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: Unapproved Minutes FCL Trustees' meeting 3/ 22/18  ( 1739 )
Rev. Elizabeth
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« : March 27, 2018, 06:41:46 AM »

Fairfax Community Library
Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes
March 22, 2018


The meeting was called to order by Liz Griffin at 6:32 pm. Also present were Eric Foreman, El-len Holmes-Henry, Chris Fearon, and Debbie Landauer, library director.

Chris made a motion to approve the minutes, and the minutes were approved.


Treasurer’s Report

Eric gave the Treasurer’s Report. There are no outstanding checks. He reported that there is $578.18 in the checking account, and $1,835.61in savings. Debbie requested a check for $186.90 for the baby books; that amount is not reflected in the checking account balance.  Eric will find out the balance of the CD for the next meeting.


Correspondence

There was no correspondence.


Election of Trustee Officers

We proceeded to the election of officers. All voted in favor of current officeholders continuing in their posts.


Welcome New Trustee

Liz asked board members to share their thoughts on the role of a trustee for the benefit of El-len, who was attending her first meeting in that capacity. Eric spoke about working as an ad-vocate for the library, and particularly for young children, since he has two young children who are regular users. Chris also mentioned advocacy and attending Long Range Facility Planning Committee meetings. Other responsibilities mentioned were financial oversight and long range planning.

Debbie reported that Lara Keenan from the Vermont State Library is available for trustee train-ings—she can speak on topics of interest to trustees and respond to questions. The first of a series of regional meetings Lara is offering will be on Monday, April 30, at Ilsley Library in Mid-dlebury. Ellen is planning to go and offered to carpool if anyone is interested in going.


Updates

Debbie reported that there were approximately 80-90 people at the Saturday Town Meeting, many of those people were library patrons. And, many materials set out on a table outside of the gym on voting day, were picked up on that Tuesday.

Devin, the student assistant, will be returning to work again this summer.

Nicole reported on library highlights later in the meeting.  STEAM is a big focus. Debbie men-tioned that she and Nicole made 4 STEAM kits. There is also a really nice telescope. Joy is working with a 4th grade teacher to develop some STEAM kits. They had a STEAM night. Lab Girls is continuing. Next month is owl month and they will have someone speak about barred owl rescue. There will be a live chess game (people are the chess pieces with identifying hats!) next Thursday from 3-4:30; if anyone is available to participate, that would be great. There was a Winter Beach Party planned during the February school break, which was well attended with a wait list. “Libraries Rock” is the theme of the summer reading program and Nicole is working on concerts as part of the Summer Reading Program line-up. Chris said she had access to some African instruments that could be used for kids’ programs, and will be in touch with Ni-cole.

Debbie said they have started to do program evaluations and received good feedback.


New Business

The new town manager has been hired. His name is Brad Docheff and he and his family are library users.

Steve Cormier is the library liaison on the Select Board. He had helped facilitate things with the library budget. It was suggested that we could also invite him sometime to a meeting.

Chris said she would be willing to follow the School Board agendas and minutes in case any-thing germane to the library comes up.

Dates for the upcoming board meetings were set. They are May 10, June 21,
August 23, and October 4.

Discussion re: Community Survey to be undertaken by board. Chris said she could chair, and Eric agreed to co-chair. Chris said she’d have time in June and summer to delve into more, and then with Eric, could present info to the rest of the board for everyone’s input and review. Eric is interested in the online component. Chris and Eric will meet at some point to discuss further. Debbie mentioned that Brownell Library and Carpenter-Carse Library in Hinesburg also did a community survey. Debbie had sent the board information on community surveys to read and review. For more examples, Debbie suggested Googling Library Strategic Plans as well as Library surveys.

Debbie had a meeting with John Tague and Geri-Lyn Witalec. An activity bus has been funded and Debbie inquired if the library could have access to the bus. It sounded like it would not work, though Chris and Eric suggested that there might be a possibility during school vaca-tions. Eric said the cost of driver/gas could be built into a library program budget.

Debbie also wanted to let the trustees know about a noise issue with the Flexible Pathways class meeting in the room adjacent to the circulation desk. Sometimes there is no teacher there, and the students get noisy and use inappropriate language. The library staff sometimes will knock on the door and ask the kids to quiet down; this happens several times a week. Joy has brought it up with John Tague several times.

Debbie asked if the trustees are willing to pay half of the cost for the T-shirts for the summer reading program. Also, she asked if people had suggestions for additional support. Previously, the After School enrichment fund had contributed, but Tom Walsh said he would prefer to have that money spent on the school this year. Discussion ensued about other possibilities. Mylan declined, and the few local businesses are regularly called on for their support and may be tapped out. Ellen suggested Runamok Maple, which is located in the old Scrabble plant, might be willing to donate as a newer local business. She will try to find out more.

The Joint Board Meeting for the school and library is April 12.  The agenda for the meeting was discussed. Debbie spoke with by John and Geri-Lyn about security after the lockdown. Luckily, the lockdown happened 10 minutes after story time, so there weren’t any families, classes, or public patrons in the library.  Not surprisingly, the police/sheriff noted the security issue with the library, which is not going to go away. This will be discussed at the Joint Board Meeting. In conversation with Debbie, John mentioned a couple of ways this could be addressed. Debbie expressed her concern that public patrons are swept up in the issue of school violence. Debbie said the writing is on the wall and that we need to do something; she brought up the idea of a separate town library. Someone asked if public patrons have to stay during a lockdown and they should.

Ellen asked about safety guidelines for the library, and Debbie responded that the school li-brarians have a checklist and the library follows school policy. Debbie also mentioned that Bill
McSalis will be speaking at an upcoming conference for librarians on school security. The school had previously spent money to upgrade security—the door for entering the library and the lock on door to Harold’s room. Someone asked about whether there is a ratio of kids to adults requirement in the library. Debbie said there used to be 3 library staff, but now there is two. Ellen commented on the strict security at the Baird School.

We went into go into Executive Session 8:04 pm, and came out at  8:30 pm, at which point the meeting ended.

Respectfully submitted,
Christina Fearon 
Fairfax Community Library Trustee
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