Draft Minutes
RFPL Personnel Committee Minutes
Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 12:00 noon
Click here to download a .pdf of these minutes
Present were Doreen Aldrich; Pat Fowler; David Gould and Celina Houlne.
The meeting was called to order by Committee Chair David Gould at 12:08 PM and a quorum was declared. Gould agreed to record the minutes in the absence of Carolyn Frise.
Doreen pointed out that the Inclement Weather Policy was to be presented at the next regular Board of Trustees Meeting. (This issue was not presented at the Regular Board meeting of October 28, 2014. It will be presented at the January 27, 2015 meeting.) Doreen moved the draft minutes of October 9, 2014, be approved as printed. Seconded by Pat Fowler. Approved unanimously.
There were no Public Comments.
Celina shared her November Director’s Report which is included as an addendum. She further stated that there were no problems between herself and any staff members, no problems between herself, the staff and patrons and no problems that the Board of Trustees should be aware of. She is spending an unspecified amount of time collecting materials the renovation and the filed lawsuit against the architect for Chip and the town attorney. She expressed concern that the Regular Board Meeting Agenda set for November 25, 2014, was not done in consultation with her. She noted that sometime she has information that needs to be included in agendas before they are posted.
Pat Fowler expressed irritation and frustration that the Finance Committee Meeting scheduled for November 10, 2014, had to be cancelled because the warning of the meeting was not posted to the Library web page. The cancellation of the meeting has caused delay in preparing the budget. It was suggested that Celina develop a step by step procedure for the sending out, posting and warning of all meetings.
There being no other business the meeting was adjourned at 12:34 PM
Signed____David F. Gould____, Secretary, Pro Tem. November 21, 2014
Director’s Report November 20, 2014 Celina Houlne
October Programs and Statistics
* Youth Programs: 20 events, attendance of 445. We had some great programs this year including the return of the Annual Family Halloween party, which was very well attended, afterschool programs, and more.
* Adult Programs: 19 events, attendance of 120. Bike Tour 350, a travel slideshow interspersed with live music, drew the largest attendance. Two other popular programs were the Spanish Conversation and Genealogy workshops. In addition, there were 28 one-on-one computer training sessions.
* Meeting Room and Program Room usage: 39 library, 23 non-library (including Boys &Girls Club)
* Adults Computer Use: 822 Public Access Computer Sessions, 332 Laptop and mobile devices
* Youth Computer Use: 396 Public Access Computer Sessions, 390 Laptop and mobile devices
* New Library Cards issued: 26
* New titles added to collection: 213
* Items checked out: 3,033
* Inter-Library Loans (ILLs): 66 items borrowed from other libraries, 38 items loaned from our collection.
Budget
* October’s monthly financial report is for the four months or 33% of the fiscal year.
There aren’t any specific changes of note to make compared to last month.
Building and Grounds
* Reorganization of storage spaces is ongoing. The historical collection items will be moved back from the Village Square Booksellers in multiple stages. This began November 19.
Director Activities
* Continuing education – I attended a VT Common Good webinar on budget planning. I also attended the Vermont Library Association and Department of Libraries Annual Conference with Friends President, Polly Montgomery, which was very useful as it focused on fundraising and grants. I will apply what I learned for the annual appeal letter to go out in December. I will let the Board know when they can come into to write personal notes on the letters.
* Staff – There will be a staff development meeting on Thursday, December 18. We will be closed in the morning and open at 1pm. Anne has continued to learn library systems, and she has jumped right in to a very busy fall schedule, organizing some interesting programs.
* Community outreach – I attended the monthly Chamber mixer with Anne, to introduce her to
folks. Also, I attended the monthly Departments Heads meeting at Town Hall.
* Selectboard Meeting – I attended the meeting to learn about the status of the town’s lawsuit concerning the renovation. I am now gathering information for Chip to help them prepare the case.
* Personnel Committee – I prepared information for the Personnel Committee meeting. We reviewed the month’s activities and discussed the process of handling public records requests.
* Budget Committee – Mary and I attended the Finance Committee meeting to present the FY16 budget. I then gathered financial information from area libraries and other employees who work for the town, in order to compare comparison rates with the Library’s staff pay rates. We then attended the Special Board meeting to review the budget.
* Policy Committee – I attended this meeting where we reviewed the proposed policy for how to handle public records requests.
* Historical Collections Committee – Emily and I met with the committee to plan for the return of the historical items. I cleaned out the room while Emily supervised the move at the store. I continued to work on reorganization of other storage areas with Ellen.
* I am working with the Friends of the Library to prepare for the holiday party on Saturday, December 6, from noon to 1:30. The Friends have collected items for the fundraising raffle and they are also holding a silent auction for an historic quilt donated by Kathy Metelica Cray. Information is available online, and they are accepting online bids for those who can’t make it into the Library. Bids will close on Saturday, December 13, at 1:30pm.
Other
* Sam attended a daylong Literacy training workshop with Kathy Michael.
* Emily is gathering the input from the completed IMPACT Surveys and will have a report next month. She is in charge of organizing the historical collections being returned to the Library.
* We are gathering statistics from FY14 to complete the Annual Statistical Report due to the State Library.
* The Boys and Girls Club continued to use the Youth Program Room after school. They were very appreciative to have been able to meet at the Library until their new space had been found, above the old Merchant’s Bank space in the Square.