Board of Library Trustees Meeting
July 7, 2009

7:00 p.m.

Medway Public Library

Attendees:

Trustees:

Carol Brown
MaryAnn Cabibbo, Vice Chair
Ed Duggan
Wendy Rowe, Chair (taking minutes for absent Secretary William Roberts)

Citizens:

Margaret Perkins

Minutes:

1. Approval of agenda

   Motion to approve agenda: MAC1, CB2, passed unanimously

2. Secretary's report (June 2)

   Motion to approve Secretary's report: Trustees noted that the June minutes were less entertaining than usual. Wendy pointed out that the Secretary had been in a hurry to get them done before taking a hike. MAC1, CB2, passed unanimously

3. Citizens Speak

4. Budget Report

   FY09: Margaret completed the budget calculation. The fiscal year ended June 30, but we have until Friday (July 10) to submit FY09 budget paperwork. We will submit a transfer request for $9,723.89 from the General Fund to reimburse the Tuchinsky Interest fund; Wendy was worried we'd run out of salary money and so paid more with Tuchinsky funds than she should have, so this will fix it.

   Margaret is certain we made our minimum materials requirement. MBLC rep Diane Carty explained the newly clarified requirement at an ARIS meeting Margaret attended; the materials requirement is now definitely based on the municipal appropriation (possibly including the current year's income to the revolving funds), NOT on the amount the library spent including other sources. This is a very good thing.

   One question remains regarding retroactive pay. The Town Accountant's office calculated how much was supposed to be paid to library employees, and that number was voted at Town Meeting and transfered into our account. But when the Town Accountant's office did the payroll for the retroactive pay, they paid about $2000 less than the Town Meeting approved amount. Margaret asked the Town Accountant about it approximately two weeks ago but has not yet received an answer. Worst case, we'll have to take that money back out of the Tuchinsky Interest if we find out after the transfers that they gave it to us by mistake.

   We spent less Tuchinsky money than budgeted in part because Wendy's $16,000 R&M budget was based on if everything that had broken in the past three years broke all at once; fortunately, that was not the case. But since we had budgeted enough to cover everything that needed fixing, Wendy did not request an Emergency Transfer from FinCom even though they'd assured her the Library should apply any time we need to pay for an unbudgeted repair.

   FY10: The town has switched to Munis for paying bills, so we have all new forms and account numbers. We're supposed to submit on the new forms; it's not set up for the Library to use Munis on the computer.

   Margaret sent around the bills so the Trustees could look at them; we'll go back to doing that for FY10 as we used to in the old days, so the entire Board will be more familiar with the Library's expenses. MaryAnn joined Wendy in signing the bills; the other two Trustees didn't feel the need to sign them since the Board had previously authorized the Chair to sign bills.

5. Acting Director's Report

   Wendy will meet tomorrow 11:30am here with Franklin's and Medway's Town Administrators, Franklin's Library Director and the head of Franklin's Facilities Maintenance regarding the Franklin-Medway Library InterMunicipal Agreements (IMAs).

   Tonight's attendees brought up a variety of topics to be addressed in the IMA discussion, mainly discussing what will happen as soon as the agreement is signed (before we regain our certification):

   • Will Medway residents be allowed to borrow materials at Franklin Library?

   • Will Franklin fill telephone requests from Medway residents via regional delivery?

   • Will Medway residents be allowed to use Franklin-resident-only items? This includes museum passes, special collections, databases (might be licensing issues with the databases)

   • Minuteman/Metrowest insists that just the Director be on the Library Director email list; Felicia will need to forward the pertinent email to Margaret (who represents Medway at Minuteman membership meetings).

   • Will travel time between the libraries be included in Felicia's 14 hours, will it be paid by Medway additionally, or will there be no charge to Medway for Felicia's travel?

   • The chain of command must be clear; at this point, the agreement is for Felicia to work on the long range plan, not to have direct staff supervision in Medway. Also, it must be clear that in Medway, Felicia reports to the Medway Board of Library Trustees.

   Carol noted that our constituents expect that they'll be able to borrow materials from Franklin again as soon as we have this agreement. Ed says (consensus agrees) that once we know what service Franklin will provide, we should put up a sign at the desk so patrons will know what to expect.

   Franklin patrons have been served all along if they come to our Library; that was due to our Board's vote when we lost our certification. We voted at the time that anyone who came into our Library could borrow materials. Trustee consensus is that if Franklin agrees to serve Medway patrons, we will serve them reciprocally (so what they'll do for us, we'll do for them).

   We also need to plan out who gets the email from Medway's website (currently says "email the Director" and Wendy gets it), and who gets Medway@minlib.net email and various other Minuteman email lists now shared up between Wendy and Margaret.

