The meeting was called to order at 4:30 p.m. All board members were present except Angela Neeley and Joseph Ferrise, but enough members were present for a quorum.

Vice President William (Bill) Rich proposed corrections to the August minutes: - Replace language related to courts and mandates with "traditional interpretations of statutory law" - "Ms." Rich was printed once instead of Mr. Rich There were no objections to the amended minutes.

Rich gave the Vice President's remarks, where he thanked the Maple Valley branch for hosting the board meeting. (Here's a photo of the branch on the evening of the meeting.)

Michelle Scarpitti gave the financial report, requesting a motion for financials and the donor/gift list. In August, the board received second-half real estate settlement from Portage and Summit counties. All were in favor of adopting the financial report.

Scarpitti said there were over $5,000 in donations since the last meeting. The board moved to accept the donation and gift list.

She also gave the investment report, stating that they received $79,376 in interest. There were no investment changes.

Heather Otto gave the personnel report, where she brought up three ASCPL staff retirements, which included employees who began working in the library system in the 1980s and '90s.

Pam Hickson-Stevenson gave the Executive Director's report, focusing on the library system's new fine-free policy. akronlibrary.org/fine-free

She thanked IT staff for pulling detailed numbers about the effects of eliminating library fines. She said 2,618 patrons began using their library cards again after previously being blocked from use due to fines.

She said this illustrates their purpose behind going fine-free, which is to "get back into a relationship with patrons who hadn’t used the library because of fines."

She clarified that patrons can still be charged for books that are never returned, but the policy eliminates punishment for lateness.

Digital circulation continues to increase as well.

There was a discrepency in the math regarding total checkout numbers in the report. Hickson-Stevenson said she would update this ti reflect original checkout + renewals + check-ins.

Goodyear Branch Manager Tonya Gardella was introduced as the library's new adult services coordinator.

There were no committee reports, so the board went into new business. Summit County Children's Services and Akron Public Schools both requested levy support from the board.

In addition to the board's endorsement, both organizations are requesting yard signs and literature displayed in the system's libraries. The board moved to pass both endorsements.

The administrative report was next, and Maple Valley Branch Manager Tonya Wright spoke about the branch's current and upcoming programs. These include volunteer tutoring, author visits and book discussions in the neighborhood's schools and a new bibliotherapy collection for kids.

Here's more info about Maple Valley and its events and programs: akronlibrary.org/locations/mapl…

Despite a full conference room, there were no public comments. In the "For the Good of the Order" portion of the agenda, the board spoke about the Fairlawn branch's birthday bash being a fun event.

The meeting adjourned at 4:59 p.m. Have questions? Think we got something wrong? Send any questions on the meeting or these tweets to @signalakron. Or email us at documenters@signalakron.org.

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