Unapproved minutes of Library Trustee meeting 5/12/16

Fairfax Community Library
Trustees’ Meeting
May 12, 2016

Present, Pat Gallant, Patti Reaves, Janel Gamm, Kyle Metayer, Liz Griffin, Debbie Landauer.

The meeting was called to order at 6:30.
There was neither public input nor correspondence.

The unapproved minutes of the March 23, 2016 meeting were approved.

Treasurer’s Report; Kyle reported that there is $615.20 in the checking account, and $4318.97 in the savings account.

New Business.
Summer Plans. The theme for the summer reading program is “On Your Mark, Get Set, Read.”
A presentation will be made to the elementary school on May 19. Registration begins on May 20. Youth can begin to log in books on June 15. On June 23 the BackPack Theatre will kickoff the start of the summer reading program with a performance.
The PTSA provided half the cost of the tee shirt for the program. The total cost of the tee shirts is $758 and they contributed $380.
A motion was made by Liz and seconded by Pat G. to pay for the balance from the Trustee’s checking account. Kyle wrote a check and gave it to Debbie.
The BFA Fairfax Trustees donated funds to purchase the bicycles to be given as prizes.

Devan Borthwick is the student employee this summer. He will begin work on 6/14 and help with preparation for the annual cleaning (which begins June 15 and continues through June 21.) The Library will re-open on June 22nd at 10 AM

Debbie will be away 6/10-6/19.

Debbie has applied for a scholarship through the VT Dept. of Libraries (funded by the Federal Institute for Museum and Library Services) so she can attend the annual conference of the Association of Rural and Small Libraries this October.

Kyle will meet with the Town Clerk, Debbie Woodward, to discuss how the change in the town’s fiscal year will affect the library. The transition period will be 18 months.

Joy and Debbie have inventoried and examined the old window blinds and reported their findings to Tod Granger. They are waiting to hear back from him. Apparently it may be possible to repair some of the damaged ones.

School building including library renovations are on hold due to Act 46.

The town will hold a parade on July 4 and Debbie is hoping to engage volunteers (including trustees) in the parade. There will be a banner and bookmarks will be given out to adults.

A discussion was held concerning how the change in school hours will or could affect the library. It was decided to make final decisions in August in case more changes might be made to the school hours. At the moment school will run from 8:20 to 2:55, with teachers having collaborative time from7:45-8:10.
The trustees think that 8:30 would be an appropriate time to open the library, but a final decision won’t be made until the August meeting.

Pat has contacted Scott Mitchell of the School Board reminding him to send her agenda/minutes when the library is part of the board discussions.

The trustees have ascertained that some of the criteria for evaluation on the Library Director evaluation are difficult to answer since they require data that is essentially unavailable to the trustees. We don’t know how to address these criteria or how to effectively gather data. Pat will contact other community libraries to see how they handle similar concerns.

Debbie reported that the town would like the library budget before January, so she will start working on the budget in September. She will have a proposed budget for the September 8 meeting. This means that staff evaluations will take place at an earlier date.

The meeting adjourned at 7:20. The next meeting is August 11.

Respectfully submitted,

Rev. Elizabeth Griffin