MORRISON AND MARY WILEY LIBRARY MEETING AND TELEPHONE CONFERENCING POLICY

3/5/07

 

            The fullest participation and attendance in all Library Board of Trustees meetings should be achieved whenever possible and the use of telephone conferencing for meeting attendance, voting and quorum requirements, at least in some governmental meetings, is permissible so long as the conduct of the meeting is in accordance with the Open Meetings Act.  The Library Board of Trustees in all of its regular and special meetings and committee meetings complies and intends to comply with the provisions of the Open Meetings Act.  When needed, the capabilities of telephone conferencing for its meetings, as more specifically set out in this policy, will enhance and further the public’s business as conducted by the Library Board of Trustees as follows:

 

Section l

 

            All pertinent provisions of the Open Meetings Act must be complied with, including, specifically, the proper notice of any regular or special meeting, the proper recordkeeping of minutes of each meeting and the appropriate agenda preparation for each meeting which, in addition, shall be posted along with the notice of the meeting and any use of closed sessions shall be in compliance with the provisions of the Act.

 

Section 2

            The location of the meeting included on the notice shall be equipped with a suitable speaker phone system in order that the public audience, the Library Board of Trustees members in attendance and any staff or guests will be able to hear any input, vote or discussion of the teleconference and that any other location where the Library Board of Trustees conducts regular business shall have similar speaker phone capabilities for use by Library Board of Trustees members, staff or public audience to attend at that location, if requested at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting.

 

Section 3

 

            That sufficient security and identification procedures be employed, either at the outset of any meeting or at any time during the meeting, as appropriate, to ensure that any and all Library Board of Trustees members attending for quorum or voting purposes are, in fact, authorized Library Board of Trustees members with the right to speak and vote.

 

Section 4

 

            As soon as it becomes apparent to the Library Board of Trustees that a meeting will require telephone conferencing, all subsequent notices of the meeting shall indicate that one or more Library Board of Trustees members will or may be attending by telephone connection and the location or locations where speaker phones will be available shall be noted thereon   In the event that the notice of the meeting has already been disseminated and posted, a follow-up notice indicating the above shall be placed as soon as possible.  In the event any news media have filed the annual request for notice of meetings, they shall receive an updated notice in the same manner as given to all members of the Library Board of Trustees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MORRISON AND MARY WILEY LIBRARY MEETING AND TELEPHONE CONFERENCING POLICY (CONT.)

 

Section 5

 

            All Library Board of Trustees members attending meetings by telephone conference shall be counted for quorum purposes and entitled to vote as if they were personally and physically present at the meeting site, so long as the telephone connection exists.

 

Section 6

 

            This policy shall not be construed to mean that tele­conferencing shall be regularly used or used at every meeting of the Library Board of Trustees, but shall be used only as necessary to allow the participation of Library Board of Trustees members who are unable to attend in person due to circumstances beyond their control.

 

Section 7

 

            The meeting minutes shall indicate those Library Board of Trustees members who attend by telephone connection and in the event the entire meeting is not so attended, shall indicate those portions of the meeting which were attended by telephone conference.