There will be no changes to delivery for July 1. Delivery will proceed on July 1 in the same way it occurs on June 30.

It is not yet known what changes will be made to the ILDS form, and we will keep RAILS members informed of new developments.

The specific changes to programs and services are not known at this time. Program integration will occur during FY 2012.

As noted in another answer, that was a typo.  The number should be about 50 vehicles, used almost exclusively to support delivery services.

We expect that all Illinois libraries from any system currently receiving delivery services will receive the same level of service through at least early FY 2012. Planning in conjunction with ISL and the ILA study on statewide delivery may impact services, but there is no information currently on which to base a conclusion that those who currently receive delivery service will be denied service.

For Iowa libraries, the PALS Board has stated its support for maintaining delivery service to all PrairieCat members, including cost-recovery service to Iowa PrairieCat participants. On 22 March 2011, the Merger Transition Board voted to support continuing cost-recovery delivery service for Iowa PrairieCat members.

To the best of our knowledge at this time, there will be no fees for delivery whether or not an Illinois library is a member of an LLSAP.

The plan is for the new system to continue offering the same levels of delivery service for Illinois libraries during FY 2012.  Planning for long-term delivery will take place during FY12. It is not known at this time whether there will be significant changes to the delivery system.

Many factors need to be considered in making that decision, including the availability of dependable alternatives, the cost of alternatives, and the workload of member libraries to enact such a change.  This issue will also be impacted by the ILA study of statewide services currently underway.

What about delivery for Iowa members of the PrairieCat LLSAP? On 15 March 2011, the PALS Board pledged its support for continued delivery service to all PrairieCat members, including cost-recovery delivery to Iowa libraries that remain in PrairieCat. 

On 22 March, the Merger Transition Board voted to support maintaining current service levels for all LLSAP members after 30 June 2011, including cost-recovery delivery to Iowa PrairieCat participants.

The issue of consolidating delivery among the five systems is complex and will take a great deal of study and some additional expert advice to determine a final system design.  The MDT has already agreed that this process cannot take place within the merger design process by June 30, 2011 but is a priority for FY 2012 for the newly merged system. In addition, ISL has recently funded a study of a statewide delivery system and other services. We will not know the outcome of that study for some time. The MDT recognizes that the issue of consolidation of delivery is not limited simply to the location of facilities, however, the needs of delivery is a high priority in the decisions about facilities.

The pre-merger sites of the five systems are expected to remain online for at least a few months, while additional features are developed for the RAILS website. RAILS staff members will also review each pre-merger site's content and move select information to the RAILS site, the LLSAP sites, and other locations.

The RAILS bylaws may be found in the Documents section of this website, at:

http://www.systemsmerger.info/sites/all/files/RAILS_Bylaws.pdf

The Merger 2011 site includes no content that requires a login. If your inquiry is concerning a different website, please submit your request directly through that site.

Full election results are now available here:

http://www.systemsmerger.info/election-results

Unfortunately, RAILS is unable to help libraries with the Museum Pass Program at this time. We must focus on the three core services identified by the Illinois State Library: van delivery, LLSAPs and the Talking Books Service.

Tom Sloan withdrew his candidacy voluntarily when the ISL raised issues about the contract and its compliance with the Governmental Joint Purchasing Act. The Merger Transition Board feels strongly that an Interim Director should be in place on July 1, so they offered the position to Michael Piper, who had been the other candidate during the search process. Tom will continue with RAILS as a member of the leadership team.

There will be an all-staff meeting on Monday, June 20, at 11:30AM, where LIMRiCC representatives will be present to explain all of the plan details. Plan information will be distributed to staff prior to the June 20 meeting.

Systems are considered governmental bodies, despite their structure of independent Boards of Directors. The systems are governed under state law:  Illinois System Act, 75 ILCS 10. The Illinois State Library reviews and approves the Area Per Capita Grant in which the system budget, including personnel costs, are included.

Please
discuss your concern with your Executive Director when you sit down to review
the offer letter and benefit package.

We appreciate your interest in providing insurance information to RAILS as we bid these lines of coverage. Under our view of the Illinois laws pertaining to competitive bidding rules, we are not able to provide you the information you request, because we are prohibited from providing any unique or individual information to a prospective bidder and are limited to the general information provided to all, which we have already disseminated.

