Library Preliminary Minutes 10/07/2015
PRELIMINARY MINUTES
STEPHENSON MEMORIAL LIBRARY TRUSTEES MEETING
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2015
Present: Neal Brown, Bob Marshall, Bruce Dodge, Mary Ann Grant, Julie Steenson.
Absent: Jami Bascom.
Guests: Jon Dash, Andra Hall from Crotched Mountain Foundation.
7:02 – The meeting was called to order by Chairman Brown. The chairman appointed Bob Marshall as a voting member for the meeting in Jami’s absence.
7:03 – Meeting with Jon Dash, Residential Director and Andra Hall, School Director from Crotched Mountain Foundation. Julie began the meeting by citing three items that she wanted to discuss with the CMF staff:
The first was a review of a recent incident at the Library that involved a Crotched Mountain student. The student was with her staff and became upset and aggressive toward her staff and Julie. The Greenfield police were called and the student calmed down and left without further issue. The trustees expressed their concern for the staff’s and public’s safety in that situation, and the comfort level of patrons with CMF students who are disruptive when at the Library. The discussion focused on how to best support CMF students and adult residents when they come to the Library so that access to the public facility can remain available to all residents of Greenfield. Jon noted that he should have reached out to the Library staff for a debriefing after the aggressive incident, and that he will do so in the future. Andra stated that the legal mandate for residents is that they must live in the community when they have been discharged from Crotched Mountain, so community interaction while they are residents is needed. Jon assured the Trustees and Julie that from now on, their questions and concerns about Crotched Mountain residents at the Library should be directed to Jon and issues with students should go to Andra, and they provided direct phone numbers to Julie ad the Trustees.
Julie reported that there has been a request that the students at Crotched Mountain School be able to use the Overdrive system. Julie explained that individual library card holders may use the Overdrive system, but the school cannot because it is solely a public library service.
Volunteer requests from Crotched Mountain residents to the Library. Julie reports that she currently has a volunteer from CMF that requires staff time to help them manage their task, and staff doesn’t have time for that, and that all volunteers, per policy, need to fill out an application and Julie matches tasks with volunteers. Andra explained that students who wish to volunteer at the CM school library must fill out an application and have an interview before being accepted. Andra asked Julie to provide her with a copy of the Library volunteer policy, so she can review it with her staff. The discussion concluded with the suggestion by Bob to have an annual or bi-annual meeting between trustees and administration to foster communication, as well as ongoing and direct communication. Everyone agreed that the goal is to have a positive relationship between the Library and CMF.
7: 50 PM – Review of the preliminary minutes for September 7, 2015 meeting. The minutes were reviewed and there were a few changes: on line 8, “238 books” should be 258 books”. On lines 37 and 38, a grammatical change from “by the patrons of all library staff” to “…increased use of the Library has led to increased interaction with all the staff”. On line 60, change “the Trustees directed Julie to choose a service model…” to “the Trustees agreed on a service model.” The motion was made by Bruce to accept the minutes as amended and it was seconded by Neal. The motion passed 3-0 in the affirmative. ACTION: Pat will have the minutes posted to the Town website.
7:55 PM – Treasurer’s report:
Mary Ann provided the Trustees with a year to date report as well as revenues and expenditures. She noted that the budget is on target for the year. There was a discussion about anticipating fuel costs being their highest in January, February and March and that there may be ways to use excess funds before the end of 2015. It was also discussed that there are some maintenance issues, such as the lights inside and outside of the building that need to be fixed by an electrician, and that will need to come out of the 2015 budget. Mary Ann also reported that the treasurer of the Friends of the Library informed her that the current balance in the Merrill fund is $16254.82. Julie reported that she has expended $3011.76 from the Merrill fund for book year to date.
Bruce made the motion to expend the cost of installing a security system in the Library from the Merrill fund, and it was seconded by Bob. The vote was 3-0 in the affirmative. ACTION: Julie will contact Monadnock Security Systems and have them install the system and panic buttons in the Library. The Wensberg room will be separate from the Library system.
The motion to accept the Treasurer’s report as presented was made by Bob and seconded by Neal. The vote was 3-0 in the affirmative.
8:10 PM – Library Director’s report:
Julie provided a detailed report of statistics for the month of September and year to date, as well as October events. She also reported that she and two of the staff will be attending the New Hampshire Library Association/New England Library Association conference in October. Julie reported that she has finalized the numbers for the 2016 budget. There was a discussion about what Julie’s salary should be in 2016. There will be more research done on salaries of communities of comparable size to Greenfield.
Julie will write a year in review article for the December/ January issue of the Spirit. Another article will be written for the February/March issue in anticipation of Town Meeting.
8:25 PM – Strategies for 2016 warrant articles.
The Trustees and Julie agree that repair of the basement is the priority for 2016. The Town will be taking over the building maintenance in 2016. The Trustees will make sure that the Town puts the article for funds to fix the foundation on the warrant for 2016. Mary Ann noted that the parking lot is dangerous to anyone with mobility issues due to it being so uneven. The bid from Sullivan paving last year was around $4000.00. ACTION: Julie will contact the Select board about grading the parking lot before winter.
8:45 – The list of Notable Events will be tabled until next month’s meeting, per Bob.
8:45 – Other/New Business:
A review of all action items from the September minutes revealed that all have been done.
The Memorandum of Understanding as revised was reviewed by the Trustees. After a brief discussion, it was agreed that Julie will add” to be renewed annually” to the document. The motion was made by Bob to adopt the MOU as amended and Neal seconded the motion. The motion passed 3-0 in the affirmative.
8:48 PM – The motion to adjourn the meeting at this time was made by Bob and seconded by Neal. The vote was 3-0 in the affirmative to adjourn the meeting.
The next meeting of the Trustees will be held on Wednesday, November 4, 2015 at 7:00 PM in the Wensberg Room.
Respectfully submitted,
Patricia LaPree