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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-09-05-BOLT-min CARY MEMORIAL LIBRARY EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING BOARD OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES September 5, 2018 Attendees: Joe Pato, Suzie Barry, Claire Feingold-Thoryn, Alessandro Alessandrini and Howard Jaffe Trustees; Koren Stembridge, Library Director, Emily Smith, Assistant Library Director. Call to Order: Joe called the meeting to order at 4: 03PM. Public Comment: none Secretary’s Minutes of June 6, 2018 Suzie noted corrections in the minutes. Howard made a motion to approve the minutes of the June 6, 2018 meeting with corrections. Suzie seconded the motion which passed unanimously. Financial Update Koren reported on the Municipal Budget, two months into FY 19, our spending is on target. On the trustees side she noted the following:  There is $35,000 in carryover in trustee fines and fees due to about $10,000 in expenses that have not yet been paid.  Our supply spending is down.  We have about $93,000 in State Aid funds consisting of two years of unspent funds that we are reserving for the future. We expect to receive about $47,000 in FY 19.  $55,000 in grants and major gifts category are primarily Shire funds.  About half of the Foundation balance is small gifts. There were no questions about the financial reports. Capital Budget requests are due Monday, we had hoped to make a request to the Community Preservation Committee to digitize the Minuteman newspaper which will cost about $300,000. Cynthia Johnson researched and found that we can do it for under $20,000. We may not submit any requests since we need to do more research before moving forward. We plan to put in a placeholder for the Children’s Room renovation particularly for security issues. Koren will meet with Mike Cronin from Department of Public Facilities on Friday to gather more details. She will report back to trustees. FY 20 budget requests will follow in a few weeks. There are no huge fluctuations in our operating budget. We may ask for an additional adult page position or additional sub hours since we are struggling to keep up with the work of moving books through the building. Administrative Updates Alicia Fernandez moved from a part time library technician position in adult services to full time in the children’s room leaving one 15 hour position open. Once this position is filled, this will be the first time we will be fully staffed for some time. Meeting Room Groups Emily shared a request from the State Commission for Women. They are just getting established and would like to have regular meetings at the library. Trustees discussed the request, the consensus is that the community center might be a better fit. Howard noted that we have a mission statement and a responsibility to honor it, location convenience is not enough of a driver to approve the group. Alessandro added that approving the groups will be precedent setting. Trustees agree if they were to offer a public engagement program in the future, then we may consider it. 5 year Data Comparison FY 14 - 18 Koren reviewed key performance indicators:  We are closing the gap in loans verses borrowed materials.  Program attendance is up. We’ve added school visits, book clubs, Veteran’s programs and the League of Women Voters. Next year we will have a more accurate comparison.  Most of the increased holdings are digital. Koren reported that we had several closures in FY 18 due to the sprinkler leak, heat failure and HVAC issues. In spite of the closures, our use numbers surpassed the previous year. Howard asked if there is a concern that the volunteer hours decreased. Some factors that contributed to the decline are the change in leadership of the Friends and the departure of the teen services manager who used to coordinate the teen volunteers. Suzie inquired about the growth of database searches and reference questions. Koren explained that the staff is constantly trying to get the word out about databases. We spend a large amount of money on them and want patrons to take advantage of the resource. We continue to fine tune how we report reference questions. Many questions that arise are related to technical support and should be counted as reference questions. The teen room is now fully reporting their reference questions. Emily attributed the increase in wireless usage to the increased access points. We are constantly motoring bandwidth especially during early release days. Alessandro asked about the decline in teen programming attendance. Koren explained that we are having more drop in programs and need to do a better job at counting. Building Update Koren requested a building closure from October 26 – 28 to install the new chiller. There is a possibility that we will move the date up. DPF is working with the contractor on identifying a date. Howard mentioned that we would want to consider avoiding the religious holidays and school closings on September 10 and 19. Howard moved to approve the closing of the library for the installation of the chiller based on a date to be determined by Department of Facilities. Alessandro seconded the motion which passed unanimously. Koren shared that sometime in the near future the library’s building systems will need an upgrade since we are at the end of life for some systems. Joe expects this will be a future capital request. Koren will ask Mike Cronin and report back to trustees. New Business Memorial Gift Proposal The Lex FUN executive board asked to make a gift to the Cary Library in honor of a family who lost a very young child last February. Their hope was to do something at the library. The proposal is to make a donation in honor of the family, using the funds to purchase a piece of artwork on a specific theme. We have identified a mutually agreeable piece. The artwork will have a plaque honoring the child. The amount of the gift is more than sufficient for this purpose, but it doesn’t rise to the dollar amount required for a permanent gift – so we’ve arrived at the idea that we would agree to have it in the Children’s Room for a period of 5 years, and after that, if the library wishes to remove it to make way for different art/changes, we would offer the piece to the family before disposing of it. This would allow it to remain up in the space when they are likely to be using it as a family, but give us the flexibility to make different choices in the future. Trustees discussed the proposal and the consensus is that we need to be concerned about similar gestures and any precedent that we are setting. Howard recused himself since from any vote on this due to a personal connection to the family. The consensus is that we need a clear policy. Koren will draft a gift policy for consideration at the next executive board meeting. Updated Social Media Policy Emily identified the change in the policy which is that staff should not post library pictures on their personal social media. Alessandro shared that often people are unaware once posted to Facebook they own it and have every right to the picture. Joe made a motion to approve the updated language in the policy, Claire seconded the motion which passed unanimously. Rules of Behavior Policy Koren asked trustees their thoughts about adding “no weapons in the building” line to the policy since we do not currently have one. The consensus is that we need to check with the town attorney and the police about the appropriate language. Additional suggestions to add to the policy are the use of service animal and prohibition of vaping and juuling. Koren will get back to trustees at a later meeting. Suzie asked about the unattended personal items policy. Meeting Room Use Policy discussion Koren updated trustees on the American Library Association guidance about meeting room use that allows hate groups to use library meeting rooms. The advice of the town attorney is that we have limited choices. If we make our rooms available to the public, all groups should be treated fairly according to our policy. The only way to effectively prevent hate groups from potentially using our rooms would be to limit use of those spaces to library programs (and programs with library partners) only. Claire suggested the hate group language seems against our mission which is to create an open and welcoming community. Alessandro added that it comes back to free speech. Howard added that absent a specific policy that is vetted and established in advance, we are vulnerable. Joe asked about how other local libraries are handling this issue. The consensus is that we need to do more research. Koren will come back with more information later in the fall. Holiday Calendar Emily presented the holiday calendar for 2019. Howard made a motion to approve the schedule as presented. Suzie second the motion which passed unanimously. Art Donation Process Koren reported that an artist suggested that absent an art donation policy we are vulnerable. After discussion it was determined that Koren will work on a draft for the process and policy. th 150 Poem th Koren requested trustees approve commissioning Reggie Gibson to create a poem for the 150 anniversary. Suzie made a motion to approve the request to commission Reggie Commission to create a th 150 poem for the celebration. Howard seconded the motion which passed unanimously. Adjournment - Claire made motion to adjourn the meeting. Alessandro seconded the motion which passed unanimously.