One of our top priorities for RAILS is to establish an email system and a mailing list that includes all RAILS members.  This will allow us to communicate with RAILS members about legislative and other important issues. Other communication tools will be developed as well. Please stay tuned – further details will be coming soon.

The proposed projected budgets of both RAILS and Heartland are posted on the merger websites but neither of these budgets has been approved. This question can’t be answered at this point in time.

There is no immediate threat to services or RAILS.  What is threatened is the timetable. At worst, the merger would be delayed until all issues can be resolved to the satisfaction of the Illinois State Library. All of the systems have sufficient cash flow to carry existing services for a period of time beyond July 1, should that become necessary. At this point, however, everyone is working very hard to ensure that the merger takes place on July 1 as planned.

The page of candidate profiles (http://www.systemsmerger.info/candidate/profiles) has been revised to arrange the candidates by seat.

In addition, a simple, printable list of candidates - also arranged by seat - has been created: http://www.systemsmerger.info/candidate/list.

June 9. The Illinois State Library, the executive staff of the merging systems and Merger Transition Board have continued to work toward agreement on a number of pending issues.

It is the plan for current services to remain the same on July 1, with the intention that fiscal year 2012 will be used as a planning year to make decisions on topics such as this.

The Resource Sharing Policy was adopted without change on May 18.

http://bit.ly/kuiWne

No. There was not time to do a study of library system structures in other states. Hopefully there will be time in FY 2012 to look at other systems in relation to integrating programs.

The Illinois State Library has stated that cost of living and market conditions are not relevant to setting salary scales, only comparable government positions. Pending approval by the Merger Transition Board at the June 9 meeting, current employees choosing to accept a position in RAILS will enter RAILS at their current salaries. The issue of permanent salary scales for RAILS is still pending and will be taken up as an issue by the new Board of Directors.

The issue of sick leave carry-over will taken up by the Merger Transition Board at the June 9 meeting.

Voting Begins Friday, May 27 and closes Friday, June 10 at 12:00PM (noon). See the full election timeline here: http://bit.ly/lpEFxQ

An email will be sent to all members of the five systems notifying them of the ballot’s posting. We hope that all members, including school libraries, will exercise this opportunity to elect the RAILS Board.

Salary discussions are scheduled to begin within the next two weeks. You will be asked to sit down with the Acting Executive Director or Executive Director of your current system to discuss the entire employment package as you transition into RAILS.

MAI used a number of surveys for the RAILS project (8 to be exact). It is best practices to benchmark jobs to more than one salary survey. Doing so gives a more accurate reflection of market rates. MAI has built a survey library containing data from reliable survey sources. Many of the surveys are published by MAI. Below is a short summary of each of these sources:

• The Mgmt Assn of IL 2011 Non-Profit Survey: This survey covers jobs typically found in non-profit organizations. The survey is compiled using data provided by 88 cooperating non-profit organizations in the Chicagoland area. All data is non-profit in nature. Data is broken out by employer size and budget. This was a main survey source for the RAILS project.
• The Mgmt Assn of IL 2010 Library Survey: This annual survey is also published by The Management Association of Illinois and covers 42 library-specific jobs. Forty-two Chicagoland libraries participated in this survey. This survey was used on jobs in the Talking Books department as well as the two LLSAP jobs. These positions mirror jobs found at actual libraries. 
• 2010-2011 Association Forum Compensation Survey: This survey is sponsored by The Association Forum, which is essentially an "Association of Associations" in the Chicagoland area. They have approximately 3000 members, 120 of which participated in this survey. This survey contains non-profit data covering 73 positions typically found in Association-type organizations. 
• The Mgmt Assn of IL 2010 Salary Survey: This annual survey covers more than 200 clerical, technical, managerial, and professional positions. Both exempt and non-exempt positions are reported. 291 organizations from the Chicagoland area participated in this survey. Data is broken out by geographic region, employer size, and industry (the Service/Non-Profit/Educational&Social category was selected for the RAILS project).
• The Mgmt Assn of IL 2010 Wage Survey: This annual survey is similar to The Management Association of Illinois' Salary Survey, but covers positions of a production, maintenance, or service nature. 214 organizations from the Chicagoland area participated in this survey. Data is broken out by employer size and geographic area. This survey was only applied to your Delivery Driver and Delivery Sorter.
• Economic Research Institute Online Assessor: ERI was founded in 1987 to provide compensation, benefits, and human resource research for private and public organizations in the form of published reports and software database products. They are a popular survey source amongst compensation consultants. The Management Association subscribes to their online Salary Assessor, which allows one to create custom data cuts based on geographic location, budget size, and company SIC code.
• EAA 2010 National Executive Compensation Survey: This is a national survey sponsored by the Employer Associations of America (EAA). The survey had 1875 participating organizations and contains data for 47 executive-level positions. Data was extracted specific to your budget size, then adjusted to reflect the Burr Ridge area.  Data is for-profit in nature. This survey was used when benchmarking your Executive Director, AED, Talking Books Director, and Technology Director.
• EAA 2010-2011 IT & Engineering Compensation Survey: This survey, sponsored by the Employer Associations of America (EAA), is a national survey. This survey covers more than 220 IT and Engineering jobs. This survey was only used on jobs that fall under the Technology Services department. Adjustments were made to this data to specifically address the Burr Ridge market.

