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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-11-19 Stevens Memorial Library Trustees Minutes APPROVEDC&A4.,i DATE VOTE - PAGES Board of Library Trustees (BoLT) 1e Stevens Memorial Library Minutes of November Monthly Meeting on Tuesday,November 19, 2024 1. Call to order Marl{Rodgers, Board Chair, called the Board of Library Trustees to order on Tuesday, November 19, 2024 at 5:30 PM. Trustees in attendance: Marls Rodgers, Board Chair;Ann Cavanaugh; Eva Hamori; Stan Limpert(departed at 6:01); Lindsey Mayo (departed at 6:30); Ron Rudis; Earl Svendsen Also attending: Kathleen Keenan, Library Director; Lucinda Mazza,Assistant Library Director,Absent: Denise Casey, Deputy Town Manager 2. Public Comment No continents were made directly to the Library Trustees or to the Library. However, one comment was made on the Town's Facebook page. The comment felt that money used for a boolunobile could be better spent on other Town needs. Kathleen Keenan shared the Town did not respond to the Facebook post. It was noted the bookmobile purchase was done with ARPA grant funds, which might not be able to be used for other purposes. 3. Correspondence -none 4. Reports a, Chair's Report—Mark Rodgers As the new Chair, Mark said he expected to learn and contribute more in this new role. b. Reviewlapprove minutes for October 24, 2024 MOTION: Eva Hamori made a motion, seconded by Ron Rudis, to accept the October 24, 2024 minutes as written with one correction to correct the spelling of "Rudis" in item 5£ Approved 6-0. c. Library Director's Report—Kaddeen Keenan • The School District is expected to have a substantial deficit again in FY25. The Town Manager and Town Finance staff are working with the School District on FY25 finances. The School District has spending review procedures in place, but cost cuts will still be needed. The Town Manager has not issued a spending freeze for the municipal departments. • Kathleen submitted several items for FY26 Capital Improvement(CIP) funds and a placeholder for one in FY27. They are on listed on the Building Calendar: Interior work: replace window blinds and paint the Rotunda ceiling and walls;Exterior work: paint 2024-11-19 BoLT November Meeting Minutes DRAFT building eaves and replace the chimney file roofs. The FY27 request is to replace the wall-to-wall carpeting in the public spaces. • Community Preservation (CPC) requests are due soon and Kathleen is thinking about a new strategy for a CPC request for the North Lawn outdoor space development. (The funding request last year was not supported.) The CPC Committee is holding information meetings in December and January where people could come to Iearn more. A"notice of intent"is due November 29"' to CPC, if one plans to attend a meeting and be placed on CPC agenda. • Staffing: The Library has filled the two Night/Weekend Library Assistant positions, Joining the staff are Lisa DeJoie and Tycho Traumann-Davis.A Bookmobile Librarian job is posted. There are several applicants so far. Kathleen will be waiting for a larger pool of applicants since during the holidays is a slow time for recruiting. • Assabet Interactive, the new public website module, is up and working nicely. it is being well received by staff(who maintain the calendar data) and the public who use it to find event information. The Library is replacing the current museum pass module with one from Assabet Interactive; this module should be live on the public website next week. • The North Andover School District(NAPS) English Language Parents Advisozy Council (ELPAC)had a successful first meeting at the Library last week with 16 families attending. One Atkinson teacher shared in her class of 20 students 7 languages are spoken, among them Arabic, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili. • Kathleen shared a copy of the MVLC Mobile App bookmark in case members were not aware of the app. d. Library Monthly ActivioJ Report—Lucinda Mazza The monthly statistics report was reviewed. It was noted the number of visitors went up, while circulation items went down in October. The visitors'statistic reflects 50 programs were held with an attendance of 1,158. TumbleBooks, a digital picture book resource, circulation continue to be low. Kathleen shared that elementary students, the most likely users of TumbleBooks, do not have as much access to Chromebooks this school year, which count be contributing factor. e. Treasurer's Report—Earl Svendsen Earl presented the summary of the Treasurers Report dated November 18, 2024. The Endowment balance has increased by$47,053 to $1,014,971.99 since June 30, 2024 even after spending and investment changes. Earl handed out a 2nd version of the Suinniary report corrected the labels: `Building Study" to "Building Improvements" and"Website. Review" to "Bookmobile Books." Earl continues to study the Endowment Funds from several different perspectives to help the Board learn about and make decisions about the Funds management. He presented "What ifAnal}psis"spreadsheet to show how much might be spent from each of the expense categories. (The expense categories are based on the donors'wishes when their funds were donated. Donations are listed in three categories: (a) Collections, (b) Staff Development("betterment") and (c) Unrestricted.) This spreadsheet shows what 2024-11-19 BOLT November Meeting Minutes DRAFT amounts would be if spent at 3%, 4% or 5% from each category, This was very usefiil for a discussion about what should/could be spent and what the Endowment balances would be today if the Funds