Monday, September 18th, 2023
Trustees present: Jeannette Tokarz, Laura Lawson Tucker, Sandra Cortes, Nika Fotopulos, John Shaw, Judith Serkin
Others present: Cathi Wilken (librarian), and Anna Klein
Trustee absent: Richard Wizansky
Meeting began at 6:46 pm
Accepted the minutes from August monthly meeting.
Librarian Report – Cathi
Highlights from Cathi:
-The Fair was a success.
-E-Bikes are for borrow and people are really enjoying them.
-There has been an increase of downloadable usage with audio books and Ebooks. This is a time consuming process and it’s expensive, but the demand is there.
-Preparing for Eclipse events: our Library received special glasses for the events, 500 glasses. Cathi is looking for support with solar system and eclipse events and installations. Please get in touch with Cathi if you can help make these events happen.
Treasurer’s Report – John
We are on track! We are 2 months into our new fiscal year.
There are $5000 and $500 accounted for in the report under fundraising which were from the Vermont Arts Council grant and the Ben and Jerry’s Grant, these have already gone to pay for the summer camps of this year. Cathi is checking with the Vermont Arts Council to make sure the Library can use the extra unused funds for after school programming.
MOU
John presented at the last Selectboard meeting an update from the Library, which included:
• our programming and services
• what the role and responsibilities of the Trustees are
• how the Friends of the Library support the fundraising for special projects
• the MOU was introduced, the need for it, that we are working on it, and that the town and Selectboard can expect a more detailed proposal of the MOU in the next couple of weeks
• an announcement of Cathi’s retirement next year
Strategic Plan 23-26
We reviewed our strategic plan and how we are progressing on each goal.
Some follow up actions from this review are:
- Judith and Laura will reach out to Cathy Gips from the ADA New England Center in Boston to guide us in improving accessibility of our Library by first conducting a survey of our building and grounds.
- Subcommittees have been identified and Trustees have self assigned themselves to them, next steps are to meet and craft a plan to support our Librarian, through these 3 committees: programming, building and grounds care and fundraising.
By-laws
Laura will send the by-laws approved in 2021 to the Trustees to review and discuss at our next monthly meeting in October.
Friends Update – Jeannette
Friends will self assign themselves to the 3 sub-committees. And then Jeannette will send out a poll for each group to set a first meeting time and day to begin the work of the sub-committees. These sub-committees will have a supportive role to the Librarian’s direction.
Clean up day
The Fall clean up day will be organized by the future Building and Grounds Committee. Cathi and Leah will make a list of to dos to direct this clean up day.
Fundraising list
Cathi will send out the annual appeal mailing list to Trustees and Friends for each to review and suggest removing or adding new people and addresses.
There was discussion of in some future year sending the annual appeal to the grand Guilford list, as a way to gain new supporters and combine it with an informative description of all the library’s services and program opportunities.
Jeannette will work with Cathi to write up a Library update that combines an ask for our annual appeal to submit to Guilford Gazette by the Oct. 1st deadline.
New Business
There is a correction to the August meeting minutes:
Marty is the Co-chair of the Friends of the Library along with Amber. Marty is not the Chair.
Meeting adjourned at 8:09 pm
Next Monthly Trustees Meeting is Monday, October 16th, 2023 at 6:30pm, at the Library and on zoom.
Minutes by Secretary, Nika Fotopulos
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