Board of
Library Trustees Meeting
June 5, 2008
7:00 p.m.
Attendees:
Trustees:
Elliott Edwards
Meena Jain, Vice Chairman
William Roberts, Secretary
Wendy Rowe, Chairman
Citizens:
Margaret Perkins
Minutes:
Motion to approve the agenda: EE1, MJ2, unanimous
Motion to approve May minutes with the Citizen's correction (Margaret's going to the disaster workshop tomorrow). MJ1, WLR2. Passet 3-0-1 (Elliot warn't there).
Our citizen had a complaint. The draft minutes say that she'd attended the disaster planning meeting. In fact, she's going tomorrow, a discrepancy of more than a month. The secretary will fix the error. And on the basis of his veracity he's considering a new career as a blogger or perhaps in journalism even.
Margaret did attend a new director's and assistant director's workshop and found it helpful.
Also attended ARIS training. Found it to be not as daunting as it's reputed to be.
Year end accounting and the grant spending are in good shape. There's less than $10,000 remaining of the grant to be spent.
Current plan is to be open MTWTH 2-8, FR 10-2. Fall hours would be the same with the addition of Saturday 10-2.
Meena suggested that more morning hours would be good as some parents find it easier to get in with their kids in the morning. Have one 10-6 day for instance. Wendy said that patrons have trouble keeping track of variations.
There'll be some summer programs including one by Elaine Kessler. See list at Summer Events
Won't be able to pay Saturday overtime come fall. Were doing that because of the grant. Will need to look for someone who's willing to work most Saturdays.
One applicant so far. [Post-meeting correction: two applicants]
It was generally felt that there wouldn't be an impact on Medway residents if non-residents were allowed to check out passes the "day of" (actually the day before they get used). Non-residents would not be allowed to reserve them. The trustees generally felt that they'd like to see the passes get used and it's in keeping with what surrounding towns do. This represents a change in our policies. So.
Motion to allow non-residents to check out available museum passes for the next day ("day of"). Non-residents will continue to be barred from reserving passes in advance. MJ1, WLR2. Unanimous.
Postponed.
Currently:
Few libraries charge for this. Margaret said such a policy caused endless grief in Holliston when it was in effect. Patrons determined to avoid the fine would deny getting reminder phone calls and emails.
Any further discussion of fines is postponed until more Trustees are present
Wendy would like to know when the Trustees are available.
Motion to adjourn (7:40), EE1, MJ2, passed unanimously
I finished going through the grant and town budget accounting and as of last week we'd spent or committed all of the funding for Technology and Repairs & Maintenance, and all but about $8K for Books/materials (more are backordered and more still need ordering, so this shouldn't be a problem). Even with increased staffing (more part-time hours so Katherine can process books faster without having to work on the desk and so Margaret can spend more time helping with the bookkeeping and organization), we still have roughly $10K unallocated in the town budget and about the same in the Operating Expenses budget. We have more maintenance (painting, cleaning) that can be done and paid for via grant Operating Expenses, and as we get further into June we will continue thinking of things we should buy (supplies, movies, whatever) using whatever money remains unallocated. It looks like we should be able to spend very nearly all of it, but please do let me know if you think of anything else.
I've made a bunch of phonecalls to grease the skids and have submitted the paperwork to get the checks in time, so unless something goes wrong at the last minute, we should have the following available sometime in June.
Movie license to show most movies (no admission charge) to groups at the library: Walt Disney, Touchstone, Hollywood, Warner Bros, Columbia, TriStar, Paramount, DreamWorks, MGM, Universal, Sony, United Artists and various other independent studios. $385, June 15 2008 - June 14 2009
Book Page 50 copies/month, we let patrons have it for free
I got all the Library Passes we'd hoped for except the New England Aquarium, and also got one new one. Most of the passes still make people pay at the destination, but at a significantly reduced rate. We can't get the New England Aquarium since they only run July 1 - June 30, but we still have the free Mystic Aquarium Pass continuing next year.
PASSES
(We still have the 3 free passes: Mystic Aquarium, state parks, and Wheelock Family Theater)
I finally received a third quote on the cupola (belltower) repair and the contract is in progress (waiting on the contractor's insurance/bond before Town Counsel will approve it), but we should be able to get it done in June.
The Cole Room is painted, the worst paint upstairs has been retouched, and the Story Room painting is in progress. More painting will be done throughout the next few weeks.
The new fax machine has been installed and its document feeder works beautifully so we can drop in a multipage document and it'll fax.
Katherine and I have a bunch of supplies to order, but they didn't have to get in today's accounting cycle so they're next on the list.
My next big project is to see if I can order more of the shelving we've depleted; mostly what we have left from the renovation is the stuff it turned out isn't as useful (shelves too deep or too narrow, or the wrong sort for what we want to hold, or too wide/tall).
Non-grant progress:
I posted our Assistant to the Director job yesterday on the Mass Board of Library Commissioners' job listing website and so far have received one response, from the person who is currently doing much of that work as a consultant (Margaret Perkins). The job posting says applications must be received by June 6, so this should be easy to handle in time for a July 1 start date.