AADL Board Forms Strategic Plan Committee

At its Feb. 17, 2014 meeting, the Ann Arbor District Library board voted to create a committee to lead the process for developing the 2015-2020 strategic plan.

The need for more strategic planning at the committee level emerged during the board’s Feb. 3, 2014 retreat. Members appointed to the committee on Feb. 17 are Nancy Kaplan (chair), Barbara Murphy and Rebecca Head, to serve through 2014.

Also on Feb. 17, the board appointed members to the director’s evaluation committee for the annual review of AADL director Josie Parker. Members are Barbara Murphy (chair), Jan Barney Newman and Rebecca Head. Responding to a query from Ed Surovell before the vote, Parker explained that the director’s evaluation committee is a standing committee, as established in the board’s bylaws. Saying that he hadn’t known about these appointments in advance of the meeting, Surovell said he’d support the appointments, but he objected for reasons that he said he didn’t want to discuss in public. He indicated that he would discuss it with board president Prue Rosenthal at a later time.

AADL board committees consist of no more than three trustees. Because that does not constitute a quorum of the seven-member board, the committee meetings are generally not subject to the state’s Open Meetings Act and are not open to the public.

This brief was filed from the fourth-floor boardroom of the downtown library at 343 S. Fifth Ave. A more detailed report will follow: [link]