Gay-Kimball Library

Board of Trustees Meeting

November 8^th, 2007

Stats:

          There is $2,452 in the checking account. 1,341 patrons visited the library in October, up from 1,223 last year. 2,132 items circulated in October, which pushes the YTD total up over the total for the entire year last year. The computers were used 289 times, up from 183 last year.

Old Business:

1.     Coffee at the library: Catherine did an informal poll of patrons visiting the library. Most patrons were in favor of coffee at the library. A few expressed concerns for young children who might pull a hot cup of coffee over and get burnt. We discussed several options, and have decided our best bet would be to purchase a pod coffee maker, which could also do tea and cocoa, and see how it goes. It was decided that the area where the copy maker is would be an excellent spot for the coffee pot instead of near the door where we had first considered.

2.     Ice in front of book drop: Catherine received information about Heat Trax, which is a heated mat that would keep the snow and ice melted in front of the book drop. A 3'x9' mat is $783, a 3'x6' mat is $522, and a 2'x6' mat is $348. It was agreed that a 2'x6' mat would cover the area nicely and we discussed several ways to secure the mat, including aircraft cable that a patron recommended. It would cost apx. 2 cents per hour to operate, and we could run the plug out through the book drop and foam around the cable to keep the elements out.

3.     Book Sale: The fall book sale yielded $675 for the library.

4.     Meals: We discussed the policy of business related travel and how employees would be reimbursed for expenses. We gathered information from other local libraries and the average seems to be $39 per meal, and $60 for lodging per day. We voted and agreed upon $40 per meal, with original receipts required for reimbursement.

5.     PLA Minneapolis Meeting 3/26-3/29: Catherine would like to attend this conference, but her lodging arrangements have fallen through. The early bird cost is $180, plus flight/hotel/meals. Early bird registration ends January 13^th. We discussed the library splitting the cost with Catherine. She will put together a rough estimate and we will discuss this at our December meeting.

6.     Library and the Select Board: The select board has expressed an interest in revisiting benefits for Kristen. Kristen works 31 hours, which according to the town's personnel policy, is less than the required 35 hours. The select board would like to discuss this with us when we meet with them on November 26^th to discuss the budget. There was some discussion around this and the trustees agreed to allow the discussion to take place during budget review. We put together the information regarding town policy and Library RSA's and Catherine will drop it off to the select board next week.

7.     Staff Computer: The staff computer is old and outdated, and there was a discussion involving a cheap replacement. Catherine will watch the holiday sales and see if she can find a reasonably priced computer that will run Windows XP and the new scanner/copier that the old computer will not run.

New Business:

1.     Holiday Closings: The library will be closed on Thanksgiving, and also Christmas Day, and December 26^th.

2.     Budget Meetings: The board of trustees will meet with the select board on Monday November 26^th at 6pm, and the town budget committee on Thursday December 13^th at 7:45. We will work up 2 different budgets, one without insurance benefits for Kristen, and one that includes that amount we would need to increase the budget by to make this happen. As of right now, the budget will increase apx. 7%, which is roughly 5,000 more than last year. If we have to pay for Kristen's insurance the budget will increase by apx. 10.5%.

3.     Hot Soup Social: We had a discussion regarding a hot soup social in February. It would be similar to the ice-cream social, but instead of ice-cream we would serve soup. We discussed different types of soup that could be made In Crock Pots, (1 veg. style) and the possibility of donated breads. We will discuss this more at a future meeting.

4.     Improvements: The outdoor lights have been replaced with florescent bulbs, the fiction spinner rack has been moved, and we now have a link off the website to see new books via Library Thing. We discussed putting the red shelf over by the computer and moving family/kid DVD's over there so they would be separate from the rest. We discussed using some monies from the Elaine Shubert Memorial Fund to purchase a learning rug for the children's room. They have zoo/car/animal styles available and we could put a basket of toys down there to use with the rug. Catherine purchased 24 new read along books and new puzzles for the children's room.

5.     The Trustees would like to congratulate Catherine on 2 years of service to the Gay Kimball Library. Thank you for all your hard work!

6.     There were no public comments.

The next meeting will be held on Thursday December 6^th at 7:00pm.