Unappoved Minutes FCL Joint Board Meeting october 11 2018

[Rev. Elizabeth]

Unapproved Minutes
Joint Board Meeting, Fairfax Community Library
October 11, 2018
The meeting was called to order at 6:30. Present were: John Tague, Brad Ducheff, Kathy
Muehl, Joy Mercer, Emily Diguilo, Christina Fearon, Pat Gallant, Sandy Alexander and Liz
Griffin.
Voting members: Kathy Muehl, Liz Griffin, Pat Gallant and Sandy Alexander.
There was neither public input nor correspondence.
The minutes of the April 2018 meeting were reviewed and Kathy made a motion to accept them
as written, and the motion passed.
Library Safety Update
All library staff (school and community library) attended the recent ALICE workshop.
Emily reported that there is a library non school hours safety policy that was begun by Debbie
Landauer and Pat Gallant. When it is completed the School Resource Office and John Tague
will be asked to review it.
John reported that work on moving his office to the main lobby (and the area where the current
conference room is) will begin soon. A grant of $25000 for school safety improvements will be
used for this. Amy Plog will also use this office and will manage the buzzer for both the school
and the library. The library door will be open and buzzer not used after school.
What to do about the expanse of windows was discussed. Replacing the current window glass
with glass that reduces the ability to see the interior of the library was discussed. However, this
type of glass would need periodic replacement. Purchasing motorized shades is also being
considered. Although the cost is about $5000, they would be essentially permanent, which
might make a more cost effective investment. Perhaps the cost could be shared between school
and town. It will be further discussed as we prepare the budget.
School Policies Update
There were no new school policy updates to be discussed.
Facilities Committee
The Facilities Committee did not meet over the summer and held its first meeting at the end of
September. There is a plan to do some sort of community outreach to ascertain what the
community is interested vis a vis the development/improvement of the school buildings There
has been no new architectural involvement as of yet. A plan might perhaps be available in
11/2019. Eric Foreman plans to attend these meetings for the Library Trustees.
New Business
The library has hired an interim Library Director Emily Diguiglo, whose contract will last until
Thanksgiving. We have also rehired Nicole Vance as program director. She will work 10 hours
and her contract will end at Thanksgiving, but may be
In light of these changes, the assistant librarian’s hours have been increased to 25 hours.
These changes create the opportunity for the trustees to rethink how the library is staffed.
One thought is to make the Library Director a full time, 40 hour job, and perhaps have the
Director assume some programming responsibilities, collaborating with a Program Director.
Plans for the future of the program director’s position will be made once the Library Director has
been hired.
An advertisement for a permanent Director has been placed in Seven Days, along with the
Vermont Libraries website, and any applications are due no later than October 18.
Both town manager Brad Ducheff, and high school principal John Tague have agreed to be on
the interview committee.
Once we have hired a new Director, the strategic plan for the Community Library will be edited
and extended for another year.
Quarterly Reports
Joy Mercer reported a highly successful Dorothy Canfield Fisher event with both elementary
and middle school students. Both groups played a game which involved troubleshooting,
problem solving and collaboration, and Joy reported that the participants were fully engaged in
the game.
The volunteer who has been working in the library has been of great help to the library
performing a variety of tasks successfully.
The library now has software that is able to to do an audit of our collection. It can, for instance,
indicate which books had or had not been used over a period of years, thus facilitating weeding
the collection. It can also order the books by publication year, which is valuable information for
evaluating science books.
Emily Diguilo reported that she attended a workshop about writing the library’s annual report to
the state.
After school programs and evening/weekend programs are back in full swing. Story time
continues.
During September 43 new patrons joined the library.
The library’s new website is up and functioning and has a new look.
Next meeting dates
The next Trustees’ meeting will be October 18, at which time the applicants for Library Director
and the budget will be discussed.
The next Joint Board meeting will be April 11, 2019.
Brad noted that it is important for all of us on the various town committees be aware of each
other’s work as we all work together for the common goal of the good of the Fairfax community.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:15.
Respectfully submitted,
Elizabeth Griffin