Library board meeting notes: 25.03.12

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. 

SUMMARY:

There will be a special meeting to review bylaws: Wednesday, April 2nd, 4:30 - 6:15 pm, main library. 

Next general meeting: Wed. April 9, 5 pm (main library). (This is a change from the Thursday-morning meeting time of the last few years.)

New assistant librarian position is open.

Working to improve usage numbers of Adams Shore Branch by initiating a teen outreach program.

Discussion of any significant changes to Wollaston Branch is off the table.

Full Report:

Minutes of February meeting approved. 

Executive Director Sara Slymon provided the following report:

• Fence on parklet in NQ will be installed

• Richardson: figuring out the interior paint color; if it's lead paint, it will need to be remediated

• New ramps on Adams Shore are coming

• Wollaston/NQ Branch librarian position combination; has 1 applicant

• We will not be doing an evaluation of what to do with Wollaston Branch

• Extraordinarily light traffic

• 19-hour library assistant position (split between 14 hours NQ and 5 hours at Wollaston)

• Will work on improving quality of life for staff working at Wollaston

• Will be creating teen outreach programs at Adams Shore. 85 people came out for Books in Bloom program. Heard from listening sessions, need more hours. 30 - 50 families at story time. The fact that there is not good foot traffic or checkouts is seen as issue on the library's part, not that people are not interested in the Library. 

• Director Slymon initiated a discussion group within the Library Association of communities whose population is over 100,000.  Some of those communities are: Quincy, Boston, Brockton, Fall River, Lowell, New Bedford, Cambridge, Springfield, and Worcester. Worried about trickle-down effect from federal aid cuts, as all the recent programs were paid by state aid (computers, renovations to libraries, programs, etc.). The public professions loans have been targeted by the administration, and Director Slymon is concerned that Libraries may be eliminated from the program. Degree is a huge barrier to access the profession, and if future librarians can't get loans forgiven, people may not enter the profession. 

 Friends Report

• Going well; still on track for $30,000, which is 150% of any year prior

• Exploring an eBay store

• Have many volunteers

• Books sale at NQ launched; made $50 in one week

• Going to do popup book store at the Farmers Market

Treasurer Report: none

Old business

• Elections to leadership roles on the Board of Trustees have to be delayed; mayor's appointments haven't come through yet.

• Robert's Rules of Order: changing the procedures (which are supposed to be based on Roberts Rules) and rules for committees of six or fewer; and we are actually following Roberts Rules, revised. Want to consider updating bylaws to reflect reality

• Formally vote to adopt informal procedures, with the exceptions of #2 and #6.

• Informal procedure on small boards: Members may remain seated when making motions, and raise their hands instead; board members may speak more than twice; votes can be done initially by hands, votes may be taken even if no motion is made; chairman may participate in discussions without vacating the chair.

• Bylaw reviews:

  • Discussion: Treasurer Art Foley had concerns on one part.  Not very different from previous bylaws.

  • Regarding sending the rough draft of agenda, currently all receive it at the same time. Add "to chair and board members and exec director" prior to posting and distribution. Change “board members” to “trustees” to be consistent throughout the document.

  • Discussion on having Library executive director be included in the Finance Committee. 

  • Ms. Liberty Schaaf brought up some items that were not included in the current version, one of which is the secretary can initiate a self-evaluation of the Board. Ms. Schaaf will put those items in writing. 

  • Special meeting to review bylaws: Wednesday, April 2nd, 4:30 - 6:15 pm, main library.

• Next general meeting: Wed. April 9, 5 pm (main library).
  

• Trustees email account: The Secretary, Mr. Peter Tam, the Chairperson, Ms. Corrine Mitchell, and the Executive Director, Ms. Sara Slymon, all receive copies of any emails that are sent to the existing email account (tcpltrustees@quincyma.gov). Ms. Mitchell says she does not actually see them, there was discussion about perhaps they were directed to a spam folder. While all three are sent the emails, only Director Slymon can respond using that particular account. Discussion: trustees could talk and send back a reply to Director Slymon who could respond "on behalf of the trustees". Proposal: set up a clean email account and give trustees access to it. In the interim: if a complex inquiry is made, then Mr. Tam and Ms. Mitchell could consult and give Director Slymon a response. Director Slymon is fine with understanding "complex" but concerned about usurping the Trustees role. Reason the director is included is for continuity and that Trustees turn over a lot more than directors. There are a lot more emails coming through. By next meeting, Director Slymon and Ms. Taylor Devlin (Technology Director) will work on a technical solution. 

• Speaking in the public portion of meeting: The agenda for this Wednesday afternoon meeting was not posted until after 8 am on Tuesday, March 11th, on the city website. That means the 48-hour notice mandated by public meeting law was not met. The requestor asked that in the future, the Trustees meeting adhere to the public open meeting law with the appropriate notice.