Minutes of the Meeting
Fitzwilliam Town Library Board of Trustees
1 June 2020
Present via electronic meeting: Dick Goettle, Beth Lorenz, Pam Troccia, Robin Marra, Patricia Toomey, Brian Doerpholz and Library Director, Kate Thomas.
The Chair of the Board of Trustees has concluded that an emergency has necessitated the meeting be held electronically. The emergency has been determined to exist due to the risk of exposure to COVID-19 by the physical attendance of the Trustees. An electronic notice of the meeting was posted on the Fitzwilliam Library website as well as the Facebook page, with instructions for the public to join the meeting, if interested.
Robin Marra called the meeting to order at 5:51 p.m.
The minutes of the May 4th meeting were reviewed. Dick Goettle had one correction for the minutes; the amount of the amount of the check that The Trustees of the Trust will be sending is $3,340.32, not $3,400.00 as indicated in the minutes. Beth Lorenz put forth a motion, seconded by Dick Goettle, to approve them as submitted. The motion was passed with affirmative votes, received by voice roll call from Robin Marra, Beth Lorenz, Pam Troccia, Trish Toomey, and Dick Goettle.
The Trustees reviewed the Library Manifest and Spending-to-Date Expense Report and will arrange with Kate to go to the Library to sign them. An adjustment will need to be made on the expenses-to-date report regarding Payroll and Expenses. Kate will make the adjustment on her report. Dick Goettle explained the procedure that needs to be done to allow the Quicken program to produce a “Year to Date” report.
A twenty-minute delay was experienced due to the electronic meeting being interrupted by weak internet service.
Kate Thomas presented her monthly report. Circulation for April was 886, down 54% from last year. However, global renewals are not reflected in that number which would make circulation considerably higher. 15 virtual programs were held with a total attendance of 243. The Town has not determined when the Library may re-open to the public. In anticipation of that re-opening, Kate is making plans to be able to keep the patrons safe by either making appointment or perhaps ringing the bell to determine if social distancing can be maintained. Curbside check out is still available and the Library is continuing to accept returns if boxed or bagged. Kate discussed the website stating that she and Coni anticipate having the website ready sometime in September. Summer Reading is on track to happen and Kate will be working with the Rec Department on a plan to have smaller groups of less than 10, with each group coming into the Library separately. The State has purchased an online program to help track the summer reading, at no cost to individual libraries.
The proposed bylaws were presented by Robin Marra and reviewed by the Trustees. Additional changes were requested which will be reviewed at the July 6th meeting of the Trustees.
Dick Goettle has spoken to Debbie at Town Hall and she shared the concern that the shutdown of the state government due to COVID19 will put any work on the RFP on hold. The Town will contact him when additional information is received.
The Friends of the Library have made no decisions on programming and are waiting to hear how the rules of the re-opening of the state will affect social distancing this year.
Under New Business, the selection of a Vice Chair was tabled to the July 6th meeting. The Circulation Policy was reviewed and a change in Section C, changing “Reserves” to “Holds”, will be made to mirror the information currently on the Library website. This policy will be reviewed and voted on at the July 6th meeting. The proposed Committee Structure for the Fitzwilliam Library Board of Trustees was reviewed. It was determined that a standing committee for policies will not be needed. A member of each committee will make suggestions to the Chair and a draft of those suggestions will then be presented to the Trustees for review and/or approval if needed. A motion to accept the Committee Structure for Fitzwilliam Library Board of Trustees was put forth by Dick Goettle and seconded by Beth Lorenz. Motion was approved by affirmative votes from Pam Troccia, Beth Lorenz, Trish Toomey, Dick Goettle and Robin Marra, by voice roll call. RSA 91-A:2-a was discussed to confirm what types of communications, electronic or verbal, constitute a meeting of the Trustees, requiring additional meeting minutes. Any revisions to the draft minutes will be made at the following monthly meeting, to then be approved for uploading to the website.
As there was no additional business to be discussed, the next meeting is scheduled to be held on Monday, July 6th at 5:45. The Chair will determine whether that meeting will be held electronically if the virus situation warrants.
A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Pam Troccia at 7:11 p.m. and seconded by Dick Goettle. Motion was approved by affirmative votes from Pam Troccia, Beth Lorenz, Trish Toomey, Dick Goettle and Robin Marra, completed by voice roll call.
Respectively submitted
Pam Troccia
Secretary