C/W MARS Executive Committee Meeting
August 2, 2013
10:00-12:30
Location - C/W MARS Central Site
Minutes (draft)
Present: Sue Edmonds (Milford), Tim Spindler (C/W MARS), Sara Woodbury (Deerfield), Deb Spratt
(Pepperell), Karen Demers (Wilbraham), Ron Latham (Pittsfield), Sheila McCormick (Belchertown),
Kelly Collins (Bolton), Deb Chown (GCC), Becky Plimpton (Sturbridge), Lynn Coakley (STCC),
Debra Gomes (Elms), Jennifer Woodward (Northbridge), and Joan Kuklinski (C/W MARS)
The meeting was called to order at 10:10 a.m.
Introductions by the committee.
Ron moved to accept the June 14 meeting minutes, Sara seconded the motion and it passed
unanimously.
President's report
Election of officers – the committee needs someone for personnel and one more at-large member.
Susan Scott from Holden resigned from the Executive Committee due to heavy workload. The
proposed slate of officers and committee chairs is: President – Susan Edmonds, Milford; VP/President
Elect – Debra Spratt, Pepperell; Secretary – Karen Demers, Wilbraham; Treasurer & Chair of Finance
Comm. – Deb Chown, GCC; Bylaws & Network Agreements – Ron Latham, Berkshire Athenaeum,
Pittsfield; MassLNC representatives – Becky Plimpton, Sturbridge and Sara Woodbury, Deerfield;
Personnel – Vacant.
Ron moved to accept the slate of officers, Lynn seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
Meeting schedule: Generally the executive committee meets monthly second Friday of the month, but
we will need to work around some vacations.
After the group consulted calendars, the following dates for proposed.
Friday, September 6, 2013 (Executive Committee)
Friday, October 4, 2013 (Users' Council)
Friday, October 18, 2013 (Executive Committee)
Friday, November 8, 2013 (Users' Council)
Wednesday, November 20, 2013 (Executive Committee)
Friday, December 13, 2013 (Executive Committee)
Friday, January 10, 2014 (Executive Committee)
Tuesday, January 14, 2014 (Users' Council)
Wednesday, January 15, 2014 (Users' Council SNOWDATE)
Friday, February 7, 2014 (Executive Committee)
Wednesday, February 12, 2014 (Users' Council Special)
Thursday, February 13, 2014 (Users' Council Special SNOWDATE)
Friday, March 7, 2014 (Executive Committee)
Wednesday, March 12, 2014 (User's Council)
Thursday, March 13, 2014 (User's Council SNOWDATE)
Friday, April 11, 2014 (Executive Committee)
Thursday, April 17, 2014 (User's Council)
Friday, May 9, 2014 (Executive Committee)
Tuesday, May 20, 2014 (User's Council Special)
Tuesday, June 10, 2014 (Executive Committee)
Tuesday, June 17, 2014 (User's Council)
FY2014 assessment payments - Tabled to September
Executive committee orientation
Joan reviewed the special packet which included the C/W MARS organizational chart, staff chart,
sampling of recent discussion topics. The Executive Committee deals with policies, the bigger the
decision, the more likely the issue needs to go to Users Council for a final vote.
Executive committee members were asked to share their thoughts on future areas as well as general
committee work  Sue noted the interest in third party systems support, changes coming to Overdrive and eBook
projects in general, device concerns. Impacts to budgets.
Future evergreen updates.
 Becky noted the dynamics of the Committee, appreciative of responsiveness
 Lynn noted that there is so much behind the scenes that the many individual librarians don't
realize.
 Deb Spratt desires more positive comments from the Executive Committee - herald the good
features of Evergreen to counter the past year's negative experiences.
 Jennifer noted that any positive messages shouldn’t be confused with spin. Let librarians know
that as members this is their network. She feels that there will be major changes in the next ten
years.
 Joan noted that there is a perception that C/W MARS is less member-driven. Anyone can come
to meetings.
 Ron noted that the contention has been great, but that libraries have worked though changes in
the past and will continue to survive.
 Tim noted the huge variety of the needs in libraries, and differences in skill sets among
librarians. No one software system will be the answer for all the types of library needs for a
network our size.
 Lynn noted that all other programs had been canned, there is potential with Evergreen with new
types of reports.
 Deb noted the complexity of a consortial group.
Joan reviewed executive committee expectations, conflict of interest needs to be signed (yearly)
Short break
Committee reports
Finance Committee – Deb Chown is now the current chair. The committee looked at a different
funding formula based on population for FY2015. The committee will send out a survey to
directors to determine other factors to consider. Deb had conference call with Sue Atwater and
Joan, and the desire is to develop a predictable formula that is easier for C/W MARS staff to
administrate. Population is tricky for academics. Joan added that Dan Paquette has offered to
analyze survey.
