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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-04-07-BOLT-min CARY MEMORIAL LIBRARY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING BOARD OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES Thursday, April 7, 2016 Attendees: Norman Cohen, Kate Ekrem, Howard Jaffe, Joe Pato, Jessie Steigerwald, Trustees; Koren Stembridge, Library Director, Emily Smith, Assistant Library Director, Alissa Lauzon, Jen Forgit, library staff. Call to Order: Norman called the meeting to order at 4:00 PM Secretary’s Minutes Vote: Kate made a motion to approve the Minutes of the January 6, 2016 meeting. Howard seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Financial Update Koren reported we are on track on the Municipal side. We may come in a little over the budget on the personal services due to a lengthy staff leave. Koren has been in touch with Rob, Town Comptroller. She reviewed the Foundation income which was received earlier in the year. We are working to spend down our small gift accounts. We just received our March Endowment Balances. The Restricted Fund balance is $1,326,351.56, Unrestricted $432,987.95 totaling a little over $1,750,000. Administrative Update We have finally filled our last two library Technician vacancies hiring Jen Sampson who has been RFID tagging and Justin Wang, who speaks Chinese. We are excited to have them on board. All of our retirees are now substituting except for Cynthia Johnson. We appreciate their availability during this transition. Building Update – Transformative Spaces Jen Forgit, Teen Services Librarian proposed allowing some food in small amounts in designated areas; Commons, Teen Room and the lower level corridor.  It is reasonable that all ages have access to food.  Appropriate foods include small bags of pretzels, power bars, string cheese, apples and small containers of yogurt.  We discourage hot aromatic or messy items such as pizza, burgers and salads.  Covered beverages allowed in all areas except for local historical rooms.  Department of Public Facilities have no concerns.  The Children’s Room will remain food free. Howard recommends signage have positive language. Jen also proposed use of the teen space during non-school hours. In general adult and children are not welcome to stay. The goal is to have a space where teens can be themselves in a space of their own. This will benefit the home schooled students, LABBB program and upperclassman who have open campus. Koren anticipates that some grownups will want to use the space as well as children. We will address that as needed. The staffing model will be mid-morning to 7 PM. We will adjust staff to cover as needed. Trustees discussed the proposals. Howard suggested that it is easier to relax a rule. Kate supports the idea. Jessie suggested a change in the language to “at the discretion of the library”. Koren asked Trustees to think about the policy which we will bring back for a vote at a future meeting. Moves, Phases and Disruptions Koren detailed the moves and phases of the project as well as potential disruptions. th  Start date up to June 27.  $130,000 will be enough to cover the furnishing and move. We have other sources if needed.  We will know more after the bid opening. We have something to react to at the May meeting and will determine if we need a plan “B”.  If we close during the day, we will be open in the evening.  The middle move will be the most disruptive. DPF will obtain a quote to replace the carpet in the Reference area, Koren will update at a later meeting. New Business Foundation Koren reviewed the Transformative Spaces Project financial update. We transfer funds over to the Town side for construction. It makes more sense for us to have the funds for the move and furniture on the Trustees side so we can more efficiently order etc. We use the same procurement practice as the Town. Jeri Zeder reported we have raised 90% of our goal for the project, leaving $75,000 more to raise. She reported that the Foundation received two legacy gifts one from Hiscock ($10, 00) and Sampson ($24,908), both not designated. The Foundation worked out a policy on undesignated donations. Jeri is asking that since there is no specific designation, that the funds go toward the Transformative Spaces Project. Norman invited comments. Howard made motion to approve the request for the undesignated funds to be used for the Transformative Spaces Project. Jessie seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Koren explained that if the Foundation is not able to raise the remaining funds, we do have the FY 17 Shire payment and State Aid that we could tap. Memorandum of Understanding the CMLF Bob Boudreau and Norman have been working on a Memorandum of Understanding for repayment of the Endowment Funds. We will need a motion for Norman to sign it. At this point it looks like $434,000 is the number we may need to borrow based on our estimate. Jessie made a motion to allow Norman to sign the memo of understanding. Kate seconded the motion which \[assed unanimously. We will defer the IAL transfer discussion to the next Trustees meeting. We will defer the Co-created Language discussion to a future meeting. Rosa has met the Chine language community and Jen Webb had reached out to the Korean. Jessie asked about the amount that will be spent. Koren explained that $5,000 seems like the right amount, but the challenge is finding and cataloging materials. We will pick up the discussion at a later meeting. Koren is proposing changing our study room reservations to an online module. The staff spend a great deal of time daily reserving study rooms, a task which can be done online. Emily’s staff is investigating software. The downside is that a library card is required. The limit for reserving a room is 2 hours per day, one week in advance. Trustees discussed the proposal and since there is no barrier to obtaining a library card, the consensus is to approve. During the construction project, the study rooms will be on a first come first serve basis which we will figure out in time. Donations at Fairy Tale Ball The Foundation would like to have a table at the Fairy Tale Ball and would like to accept donations if the opportunity arises. The consensus is to approve. Old Business Meeting Room Policy Discussion Koren is working on updating the Meeting Room Policy which we will present at a future meeting. For the summer we are closing the meeting rooms to the public. We will be using them for our programs only for those reasons we will not be accepting any new groups until the fall and will invite new groups to apply. The Trustees agree with the recommendation. Koren would like Trustees to consider meeting once over the summer. We will coordinate the meeting with the Selectman summer dates. Joe made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Kate seconded the motion which passed unanimously.