Trustees' Meeting Minutes, 3/20/14

Fairfax Community Library Trustees Meeting Minutes March 20, 2014

The meeting began at 6:30. Debbie had gone home ill. Present were Liz Griffin, Pat McNall, Toni Jiwatram, and new trustees, Amy Murphy and Janel Gamm.

Toni welcomed our new trustees and explained the nature of the town/school library vis a vis staff and other aspects of life with a shared library. Also discussed were the library policies and the function of the Trustees and the Joint Board.

After orientation, a slate of officers was proposed and voted on. Janel moved that we nominate Toni Jiwatram as chair, Liz Griffin as secretary, and Pat Mc Nall as treasurer. Amy seconded the motion and it was approved.

The trustees received a letter from Debbie in response to her evaluation. It was read and duly noted by the trustees.

No public was present.

Old Business

The trustees reviewed the Unattended Child Policy, noting that this is necessary to have for reasons of liability.
Liz wondered how the public will even know that such a policy exists. It will be posted and made available at the desk.
The trustees decided that with the correction of the typographical errors, and with the changes made that the trustees duly noted, they would approve the Unattended Child Policy.
Janel made a motion to accept the policy as it had been corrected, and Pat seconded the motion. The policy was approved by the trustees.

The minutes of the 2/20/2014 meeting were approved. Pat moved to accept them, Amy seconded the motion and the motion was passed.

The treasurer reported that there is 618.26 in the checkbook; 5507.87 in savings, and 6018.80 in the CD. Pat noted that this is not taxpayer money, but money that has come from memorial gifts and other donations.

The Select Board at town meeting in March warned the wrong library budget. Realizing their error, they will honor the actual library budget and find ways to make up the difference between the incorrectly warned budget and the actual budget.

Pat and Toni will go to the Select Board meeting on March 24 to discuss this; they will ask for an official, written statement attesting to their agreement to honor the actual budget which is $91228, as opposed to the warned budget of $87928. It should also be noted that this last figure includes the rollover funds, which it shouldn’t. Apparently there is some confusion as to how the rollover funds should be recorded/included in the budget, as they are not taxpayer funds, but funds from other sources. This last concern will also be discussed with the Select Board.

New Business.

The town treasurer has the separate checkbook,titled Rollover Funds, that contains money from fees and grants. The trustees reaffirmed through a vote that this money is not part of the library budget per se and is not part of the general fund.

Debbie presented a list of ideas for the use of the Rollover Funds. Since she was not present it was decided to table the discussion so she could be present to share her ideas. The ideas will be discussed at the next Trustees’ meeting.
A discussion about replacing seating for the children’s area was brought up and since this is an area shared by town and school, it was tabled until the Joint Board meets in April since funding for this will be shared between school and library.

The Fairfax Community Library By-Laws are on google docs, to be shared. Corrections will be made and the trustees will further discuss the by-laws at the next trustees meeting

A correction needs to be made to the FCL Employee policy, and the hours the librarian works needs to be changed to 35. Further, the salary needs to be changed, and the hours worked per day needs to be changed from 8.50 to 8.75. All vacation holiday, sick and personal days are to be determined based on the 8.75 hour day. Pat made the motion to accept these changes, and Amy seconded it.
There will be further discussion on this topic, and Pat will bring copies of both the town and library employee policy to the next meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30.
A Joint Board meeting will be held on April 17 2014 at 6:30 in the Library.
The next trustees meeting will be in June.

Respectfully submitted

Elizabeth Griffin