Minutes for the April 8  Trustees Meeting

The meeting convened at 7 p.m. in the library. Present were Carol Wilson, Melissa Strayton (librarian), Rachel Kurland, Cindy Binzen, Curt Albee, Miriam Newman, Kerry Claffey (bookkeeper) and Marty Frank.

Minutes from the March meeting were approved.

Librarian’s Report: Melissa reported things are going well. Volunteers are signing up for open slots and most have been filled for the next two months. She attended a recent Friends meeting and submitted her funding requests, which, in total, are up slightly from last year. Billings Museum announced it will begin charging $200 for its pass, and the Friends agreed to cover the cost. The date for the book sale has been set for July 5/6. 

The Kanopy streaming service appears to be ready for a soft launch at the end of this week. Melissa will publicize the service on Facebook, the listserv and in the Strafford News. Because it will be important for patrons to know their library card number, Melissa suggested we consider having Gnomon design and produce something that would be similar to business cards. It would cost about $50. Cindy proposed waiting to see how the pilot program goes before making that decision.

Planning for the Townhouse summer forum is underway. Also, Stuart Smith has arranged to have a pianist come to perform at a benefit concert this fall. Melissa believes that the recent problems people have encountered in connecting to the LibraryWorld website highlights the need to replace the laptop and make a more updated operating system available. 

Treasurer’s Report: Referring to the most recent profit-and-loss statement Rachel identified a few areas where we’re spending less than last year (electricity, oil, postage/courier service) and some where we’re spending more (children’s programming, snow removal), but that, overall, we appear to be doing fine.

After discussing the matter with the Investment Committee, Rachel proposed moving $25,000 from our checking account into CDs, where they’ll earn some interest, with $10,000 going into a six-month CD and $15,000 into a 12-month instrument. The money can be handled by the Investment Committee through its Vanguard account. Miriam moved to excecute that recommendation and the motion passed unanimously.

Miscellaneous: Melvin Coburn’s program went quite well. The board expressed little interest in taking up Efficiency Vermont’s offer to conduct a free energy audit because we had one done not that long ago. Carol will again make thank-you notes to express our gratitude to volunteers, although this year they may be delivered in person rather than through the mail. Curt will contact a plumber to try to finish the work on our pump. Discussion about landscaping produced general agreement that the trustees are more interested in thinking about what sort of plantings to place near the foundation rather than replacing the tree that was removed in front. The annual spring cleaning has been scheduled for May 19 from 10 to 12.  

The next meeting will be May 13 at 7 p.m. at the library.

Submitted by Marty Frank