Regarding the MAI Executive Director’s salary recommendation, data from The Management Association of Illinois' Non-Profit survey (non-profit source), The Association Forum Survey (non-profit source), ERI (data is specific to your SIC code), and the EAA National Executive Compensation Survey (for-profit data). The data collected was adjusted to reflect 7/1/11 rates and MAI weighted all four survey sources equally at 25%. A workweek adjustment was also made (survey data is reported based on 2080 hours, and RAILS is using a 1950 standard). MAI’s final market recommendation was $178,861. This recommendation is the range midpoint, and represents a competent performer in the job. The Executive Director’s job was given a pay range spread of +/- 20% around the market midpoint. Any pay rate that falls within this range would be considered fair and competitive.

(Answer amended 2 June 2011)

As of May 18, the proposed contract for the Interim Executive Director of RAILS has been withdrawn at the direction of the ISL due to the need to comply with the Joint Purchasing Act. No salary range for the RAILS Executive Director has been determined at this time.

The "about 115" referred to full time equivalent positions. The numbers cited in your question include both full and part time employees. As of May 18, the Merger Transition Board has agreed that all employees of the five systems employed as of June 30 will be employees of RAILS as of July 1. This alters the estimate again. We anticipate that on July 1 RAILs will employ about 145 people given that some employees may choose not to make the transition to RAILS. The administrative chart will not be implemented until after July 1. There will not be a more definitive answer to this question until July.

In the redesign of administrative services, qualifications and duties may have shifted as a result of MAI’s analysis and recommendations on staffing. Opening these positions to candidates within the organization as well as outside candidates ensures that RAILS has filled these positions appropriately. It is also fairest to existing employees who may wish to apply for the new positions, in that more than one existing employee may wish to apply for the same new position. A fair and equitable process to determine who should get that new position is required.

The process used by MAI to determine position descriptions and to benchmark salaries is reported in the Merger Transition Board document located at:

http://bit.ly/kHQxtr

A complete list of the sources used by MAI for benchmarking purposes is found in Section E. Please review this document and submit to the FAQ any specific questions you have regarding the MAI process based on the MAI report.

The most simple domain names, rails.*, were
taken, so railslibraries.* domains were registered for the new system.

About 145 people, or 115 FTE (full-time equivalent) positions. This will continue to be a moving target as employees choose to join RAILS or pursue other avenues for employment or retirement.

All of the buildings currently operated by the five systems will remain open on July 1. A list of buildings and building information is available at:  http://bit.ly/kHYDWa. Changes in building use will depend upon the results and implementation of the facilities study now underway.

The total number of full and part time staff needed to carry out the three core services are: (1) Delivery = 70 people; (2) LLSAP = 39 people; and (3) Talking Books = 17 people. Additionally, administrative staff will directly support the core services in the areas of finance, human resources, facilities, information technology, and communications. The fleet of vehicles owned by the existing systems is almost exclusively used to support delivery services and numbers about 50 (sorry for the previous typo).

