Minutes for the Feb. 8 Trustees Meeting

The meeting convened at 7 p.m. via Zoom. Attending were Cindy Binzen, Rachel Kurland, Curt Albee, Carol Wilson, Miriam Newman, Melissa Strayton (librarian) and Marty Frank.

Minutes from the January meeting were accepted.

Treasurer’s Report: Rachel emailed a Profit and Loss Statement prior to the meeting that reflected the minimal amount of income and expense that would be expected one month into a pandemic year. She reported that the online version of Quickbooks had been installed on the library computer, where Roberta prefers to do bookkeeping, but not yet onto her personal computer. In any case, it seems to be working well. She has supplied H&R Block with the necessary information to complete the 990s, which will cost us $125 for 2019 and likely a similar amount for 2020 — rates that reflect the discount they offer to nonprofits. Rachel has taken care of the registration with the Vermont secretary of state required of nonprofits. Her attempts to gather more information about whether we might dispose of the unsold book donations to ThriftBooks have been foiled by their failure to return her calls. She’s still attempting to find a college that might be interested in acquiring the collection of French medieval history books that came into our possession.

Librarian’s Report:  Melissa placed a large book order at the end of January and expects it to arrive any day. She intends to prepare the books for circulation at home while the library is closed for painting. She was not able to prepare an application for Turrell funding in time for the latest round but spoke to a representative from the foundation and will submit one during the summer. She did get an extension from the state for the annual report required from libraries and will be preparing that over the next few weeks. Sarah Rogers will be working on summer programming ideas. Melissa has been spending quite a bit of time recently preparing for the arrival of the painting crew. She hopes to complete what needs to be done in the main room by the middle of this week. 

Miscellaneous: That painting project will begin in earnest this Friday when the movers arrive. Curt will make a call to the company to double check on their procedures regarding the moving and safekeeping of the paintings. Melissa, Cindy and Carol will meet this week to make final decisions about colors. The painting crew arrives next Monday.

Rachel will take care of the annual financial report that is filed with the probate court. Our next meeting will be at 7 p.m. on March 8 and be conducted via Zoom. At 7:48, Marty moved, Curt seconded, that the board go into executive session to discuss personnel. The board returned to regular session at 8:04 and adjourned.

Submitted by Marty Frank