Agenda: March 18, 2010

Draft Minutes Feb. 18, 2010

Minutes Archive

Thomas Memorial Library Trustees Meeting
Draft Agenda
Thursday, March 18, 2010 – 6:30 pm 
Thomas Memorial Library, 6 Scott Dyer Road.                                                                           

• Call to order:                    _____                                                             Rob Chatfield, Chair
• Approval of Meeting Minutes:  February 18, 2010
• Library Director’s Report: February                                                      Jay Scherma
• Old Business:

1. Building related workshop action items
2. Town Council action on proposed Circulation Policy revision           Jay Scherma
3. Focus Group Action Committee report                                              Jennifer / Nancy O.

• New Business:

1. MORC report and Nancy Marshall’s comments                                Rob Chatfield

• Parked Items: (none)
• Confirmation of next meeting:    Thursday, April 15, 2010 @ 6:30
• Adjournment:                   _____

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Draft Minutes

Thomas Memorial Library Board of Trustees

Minutes of meeting: Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010 @ 6:30 P.M.

In Attendance:
Robert Chatfield, Chair
Ed Nadeau, Secretary
Jennifer Healy, Nancy Marshall, and Nancy O’Sullivan, Trustees
Jay Scherma, Library Director
Agenda:

1. Call to order:       6:37 P.M.                                                               Rob Chatfield, Chair

• Welcome new Trustees: Jennifer Healy & Michael Moore
• Approval of Meeting Minutes:

Motion:      Accept minutes of the January 21, 2010 meeting.
Result:       Unanimously approved

4. Library Director’s Report (January)                                               Jay Scherma

• Jay reported that the new MINERVA contractor is threatening to withdraw due to difficulties executing the terms of the contract at a profit.
• Old Business:
• Workshop w/ Town Council, recap:                                                   
• The workshop went well.  Councilors asked many good questions and appeared to be satisfied with the depth and breadth of our presentation. 
• The TMLBoT requested that the Town Council grant us the authority to:
• Proceed with a Public Education and Awareness Program
• Obtain a quote from Casaccio Architects for components/costs of a next level design
• Explore a fundraising study & potential for success
• The Town Council took a “straw poll” and unanimously affirmed our request.
• Jay and Town Manager Mike McGovern discussed the resultant action items, and determined that:
• It is premature for the BOT to be engaging in a public awareness campaign for the time being.  However, we can display concept drawing posters and prepare blurb sheets to address common concerns and questions that have come from the public like the fact sheets prepared for the Town Council.
• Jay will contact Casaccio Architects to obtain the aforementioned quote.
• Jay will work with the BOT to identify and obtain 3 proposals for a fundraising capacity/feasibility study, including written descriptions of the scope of the work, deliverables, fee schedules and relation to educational campaign as well as a presentations by the firms making submissions.
• Circulation policy
• The revisions to the Circulation Policy have been forwarded to the Town Manager.  He will submit them to the Town Council for consideration.

• New Business:
• It has come to the attention of the Board of Trustee that some members of the community (specifically, a number of mothers of young children) are dissatisfied with the library’s lack of responsiveness to the suggestions made during the focus group sessions during Phase II
  of the Building study.
• It was reiterated that the collection of these suggestions was not a commitments to change, but intended to gather input from patrons in relationship to the charge of the Study Committee.
• We have revisited and discussed the data collected during these sessions, as recorded in the study report.
• Jay reported that some of these suggestions did result in action by the library in the form of additional programs for middle school age children and adults.  However, the new elementary age programs have experienced very low attendance and one has been discontinued while the future of the second is still being evaluated.
• We are keenly aware that in order to maintain community support, we must be responsive to the needs of the patrons.  Therefore, we discussed the possibility of re-examining the data collected for possible improvement, irrespective of the action taken on the Study Committee’s report.

Motion:   Form a subcommittee to review focus group suggestions for actionable improvements, and recommend corrective action.
Result:    Unanimously approved.

• The subcommittee consists of: Ed Nadeau, Jennifer Healy, and Nancy O’Sullivan.  Other trustees are welcome to participate.
• Jay reported that he submitted a “level funded” library budget for 2011 and apprised the Town Manager of a number of “improvements” that had been recommended by our Consultants that would go unfunded without additional funds.  The Town Manager has decided to request these additional monies in his budget recommendations to the Council.  The budget data for the Town will be posted on the CE web site on March 1.
• Parked items:            (none)
• Meeting:                     Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 18, @ 6:30 P.M.
• Adjournment:             7:53 P.M.

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