HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Library Board of Trustees - 05/09/2024
Approved Minutes South Burlington Public Library Board of Trustees
The South Burlington Public Library Board of Trustees held a regular meeting on Thursday, May 9, 2024
at 5:00 p.m., in the Library Board Room, and by Zoom participation.
Members Present: Theresa Eiermann, Kevin Morgenstein Fuerst, Lauren Ballard Hatch, Anne Gilson
LaLonde, Ted Lenski, Holly Painter, Stacey Pape, Rebecca Stazi, Donna Swartwout
Members Absent: Penelope Tompkins, Margery Vagt
Staff Members & Guests Present: Jennifer Murray, Sue Raatikainen, Natacha Liuzzi, Jessie Baker
1. The Chair called the meeting to order at 5:04 pm
2. Library exits were reviewed.
The chair provided instructions on emergency exits from the building.
3. Additions and deletions to the posted agenda
Jessie Baker, City Manager – update on City Council vote on library staff joining the union.
4. Comments and questions from the public not related to items on the agenda
None
5. Approval of regular board meeting minutes of April 11, 2024
Upon a motion made by Trustee Anne Gilson LaLonde and seconded by Trustee Ted Lenski, the Trustees
voted unanimously to accept the minutes of the April 11, 2024 Board of Trustees Meeting.
6. Jessie Baker, City Manager update
Jessie Baker reported that the South Burlington City Council voted on Monday, May 6 to approve the
library staff joining the city-wide AFSME union. This is a voluntary action and a tentative agreement has
been reached that includes all library staff that are not supervisors and substitutes (substitutes ARE part
of the union). Once finalized, staff will receive a 4% increase in pay and staff working over 19 hours get
an increase in pro-rated sick and vacation time. This will be a $34,000 increase to the library budget.
Jessie stated this was positive action to have an agreement at this time. The agreement will be effective
once the city and union have signed the agreement (in about 2-3 weeks). The full contract with the
union expires in June 2025.
7. Staff Introduction – Natacha Liuzzi
Natacha shared this will be her third summer here at the library. She really enjoys being here. She
oversees the kids after school program, the library calendar, and the parent/child book group. This book
group is specifically for K-2nd grade and their parents. Many children have stayed all years that they are
eligible. One young patron has requested to stay on as an assistant. Natacha is involved in the summer
reading program and the summer craft program. A video was made to share with elementary schools
promoting all the activities offered at the library during the summer. Additional outreach is done with
home day cares and after school programs. She reads a lot of YA and middle school books as a part of
her professional development. She enjoys working on the World Language Collection and helps out with
room reservations as needed. Finally, she described the space as fun!
8. Friends of the Library Report (submitted by Sue Raatikainen)
Bookshop: $541.45 ($305 was from Illuminate VT sales)
Booksale: Generated $1913. Kudos to Merry Jones, Eileen Beckwith and Lorene Chickering who
organized and ran the entire sale their President, Sue Raatikainen.
Budget: We will present the proposed budget for 2024/2025 at our May meeting.
Friends 2024 Concert Series: All 3 concerts were excellent. The March concert was postponed due to
snow. It was rescheduled for Saturday, Nov. 2.
9. Report Outs
A. Chair Report
The Chair expressed appreciation for everyone agreeing to the change in time. The June Board meeting
will involve reviewing the SBPL Foundation budget, and a discussion of committee chairs setting
business plans for FY 25. The Chair asked Trustees to sign up tabling for the library/Foundation for South
Burlington Nite Out.
B. Committee Reports
Communications Committee
The committee last met in April. It looks to be a rich and full summer for the SBPL and the committee
will be supporting summer reading programs and other events (Touch a Truck, etc.). There are Family
Pop Ups taking place this summer that the library will partner with the Recreation Department to
support a variety of neighborhoods in South Burlington. Trustees may be asked to support these events
once dates have been set.
Finance Committee
No report; reviewing Foundation proposed budget
Governance Committee
No report; next meeting is May 23, 2024
South Burlington Public Library Foundation
No report
D. Director’s Report (submitted written Director’s report May 2024)
Engaged Community Leader
Jennifer is finalizing the Juneteenth events with Rec. We are planning a Monday night speaker on the
topic of building community through Hip-Hop and music w food vendors at Vet Park on Wed. Night,
6/19.
