Library board meeting notes: 25.02.13

A Quincy Votes! member attended this meeting. While care has been taken in their creation, these notes are not official meeting minutes and may contain errors or omissions. 

• December minutes: approved

• No quorum to approve January minutes (not enough members in attendance in February were at the January meeting).

Next month meeting at North Quincy Branch

June meeting is at Adam Shore

Discussion of Quincy 400 plans

·         Author Elin Hilderbrand is coming to Granite Links. The Quincy 400 Committee has planned many events, and this is one of them.   

·         Grace Lin will come for children's program.

·         $40,00 dedicated to special Quincy 400 programming. This $40,000 was provided by the state. The City did not give the Library any additional money for programming.

·         4 new library card designs (there will be 400 library cards; each location will have its own design). There will also be a new design going forward.

·         Director Slymon attended American Library Association (ALA) meetings; interesting sessions. Launching a seed library probably at Adams Shore. 

Friends Report:

·         Bookstore is on target for $30,000 a year (most previously was $20,000)

·         Exploring putting a team together to do eBay; Friends sometimes send donations to Words for Friends; maybe will have a team look through castoffs for items that can be sold on eBay before they get donated.

·         Anything Quincy related goes to the Library first, and if they keep it great, or if the Library doesn't want it, then it goes to the Friends Bookshop or donations, or cast offs.

·         Annual meeting on May 6th.

·         Approved all Library budget requests. Kristen gives them a report on programs, what types and how many people attended each event.

Treasure's Report: TCPL Trustee Balance always has more deposits than expenditures. Want to look into putting a chunk of funds into money market account or something that earns a little more, but not ready to lock them in a CD.

Old Business:

• Conflict of interest forms are due

• Discussion of Robert's Rules of Order: on the informal rules for small boards. Chair requests that we keep having motions seconded. Will vote on this next time.

• Bylaw review: tabled until next month so that two key members who are not present can participate. 

• Meet and Greet: schedule for this afternoon.

• Discussion: what happened to the three boards meeting?  Somehow that idea was dropped (would need to talk w/ trustee Liberty). 

• There was no time that everyone could come: can't close the Libraries and can't ask staff to come in on their off time.

• Branch staff have been told they can arrange coverage to attend.

• Trustees email account (tcpltrustees@quincyma.gov): auto forwards to Director, Chair, and Secretary. Need to decide who will answer the emails, and if it's not the Director, then she needs to give that person a password. It is being forwarded; if it's not being received, might be in a spam folder. 

Public Discussion:

• A member of the public (Deborah Riley) had some comments on bylaws:

• Chair shall collaborate with the Director – seems a loose term. How will you measure that?

• There seems to be a lot of overlap between the volunteer chair and the paid director.

• If the Board approved a budget, then the Library director should be able to spend up to the budget without needing Board approval.

• The Library is a gem; has a 30-year library card. Glad to see a more positive energy.

Meeting adjourned at 9:10