Gay-Kimball Library

Board of Trustees Meeting- December 6, 2007

Present: Catherine Callegari, Jan Jones, Beth Richardson, Kathy Marrotte

The board voted to accept the minutes from the November 2007 meeting.

The treasurer reports that there is currently $1,478 in the checking account. The Elaine Shubert Memorial Fund has $5,624.

Stats: The door count for November was 800, down from 1,153 in 2006. 11 new patrons joined the library. The computers were used 170 times. 2,183 items were circulated. 15 Tumble Books were read and 16 Audio Books were downloaded.

Old Business:

1.     Insurance Issue: We revisited the issue of Kristen receiving full time employee benefits, as she is only a part time employee of the library. At the request of the trustees, following our meeting with the select board Catherine made some phone calls and sent some emails. Attorney Chris Filmore, from the NHLGC says this is a grey area. The attorneys look to the RSA's, and as a Board of Trustees, we determine compensation and the terms of employment for our library employees. The Tax ID issue makes no difference. The only thing that really effects is overtime, not health insurance. He is under the impression, that if this went to court, the town would lose. Tom Ladd, of the NH Library System says that libraries are part of municipalities. The IRS recognizes this, and in order to be recognized as part of a local gov't, you need to share the Tax ID number with the town.

As part of this discussion the trustees had after the meeting with the select board, the question was asked, "What happens if the budget doesn't pass at town meeting?" Catherine posed this question to Glen, who had this as an answer: The budget ends up being one lump sum of money. If it were not to pass, they would not be able to remove line items. The money is allotted to the library, and the library spends it as needed. We would still have to cover the money that needed to be paid for insurance, and other things would have to "suffer" in the meantime, such as book purchasing etc.

The trustees discussed the difference in the two proposed budgets, along with the pros and cons of coming to an agreement with the select board. It was made very clear that this isn't a personal issue with Kristen, who is an excellent employee and the library feels lucky to have her working there. There was more discussion of the budget not passing at town meeting, which is a big concern for everyone, and then we took a vote as to whether or not we would agree with the select board and allow Kristen to have insurance and pay for 75% of it out of the Library budget. Two trustees voted not to allow this, and one trustee voted yes, making sure it was clear that the yes vote wasn't an agreement with the select board.

2.     Budget Meetings and such: The trustees, along with Catherine will be meeting with the Budget Committee on Thursday, December 13 at 7:45pm. We reviewed the proposed budget, along with the "revised to add insurance" budget and feel pretty good about where we stand. As of today, there is 5% of the 2007 budget monies left. Catherine mentioned that Darcy used to request the left over budget money at the end of the year and use it for library purposes, as that was what it was intended for. We haven't run into the "excess money" issue as of yet, but agreed that it made the most sense.

3.     Hot Soup Social: We discussed several dates for the hot soup social. The idea is to not have the social during a school vacation week, so we looked at February 8^th and March 7^th. There was some discussion about March 7^th being the date of town meeting, and we will investigate this further. We had a discussion around donations of soup and bread, along with cookies or brownies, and Catherine will make a few calls regarding this. After we have more information we will discuss soups that we will be making, and what kinds to have and other details. There was a discussion regarding the amount of people expected to show up, and we decided that 50 was a reasonable number as we've never done this before and don't know what to expect for a turn out.

4.     Deed to the Library Land: We currently have the original deed and the copy of the deed at the library. It was proposed that we have the original leave the library and keep the copy on hand, in case something was to happen and both were destroyed. Catherine brought up the possibility of a safe deposit box. Kathy mentioned that the Historical Society was looking at getting a safe deposit and would discuss the possibility of keeping the deed there.

5.     PLA Minneapolis: 3/26-3/29. Catherine is still looking and searching ways to attend on the "cheap". She has found someone to stay with while she is there, and therefore is looking into how much the trip would cost the library. Early Bird registration is $180... so along with car rental fees and meals and such, it was determined by the trustees that the library will pay up to and no more than $500 of the cost of the trip.

6.     Coffee at the Library: After much discussion over the past months, and some concerns from both patrons and the trustees, it has been decided to table the coffee idea until a later date.

New Business:

1.     Community Awareness: Since the survey idea was turned down, Catherine has been brainstorming ideas to increase awareness as to what is going on at the library. She did some research and checked into the possibility of mailing a postcard to every postal address in the town. It would contain about 5 or 6 lines including the hours, phone number, web address and some useful information and events. Catherine will check into how much postage would be required to do a "mass mailing" and we will discuss it again at a future meeting.

2.     New at the Library: The Children's area has 2 new Learning Carpets. They appear to be a big hit with the younger patrons. A Heat Trax Mat has been purchased for the book drop area, but as of this time is not installed. Catherine will purchase the required items necessary to do the instillation this weekend.

3.     Patron Records: There was a lengthy discussion regarding old patron records. After some consideration, it was decided that records of patrons who haven't visited the library in 2 years will be deleted from the system. Out of 1,550 patron records, 749 of them have been used in the past 2 years. We will go through and update the records every 2 years. This will allow us to keep better statistics and have a better grasp of library usage.

4.     Public Comments: There were no public members available to comment.

The next meeting will be held on Thursday January 3^rd at 7:00pm.