   The honors english "1 Town 1 Book" made progress. Their banner is hung on the Library's front, their poster is on display in the Library, and the Library's website has a blurb saying it's a high school project and directing people to their developing website. This really isn't a Library project, we're just doing what they ask us to do. This makes it difficult for the staff, since the project is new, not all that organized, and is running a bit behind so we don't have much information. Wendy will supply some stock info for the staff to give out when people ask, basically saying we're just hosting the banner and poster but it's the high school's service learning project and people should stay tuned to their website for more information.

   Water infiltration -- water has been leaking into Tech Services, apparently from a split gutter and probably clogged downspout, probably through obvious holes in the mortar. Dave D'Amico said last week that he doesn't have anyone who does gutters but he'll ask around; Wendy hasn't heard back from him yet. She will call Richie the waterproofer we used during the grant and will also check around to find a gutter/downspout repair guy (for there and the back ramp area). This is a big problem; we've been running a fan and dehumidifier pretty much constantly and the dehumidifier fills every 16 hours. We mustn't let the room get damp and moldy again. The room didn't leak while we had the grant, although it had a year or so before that.

6. Assistant to the Director's Report

   Margaret ran a circulation report. It showed our circulation is up a whopping 22% since last June. Much of this is adult books. Our checkouts went from about 8000 to about 10000. She will compare it with June the year before that, to see if it's been increasing all along or whether we're recovering from a slump. This is more than twice the increase at other libraries.

   The Minuteman upgrade will include downloadable books. (Wendy noted that they won't supply The New York Times subscription anymore.)

   Town HR person Sue Ellis sent a vacation time summary for each employee, showing not just how much vacation time each person used but also how much each person has due to the contract. Unfortunately, the numbers don't seem to work no matter how Margaret tries to figure it. She asked Sue about 1.5 weeks ago and Sue said she's set up a meeting because other people say the amounts are wrong, too. No word back yet.

7. Old business

   Ed met with the Town Treasurer about the Tuchinksy Fund investment; he'd noticed that the fund has been getting very low interest and he thinks we could do better. He had Wendy give him copies of the trust fund paperwork so he could show the Treasurer that there aren't restrictions on how the fund could be invested. The Treasurer had told him she needed to know what sort of restrictions are on the fund regarding how it can be invested. Although he showed her there are no restrictions, he reports that she said she's going to leave it where it is in these uncertain financial times. We're the ones who directed the Treasurer how to invest it in the first place, but since the initial investment the Treasurer has handled its investment. Ed discussed with her that we will revisit the issue in the Fall.

8. New Business

   • Revising Margaret's job description

     We wrote and approved Margaret's Assistant to the Director job description in January 2008 to make it clear that it was a temporary position until we hired a Director, so it wouldn't look like we were trying to create a new position in addition to the Director. However, we never imagined anything like this new paradigm wherein we share a Director and have an Assistant taking care of things day-to-day. To this end, the Trustees revised the job description to make it consistent with what will happen while we have an Interim Director. Motion to approve the revised job description (MAC1, ED2) passed unanimously.

   • Part-Time Staff Librarian Job Description

     In the old Library paradigm, we had full-time Staff Librarians and part-time Library Assistants. Our recent layoffs and funding constraints have forced us to consider new employment patterns. To this end, we have drafted a generic Staff Librarian job description that can be used for a part-time position. Motion to approve the Staff Librarian Job Description (ED1 CB2) passed unanimously.

     The Trustees directed Wendy to begin the process of getting Lorie reclassified from Library Assistant to part-time Staff Librarian. She has been doing this work since being recalled after her layoff; we just didn't have a name for what she's been doing.

   • Ed reported on the June Franklin Library Board meeting he attended:

     • They didn't talk about the Franklin-Medway venture, except they talked some about a possible joint "One Book Two Towns" project as they discussed during the May meeting Carol attended.

     • They don't meet over the summer, so their next meeting is in September. They asked if we meet over the summer and Ed said he thought so.

   • Summer programs - we have some summer programs thanks to grants and volunteers.

   • Ed wants to find volunteers to deal with weeding and trimming bushes at the Library. Wendy suggested he coordinate with Fred Sibley, who is far understaffed but tries to keep us mowed.

9. Fundraising

   • Ed asked Wendy last week for a list of all the museum passes and their prices, then wrote a request to Strata Bank's Bryan Christensen on the occasion of Strata's merger with Middlesex Savings Bank asking them to fund our passes. Carol works for Middlesex Savings Bank, so Ed gave her a copy of the letter and asked her to help push it on their end.

   • Nov/Dec B&N fundraiser - Martha Matsuda

   • Fall Odd Fellows roast beef dinner - Chuck

10. Next Meeting August 4 2009

Motion to adjourn (9:00), MAC1, ED2, passed unanimously