Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes

Library Board of Trustees
Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees
Monday, November 13, 2023

PRESENT:
Kathleen Capelli, Heather Crocker, Carol Daggs, Terence Diggory, Nancy Luther, Issac (Ike) Pulver, Jean Fei, Jennifer Ferriss, Don Flinton, Trevor Oakley, Tonya Faiola, and Kelly McCombs.

ABSENT:
Eric Blackman, Frank Brady, Jamie Chabot, and Ric Taras

Meeting Called to Order at 5:03 PM

I. Call to Order at 5:03 PM

II. Approval of October Meeting Minutes – Action required

Terry motioned to approve the October meeting minutes and Heather seconded, all in favor. October minutes approved.

III. Approval of Expenditures (See Exhibit I) – Action Required

A. Requests to reallocate

1. $2,000 from 60025-1 · Audio & Visual Materials to 60020-1 · Periodicals and Microforms.
2. $10,000 from 60045-2 · Capital Projects to 60040-1 · Equipment Purchases

Jean motioned to approve requests to reallocate and Carol seconded, all in favor. Requests to reallocate are approved

B. October & November Prepaid Checks 71623-71630 totaling $11,890.83

C. November Warrants/Checks 71621-71623 and 71631-71724 totaling $138,663.49

Heather motioned to approve checks and Nancy seconded, all in favor. Requests for checks approved.

IV. Approval of Financial Reports – Action Required

A. October & November Pre-Paids and November Warrant Summary Sheet (Exhibit I) -

B. Budget Report - (Exhibit II) -

C. Income Report - (Exhibit III)-

Terry motioned to approve all financial reports and Jean seconded. All in Favor, Financial reports approved.

D. Gifts - Nothing to Report

V. President’s Report – Katie discussed her experience at NYLA and how well everything went at the conference. She also discussed with the Trustees their continuing education requirement must be finished by December. She also discussed that there has been no further discussion with the city of Saratoga Springs about the parking lot, but she will keep us updated.

VI. Public Comment – N/A

VII. Correspondence and Communication – Katie discussed how she was provided positive feedback from patrons at Wesley, that they are very grateful that Sarah Derven goes to Wesley, and they are able to be provided with resources from the library.

VIII. Director’s Report

A. Director’s Written Report (Exhibit IV) – The director discussed how he and Jen Ferriss, Assistant Director, met with representatives from Butler Rowland Mays Architects on October 3, and again with Meghan Brennen on October 24 to begin discussions about space planning for various functions of the library building. The Auditors from MMB & Co. have begun working on the audit of the 2022-23 fiscal year. He also discussed the NYLA Conference: the library was well represented by staff from all our public service departments. He had the opportunity to meet several visiting librarians and offer them tours of the building, and we hosted several NYLA related meetings, including meetings of Public Library Systems Outreach Consultants and Youth Services Consultants, and a NYLA session for Library Staff and Librarians of Marginalized Communities.

B. Department Reports (Exhibit V) –

1. Jen (Assistant Director) – Jen discussed how The Green Team met October 23rd to discuss the 2024 Seed Library. We will be receiving seeds at a discount from High Mowing Organics; a donation request was submitted for the Hudson Valley Seed company. She reported the plan to focus the seeds and programming around container and small gardens. The next meeting will focus on the program itself, including processes and procedures. Jen also discussed her time at NYLA: Jen introduced a panel discussion called “Small Steps, Big Impact” which included Hazel Onsrud from Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, ME. She discussed the opportunity to spend most of the day with Hazel discussing their impressive collection of Library of Things and how they relate to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
2. Don (IT Department) - Don discussed how the first of the three self-checks outs for the 1st floor has been installed. There was a delay from plopping it down on the desk to it being fully functional, but working with our vendor we were able to put it into production on Tuesday last week. He discussed that they are planning on depreciating our main server in the near future and looking at ways to make the hardware be useful longer. We currently have a medium-sized server with a Microsoft Server Operating System that is dated. As the Operating System is the main thing installed to the hardware essentially the hardware will also need to be updated.
3. Jamie (Adult Services) – Jamie’s written report noted that Caitlin S. and Brendon K. worked for over a year on a new reporting system called “The Good News,” which debuted for us in October. Basically, the opposite of an incident report, it is a place for library staff to share positive interactions with patrons and those who visit our library.
4. Catherine (Youth Services) – Catherine discussed that Halloween and spooky programs were very exciting this month. The library trick or treat brought in over 100 people; the first TAB hosted Halloween Party for teens was a huge success and over 500 people tried to guess how many candy corn were in the jar. She also discussed how Anna Rae reports that the Teen Advisory Board is very engaged. They have a lot of opinions on how the teen room should look and what should be in there.
5. Trevor (Access and outreach) - Trevor discussed how Sarah Derven attended the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services 2023 Annual Conference: Connections & Confections in Hershey, Pennsylvania, October 8-11, 2023. Trevor discussed his experience at NYLA, where he had the opportunity to moderate two panels at SSPL, one of which allowed him to interview one of his favorite living horror writers, Paul Tremblay, alongside Ann Davila Cardinal.
6. Kelly (HR Manager) – Kelly discussed her experience at NYLA and that she is in the initial testing phase of our new Performance Management system in Paychex. She thinks having our evaluations done this way will streamline the process for everyone and make evaluations much easier to track.
7. Ric (Operations) - Ric’s written report noted that the Sprint cell tower de-construction was a success on October 27th. This required the use of a large crane, multiple trucks and a heavy crew of contractors. Several days of preparation were needed to break down unit assemblies, disconnect wiring and collect material into several groups so that all of this could be safely moved to the ground. The library also needed to close the small south section of the Putnam Street parking lot for this work. We posted notices and signage very early to make people aware of this work.

IX. Special / Committee Reports – N/A

X. Unfinished Business – N/A

XI. New Business

A. Request to Appoint - Angelo LeFebvre, Library Shelver, Youth Services (P/T), effective October 26, 2023 – Action Required

Katie motioned to appoint Angelo, Carol seconded. All in favor, Angelo appointed as Library Shelver, Youth Services (P/T).

B. Proposed Security Camera Policy – Action Required (Exhibit VI)

Jean motioned to have an attorney review the new Security Camera Policy. Nancy Seconded. All in favor; motion approved.

C. Proposed Meeting Room Policy and Guidelines Update – Action Required (Exhibit VII)

Terry motioned to approve the new Meeting Room Policy and Guidelines Update, Heather seconded. All in favor, Approved new Meeting Room Policy and Guidelines Update.

D. Resource Fair for Immigrants

Jean asked about follow up on Terry’s email to some library staff about the possibility of hosting a resource fair. Terry mentioned that LifeWorks Community Action is planning a resource fair in March that could include library participation; he will make sure that library staff are kept in the loop.

XII: Adjournment at 5:54pm

Meeting Adjourned at 5:54 pm

Respectfully submitted by:
Tonya Faiola, Senior Account Clerk