were used at the 3%,4%, or 5% levels. There followed a discussion about what percentage should be used when taking into consideration the long-term goals for the Endowment Funds, The current annual spending rate set by the Board is set at 4%. Earl also presented the Budget Discussion chant to help talk about how Endowment Funds might be spent for the remainders of FY25. The suggestion is to consider using 5% for each category. The Endowment Fund budget discussion will be continued in the December meeting. Future reports labeling will be updated to use the donors'language: "staff development" will be updated to "staff betterment." Kathleen shared the Stevens Memorial Library Board of Trustees Accounting Categories Chart. Created in 2019, it allows the Treasurer to label each expense with an expense-type code for ease of roll-up and reporting, The expenses can be rolled up to three or five major categories. The Stevens Memorial Library Foundation, a separate 501(c)(3) organization, is required to file an annual statement with the State of Massachusetts. Earl, as Treasurer of the Foundation, has taken care of this and paid the$18.50 filing fee.A brief discussion followed about the need for the Foundation to reimburse the Trustees Endowment Funds for the payments made to Hemcnway&Barnes LLP for their work setting up the Foundation.A next step for the Foundation is to set up its own bank/checking accounts. f. Committee Reports i. Investment Committee—Mark Rodgers Investments were discussed during the Treasurer's Report. ii. Long Range Planning Insplernentation Plan Tracking—Ron Rudis Ron shared an updated Tracking Chart. He noted Goal 4.1 has changed to "in progress" while Goal 4.2 is marked"done," iii, Building Cornn2ittee Eva Hantori Eva reviewed an updated Building Calendar. The Historic Entrance railings should be installed just before or after Thanksgiving, Other dates noted were work for the updating the public bathroom counters and slat wall for the lower lobby. 5. Old Business a. Historic Entrance Stairs Update—Kathleen Keenan Mentioned above, the Historic Entrance railings are being fabricated now. Once the railings are in, the Historic Entrance should be able to be re-opened, hopefully by December Ist. The lawn was regraded, but has not been hydroseeded yet. 2024-11-19 BOLT November Meeting Minutes DRAFT b. Boolanobile update -Kathleen Keenan The boolunobile customization is nearing completion. Next steps are a virtual walkthrough with our consultation to inspect and accept the work, c. Amazon funding status/new technology update Kathleen Keenann Technology purchases mentioned earlier are still pending. d. Library patron website renewal project update—Kathleen Keenan-mane e. Library building space study—Eva Haniori The building study Request for Proposals (RFP) has been sent to four firms. Three firms calve to the October walkthrough with Kathleen and Eva. One of the three firms wrote they will not be responding. The two proposals (Lagrasse,Yanowitz & Feyl and OverUnder)received will be reviewed by the building study team (Eva,Alin, Kathleen and Cindy) and the companies invited in for interviews. f. Strategic plan annual update—Kathleen Keenan and Ron Rudis Part of being eligible for Library Services &Technology(LSTA) federal grants, administered by the MA Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) is having a 5-year Strategic Plan on file and to do annual Action Plan updates (due Dec. I"). Ron started this year's Action Plan and passed it to Kathleen to add more details, This would allows for applying for a 2025 grant, for instance for English learning classes. 6.New Business a. MA State Ethics Comnnissiorn— Corlfliet of Interest Edification. Kathleen emailed a link to the Trustees to check their status of this requirement and if needed, to do their training this year. b. Library spending requests Kathleen requested pre-approval for a spending limit,up to $300 each, to plan for two celebrations: Historic Entrance re-opening and the boolunobile arrival. Kathleen requested pre-approval for a spending limit,up to $800 (estimated cost for luncheon in earlier years), for a staff and Friends of the Library appreciation luncheon, The third request was for $1,500 to fund North Andowr Reads 2025 books and programs. MOTION: Earl Svendsen made a motion, seconded by Ron Rudis to spend tip to $300 each for the bookmobile and front steps celebrations. Approved 5-0. MOTION: Eva Hamori made a motion, seconded by Ann Cavanaugh to spend up to $800 for a staff appreciation luncheon in December. Approved 5-0, The North Andover Reads request was tabled to the December meeting. c. FY26 Spending Plan Discussion —tabled until December meeting. 2024-11-I9 Bo1,T November Meeting Minutes DRAFT 7. Next meeting date Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 8. Adjournment MOTION: Ann Cavanaugh made a(notion, seconded by Eva Hamori, to adjourn at 7:02 PM. Approved 5-0. Documents Distributed: 1, 2024-11-19 BOLT Nov meeting agenda posting.pdf 2. 2024-10-24 BOLT October Meeting Minutes DRAFT.pdf 3. Mazza:Library Monthly Statistics CY2023 & CY2024 11-18-24.pdf 4. Svendsen: Treasurer SUMMARYReport 11192024.pdf S. Svendsen: Treasurer Report ID92024.pdf Sa, Svendsen: Treasurer Report 11192024 Correction.pgf 6. Svendsen: What If Discussion 11192024.pdf 7. FY25 Budget Discussion Spreadsheet.pdf 8. Keenan: BoLT Endowment Spending Category Chart 2024-11-19.xlsx (2 views) 9. Rudis: November FY25 Strategic Plan Status Trackingpdf 10. 11ainori: 2024-11-19 SML Building Calendar 2024.pdf' 2024-1 I-19 BoLT November Meeting Minutes DRAFT