For Fiscal Year 2012, the four LLSAPs supported by RAILS via partnerships with LLSAP member libraries will remain the same. Regarding ILL, member responsibilities will be to agree to lend materials according to the ILLINET Interlibrary Loan Code.

If IMRF is approved as the retirement system for RAILS at the Merger Transition Board meeting on May 18, RAILS will work with the five systems and IMRF to determine if and how accumulated sick time can be credited to the IMRF system.

The decision by the Merger Transition Board to hire an Interim Executive Director for a one year period was based on the need for the merger to be completed by a person who had a detailed working knowledge of the process underway. RAILS administrative positions are not considered interim appointments, are not for a one year period, and will not primarily focus on completing the merger. Not every position in the new RAILS system will be open to public bidding. Many staff will simply roll into the new system. Regarding hiring administrative staff outside of currently employed system staff, due to the downsizing of the five systems a number of highly qualified professionas who are not currently employed by a system, yet offer considerable system experience and expertise, may be interested in applying for RAILS positions. Additionally, some RAILS administrative positions require education, experience, and/or expertise that may only be met by hiring from the larger service community.

The organization chart shows only administrative positions, so it is of course heavily weighted towards administration. It includes new positions as well as pre-existing management positions. On July 1, the new system will have approximately 115 staff working in seven buildings spread over 27,000 square miles and will operate a fleet of approximately 50 [corrected 2011 May 13; typo fixed] vehicles. RAILS will have responsibility for managing  over $9 million and will provide services to over 1500 libraries. Such a system cannot be managed by one or two people. A total of six new positions have been created, replacing the management structure of the five systems. This configuration of management  staff will still allow the system to place over $2.5 million in reserves.

As soon as the State Library approves the merger and RAILS is legally permitted to do so, individual conversations with all employees about their future employment will be held.

As noted in the previous response, already accumulated time was granted by the five individual systems, which do not have comparable policies. With five different policies and five different methods of computing time, RAILS would not be able to start all employees on an equal footing. The human resource consultant hired to advise the merging systems has recommended that RAILS begin with a “clean start” and that a new RAILS policy defining sick and vacation leave be adopted by the MTB. It is our understanding that employees have been encouraged to take their vacation prior to July 1. If it is not taken, they will be paid for the time remaining by their existing system. The new policy will be reviewed by the MTB on May 18. At that time, we hope these concerns will be addressed.

Please see the previous answer concerning the MAI process for determining the salary of the Interim Executive Director. Concerning searches for other RAILS administrative staff, positions will be posted on one of two professional listing services. For positions requiring an ALA accredited MLS degree, the positions will be posted on the ALA JobLIST. Other administrative positions will be posted on CareerBuilder.com. No search firm services are being used. Candidates will be interviewed with minimum cost to RAILS.

As previously stated, the human resources consultant hired to advise the merging systems has recommended that the new system begin with a “clean start” to the greatest degree possible. This is particularly important in areas where the five system did not have comparable policies, as is the case with the accrual of vacation and sick leave. With 5 different policies and 5 different methods of calculating earned time off, it was difficult to devise an approach that would allow employees to start on an equal footing. When the personnel policies are reviewed on May 18 by the Merger Transition Board, the specific proposed policy concerning vacation and sick leave will be made public and discussed.

All RAILS positions are being reviewed by The Management Association of Illinois (MAI), the human resource consulting firm selected by the Merger Transition Board. Based on position description, similar sized organizations, and location, MAI conducts an analysis of the appropriate marketplace salaries. For the RAILS Executive Director, MAI determined three salary points: (1) Range Minimum = $143,088; (2) Range Midpoint = $178,861; and (3) Range Maximum =$214,633. The Interim Executive Director’s salary of $175,000 is below the range midpoint salary.

The Reaching Across Illinois Library System will consider whether to arrange direct-purchase discounts for members with selected vendors after the merged system begins operations July 1 and is fully staffed.