Jennifer and IT Department Head Nick Gingrow are talking to two firms who might be able to provide a
service contract for the Crestron system that runs the auditorium and room reservation panels. We
hope that staff training can be a part of the contract.
Hosting with others the film screening, Just Getting By, about Vermonters who struggle with food and
housing insecurity.
All see themselves reflected
Mira reports some new ESL Circle attendees.
Curated digital tools
Mike is working with Kelly and Mira to reduce the magazine collection and has another online service to
research.
Eliminate barriers
Kelley Desroches referred us to Office Environments to make plans for updating the furniture and layout
of the (crowded) adult/teen work room. We have also met with Red Thread and will compare their
suggestions.
Sue is ordering a neon Open sign for easy viewing from the street
Highlights from Children’s
A very successful author event on 5/4! We hosted Tracey West, author of the early chapter book series,
Dragon Masters on Saturday, May 4. To an audience of over 140 enthusiastic fans, Tracey described
from where she gets her ideas for dragons. She led the group in creating a library dragon with special
book powers. We hope to see drawings of our Library dragon from readers. Special thanks to Elizabeth
from Flying Pig for creating a space to purchase Tracey’s books, and much gratitude to our multi-
talented, event-planning wizard colleague, Natacha!
Summer Reading preparation continues: Natacha is busy creating samples of all the summer Craftytown
crafts, Valerie is working on her Board Game program for kids in grades 4 and up, and Kelly is working
with Alyssa (our former assistant, now the Chamberlin school librarian) to create promo SRP 24 videos
for kids to watch at South Burlington schools. We’ll be sharing SRP 24 info at the next staff meeting.
Highlights from Circulation and Cataloging
Sue Meyer, volunteer coordinator extraordinaire, organized a fun and informative volunteer get
together, assisted by staff who brought some goodies. Sixteen volunteers attended, with a nice mix of
the weekly folks, Friends and Trustees. It was scheduled during a school break and we were happy to
have two of our teen volunteers there as well.
Volunteers are now on-call to process new books, leaving Julie to finish up cataloging projects.
Highlights from Adult and Teen Services
Poetry month was HUGE: AiR wrap-up, Holly's fun workshop and very well-attended reading with Dan
Close, the Corporeal Poetry exhibit which was quite a treat to visit with every day. (Dan was very
complimentary of Mira’s efforts for the finale program!)
Our very own library assistant Julia will put her TESOL skills to work and host an English Language
Learners' Movie Night on 5/21.
Vermont Reads at SBPL wraps up on Thursday evening with Stories from the Vermont History Archives in
the Community Room. Have a meeting that night? Consider making your way across the second floor to
join us or give yourself time to enjoy the display in the glass case outside Jennifer's office.
From Jennifer
Council approved the union contract on Monday, May 6.
The building will be closed on Saturday, 5/25, for carpet cleaning.
Room reservation requests should now go to Mae Stokes, cc to Mike Maloney.
Jennifer and Kathryn will be interviewing for the substitute position this week.
Kelly’s AV friend took a look at the Auditorium and provided a good summary of how excellent the
equipment is and that starting over won’t solve the issues. His comments led to the search for a
company that will maintain the Crestron system. Later, Jennifer will continue to look for contractors to
handle individual concerts.
Three gaming computers for The Hangout have been installed and all the OnLogic computers have been
replaced at the public PCs.
Sign up to give blood on May 30th.
Jennifer provided a link to the Seven Days article about Fletcher Free Library. During the meeting,
Jennifer reported that SBPL is not at the same level of concern as Burlington’s Fletcher Free Library. She
had this verified by the Chief of Police based on the number of calls the police department received to
180 Market Street.
At the meeting, Jennifer reported that at the end of the 3rd quarter, the library budget is at 69-70%. She
will provide the Trustees the library user stats when she sends them to the City.
Jennifer shared a story about a patron who spent the entire day at the library. The patron needed to get
out of her house and told Jennifer, “she was so happy we are here.”
10. Other Business:
The Chair wanted to remind Trustees that with all the construction taking place on market street, that
the development and inclusion of small businesses are a part of the overall plan.
11. Adjourn
Seeing no other business, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 5:47 pm