Present: Trustees Robin Marra, Beth Lorenz, Tricia Toomey and Matt Buonomano; Alternate Trustees Brian Doerpholz and Cathie Talbert; and Library Director Kate Thomas
Robin Marra called the meeting to order at 5:48 pm in the Quick Meeting Room of the Library, with Matt Buonomano, Beth Lorenz, Robin Marra and Kate Thomas in attendance at the library and Brian Doerpholz, Tricia Toomey, Cathie Talbert and Richard Marshall, citizen participant, present via Zoom. Both Alternate Trustees have been approved by the Selectmen.
The April 5, 2021, minutes were reviewed and no changes were made. A motion to approve the minutes was made by Matt Buonomano and seconded by Beth Lorenz. The motion was approved by all Trustees.
The Trustees reviewed and, those present, signed the Library Manifest and Spending-to-Date Expense Report.
Matt Buonomano had nothing to report on buildings and grounds.
Kate Thomas presented her monthly report; circulation for April was up 75% from last year even with building attendance being down almost 25% from the previous month. There were 15 adult programs and 18 children’s programs, with total attendance of 116. Kate Thomas reported potential staffing issues with one part-time staff member possibly leaving and another cutting back hours. Kate will update as needed. Kate presented a possible grant opportunity (ARPA Grant) to assist with outdoor programming but it may be complicated and she will continue to research this possibility.
The Code of Conduct was approved with the updated language provided by Robin Marra. The Investment Policy was reviewed and rejected due to the vague language around the allocation ranges. Matt Buonomano had issues with the library owning individual stocks and proposed we specify our investments to be only in mutual funds (MFs) and exchange traded funds (ETFs). Matt will address with Monadnock Capital Group our investment policy to remove the individual stocks from its holdings and will bring forward proposed changes to the next meeting to be reviewed by the Trustee.
The long-range plan draft proposes a new survey be sent out as well as a shorter plan length to accommodate the approval of broadband in Fitzwilliam and the impact of such on the library. It was proposed that the library’s survey be tied into the Planning Board’s survey. Robin Marra volunteered to attend the Planning Board meeting to see if this could be done and we will address again at the next meeting.
Under new business, the use of the Trustee’s personal emails being currently used to conduct library business was called into question due to Matt Buonomano’s email being compromised with dire personal consequence. It was proposed by Matt Buonomano that the Trustees be assigned a dedicated email for Trustee business. A motion was made by Beth Lorenz to authorize Matt Buonomano and Kate Thomas to collaborate on a new email DNS. Robin Marra seconded and all Trustees approved the motion. It was determined to defer both the Internet Policy and the Social Media Policy to the June meeting as time did not allow for the May meeting.
Robin Marra provided an update on the Covid cases in Fitzwilliam: 2 for all of April and 1 case having still been active at the time of the report.
No other business or announcements were brought forth for discussion.
The next Trustee meeting has been scheduled for Monday, June 7, at 5:45 p.m.
Matt Buonomano put forth a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:03 p.m. Beth Lorenz seconded, and all Trustees approved the motion to adjourn.
Respectfully submitted,
Beth Lorenz
Vice Chair and Acting Secretary