The Executive Directors, representing all five systems, applied the criteria to the various available buildings and determined that the Burr Ridge building would be most suitable for the temporary administrative site. (See Document 11.6 in the packet for the April 20, 2011 Merger Transition Board meeting, http://www.systemsmerger.info/docs/431.) The recommendation was made to the Merger Transition Board and was approved. The final choice of headquarters will result from the facilities study now underway. A permanent headquarters will be chosen by the new RAILS Board in FY 2012.

New employees of RAILS will have a legally approved benefits plan to consider before they decide to accept a RAILS position. The Interim Executive Director is being asked to accept a RAILS position with no RAILS benefits plan approved or guaranteed. This is a temporary, time limited position, governed by a contract. It should not be assumed that the covenants of this contract will apply to the entire staff of RAILS.

RAILS is a new organization with a new set of performance expectations from the ISL. One advantage of enacting a clean break is that it allows the organization to consider its relationship with employees in light of this new reality, without the necessity of carrying forward all legacy practices from its predecessor organizations. In addition, the employment practices of the five systems vary. Rather than attempting to find some middle ground among the practices of the five merging systems, it allows RAILS to look at market benchmarks as the basis for determining salary ranges, benefits, sick leave, vacation and retirement. This approach provides increased flexibility in how RAILS will meet its obligations to employees. This does not necessarily mean all these aspects of an employee’s compensation will change for the worse once the merger is complete. It does mean that the entire package of employee compensation can be looked at with fresh eyes.

Library staff who are registered voters in the area covered by the Reaching Across Illinois Library System are eligible for nomination to the Board of RAILS. If they are trustees of their local public library, they may run for one of the Public Library seats. If they are affiliated with a school, academic, or special library they may run for one of those seats. Library staff members who meet the general requirement to be a registered voter in the RAILS area are also eligible for the at-large seats, regardless of library type.

ISL’s Area and Per Capita Grant application for FY2012 specifically excludes professional development and consulting from consideration as uses for these funds.   We recognize that this is a hardship for members and will advocate for the return of these services in some form as soon as possible given the current economic situation.

The  Communications Sub-Committee included the rationale because they thought members would be interested.  Members are encouraged to use whatever criteria they wish in choosing a name from among the options offered, including your sense of whether the public will react well to the  name.

Thank you for your input.  On March 10, the Transition Board determined the model they wish to use for the Executive Director search and chose to appoint an interim director. While we might wish that the change process will come to a halt on July 1, 2011 with the completion of the legal and administrative merger, this is unlikely.   Change is likely to continue as the programmatic aspects of the system are integrated through FY 2012.  The Transition Board is fully aware of  how difficult this degree of uncertainty is for all staff, administrative and programmatic. 

Yes.

The Alliance Digital Media Library (ADML) at ALS is the only active ebook/e-audiobook consortium that's managed by one of the systems in our merger. All other current groups (including NetLibrary consortia in which our members participate) are either member-organized, administered by a third party (e.g.,Innovation Experts), or are offers made directly to libraries by the vendor.

Because the OverDrive agreement for ADML remains in effect for the successor organization of ALS, the ADML group will continue to be administered by the merged system under the group's current terms and pricing. Membership in ADML will remain restricted to public libraries that are currently in ALS. This agreement between ALS and OverDrive runs through December 2012.

On the related subject of online research databases: The SWAN catalog consortium, as a legal entity independent of MLS, is negotiating for renewal of database subscriptions for its members. PALS is arranging for the FY12 renewals of its current database groups to be managed directly by the vendors. ALS, DLS, and NSLS do not currently administer any database group subscriptions.

Past applications for E-rate funds have varied between the 5 current systems.  Some systems have chosen cost savings methods rather than apply for these funds. In March, a Transition Board will be in place and will guide the planning process through June 2011. The board will operate under an intergovernmental agreement approved by all the merging systems. Planning for the FY11-12 budget and grant activities will be made with the direction of the Transition Board. A decision relative to application for E-rate funds will be made during that process.

Shortly, the Merger Design Team will announce the opportunity for all staff and boards of member libraries and systems to contribute to the naming process. The Transition Board will adopt the new name by the end of March.

It is not yet known whether there will be more than one administrative location. There will definitely be more than one service location. The design of the administrative staffing pattern and the distribution of administrative staff is now under discussion but no decisions have been reached.

