The meeting convened at the library at 7 p.m. Present were Cindy Binzen, Carol Wilson, Curt Albee, Marty Frank, Kevin Lynch (observer) and Melissa Strayton (librarian). 

Minutes of the January meeting were accepted.

Librarian’s Report: Melissa reported she spent time exploring Palace, the app that serves as a portal to the collection of ebooks and audiobooks the state is offering for free. She discovered that it’s designed, at least for now, to be used with tablets and mobile devices, but not computers. In any case, she feels comfortable enough with it to make it available to our patrons, which she plans to announce at the beginning of March. She also learned that the application is not set up to work with Overdrive, the program the library now offers for  downloading digital material. 

Melissa has ordered 3,000 barcodes for $350. Kevin has arranged a display of books for Black History Month. The annual fee due to the Secretary of State’s office for registration as a nonprofit has been take care of, although the information on file needs to be updated. Melissa is about half done in preparing our annual report for the state. Participation in the after-school program is down because the school has been offering a ski program at the same time, but Melissa says it’s likely to bounce back up when the new session starts in March. It appears that the organization that carted away our unsold books after last July’s sale is still operational, and Melissa has started accepting donations for the 2023 edition. Cindy said she would call Kaitlin to discuss our hope to restart a preschool storytime.

Treasurer’s Report: Relaying information from Rachel, Melissa noted that the $500 we budgeted for building work didn’t cover the various things done by Tom Root, including installing new smoke detectors, replacing the emergency exit sign lighting and replacing the ballast in one of our fluorescent lights (the bill covered only materials; his labor was donated). Information has been provided to the accountant who is handling the 990 that will be due later this year. The cleaned portrait of William Prescott has been re-hung. The trustees decided to hold off on proceeding with the cleaning of the other artwork.

Other Business: The board thanked Curt for his many years of service and all of the many projects he has undertaken in that time. Curt said he will nominate Kevin at Town Meeting to fill the open Harris trustee position. Before voting on the revised bylaws, the board decided to consult the Swan will, which the bylaws make reference to, and decide if any relevant portions need to be appended. Marty will review the will before the next meeting

Website improvement: Kate Siepmann indicated she would prefer the trustees to find someone else to design the new logo. The committee working with Geoff Hansen will tackle that and work on the website text so that Geoff can make further progress on the redesign.

Cindy reported that Jackson Evans came to look at our roof. He was very helpful in giving names of companies that work on slate roofs. Three of the four companies she contacted actually responded fairly quickly. Although Evans recommended hiring a grant writer to secure the funds we’ll need to undertake the job, the trustees feel that the state is providing enough guidance that we should be able to handle the application ourselves. 

Cindy suggested we explore having Ian Clark do a program to present and discuss his bird photography. The board supported the proposal.

Our next meeting will take place on Monday, March 13, at  7 p.m. at the library.

Submitted by Marty Frank