Rockingham Free Public Library
Board of Trustees
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
Click here to download a .pdf of these minutes.
Present: John Bohannon, Dale Kondracki, Martha Rowley, Kathleen Hacker, Ellen Taetzsch, Brady Weinstock, Duane Whitehead, Celina Houlne; Sam Maskell, library staff
Absent: Don Tretler, Mary Shepard
LOCATION: To protect the health of the public, the meeting was held online via Zoom.
1. Call to Order: 6:04 pm
2. Additions to Agenda for routine administrative matters and/or pressing matters that will require ratification at a future meeting: n/a
3. Public Comment (3 minutes per person): Pat Fowler and Pat Riese from Friends of the Library will speak during Fundraising Committee Report.
4. Approve Minutes of May 5, 2020 Meeting: Brady moved, Martha seconded. Motion was unanimously approved.
5. Fundraising Committee Report: Brady and Celina asked Pat and Pat to speak about the Friends’ fundraiser plans. (There will be a Fundraising Committee meeting in August to pick up where we left off in our meeting in June.) The Friends will be holding a 50-50 raffle for cash prizes. Tickets are $20 each, and the goal is to sell 200 tickets, which will raise $2,000. The $2,000 in prizes will be one prize for $1,000, one for $500 and two for $250. As they still wanted to benefit local businesses as part of the fundraiser, they will also sell unlimited tickets at $10 each for prizes of gift cards for $100 from Village Bookstore, Harlow’s, and Lisai’s. Tickets for both drawings will be sold starting in August. The 50-50 tickets will be sold until they are all gone; the gift card raffle will end in mid-November so that people can use the prizes for the holiday season. The Friends have voted to give this money to the library as a direct donation this year. Additionally, they are exploring a way to sell tickets online.
6. Director’s Report & FY20 Budget Status Report: The library is getting good feedback from people about the way the library is helping patrons during this time, especially that staff is doing more “reader’s advisory” for them (helping figure out which books they might like). The director informed the board that the building’s emergency systems were inspected last week; all the batteries for the emergency lighting had to be replaced, and there is a battery cabinet in the basement that also needs to be replaced. The suggestion from Lawrence and Lober is to get rid of the battery cabinet and replace those lights that were connected to it. Estimate is $3,864 to replace lights and batteries. It is expected to save money in the long run by doing this, as instead of replacing the entire battery cabinet every 5 years, only individual batteries that expire
will need to be changed as needed. The Board discussed with Celina how this is going to impact the budget. There is money allotted to repairs that will accommodate this.
7. Review Phased Reopening Plan: Celina and staff compiled a very thorough plan for a phased reopening. Rockingham Library is currently in Phase 3 of the plan, preparing to open at some point in the near future with 30-minute appointments once per week. (If library is not super busy, it may be ok to make a second appointment). Libraries adhere to governor’s mandates but each makes its own decisions about phasing in reopening based on its own situation and best interests for the community, which also includes staff. (For example, Brattleboro library is opening next week without appointments, but only for 20 minutes at a time.) Curbside will still be offered. Masks will be required for staff and patrons, and they will have some available for people who do not have them, but supplies are a bit limited. The Board agrees that it is important to require hand sanitizer, since by its nature the library is a place where people pick things up and put them back, so this will be included in the guidance to patrons upon entry. Right now, the library will not be advertising a reopening because things are changing every day and it is unclear the exact date this will happen; Celina is waiting for the governor to lift the state of emergency order. At the point that it makes sense to advertise a reopening, there will be a press release for newspapers, on Wool Radio, FactTV, emails, social media, and word of mouth to help get the word out. John moved that we approve the planned reopening phases with changes, Ellen seconded. Motion unanimously passed.
8. Other Business: Discussion of a staffing matter by the Board.
9. Review and Approve Warrants: Brady and Ellen volunteered to get all the warrants caught up either online or in person.
10. Review Agenda Items for Next Meeting: Report on fundraising by Friends and also Fundraising Committee, as well as the Phased Reopening. Perhaps a review of programs through the end of the calendar year; Celina will include some note of this in her report.
11. Review Date for Next Meeting: September 1 at 6:00 pm
12. Executive Session (If Necessary): n/a
13. Adjourn: Kathleen moved, Duane seconded. Meeting adjourned at 7:15 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Brady Weinstock, Secretary