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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-04-01-BOLT-min CARY MEMORIAL LIBRARY EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING BOARD OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES 4:00 PM April 1, 2021 Virtual Meeting Attendees: Trustees: Joe Pato, Rabbi Howard Jaffe, Suzie Barry, Rev. Claire Feingold-Thoryn, Eileen Jay Staff: Koren Stembridge, Emily Smith, Meena Jain, Jae Johns, Alissa Lauzon, Jenn Webb Call to Order Mr. Pato called the meeting to order at 4:00 PM. Public Comment There was no public comment. Secretary’s Minutes for March 3, 2021 Rev. Claire Feingold-Thoryn made a motion to approve the minutes of the March 3, 2021 meeting. Rabbi Howard Jaffe seconded the motion. Vote: 3-0. (Ms. Jay abstained as she was not present at the rd March 3 meeting). Announcements Rev. Claire Feingold-Thoryn stated she must leave promptly at 4:30 pm and would like to move the Stone Building Committee Update to the beginning of the agenda. Rabbi Howard Jaffe announced he would be retiring and that FY22 would be his last year. Stone Building Committee Update: Group met today, 4/1/21. A forum is being planned for ideas and public engagement. The information will be going out to public within the next week. Financial Reports Municipal Budget: We are 75% through the fiscal year. Actual expended budget is 65% due to carrying vacancies and having less personnel in the building. Non-municipal (Trustee) Funds: We have had virtually no fines revenue for the entire fiscal year but have been able to meet our budget thanks to carry forward from previous fiscal years Administrative Updates Director’s Report:  Town Meeting approved a joint capital article with the IT Department to upgrade and migrate the library’s infrastructure to the town’s systems, and to transfer management to the town’s IT Department. This project includes the library’s wired and wireless networks. It is part of a larger ongoing effort to collaborate with the Town’s IT department and is scheduled to begin early in the new fiscal year. Staffing Update:  Our Programming & Community Engagement manager, Meena Jain, has given her notice. She has accepted the position of director for the Ashland Public Library. We will be posting her position shortly.  A second vacancy exists at the library as one of our staff members in the Children’s Department, Alicia Fernandez, received a promotion to Library Associate.  We are in the process of hiring for several positions with approximately seven to nine vacancies; two full-time and the remainder part-time. Some have already been posted and we expect to have more approved in the coming weeks. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Update (DEI):  Report from staff IDEAS team will be presented at the Full Board meeting in May.  Jae Johns – Team Leader for Staffing Committee which has been working on ideas for how to recruit, retain and support a diverse workplace staff, and to support increased diversity in the field of librarianship as a whole. o Evaluating job descriptions o Evaluate strategies on where we post open positions o Redacting personal information from applications o Cultural competency training for staff o Becoming a teaching library modeled after teaching hospitals  Create paid internships to serve as a launching pad for careers of underrepresented people in the field  Partnerships with the Cotting School and the lab which are volunteer work experience programs.  This fall plan to join a number of area businesses/organizations/libraries as a work-site for Cotting Project Bridges. o Cultivate opportunities for mentorship/professional development for existing staff  Alissa Lauzon – Team Leader for Accessibility subgroup o Looking at providing unimpeded access or our building, programs and services for both physical and language barriers o Have evaluated closed-captioning services o Bilingual library card application (English/Chinese) is in the works o Crafting an accessibility statement and working with the team in charge of our new website to ensure that the overhaul includes all of the different types of accessibility services that have o Compiled a list for staff training opportunities o Working with the social media team to make our platforms more accessible to screen readers o Two of our big projects that will involve community partners:  Ask the Commission on Disabilities to review our building for accessibility issues  Work with community partners to improve services to non-native English speakers o Launch accessibility hours for patrons who are not able to utilize the traditional library environment due to lighting or other accommodations needed. Building Updates Facilities Updates  We do not have a date yet for the installation of the new Cary Memorial Library sign. Will communicate via email once the date has been scheduled New Business FFF-Fine Free Forever  Background to convince the Trustees that Cary Library can go fine free permanently. o Ten years ago Cary Library took in approximately $75k-$80k per year in fines. Changes over the past five years have drastically reduced the amount of fine money we receive. o The American Library Association passed a measure in 2019 asking public libraries to phase out fines because of equity issues. o The process of collecting fines leads to some of the least pleasant patron interactions. The stress of this can be highly significant to our employees. o We have not collected fine money within the last year due to COVID-19.  FY22 Trustees’ Budget Impact o Would still include monies received from lost books and copies which amounts to approximately $8K per year o Income received (2%) through the distribution of the endowment will continue annually. (Approximately $14K) o Other Trustee budget lines can be funded from other sources of income  Rabbi Howard Jaffe made a motion to approve Cary Library going fine-free. Ms. Barry seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0 to approve the motion. Nominating Committee:  Trustee Chair sent letters to Select Board, School Committee, and Lexington Interfaith Clergy Association asking them to designate a member to serve on the nominating committee. Annual meeting is in May. Received a nomination for a nominating person for the clergy association. Last night the Select Board voted Mark Sandeen to take that role again. The School Committee meeting on Monday, 4/6/21 has the nomination on their agenda. Old Business Restoration of Services: Recommendation of Phase 3 “Browse & Borrow” with a proposed date of reopening to patrons Tuesday, 4/27/21. (See slides for details.) This includes 30 minute visits with no more than 50 patrons in the building at a time. Would like Executive board to considering granting Joe Pato and Koren Stembridge the authority if a significant uptick in positive Covid cases is observed, to make a change of conditions and declare a rollback or a postponement of the 4/27/21 date. This would be enacted so an emergency meeting of the board could be avoided. Vote: Ms. Barry moved to approve the opening plan including giving the authority to suspend moving forward to Mr. Pato & Ms. Stembridge. Ms. Jay seconded motion. Vote: 4-0 unanimous. Adjournment Ms. Jay offered a motion to adjourn at 5:05 PM. Seconded by Rabbi Jaffe. Vote: 4-0.