The individual system boards have the same responsibilities they have always had relative to stewardship for funds received, oversight of programming, policy making and oversight of policy implementation for the work of the individual system. They will maintain this role until June 30, 2011.
In addition, they have the role of deciding whether to continue with merger discussions and whether to approve the final merger plan. The Transition Board has the responsibility to shape the policies and programs of the new system and to determine the plan of transition to bring about the merger.

Happily, each system received an FY11 payment within the last two weeks, ensuring that the new system will begin FY 2012 with positive cash flow. While there is no certainty of the amount or date of subsequent payments, The Transition Board, in its submission to the ISL for the orderly transition of services, is required to provide for contingencies such as receiving less than the amount requested in full, or receiving these funds in less than a timely manner.  As part of the preparation of this critical document, scenarios will have to be constructed and priorities set to ensure that critical services are not disrupted. This document is due to ISL by April 4, 2011.

In this fiscal environment, finding ways to increase the efficiency of service provision is not simply a benefit but the key to the survival of these services. The benefits to the merger are not dissimilar to the benefits of having systems in the first place.  The merger will protect our ability to:

• encourage and support cooperation among all types of libraries, facilitating and promoting the sharing of library resources to create wider access to information, including access for persons with disabilities;
• improve the cost effectiveness and substantively increase the impact of libraries and their services as vital agencies in creating an informed citizenry by wise use of taxpayer resources;
• advocate to policy makers and stakeholders the value of academic, public, special and school libraries in the information age by working with our partners;
• lead innovation in library services, providing timely information on emerging trends and important research in the field of library science;
• enable libraries to ensure that every resident within the service area has equitable access to the information needed for lifelong learning that supports work, school, or personal growth and development, through technology supports, professional development, consulting, and group purchasing.

The failure to merge may undermine our ability to accomplish any of this. In addition, as the Illinois State Library continues to study the way services are delivered, there will be a need to implement the changes and recommendations that come from that work.  This implementation will certainly be easier with fewer administrative units in place.

While it is difficult to find silver linings in what are clearly storm clouds of apparent bad news, difficult transformations always include the possibility of learning and improvement. Out of the need to invent new ways of providing services with fewer resources may emerge innovations that would never otherwise have been considered, and that, in the long run, may prove to be superior to the pre-existing systems. This is both our hope and our intent.

The LLSAP managers and boards have been meeting regularly in order to clearly identify their needs for support from the new system. It is our understanding that, while thought has been given to combining the LLSAPs, this is not feasible in the near short term and will require longer study. As the LLSAPs are all separately incorporated, consolidation of these systems falls within the purview of their Boards of Directors and is not within the ability of the MDT, Transition Board, or new system Board to enact.

"LLSAP" stands for "Local Library System Automation Program".  An LLSAP is a catalog consortium that is supported by one of the regional library systems, with support funding from the state of Illinois through the system's annual area and per capita grant.

We have confirmed that there will be a physical quorum at the Burr Ridge facility. At the start of the Board meeting, a policy on participating by electronic means from remote locations will be considered and passed. This will allow the Board members at remote locations to participate in the remainder of the meeting.

There will be remote locations for the July 1 meeting, and they are listed on the board agenda on the Merger Website.

There are no appointed representatives from member libraries to the Board of RAILS. All Board members are elected.

There has been no policy decision to that effect made by the Merger Transition Board and no ruling by the ISL that we know of that would prevent RAILS from accepting a new member.

The list of member libraries can be found in document 16.1.1 in the meeting packet for the May 18 Merger Transition Board meeting on the merger website. http://bit.ly/lvxLNr

There are many specific issues that are not specifically addressed in the merger timeline but that will be included in the overall transition plan. Membership criteria is one of these. The FY12 Area and Per Capita Grant application section 4.1 requests "System Membership Criteria". The APC application is due June 1. The Transition Board will enact a policy on membership criteria prior to June 1 so that it can be included in the APC application.

Update, 15 March 2011: 

In the Instructions for the APC application, ISL has instructed the systems to extend the membership of all existing members into  FY 2012.   During 2012, ISL intends to create, in conjunction with the systems, statewide standards for membership criteria.   As a result, the Transition Board will not consider Membership criteria as we stated above.