everyone should read and sign the substance abuse policy.

Computer Help, One to One: This is any interaction between yourself and computer users needing help. Any questions you answer should be entered according to this policy, and will be posted to the intranet by Mary Hammond in the next few days.

Examples include “Where?”, “How?”, and “What?”  “Where do I find the cookbooks?”  “How do I use the public computers?”  “Where is the Houston Chronicle online?”

All staff should read this and utilize these criteria for determining daily stats questions. These do not include tax or language based questions, these are duplicate questions also included as reference questions. Tax questions include such examples as “Where do I find the tax forms online?” This is a reference question, but not actually a computer based question.

Likewise, informing users about internet safety is a reference question, but not a computer one-to-one question.

Pay Raise:  3% pay increase beginning July 1^st pay period.

Server Room: The door to the server room should be closed at all times during operating hours, and opened up at the end of the workday.

Collier Kudos and Open Discussion:  Russ, Eric, Kameshia, Edith, and Cyrano.

-          SRP prizes: Prizes including Astros tickets. Astros tickets are for tomorrow’s game, so these should be given out today. Also, family pack prizes should be recorded, but problems have arisen while doing this. 

-          Russ will be doing a training class today and tomorrow on using Mobile Circ and Hotspots during outreaches.

-          Nichole wants staff to give any ideas and money for July birthdays, to be placed on Britney's desk in the fish box.

-          Cyrano encourages people to answer phone calls even when not on front desk.

-          Britney refers to community outreach events and the new calendar for outreach schedules on the Collier Blog on the right side under Helpful Links. Anyone who wishes to help with these events should tell Britney and put their names on these.

-          Qless is still giving issues on appointments. We should check the customers’ phones for appointments and take them back to the PP office. 

Staff Meeting June 27^th 2018

In attendance: John Hong, Richard Ford, Nichole Lewis, Aysia Selders, Aric Jackson, Alisa Baker, Teresa Eshelman, Eric Marques, Cyrano Machey, Krystal Smith, Melinda Campbell, Russ Wagner, Angela Barratt, Edith Partida, Britney Scott, Leona Hoegsberg, Kameshia Smith.

Celebration: Happy Birthday to Richard!

Novelist K-8 Plus Training:  done by Leona

                Resources exist to help advise staff and what books to recommend to kids. 

-          The Kids’ Book lists are on HPL homepage under Learn and Explore.

-          Accelerated Reader Bookfinder:

-          See Handout for more information

Time Policies:  The sign in sheet for this is required. It is between the two staff desktops in the back. All staff are required to review these guidelines and sign.Staff location surveys also due by June 30^th. All staff are also required to fill this out.

Open discussion: Please give all empty water bottles and sodas on Angela’s desk for a Kids’ craft on Friday.

Please remember to shelves mystery books in correct location.

Any damaged books found should be noted and emailed to John. We should also continue to shelf-read to prove that the damaged books are not a recurring problem at COL since Mr. Andrews ban from Collier. Mr. Andrews also has been banned from Oak Forest library, and is currently frequenting Hilendahl. 

Liftoff Houston starts July 26^th. Generally taking place on Mondays and Saturdays. All COL staff must concern ourselves with setups on the assigned days. Liftoff is a series of business workshops for start up businesses to develop and compete for prize money.

Passports: Customers should fill out their own forms. Staff are not to do it for them. Translated forms also are available if needed.

July 4^th: HPL locations are closed.

Staff Meeting June 20^th 2018

In Attendance: John Hong, Angela Barratt, Russ Wagner, Britney Scott, Edith Partida, Aysia Selders, Aric Jackson, Jiny Ung, Krystal Smith, Cyrano Machey, Kameshia Smith, Richard Ford, Eric Marques, Alisa Baker, Robert Vazquez, Teresa Eshelman.

Welcome New Employees:  We have many new faces in the meeting, including trainees and summer interns.  New faces introduce themselves.

Suitability Team Activity :  A fun activity, break off into groups of four. Come up with new questions for four different scenarios. Purpose being, we should be very open minded to get the best possible answers to suitable questions. John added that suitability would go both ways, and we should work to ask suitable questions if we wish to get suitable answers.

                Would you be qualified to be a CoPilot?

                Would you be suitable to go on a road 10 hours road trip?

                Would you be suitable to babysit a person’s only child?

                Would you be suitable to be a doctor/surgeon?

Customer Experience Location Survey:

Email sent out for libraries with extended hours. People should answer the survey attached to this email, due by Saturday June 30^th. Which locations would you prefer to work at if necessary? Some locations will have much shorter hours and others will have longer hours. Any questions, please see John. Collier should not be affected as it is one of the extended hours locations.

Time Keeping Policy: All city departments are having issues. John will send out an email about this issue.

