Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Library Board of Trustees - 02/10/2022 Approved Minutes South Burlington Library Board of Trustees Thursday, February 10, 2022 @ 6 p.m. Location: Virtual meeting only Members Present: Margaret Ann Cross, Patrick Leduc, Stacey Pape, Jay Pasackow, Rebecca Stazi, Donna Swartwout, Margery Vagt Members Absent: Lee Freeman, Lauren Ballard Hatch, Ted Lenski Staff Members Present: Jennifer Murray Friends of the Library Present: Call to Order Chair Called the Meeting to Order at 6:04 pm Additions and deletions to the posted agenda The Friends of the Library Report was deleted from the agenda. Comments and questions from the public not related to items on the agenda None Approval of regular board minutes of January 13, 2022 Upon a motion made by Trustee Stacey Pape and seconded by Trustee Margery Vagt, the Trustees voted unanimously to accept the minutes of the January 13, 2022 Board of Trustees Meeting. Chair’s Report The chair discussed the Green Mountain Book Festival plan that was shared at the meeting on January 31, 2022. Representatives from the Library staff, Library Foundation, Friends of the Library and the Board of Trustees were on the call. The Library staff is planning an event that will happen around the dates of the Book Festival. The Trustees agreed to support the South Burlington Library staffs’ efforts with this event. At this time, the Board felt that no further action was needed. We will keep open lines of communication with those planning the Book Festival. COVID 19 Update The City Council voted to extend the mask mandate and the library continues to comply with this guidance. Small programs are still happening and larger programs have been rescheduled. The Wiggle Room remains closed. Toys have been moved to other areas in the library for children and families to use. The staff is considering when Story Time and other programs will be in person. Jennifer Murray, Director of the Library did share one situation where a parent did not want their 3-year-old to have to wear a mask. The majority of the library’s patrons support the mask mandate. Committee Reports Finance Committee Capital Review – Of the $8.4 Million spent in FY21 on the library, 8.1% ($680,075) came from library donations (Blanchette and Library Foundation). That is an impressive amount and something the Library Foundation and the LBOT should be proud of. The budget as submitted and presented to City Council has been recommended to the voters and will be voted on during Town Meeting Day – March 1st. The additional staffing, including the IT support, is part of the FY23 budget submission. The finance committee members will be available, if necessary, on March 1 to support Jennifer at the Town Meeting. YTD through November spending Review Currently, the overall Library spend is in line with the budget through November. YTD spend is 41.42% of the total budget with a target of 41.67%. The key items focused on during the discussion included: ● Salaries – Salaries are above budget due to the lack of a COL increase in the FY 22 budget. This will need to be adjusted by limits on spending in other categories (self-checkout maintenance fees – see below) ● Self-Checkout Machines Effectiveness – Self check machines are now working (as of Jan 2022). There will need to be a push to increase their use. May be an opportunity for the Advocacy Committee to highlight. Maintenance agreement will be adjusted to begin in January 2022, not July 2021 as initially budgeted. ● Room Rental Revenue – Now that the booking system is up and running, this should provide additional revenue. ● Copies – Revenue – Revenue is down for copies. This led to a discussion about access to the library via public transportation. Jennifer mentioned that when the library was at the mall, it had additional foot traffic as a result of a public transportation bus route at the mall. There is not one near the new library on Market Street. Nearest one is at Barnes and Noble. his foot traffic seemed to use the copier more. Additional monitoring of this service will be done by Jennifer Murray. ● Fines and Fees – Fines are below budget due to the budget being submitted after the elimination of library fines. Jennifer will start the use of a “fine jar” on the counter that people can donate if they feel they should volunteer to pay fine. Any funds generated will go to the fines line item in FY 22 and the gift account in FY23 since the budget for FY23 is zero. Staffing and Hours of Service Jennifer communicated that the FY22 hours of service will remain the same and she will be making a recommendation to the LBOT for hours of service for FY23 after the budget is approved. Another topic discussed was having the library provide an operational update periodically to City Council in order to promote the great things the library is doing. Jennifer will discuss this with the City Manager and will ask for the support of the LBOT and subcommittees if necessary. The finance committee was supportive of the idea. Governance and Nomination Committee Report Margery presented the Collection Development Policy to the trustees, that was included in their packet of materials and asked if there were any suggestions or areas of concern. Patrick Leduc offered some edits to clarify a few areas of the policy and asked that adjustments be made to the complaint process to confirm if the committee was offering a decision or a recommendation. Some discussion followed and the edits were accepted. Upon a motion made by Trustee Patrick Leduc, and seconded by Trustee Rebecca Stazi, the Trustees voted unanimously to accept the Collection Development Policy with the discussed edits. Jennifer commented that the committee is making a lot of progress and doing a lot of work for all the policies that need to be developed for the library and Stacey voiced praise for the work of the new committee chair, Margery. Advocacy Committee Report In Lee’s absence Margret Ann reported out for the committee. She shared that there are a number of videos that have been made to highlight the new library space. They are posted on the Library’s YouTube channel and other social media sites. New videos will be created that highlight the self- checkout machines that are now working, as well as other videos that ask various stakeholders to talk about their favorite area or place in the library. Director’s Report Jennifer Murray reported that the library staff is doing some collaboration with the city by helping to staff the welcome desk at City Hall. Jennifer and the leadership team are preparing for performance reviews. Jennifer is providing leadership and direction for her leadership team. The Winter concert series is now a spring concert series. The staff will be highlighting self-checkout machines next week and patrons who participate are able to enter in a raffle to win the new Jodi Picoult book. The first rental of the auditorium went very well. Jennifer followed up from the finance committee discussion on the potential of bus stop near City Hall/Library. She brought the suggestion to the City’s Department Head meeting. The bus stop is not likely to happen soon. The walking time from the bus stop from Target to the library location in the mall is longer than the walk from the bus stop at Barnes and Nobles to the new library location. Given the discussion around the bus stop, there was a suggestion for the Advocacy committee to consider a video on how easy it was to take public transportation to the library. Jennifer shared good news that the Poetry Club has grown from 6 people attending to 10-15 at the last meeting. Staff met with residents of the Harbor Village Senior community and 20 residents attended and they gave out 5 new library cards. Jennifer responded to a question from the Board regarding parking around the new facility that everyone seems to be finding spaces. Other Business None Meeting Adjournment Seeing no other Business, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 7:00 pm. Future Item Strategic Planning