Minutes of the Meeting
Fitzwilliam Town Library Board of Trustees
2 November 2020
Present: Robin Marra, Dick Goettle, Beth Lorenz, Trish Toomey, Pam Troccia and Library Director Kate Thomas.
Robin Marra called the meeting to order at 5:46 PM in the Quick Meeting Room of the Library. The first order of business was the status of Alternate Trustee Brian Doerpholz. Brian has agreed to fill a seat on the Fitzwilliam Board of Selectmen that had recently been vacated. He requested that the Trustees determine whether they would allow him to remain as an Alternate Trustee while serving on the Board of Selectmen or find that to be a conflict of interest. All Trustees agreed that Brian should remain an Alternate Trustee until the end of his term in March of 2021.
Brian joined the meeting, via Zoom, after this discussion.
The October 5, 2020 minutes were reviewed and discussed. One change was requested. A motion to approve the corrected minutes was made by Pam Troccia and seconded by Beth Lorenz. The motion was approved by all Trustees.
The minutes of the October 24, 2020 meeting were reviewed. One change was requested. Dick Goettle made a motion to approve the corrected minutes. This motion was seconded by Robin Marra and approved by all Trustees that attended that meeting.
The minutes of the October 27, 2020 meeting were reviewed, and a motion was made Dick Goettle to approve them as presented. The motion was seconded by Beth Lorenz and was approved by all Trustees present at that meeting.
The Trustees reviewed and signed the Library Manifest and Spending-to-Date Expense Report.
Kate Thomas presented her monthly report; circulation for October was down 22% from last year. Preschool story time has been well attended and there were 9 adult programs and 20 children’s programs, with total attendance of 245. Coni has been asked to expand the visibility of the branding on the website. Kate continues to reach out to individuals for an interest in becoming an Alternate Trustee and/or Treasurer.
Dick Goettle will be soliciting bids from Dennis Wright and Caleb Massin for painting to be done on the outside of the library in the Spring of 2021. The Trustees expect that the fence, porch, roof and part of the tree work will be completed in 2020. The CIP for 2021 will include the remainder of the tree work and the work needed to be done on the North side of the building.
As the library staff has not had the opportunity to review the work needed to be completed to consider applying for the ALS’s “Libraries Transforming Communities” grant, it was decided to pass on applying for this grant.
The proposed 2021 budget was presented and reviewed by the Trustees. After discussion, it was requested that changes be made in the compensation and books/periodicals line items for further review at the December 7, 2020 Trustees meeting.
The performance review of the Director will take place in December. Pam Troccia will be sending out the review questionnaires and collating the responses for review before discussing the results with the Director.
The Gifts policy was reviewed by the Trustees. Pam Troccia made a motion, seconded by Beth Lorenz, to approve the policy as presented. The motion was approved by all Trustees.
The Emergency Procedures/Disaster Plans was reviewed and approved by all Trustees.
No other business or announcements were brought forth for discussion.
The next Trustee meeting has been scheduled for Monday, December 7th, 2020 at 5:45 p.m.
Dick Goettle put forth a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:05 p.m. Beth Lorenz seconded, and all Trustees approved the motion to adjourn.
Respectfully submitted,
Pam Troccia
Secretary