Minutes for the Dec. 9 Trustees Meeting

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

Minutes from the November meeting were approved.

Librarian’s Report: Melissa said she received notification that we had received a $3,000 grant from Turrell, up $1,000 from the amount we’ve received in recent years. Her research on use of the Kanopy streaming service indicates that we’ve spent $426 out of the $500 allocated. Over the past six months or so, the library’s offering of the service has attracted 22 users, 916 visits and 325 plays. Melissa plans to put an order in for new materials for the collection this week. The after-school programming is going well, and Melissa plans to sit down with Sarah for a 90-day review. She also plans to send an email to the computer company that furnished the refurbished laptop to seek a refund or replacement (the screen was inoperable). 

Treasurer’s Report: Rachel said about $3,735 has been received in response to the appeals letter so far. lt also appears we’re going to get about $1,500 from the endowed funds, up considerably from last year. 

The board reviewed the preliminary budget prepared by Rachel, Kerry and Melissa and agreed that there’s no need to ask the town for more money, in part because of a $5,000 bequest that’s expected to come in next year. The budget projects income and expenses at a little more than $58,000, with most items projected to stay close to their 2019 amounts. Insurance will be going up significantly, mostly because of the board’s decision to provide liability coverage for board officers. Also new this year will a line item for the Kanopy streaming service, an amount that will require a policy of limiting the number of programs each household can view. Kerry said it would make sense to also spend some money on upgrading the Quickbooks program on the librarian’s and treasurer’s computers to provide backup and facilitate coordination.

Miscellaneous: We need to to find someone who does slate repair; Randall Hoyt is one possibility. We also need to check in with Frank Brown about painting the building’s exterior trim. The board decided to replace the outside sign with one that permanently displays operating hours. Rocky has volunteered to build the sign and the board will need to find someone to do the lettering. Publicity for the benefit concert is done. Steve Handy will handle shoveling duties while Mark Chute is away. The board also agreed that Melissa, in the event that she can’t make it to Strafford to open the library, should notify a board member to see if anybody in town can fill in or put up a sign on the front door to inform patrons about the unscheduled closing..

At 8:30, Marty moved to go into executive session to discuss personnel. The board agreed unanimously. The executive session ended around 9:15.

Our next meeting will be on Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. at the library.

Submitted by Marty Frank