Rockingham Free Public Library
Board of Trustees
Tuesday, November 7, 2023
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Trustees Present: Carol Blackwood (Chair), Don Tretler, Martha Rowley, Margo Ghia, Ryan Coyne, Mike Sola, Ginny Massucco, Wendy Levy
Staff Present: Ian Graham (Director)
1. Call to Order
a. Carol Blackwood called the meeting to order at 6:31pm
2. Additions to Agenda for routine administrative matters and/or pressing matters that will require
ratification at a future meeting
a. None
3. Public Comment (3 minutes per person)
a. None
4. Approve minutes of September 5, 2023
a. A motion was made by Martha Rowley and seconded by Don Tretler to approve the minutes from the September 5, 2023 meeting. Don Tretler, Martha Rowley, Ryan Coyne
and Margo Ghia approved. Ginny Massucco, Mike Sola and Wendy Levy abstained.
Motion passed.
5. Update: Trustee Resignation; possible action: new Secretary needed
a. Trustee Brady Weinstock has submitted a letter of resignation as of November 1, 2023.
b. A discussion was held regarding need for a Secretary. Trustee Wendy Levy made a suggestion that the board should hire a recording secretary to take official minutes at
Trustee meetings. Carol and Ian will look at the By-laws to see what is required of the Trustees and the Secretary position.
c. A motion was made by Wendy Levy and seconded by Martha Rowley to nominate Trustee Margo Ghia to become Secretary. All approved.
6. Director’s Update
a. There was a nice write-up in the Shopper of the Tri-Board meeting.
b. Pamela Johnson Spurlock, the new Reference Librarian, has joined the team smoothly and is already running full steam ahead with new ideas.
c. The lights in the building have been problematic and were in need of maintenance. Ian was able to trouble shoot the issue and the lights are all working better now.
d. The Biblio-Bike is now fully owned by the Library and the original grant to acquire it has now ended. This means that the library can now do a wider range of programming with the bike.
e. Ian proposed a change in the Director’s report. He would like to submit a quarterly comparison of quantitative numbers comparing different services of the Library. This would also be supplemented with some qualitative items as he has been providing.
7. Discussion of the FY25 Budget
a. Ian presented the budget in a new format and it was complimented by several Trustees as being easier to understand and that it was good to see a comparison of several fiscal years.
b. Ian presented data comparing the RFPL to other libraries in the state that serve a similar population level (4,000 to 7,000 people).
i. One observation is that RFPL is very low on spending in such areas as programming and collections as a percentage of overall spending.
ii. Another observation is that RFPL is high compared to most peers in the sample group (20 public libraries of similar size) in salary expenses due to a higher number of staff hours per week than the peers.
1. When examining the new state report on salary findings in Libraries, RFPL is now on par with average salaries.
c. This is still a draft budget and numbers such as health insurance are not known yet. A special meeting will have to be held in December to finalize the budget.
8. Personnel Committee: Director’s FY24 compensation
a. A proposal was made to increase the number of vacation days of the Director instead of offering a raise this year. Discussion on this proposal was had.
b. A motion was made by Wendy Levy, and seconded by Mike Sola to increase the RFPL Directors accrued days of vacation days from 1 to 1.5 days per month. This change would be retroactive to the beginning of FY24. All Approved. Motion passed.
9. Discussion and Motion: Regular RFPL updates at Town of Rockingham Selectboard meetings
a. Wendy Levy presented an idea that the RFPL Trustees be a regular feature at Town Selectboard meetings. Discussion points from the Trustees included:
i. We should ask the Selectboard how often they would like to hear from the RFPL Trustees
ii. It would be beneficial to share library usage data, new grants and programs, as well as any concerns that the Town should be aware of.
b. A motion was made by Wendy Levy and seconded by Martha Rowley that the RFPL Trustees request the Rockingham Selectboard put the RFPL on an upcoming agenda to
discuss how often they would like update from the library board. All Approved. Motion passed.
i. The Board asked Ian to approach the Selectboard regarding getting on an upcoming agenda.
10. Discussion and Motion: Union contract post-mortem
a. Wendy Levy expressed concern that Trustees who are new to the Union Negotiation process are not as well prepared as they should be before entering into the negotiations. She proposed the idea of providing training to the negotiation committee before the
next round of negotiations in three years.
b. A discussion on this topic was held and the Trustees asked Wendy to do some further research to see what type of training modules might be available. She will bring more information back to a future board meeting.
11. Discussion and Motion: Trustee training
a. Wendy Levy mentioned that the Vermont Department of Public Libraries has a series of video trainings available for Library Boards. She would like to propose that the RFPL Trustees offer a training to new library Trustees after the March elections. This training
could be offered to both RFPL Trustees as well as any Trustees from other communities.
b. A motion was made by Trustee Wendy Levy and seconded by Don Tretler that the RFPL Board of Trustees plan, produce, and host a training session in March 2023 for trustees and other interested parties. All approved. Motion passed.
i. Wendy and Margo volunteered to work on this project.
12. Other Business
a. The Fundraising committee should meet. Ian will convene the committee.
13. Review Action Items, Propose Agenda Items for the next meeting
a. Next meeting is scheduled for December 5 at 6:30pm. The meeting is to discuss and vote on the budget.
14. Review and Approve Warrants
a. Ian Graham had the warrants for trustees to sign.
15. Adjourn
a. A motion was made by Martha Rowley and seconded by Margo Ghia to adjourn the meeting. Meeting adjourned at 8:23pm