Call to Order and Roll Call
The Governance Committee called the meeting to order at 5:01 pm.
Present: Megan Butman (Board Trustee, Governance Chair), Mika Yamamoto (Board Trustee, Governance Chair), Susanne Fairfax (Library Board Vice President)
Also attending: Elsworth Carman (Executive Director), Alexandra Skinner (Director of Communications), Leigh Tarullo (Director of Collections & Technology), Ashley Boyer (Manager of Digital Engagement)
Public commentators: none
Public Comments
No public comments were received in person or in writing for this meeting.
Web Compliance/Agenda/Meeting Recordings
Ashley Boyer provided an overview of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), highlighting key points through a slide presentation: Digital Accessibility Presentation.
The board faces a challenge: it needs to move away from PDFs, which are notoriously difficult to adapt for WCAG compliance. To address this, the committee recommends that Board information packets should be much shorter, and that financial documents should be distributed in alternative formats and made accessible to the public as soon as they are requested. Here are two drafts of WCAG-compliant board information Draft: Board Meeting Materials & Minutes table and Draft: January 27 board meeting materials.
Another significant topic was the management of recorded Board meetings. Ensuring accessibility requires that all recordings posted online be captioned; unfortunately, automated captioning tools often fall short in accuracy, and professional services are prohibitively expensive. After weighing these concerns, the Committee recommends stopping the posting of recordings. However, the possibility of continuing live streams with automated captions was discussed. Ashley will explore if this complies with WCAG. Similar to financial documents, recordings could be made available to the public upon request without a formal FOIA process. Ashley and Alex also gave examples of other library boards that have stopped posting recorded meetings.
Policy Review Procedure Review
There were minor changes in the review of the policy procedure. The committee recommends accepting these changes.
Exhibiting Art in the Library Policy Review
There were minor changes in the review of the Exhibiting Art in the Library policy, including eliminating redundancy in the policy. The committee recommends accepting these changes.
Consent Agenda Discussion
Elsworth made several suggestions for items to put on a consent agenda, including approving minutes, non-substantive policy reviews, core statistics, non-library reporting minutes (Council of Governments, Intergovernmental Committee, etc.) and personnel. The full recommendation from Elsworth is attached to the meeting minutes. “The Rule of One” in the consent agenda allows any Trustee to remove anything from the consent agenda at any meeting for any purpose. The committee recommends accepting this change.
ED Evaluation Plan for Fiscal Year 2027
The governance committee recommends doing the same type of Executive Director evaluation for February 2027.
Strategic Planning Session Follow-Up
Mallory Edgar has suggestions for the Logic Model for the board to review. There will be a follow-up meeting for the full board to review the suggestions. Elsworth will look for a time when all trustees are available.
Bylaws of the Library Board Review Plan
The committee established a timeline for reviewing the bylaws. Elsworth will plan to have edits ready to discuss at the next governance committee meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday, April 7 at 5 pm.
Adjournment
The Governance Committee adjourned the meeting at 6:55 pm.