November 2018 Board Meeting Minutes

November 14, 2018

Present – Annie, Pat, Jim, Naomi, Sandy, Walter, Teri, Audrey, Ellen Fronhofer

6:58 – Meeting opened

  • Approval of last month’s minutes Motion by Walter, Naomi 2nd
  • Board Recruitment – Audrey Ellen Fronhofer – present; Kristine Parillo – busy time of year; will try after the first of the year to attend.
  • Building – Met with Paul Mays on 11/30; talked about the scheduling/sequencing of basement project; Sandy sent inventory of Gill Room furniture to Paul. There will be one last book sale on December 6th – everything will be half price; Friends met and worked on clearing.  Some books will be stored; some Friends have offered to store them at their homes.
  • Friends report – October $215, September $220, no November sale, will have a December sale. “Clerk of the Works” – Bill Tomkins will be managing the basement project.  He suggesting the library pay him $250/week.
  • Events – Audrey: Holiday House Tour, St. Joseph’s Hall – December 9th 2-4PM the Greenwich Library will be selling cookies, tea, coffee, cider – proceeds to Comfort Food.  Homespun Dancing – Annie & Chris will check on fee schedule.
  • Finance – Paul: 3 years of history on report.  75% of year – 9/30/18 at 97% of total budgeted income and at 71% of total expenses.  Confident that we are budgeting correctly.
  • Fundraising – Annual Appeal letters were signed by board members from 6-7 PM, 11/14. Letters will be mailed prior to Thanksgiving.  “Giving Tuesday” on Facebook – this will be tied into our matching fund (Annual Appeal).  Try to get Annual Appeal letter in Journal; we also need to put thank you into Journal afterward.
  • Gill Room – Thank you for the congratulations on Grant (Sandy & Annie). Had an archival assessment done – following that plan to improve (Grant $).  Veterans Day program – Sandy – 4 churches participated in bell toll & ceremony& program Memorial Park.  Community Room display on WW1.  2 postcard & photo collections donated.  Gill History on Facebook – 420 followers in 4 weeks.  Sandy went to workshop – on mold; how to treat.
  • Marketing and public relations – nothing new.
  • Policy – Board recruitment. Jim and Audrey each went separately to SALS Trustees session.  Referencing SALS suggested.  December – hoping to have the policy to us by December board meeting; draft shown; no comments.  Jim will bring session info to next meeting for all to look through.
  • Discussed difference between Assoc. Library and School Library.
  • 2019 Budget – Draft 3. Change – Board decided that we can hire another person.  Income – there have been questions as to what categories mean.  Donations – unsolicited.  Gill Room – we should be able to do specific donations for that.  Maybe we should look at combining some categories; Annie thinks it’s important to keep fundraising separate to highlight the hard work being done.  We need to have someone come in to set up our Quickbooks and make it clear so anyone can look at the budget and understand it.  Fines – we don’t charge; however the receiving library receives the fine when a loaned book is late; we do not charge fines so it doesn’t appear on budget (under miscellaneous if any $ from fines).  Fax free to Social Services – should it be free?  How in order to maintain confidentiality.  Think about it – senior citizens, Social Services, others?  Friends book sale – put $2,000 in even though not doing sale will raise money in another way?  Greenwich School – explained that $99,837 is the most we can ask for (5%).  (Paul) When it gets described in GCS budget, library can talk about it in any way we want.  (Chris) Does the allowable change every year?  Annie explained calculation; it changes every year.  Do we want to ask for the entire $99,837 or/ don’t take carryover – it will be 3%.  We can state it is a $4,500 increase from last year.  Rental Property – we haven’t raised the rent in 3 years; a 3% raise would be a $25/month increase.  Rent = $10,880; Expenses budget = $7,590. Not worth taking a chance that renters will move and we won’t have rental income for a couple of months.  Board decided to NOT raise rent????  Grants – unrestricted – $2,500 can spend in any way.  Grants – restricted – $30,000 (non-construction).  Fundraising:  Annual Appeal – met 2017 – got ½ $ in 2017 and ½ in 2018.  Increased amount we think we should fundraise.  Expenses – increase custodial contract with basement renovation.  We now pay phone & internet – moved total to telephone line.  Book budget cut a little bit; we went over budget last year.  Joe Donahue didn’t donate as many.  Gill Room – only spent ½ but keeping budgeted amount the same with renovation.  Personnel/Payroll – largest increase – Annie 3% increase, staff 2-4% increase, $25,000 for new staff member.  We will have fewer staff hours.  SALS changed the way we are charged.  Advertising cut down – not a lot to pay for.  Net income of $117,033 – State $ we received but not spent – construction grant.  Question/Comments on Budget – questions answered previously during presentation.  Paul, Annie, Jim will meet again and present budget for vote at December board meeting.
  • Public Comments: Ellen – impressed by all that is involved and being done.
  • Directors Report: Annie agreed to have food truck use our lot.  All trees removed between library/town hall; stumps will be ground up.  Paid with grant $s.  Staff meeting 11/20 – will ask staff how to do scheduling (changes in scheduling hours).
  • Old Business:
  • New Business: Harassment & Complaint Form:  We have to have this policy; it was emailed to all Board members.  This is for staff, not for patrons harassing staff – which has not been a problem here.  We have to do training by next October.  Naomi – motion; Paul 2nd
  • Meeting closed 8:55 PM – Audrey – motion, Walt 2nd.