HomeMy WebLinkAboutDraft Minutes - Library Board of Trustees - 05/04/2022 - Strategic Planning CommitteeDRAFT Minutes
South Burlington Library Board of Trustees
Strategic Planning Committee
Wednesday, May 4, 2022 @ 5 p.m.
Location: South Burlington Public Library & Zoom
Members Present: Patrick Leduc, Ted Lenski, Stacey Pape, Margery Vagt
Members Absent: Donna Swartwout
Staff Members Present: Jennifer Murray
Call to Order
Chair Called the Meeting to Order at 5:03 pm
Additions and deletions to the posted agenda
None
Comments and questions from the public not related to items on the agenda
None
Welcome & Purpose
Patrick outlined the scope of the Committee’s work as reviewing the work that was started
three years ago, determining what might need to be re-done and what could be leveraged of
the existing work. The overarching goal being that the group was tasked with drafting a high
level strategic plan, in the three to five year window, for consideration by the board of trustees.
This plan would then be used to engage the community and set annual goals that would support
the strategic plan. Jennifer added that the plan should also be cognizant of the City’s strategic
plan and be able to connect to so that the plans were mutually supportive of each other.
Themes from old SOAR process
Patrick invited Jennifer to share with the workgroup the SOAR process that was completed three
years ago and the resulting themes that came out of that. The Committee engaged in a robust
conversation on how those themes could be used in the strategic plan as a basis for determining
“goals”. Following a good discussion some core themes were uncovered that might be a base
for formulating goals. Vibrant Library, Inclusive, Community Oriented, Accessible, engaged,
respectful, and sustainable were captured. The committee attempted to, as a working model,
move one of those themes into an potential high level goal.
Theme: Engaged
Potential Goal statement: Expand engagement to more of the South Burlington
community with a specific focus on traditionally marginalized
populations.
Discuss community outreach
Patrick posed the question of community outreach and if, given the recent outreach in planning
for the new building, what level of outreach was needed and at what stage of our process.
Considering the goal of inclusivity, the committee thoughtfully landed on evaluating how best to
engage the community once we have a draft plan to respond to.
Stakeholders
The most immediate stakeholder the workgroup wanted to engage was the library staff. The
workgroup felt that other stakeholders would be engaged indirectly through connecting the
eventual plan to the City’s plan and the community outreach plan previously discussed.
Laying out our process
Following more conversation on the current mission, vision, and values, the committee decided
to not re-evaluate these components but use them as a test out strategic goal against. In short
the committee felt that if a goal was valid it must support or be aligned with the mission, vision,
and values but through that process if a goal seemed to be important and valuable but did not
align with the mission, vision, and goals that might be an indicator that those components need
to be evaluated.
Next steps
The committee agreed that each member would independently work to create a “goal” for each
of the themes uncovered. Through that process committee members may uncover new themes
that need to be addressed and may find that current theme may not fit into “goals”, potentially
meaning they might be “values”. Jennifer will do a similar process with library staff. The themes
are/were:
Vibrant Library, Inclusive, Community Oriented, Accessible, engaged, respectful, and sustainable
The next meeting of the committee will focus on sharing the independent goal ideas each
member brings, with a lens toward drafting singular/combined (best of the best) goals for
consideration. Following that process, high level action items will be considered.
Other Business
Seeing no other business, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 6:15 pm.