Monthly Reports: John has not yet received all May reports from Collier staff. Reports should be detailed with some of your strengths, challenges, and accomplishments, like programs and customer service. Examples include helping to make displays, clean ups, decorations, etc.  These reports also help with your HEAR evaluations for your supervisors. Even staffers that do not actively engage in programs or activities can still add to these and include on their monthly reports.

Open Discussion:  

Angela thanks everyone for their SRP work, and inquiries about any possible issues, such as the Adult Reading program calendars. Also, please bring craft supplies for craft activities.

Kameshia brought up the issue of translating for PP customers. Please remind them that they must bring a translator with non-English speakers for certain things, such as the Oath, which they must be able to understand and affirm to.  It is a conflict of interest for staff members to affirm to the Oath for the non-English speakers. They may sign but not understand what they are swearing to.  The time slots for the PP Office allows for a brief length of time based on appointments, and any translations take extra time. PP documents exist in translations, already, but affirming the Oath and other parts of the DS-11 require verbal communications.  We must work for a solution for this.

Checking the shelves for damages: A form is available for marking the damaged books and will be placed on Eric’s desk. All staff should mark which shelves they have checked for damaged books of any kind.

Staff Meeting June 13^th 2018

In Attendance: John Hong, Melinda Campbell, Russ Wagner Cyrano Machey, Britney Scott, Edith Partida, Alisa Baker, Teresa Eshelman, Leona Hoegsberg, Nichole Lewis,  Aysia Selders, Aric Jackson, Kameshia Smith.

Scavenger Hunt: We will answer questions and take pictures of these answers in relation to them. We will then come back and work in groups of three to answer these questions. The idea is to take pictures of something you feel comfortable or uncomfortable with in the library. When we came back to the meeting room, we discussed our findings in groups of three.

Update on Mr. Andrews: Update, we are still working on him. We have no direct evidence against him yet, but we are working on building a case on him for messing up the Men’s bathroom and damaging books. We must keep on our guard to catch him in the act. People have been suspended for less, but we are working on a case to suspend him from the whole HPL system.

Food Training: Does everyone have a login for the lunch stats? If not, ask John. Generic: email address, password is held by Melinda. The part where it asks for organization type does not work. Lunch setup: signs and tables chairs setup. TV  or music should also be setup. Cleanup is to discard all the food and clean the tables when done.

Open discussion: 

Hotspots: These are very popular, there is a hold list for them.

SRP: Button machine working well, refer to Angela or Leona if it gets stuck.

June Birthday: will occur next meeting. Richard’s birthday

Teresa also recognized for her years of service.

Collier Staff Meeting June 6^th 2018

In Attendance: Melinda Campbell, Russ Wagner, Edith Partida, Angela Barratt, Teresa Eshelman, Britney Scott, Eric Marques, Richard Ford, Cyrano Machey, Nichole Lewis, Alisa Baker, Kameshia Smith

Passport Verbiage:   Answering the phones, please  try to answer them even though they are ringing off the hook. Answer the call and put them on hold when busy. If the Circ desk is very heavy, peak in the workroom and ask for help. Don’t send the calls back to the PP office, especially when there’s an agent up front and available. 

Appointments;  Passport customers  will ask how to make an appointment, so we should refer them to the website page, www.houstonlibrary.org/passports. We also should emphasize to them to come earlier than their scheduled appointment, and if late they may lose their place in the appointment line.  If they need to reschedule they must first cancel their appointment and make a new one. Encourage the PP customers to make the appointment themselves either at home or on our public computers, don’t do it for them. 

Kids’ shelves during Summer: Kids’ area gets very highly utilized during the summer, everyone will be assigned one particular shelf section to maintain and straighten.

Open Discussion: Richard’s birthday was today.

Kameshia suggested about reading levels for kids’ books. Angela mentioned she does this for new hires, she will try to bring this into staff training as well.  Kids’ books are listed by grade level and Lexile rating.  Not all kids’ in the same grade read at the same level, however.

Kameshia also mentioned that available staff members should sign for delivery when present.

Summer interns are coming on Monday the 11^th. May get more volunteers as well, but only one summer intern for Collier.  Only a few volunteers are still available for the summer.

Cyrano mentioned that when marking items used it is not necessary to discharge items in Sirsi first. Marking items as used will show any alerts for the items in question, such as a hold at another branch.

Alisa pointed out that Collier’s book destroyer has moved into Adult fiction.  

Kudos: Melinda, Lubna ,Angela, John,  Leona, Teresa twice, Nicole, Kameshia, Janice, Eric,

Summer Food Training Sign Up

The link to this training is also posted on the right under 'Helpful Links.'

·             To create an account please go to https://houstonfoodbank.litmos.com/self-signup/

·              If you already have an account, please go to houstonfoodbank.litmos.com, enter your email and password and sign up from here

·             Please use the code Summer2018 (This is case sensitive)