A recap of the September 16th Library Board of Trustees meeting
|Noreen Williams|
Librarians’ report. The Library Board of Trustees meeting opened with Library Director Lee Shaw reporting on a very busy July and August. Sue Hawkins’ celebration, the arrival of four new laptops, the Chewonki owl program, and a visit by Dr. Drew and his Animals Too were among the exciting events happening over the last two months. The children’s programming, which had been a focus of the summer, led to more children in the library and at the ongoing Storytime series. The end of the summer program was capped by an ice cream party sponsored by the Friends to celebrate all of the children’s reading successes. More new patrons came to the booth at the Community Fair to sign up for library cards. Emily Martin, Assistant Librarian, also said that the number of children’s books being checked out has been increasing and the young children in particular are becoming repeat visitors to the library and for the programs. The current budget is largely on track with only the book budget being spent ahead of schedule. Lee Shaw indicated that the money previously budgeted for computers could be moved to books to keep on budget.
Friends’ Report. Carol Gillis, liaison for the Friends of the Library to the Board of Trustees, reported that the Select Board had held a workshop on September 8th to improve relationships within the library “team” (Board of Trustees, Friends of the Library, and library staff). The groups have agreed to use email communication to improve interactions and transparency. Carol encouraged the Trustees to join the Friends of the Library. Trustee Colleen Strickler volunteered to attend Friends meetings as a liaison from the Trustees (Carol is the Friends liaison to the Trustees meeting). Carol also reported that the Friends fall book sale is on hold until results from the mold testing at the library are evaluated.
Memorandum of Understanding between the Library Board of Trustees and the Friends of the Library. Chair of the Board of Trustees CeCe Sullivan Rohrbach began the discussion concerning the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which is under development between the Board of Trustees and the Friends of the Library. The Select Board wants the Trustees and Friends to use the MOU to clearly define their roles and relationships. Select Board member and liaison to the Library Board of Trustees Dustin Ward will be assisting in this process. A number of issues in the current draft of the MOU were identified by the Select Board as needing further clarification including: roles and responsibilities of each group, the process of book donations, the nonprofit status of the Friends, liaisons from the Friends and Trustees attending each other’s meetings, the Friends’ role in programming, and insurance for Friends’ functions occurring on town property.
Discussion of some of the issues raised at the workshop continued. In the draft MOU the Friends indicate that the money they raise should pay for library expenses not covered by the Town budget. Based on that, Dustin wondered why building expenses and repairs were listed in the Friends’ financial report. Carol and Trustee Tim Terranova both said that the Friends have had to cover some of these expenses in the past when the Town did not provide them and hoped that would not happen in the future. Carol noted that the American Library Association says that money raised by Friends groups should be used in alignment with the Trustees’ strategic plan. The Trustees had begun strategic planning before the budget issues took their focus.
At the workshop Select Board member Steve Hathorne asked for clarification of the “ownership” of the donated books. Select Board Chair Peter Bragdon said at that time that he thought that a ballot warrant covers the transfer of books to the Friends for the sale. Trustee Paul Morin stated that after the books are donated by the public and once the library staff takes the books they want, the remainder are essentially of zero value (“discarded”). He underscored that the work of the Friends for the sale then “adds value.” The Friends decide how to enrich the library and related functions with input from the Trustees and Library staff through a “wish list” that they develop. Trustee Robb Cotiaux reminded everyone that the “heart” of all of these groups was the betterment of the library.
Carol reported that the application for federal nonprofit status of the Friends (501c3) is currently with the state and then will be sent to the Federal government for approval, hopefully by January of 2022. There was additional discussion over the new requirement for insurance for the Friends’ book sale and other functions on town property. The Trustees would like wider posting for the Friends meetings, but for the moment the Friends need to find a new meeting place since Town Manager Christine Landis has recently said they cannot use the Fire Hall. The group suggested the AmVets or Masonic halls and wondered whether the Town might allow use of town meeting sites in the future.
The space in the library basement has been agreed upon by the library “team.” The Friends will use the front room for children’s books during the book sale and will continue to use the back room for sorting of books through the rest of the year.
Library Financials. Lee asked whether gift funds the library has received could be used now instead of going to the endowment. Currently the endowment is small and does not provide enough interest to have an impact. Tim talked about the situation with the endowment and thought the Trustees and Friends might collaborate on developing the endowment. Trustees would like all donors to be asked whether they want their donations to be used for ongoing expenses or the endowment. Lee requested money from a recent gift for more new library cards and for a program cosponsored by the New Gloucester United Against Racism group. These expenditures were approved by the Trustees and they reminded staff that the Friends are interested in supporting programming such as the UAR collaboration. There was some discussion about approving expenditures via email but the Trustees preferred doing this at meetings to provide transparency.
Mold. The results from testing for mold in the basement and main library are not in yet and the library building is closed until they come in.
The next meeting is scheduled for November 18, 2021 at 7 PM in either the library or the community building.
