Minutes of the Trusttes' meeting 8/29/13

Fairfax Community Library
Board of Trustees Meeting
August 29 2013
6:30

In attendance, Debbie Landauer, Pat McNall, Judy Cleary, Toni Jiwatram, Liz Griffin
The meeting was called to order at 6:33

Correspondence; Debbie received a Town Office memo re: budget. The budget process for the town will begin in September. We assume that this means that we will need to begin our own budget process sooner than usual. Pat McNall will ask if how soon the selectboard would want a preliminary budget from the library.
Debbie also received a letter from Keagen which will be discussed under New Business

Secretary’s Report; the minutes of the 6/20 meeting were accepted as they stand. Judy made the motion, and Pat seconded it.

Treasurer’s Report: As of August 29, 2013: check book balance. 183.90; savings balance, 5954.42; CD balance: 5994 .38

Librarian’s Report; presented. Debbie mentioned that she had received a DVD on trustee orientation for us to examine.

Program Planner Report; Karyn’s 2nd quarter report indicated that the many events held during the 2nd quarter were successful. The 2 post school, events, the book group, the gardening workshop were all well attended.
The pirate themed gathering hosted 24 children and 10 parents.
The instructor who taught a computer class for seniors will teach a class on Facebook in October.
The Red Cross babysitting class was completely full.
The Hands on Puppet theatre was a successful event.
A young producers program was held in June.
The summer reading program totalled 215 youth.

Karyn felt that the Summer Concerts werent as well attended as they had been in the past. This led to a discussion about time/cost factors involved in putting on such events, and whether comparing numbers year to year was a measure of success.
The program will be re-evaluated by the librarian and program director before any decisions are made about holding the event next year.

At the end of her report Karyn presented her letter of resignation, giving two weeks notice. She stated that being a full time student at UVM, working at UVM and being program planner at the library was not a schedule she could handle. She regretted having to make the decision to resign.
Pat McNall made a motion to go into executive session at 6:50. Motion seconded by Judy.
In addition to karyn’s resignation, Keagen, library assistant, has asked for a 10 week unpaid maternity leave, beginning December 22nd, and ending March 4th. Both employee changes were discussed. Judy made a motion to come out of Executive Session at 6:57. It was seconded by Pat.
A motion was made to allow Keagan to take an unpaid 10 week maternity leave commencing Dec 22 2013 and ending March 4 2014. It was seconded by Judy and approved.
A motion was made by Pat to accept with regret Karyn Norwood’s letter of resignation. It was seconded by Judy and passed.

Debbie will begin advertising the Program Planner position on Monday on the Vermont Library Association website, in the Messenger as a lay out ad, and in the County Courier as a classified ad. An advertisement will also be posted on vtgrandpa. com and franklin one.
The wages would be $13 for the first two months, and $14 thereafter assuming all is going well.

Debbie will also seek a long term substitute for Keagan using the Vermont Library Association substitute website and local resources.
The substitute wages would be $12 an hour; the substitute would be paid for training time at this rate. Some of the cost would come from the 2013 budget, and some from the 2014 budget. This will be advertised beginning in October.

Update on Strategic Planning Committee

Three meetings have been held. The committee is working on a follow up survey and are hoping to distribute it to various community groups. The next meeting is September 5 2013.

New Library Entrance

The new entrance came into use on Aug 27 2013. There have been no concerns.
The traditional outdoor entrance will be open for 45 minutes at the beginning and end of the school day for the students. Since these doors are opened, the question is whether or not they can be left open for the rest of the afternoon, until the library closes, so library patrons can use either entrance. This will have to be discussed with Todd Granger and the custodial staff.

New Trustee

As we are in need of a new trustee, Liz will put a blurb about our needs on vtgrandpa.com, seeking a 6 month interim trustee. We will continue to solicit people we think might be interested in the position.

Other Concerns
Debbie Landauer had a concern over a floating holiday and is working with the selectboard to resolve it.

Toni was concerned that the school won’t update the school computers that the library has for youth to access if they don’t have computers at home. The school's computers in the library are available currently to all public patrons (not just youth) when not being used by classes/students. The town owns 1 desk top, one fairly new laptop, and 5 old laptops also for public use.
We may eventually need to get more of our own computers.

Debbie would appreciate it if trustees would respond promptly and ‘respond all’ to emails she might send out that have immediate concerns to address. By ‘responding all’ each is aware of the others’ thoughts.

The Joint committee is scheduled to meet on October 10. Toni currently has a conflict with Thursday meetings and would like to see if we could meet on the 9th.
Liz will email the joint committee members to see if this is feasible. The members will also be asked to suggest agenda items.

Interviews for program planner will begin in about three weeks, and Pat and Judy will participate in the interview process.

A motion to adjourn was made by Judy and seconded by Pat and the meeting ended at 7:53

Respectfully submitted

Elizabeth Griffin