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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-03-06-BOLT-min CARY MEMORIAL LIBRARY EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING BOARD OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES March 6, 2019 Attendees: Joe Pato, Claire Feingold Thoryn, Eileen Jay and Howard Jaffe, Trustees; Alissa Lauzon, Head of Youth Services, Koren Stembridge, Library Director and Emily Smith, Assistant Library Director. Call to Order: Joe called the meeting to order at 4:09PM Public Comment: none Secretary’s Minutes - Howard made a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting of February 6, 2019. The motion was seconded by Claire and passed unanimously. Joe moved an agenda item from New Business Replacement appointment Eileen Jay will be the school committee’s representative to the executive board replacing Alessandro Alessandrini. Claire made a motion to approve the replacement appointment to the executive board from Alessandro to Eileen Jay. Howard seconded the motion which passed unanimously. Financial Updates Koren reported that we are just about where we expect to be at this point in the year on the municipal side. On the trustee side, we received some funds from the Friends, there is nothing else significant to report. We have no new endowment numbers but expect to have them for the next meeting. We will be undergoing a financial review on March 22. We have done this every few years. Koren will share the report. Administrative Updates Staffing Updates Koren reported that we are now interviewing for the part time bibliographic services position. The Programming and Community Engagement Manager Position posted, which closes on March 22. The Town granted permission to change Andrea’s Office Manager Position to a job share. This will allow Andrea to work 3 days/week and we’ll be hiring someone to fill the remaining 2 days. Meeting Room Groups There are no specific requests at this time. Snow closures Koren is seeking trustee’s guidance about snow closures. She explained the current process for determining if the library will be closed, have a delayed opening or early closure. She relies on information from Dave Pinsonneault at DPW then discusses with Joe taking into account the safety of staff for traveling and the ability to have the lot and sidewalks clean for users. We inform the public on the website, social media, Lexington listserve and a phone message. The Trustees discussed aligning with the schools which defers the decision to the superintendent. The consensus after discussion is that there is benefit in being independent and that we will continue to maintain our current process. Public Records Request Koren shared that we have a public record request around signature gathering policy in the library. She is working on it and expects to complete it in a couple of days. Storytime Koren reported that there is some interest in the library hosting a Drag Queen Story Time. After discussion, the consensus is to support the program. Building Updates Koren detailed recent building issues. On Friday we discovered that the motor powering the radiant heating on the mezzanine level had burned out. Facilities informed us we would not get a replacement until the following week and that they would up our forced air heat temps to compensate.  We had a power outage about 3:15 on Sunday afternoon. There was a strong electrical smell in the building so the fire department was called and checked the building. As power was not expected to be restored quickly, we closed an hour early at 4:00 p.m.  Koren discussed the issues with Joe on Sunday night and decided to remain closed for the entire day on Monday. If we had not had the power issue (along with the snow) we would likely have had a delayed opening time of about noon. Power was restored late afternoon Monday. Emily came over to check on the servers and other equipment.  We have now lost a second radiant heat motor (so no radiant heat on lower and mezzanine levels) and several of our uninterrupted power sources have needed to be replaced. Thankfully, no fish were lost. Joe explained that the frequent power issues of late prompted Eversourse to accelerate their plan to upgrade the center electrical infrastructure. New Business Library closing early for Fairy Tale Ball Program th Koren requested trustees consider a 3:00 p.m. closing time on Friday, April 12 in order to get the library prepared for the ball. Howard moved to approve closing the library at 3p.m. on Friday, th April 12 to prepare for Fairy Tale Ball event. The motion was seconded by Eileen. The motion passed unanimously. Nominating Committee update Joe will send out a letter to the Lexington Interfaith Clergy Association, School Committee and Selectmen groups for their nominations to the board for the May 2019 full board meeting. Old Business No show guidelines for youth programs Alissa summarized the no show policy and letters escalating to the loss of privileges to sign up for six months. Joe clarified that we have this practice in place but need to make it a policy so it will be more effective. This had been discussed at the February trustees meeting. Trustees suggested a few minor changes – adding “one hour” notice and a link to the policy. Howard made a motion to accept the policy with the added suggestions. Claire seconded the motion which passed unanimously. Meeting Room Policy Discussion Koren explained that we continue to experience issues around meeting room availability for library programs and overflow. The Teen Space is at capacity on early release days, and on many other days as well. We try to book our meeting room spaces in advance, but it is not always possible and we’re left scrambling for a place to put young people. Upon reviewing our meeting room users we found that we have many fewer groups registered to use our meeting rooms than we did five years ago. We have gone from 700+ groups to just over 100 groups, many of which are one time users. As we begin to consider changes to the Children’s Room, Koren is asking trustees to think about our meeting rooms, and if we continue to want to provide those spaces to outside groups. Trustees discussed the role of the library as a community meeting space for programs and how it fits our mission. Eileen asked if the community center has similar issues. Joe explained that their meeting room use is not based on content and that they now charge fees for some groups. The consensus after discussion is that we need to consider carefully and include the full board in the conversation. Koren will gather details about the community center room use and their policy. She will ask Melissa Battite from the Community Center if she can come to a board meeting and talk about their experiences. Adjournment Claire made a motion to adjourn the meeting which was seconded by Howard. The motion passed unanimously.