GREENWICH FREE LIBRARY
BOARD MEETING NOV. 15, 2017
The pre-meeting began at 5:30 PM for members to sign letters for yearly fund raiser. The Board Meeting began at 6:30 PM. Present: Annie Miller, Jim Nolan, Claudia Blackler, Paul Thurston, Teri Pendergrass, Audrey Fisher, Cliff Oliver, Naomi Meyer, Pat Isgro and Walter Grom.
Minutes from previous meeting read and accepted. Treasurers report accepted.
Sunday, January 28th 12 noon to 3 PM is the date of the annual retreat. Some topics suggested:
1. Outreach, recruit volunteers, check with RSVP to see if they can drive patrons to the library, possible volunteers to deliver books to homes.
2. Review strategic plan to see if we are meeting topics and what we can do in the coming year, check out policies to see if we are lined up with the strategic plan.
3. Adult literacy-restart literacy volunteer program and apply for a grant for funding,
4. Recruit board members, develop a plan to do this.
5. Emergency code of conduct and post a patron conduct list.
6. Develop a master plan for the facility.
Jim Nolan will send out a detailed agenda for this meeting.
FUNDRAISING & FINANCIAL: Annie will check on donations received on line on the home page web site and she will place the annual appeal in the library newsletter. Annie requested that the debit card amount be raised from $1000.00 to $2,000.00…this was approved by the board. Jim Nolan announced that he will match conations of board members up to $500.00. Board members will continue to get financial information as part of their monthly meeting materials, with a quarterly summary..
GILL ROOM REPORT: The WWI joint DAR/Gill Room program was a success…twenty five people attended and Post Star did a wonderful write up of the program. The November 1st program with the Greenwich Seniors was well received. Cliff and Sandy attended the all day workshop provided through DHPSNY: Fundamentals of Caring for Paper Collections. Total volunteer hours: 47.25 and patron use 6.35 hours. Paul Thurston will check with the scanning program at Sienna.
FRIENDS: $170.00 last book sale. The Friends wondered if Cynthia Meadows residents were not coming as they were receiving free books weekly from their discards. Claudia mentioned that most of them did not come to the library due to infirmary, age and disabilities. They are looking into learning about selling through Amazon as that might cut down on the book discards. Cliff Oliver inquired about delivering books to Comstock Prison in the future.
EVENTS: John Kirk and Trish Miller program had 100 people in attendance…this was the last of the grant events. Annie will write another grant as these program were such a success and there are no other events like these for free in Greenwich. Two projects have been submitted to LARAC for grant consideration: Musician John Guay asked Annie if she could have another contra dance program. Naomi Meyer, graphic artist Rob Grom and Annie have applied for a series of art making workshops culminating in an opening with a speaker. Some topics will be: Free Speech, Censorship, Inspiration and Influence (who inspires you), banned books. Various age limits for workshops and.
BUILDING: The book drop was shipped damaged and returned. A replacement has been ordered Annie has checked with Paul Mays about the delay of the back door and windows. It is important to have the gutters installed as we have had moisture downstairs.
MISC.: The yearly evaluation for the Director is due in Dec. Jim will send out info for comments. The staff/volunteer dinner will be held in the library in February…Jim is inquiring about a caterer.
Submitted by Claudia Blackler, Secretary