Bylaws committee - Ron requested feedback on the Whistleblower Policies and Code of
Conduct that were not passed at the last Users' Council meeting. The discussion from the UC
included a concern that the policy covered library support staff and not just the Directors. Joan
noted that the Whistleblower policy is required by the auditor. Ron moved to table the Code of
Conduct and revise the Whistleblower Policy, Deb Chown seconded the motion and it passed
unanimously.
MassLNC - Sara noted that soon development will address new features instead of just “putting
out fires”. Joan highlighted that Kathy is looking at a mobile version for Evergreen in the near
future.
RATS - Joan referred to her written report. The draft collection development policy will be
presented at the September EC and for a vote at the next Users' Council meeting.
Statewide E-Book Platform – No contracts have been signed yet. Kelly noted that it is likely
not to be upland running until October/November. The group will be meeting on August 15.
Joan added that this will have a big impact on C/W MARS with MARC records being added to
the database. Joan wishes for an Overdrive API to be developed for Evergreen so users could
discover an eBook and check out without going to separate catalog. Traverse City and SITKA
have done a little bit of work, but nothing ready yet.
Report of the Executive Director Tim gave an Evergreen update. The testing server for Omni Tech for the performance
evaluation will be ready today. They are testing with our data set, and a brick environment that
is similar to our server. C/W MARS has 26 servers that make up the Evergreen system.
Joan added that there will be more discussion in September on loading release 2.4. It is a major
release that will have two days of downtime. Columbus Day weekend is the earliest that it could
be done, but the group felt that November is more likely. The whole database will need to be
reindexed. The “Holds go home” feature is in 2.4, but there are some questions about whether
or not it will function properly. The OPAC and EZ-Proxy server can be accessible during the
switch. The committee will wait on September to vote on the time.
Joan noted that there have been a lot of positive comments on the improvements to the OPAC
brief display.
Anne Savoie discussed the need to purchase a server to replace the Sun servers for a
training/testing server. The increase is to have enough memory to have the same performance
speed as close to a live environment. The funds would typically come from using the
stabilization account. The smaller server for C/W MARS Developer Dan Pearl would come
from the operating budget. Becky asked about the difference between the servers that
MassLNC is using. Anne will check with Kathy Lussier on the configuration.
Ron Latham moved to spend up to $18,000 from the Stabilization Account to purchase a new
training/test server. Deb Gomes seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
Sort-to-light is not a C/W MARS project. MLS will give the network a week's notice.
The Worcester Public Library is completely replacing circulation desk with self check stations.
This has led to the need to develop a third-party fee policy. Joan is working on a survey for the
most likely new technologies at the membership will be interested in. The fee would go to offset
the staffing cost necessary.
Worcester's new 3M machines don't work with PayPal. The City of Worcester prefers deposits of credit
card payments made via the 3M self check machines directly to their own bank on, but C/W MARS the
policy allowing fine payments to be kept by the collecting library, but lost book payments sent to the
owning library of the material means these payments done on 3M would need to be separated. The
Evergreen SIP connection messaging does not currently distinguish between the two types of payments.
Tim Spindler of the C/W MARS staff did a workaround to be able to send a payment from Worcester's
credit card processor to the C/W MARS bank account that receives PayPal ecommerce. C/W MARS
does not have enough staff to accommodate Worcester's request for weekly checks. Joan requested that
the Executive Committee discuss the matter and vote on a policy, as there are several other libraries in
the network that will be using 3M stations in the near future.
A lively discussion regarding banking fees, fines and replacement costs, and staffing issues resulted in
two separate motions. Ron moved to authorize C/W MARS to process fees no more than once a
month, Karen seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
Deb Chown moved that in the case where credit card payments are made from staff workstations or
self-check stations, fines are retained by the library in which the fines are collected, and replacement
costs are payed to the library which owned the material. Deb Spratt seconded the motion, and it passed
with one dissenter.
Joan suggested two types of telecommunications upgrades for some member libraries: replace the DSL
lines with cable wherever possible; upgrade the cable line speeds for libraries that are not on the MBI
project that have not been upgraded free of charge by the cable companies. It will only cost $372.31
for the year, as noted in the report. The Executive Committee supports this suggestion. No vote
needed due to the low net cost.
Deb Chown made motion to adjourn, Kelly seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
Adjourned at 1:00 p.m.