Guilford, Vermont
Monday, August 21st, 2023
Trustees present: Jeannette Tokarz, Laura Lawson Tucker, Richard Wizansky, Nika Fotopulos, John Shaw, Judith Serkin
Others present on Zoom: Cathi Wilken (librarian)
Trustee absent: Sandra Cortes
Meeting began at 6:38 pm
Accepted the minutes from July monthly meeting and the special meeting.
Librarian Report – Cathi
There were 3 successful summer camps this summer.
We raised a grand total of $7 300 through grants and our raffle for the summer camps. We used $4 716 of that money. With the money left over, the Library is planning to offer after-school programs and school vacation programming.
Crystal has been volunteering and she has been a huge help!
The Fair: Cathi has been in touch with Scott from the Fair to see if the Library can have a larger spot to do some addtional programming. If the larger spot is granted, we will have the e-bikes on display. There is an astronomy club activity in the works to demonstrate the scale of the planets in our solar system. Nika will create a scroll for the community story. Maybe someone will set up the guess the size of the book challenge. There will be books sold by donation, refill water by donation, and book mark making crafts set up.
The Library now has new additional emails. The choices of emails are:
staff@guilfordfreelibraryvt.org
cathi@guilfordfreelibraryvt.org
leah@guilfordfreelibraryvt.org
camp@guilfordfreelibraryvt.org
Treasurer’s Report – John
We are on track.
Our Certificates of Deposits (CDs) are now getting a much higher interest rate.
John will talk to Marty about the Library’s fundraising expectations for the Friends group this next year.
MOU
We are planning to bring the MOU proposal to a select board meeting in late September. John, Laura and Judith will be present at that meeting.
Review Webinars
There was a short sharing of the highlights gleaned from each of the following webinars:
Richard – Capital Projects
Jeannette – How to champion your Library to your Select board
Cathi – Grant writing
Laura – Accessibility
Judith – ADA
Nika – Community gifts
From this sharing,
• The Trustees agreed that we want the Library to be surveyed for its ADA accessibility, both the building and our programming. Laura will be in touch with the town to have the building surveyed. Once the surveys have been done, we will update the website to clearly explain our limitations and ways we are offering alternative means to overcome those limitations.
• We will keep ourselves updated with the VT Department of Library’s future grants and guidelines.
Strategic Plan
We’ve identified new goals that we would like to have reviewed to add to our strategic plan for 2023-26 at next month’s meeting.
• ADA compliance
• Full time position for the Librarian
• Increased communication with the Town
• A renovation/addition to the Library
Friends Update
Marty, the Chair of the Friends of the Library, has drafted a proposal to activate new committees. Jeannette is reviewing and making some edits to this proposal. There is a Friends meeting on this Saturday the 26th at 9am, Jeannette and Laura will attend and all are welcome to join.
Guilford Fair
Cathi will email the sign up sheet of shifts for Trustees and Friends to take turns being at the Library’s booth at the Fair.
Jeannette and Laura will meet this Saturday the 26th at 10:30 am to organize by subject the books by donation into the new milk crates. Others are welcome to help with this task.
Meeting adjourned at 8:11 pm
Next Monthly Trustees Meeting is Monday, September 18th, 2023 at 6:30pm, at the Library.
Minutes by Secretary, Nika Fotopulos
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