Hi, everyone - I'm a Core staff member. Just a quick note that our Code of Conduct can be found at https://connect.ala.org/core/codeofconduct . Please contact me through private chat or at jlevine@ala.org if you experience or see any violations of the Code

If you're not already a member of this interest group, you can join it at https://connect.ala.org/core/communities/community-home?CommunityKey=da8f4d4a-c1d0-4fbf-940a-c56cf78f6452

Taking over means you get responsibilities!

/hides

Though try me in another year and you might be able to twist my arm. 🙂

LOL Kirsten

Nobody understands what we do… except us!

and sometimes they regret when they ask...bc there is a lot to tell them

:-) to Jennifer - exactly that

Hi. I am Lihong Zhu. I don't have a mike on my desktop. I am interested in learning more about consortia. We are in Orbis Cascade Alliance consortia.

501(c)(3)

We are a paragraph in the state budget :)

PALNI is a 501c3

Boston Library Consortium is a 501c3

Marmot is 501c3

CCS is an intergovernmental organization.

Our consortium is a 501(c)3

501(c)(3) public library network - “Steering Committee” board w/ quarterly membership meetings. Dealing with confusion about which body makes which decisions.

University System

Yes, Illinois.

We are part of the Board of Regents in Louisiana, so part of state government.

@ Stephen - always and ongoing need to clarify roles

The Washington Digital Library Consortium is also an intergovernmental organization, controlled by a contract/member agreement between the member libraries and the Washington State Library which is a division of the Office of the Secretary of State. WSL/OSOS has a contract with OverDrive on behalf of the group.

Challenge -- where the decision lives

We have a 6-member Executive Advisory Committee which assists me in managing the WDLC; I refer decisions to them which I don't feel comfortable making on behalf of the group; some decisions (such as the annual budget) require a majority vote of the entire membership per the member agreement. And the Ex. Adv. Comm. also advises me on which other decisions ought to go the entire membership when that's not covered in the agreement.

I think our bylaws are fairly clear that the Board makes policy decisions but our bylaws do call for membership-wide voting for budget and purchasing decisions about $100K must go to the membership for a vote. Our Board is 8 members 6 voted by the membership and 2 appointed.

and understand impact - knowledge and goals - needs an inclusive process

RAILS is technically an intergovernmental org - almost exclusively funded by a grant from the state library

Our Board is elected from our members so they are usually library directors or asst. directors

Stepping away a min

Sry... bad timing. Been waiting hours for the bank to call me back.

No worries

CCS has a decision making process that works well. Here's a document explaining it: https://ccsliborg.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/CCSTraining/ERnqSZ72SD1Bjk2i4zupSssBCotVF1tKXC_LYMcLAnmv3Q?e=9PDOBT

Ooh thanks Rachel!

We also have committees that make recommendations on policy issues to our board. We are mostly public libraries and one academic library.

Our 15-member board is elected, and is required by state law to include a majority of public library trustees. Other seats are at-large or representing specific other library types.

We are also a 501(c)(3). Budget, bylaws, and polices are governed by the Membership but the Board essentially has the rest of the responsibilities and they delegate as they see fit to committees, advisory groups, or central office staff. There are 11 Board members: 2 from each of fifth of the library population sizes (on staggered 2yr terms) and then one rotating at-large member (alphabetically by library name on 1yr terms). Each "caucus" of "library size" meets each summer to choose who will succeed the outgoing Board member come 1/1.

Much of this changed as of 1/1/22 as part of an exhaustive (exhausting?) governance restructuring.

We have a Director's Council that meets once a year. They approve bylaws and the strategic plan. They also elect an Executive Board who budgets, contracts and member fees.

We do quarterly invoices for membership fees.

Some pay faster than others. Town libraries typically take longer that the 501(c)(3) libraries.

WDLC (all public libraries) divide costs strictly on a population served basis. Almost all libraries pay annually, but we offer the option of semi-annual or quarterly payment. The OSOS fiscal dept. actually does the invoicing, and manages the accounting.

Years ago when I worked at Palinet they had a spot for a lawyer and a finance person so maybe networks like Amigos shared their approaches back them

Thanks Anne!

Or you get punished for living in a poor highly populated urban community based on pop.

We’re pop based with a base.

Financial models -- pop served, usage, FTE, budget

We use a 3 year rolling average of FTE as reported to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).

I want to move to a 3 year rolling average using a number of factors.

We also, as an ILS consortia, are always trying to balance those who pay with $$$s and those who pay with active participation in resource sharing -- how do we reward net lenders for example

We essentially base it entirely on the library's annual operating budget, as reported to the State, with certain discounts built in if a library does not wish to participate in one or two services. We found that it doesn't punish anyone punitively, nor does it discourage usage of the services. In the end, everyone is equally not terribly thrilled about it, which I guess is the sign of a good compromise.

Here are our fee schedules: https://www.marmot.org/for-members/schedule-fees

Our public libraries are required to be members in order to receive state aid from the state library agency.

you would not believe the snow we got over the weekend. :'(

We are hoping for spring soon here!

True Phillip -- but when I was in MI they said they were all about local control and when I was in PA they said they were all about local control :) :)

Haha, and here I was hoping other states were better off!

Administrative fee model is useful

I believe that is what SCELC uses on one level too

Lloyd, that's a really interesting price sheet. Do all members pay each fee or can they pick and choose?

Eileen, members pick what services they want.

Thanks!

We base the ILS fee on what III charges us. Some libraries are thinking about switching to FOLIO. We don't know how we will do fees when some are on a commercial ILS and some on open source.

We’re in early days of an ILS RFP. Took a peek at FOLIO. Not quite ready for us imho, but impressed with how far it’s come in such a short time span!

Ours is based on population served and # of branches

just grateful for the space today and listening.

Agreed!

Great image, Stephen

(flying, capes, and such)

We have a ticketing system (Zendesk). We've implemented service level agreements for different types of tickets. We also have designated points of contact for each service type (System Admins, Electronic Resource Admins etc). They are the only one's that can submit a ticket.

Stephen, we have so many similar issues here in IL

Laurie, we use Zoho for our help desk and it has given us a lot of information about what support our members need

Ending a service would be an interesting agenda item for a future meeting!

I’d be interested in that conversation as well.

We’re moving in the direction of defined roles and responsibilities in our member agreements.

I'd love to be there for that conversation. We are doing strategic planning and trying to find the balance of what we want to do and what we have the assets to be able to do.

I've got to leave - thank you! This has been wonderful. I look forward to the next meeting.

Keep the discussion going - if you're not already a member of this interest group, you can join it at https://connect.ala.org/core/communities/community-home?CommunityKey=da8f4d4a-c1d0-4fbf-940a-c56cf78f6452

:D

Great to be here, looking forward to more. Thanks Tracy!

If you're already a member of the group, you can start a discussion by sending an email to ALA-CoreConsortiumManagement@ConnectedCommunity.org

Very interesting conversation -- thank you!

Thanks!

Thanks