Library Board of Trustees

TUTTLE LIBRARY TRUSTEES MEETING MINUTES

December 8th, 2020

Members Present: Shelly Connolly, Rick Wood, and Nancy Blair and Steve Ullman via Zoom.
Library Director, Cynthia Jewett, was also present.

Meeting called to order by Chair, Rick Wood at 6:30 PM.

• Steve moved and Nancy seconded acceptance of the Agenda. Motion passed.
• Steve moved and Shelly seconded acceptance of the November Meeting Minutes. Motion passed.
• Correspondence from Penny Welch. She sent a donation of $50.00 to be spent on whatever the library wishes!

Treasurer’s Report: was discussed and there is nothing out of the ordinary to report.

• More expenses being put through for the town to pay.
• McGurty is only coming once a week. We will have money left over in this category.
• Cindy needs to think of any new maintenance or building repair that needs to be done. Perhaps the basement could use a clean-up? Cindy and Rick will walk through the building to get ideas.
• We have been reimbursed for all our expenses through the Cares Act. The majority was spent in the “deep cleaning”.
• 2021 budget will be dealt with in January. No questions for the library as of yet!
• Spending Policy: Draft has been created by Diane but will be tabled for next meeting as Diane was not able to attend this evening. Rick will forward her draft to all of us and we will make comments.
• Staff and Library Director's Bonuses: These were approved by the Trustees. They will be distributed this week. Nancy moved and Steven seconded this motion. It passed.

Library Director's Report:

• Databases doing VERY well!
• The staff will focus on one service each month and introduce these to the patrons.
• Newsbank database is amazing! It has not even been promoted yet and is doing very well!
• Transparent Language database is also up and running. Can learn 100 different
• Should we allow Deering patrons to use our database? Bennington has to purchase it's own databases because they have a library Deering does not, and there is a fee to use a database. Hoopla is quite expensive. It was decided that Rick will speak with Donna Hanson about our town relationship with Deering and if it is in good standing, Rick will write to the Deering Selectmen for a donation.
• We received a free membership to the National Library of Medicine. LOTS OF FREE RESOURCES.
• Melissa is in charge of ILL.
• Ellen is in charge of overdues, material problems and patron files.
• Laurie has sent out 49 take and make kits in November and is working on collection development from infants to teens.
• Christopher is putting together the STEM Mars Base Camp from a Google, USDA and 4H grant, and taking appointments for tech help.
• The American Library Association libraries Transforming Communities Grant has been submitted. Cindy received some great recommendation letters. Results should be received by December 20th.

Old Business:

• Commemorative plaque has been ordered. Waiting for delivery.
• Library Director Evaluation has been completed and was presented to the Trustees. Anonymous feedback was solicited from the staff and Nancy and Steven interviewed Cindy with a series of questions. The results were compiled and are on-file at the library in Cindy's personnel file. Attention needs to be paid to suggestions made by staff. More frequent staff meetings are needed and Cindy plans to have these monthly, with lunch provided by the Trustees. Also, one Trustee should attend these meetings. We plan to make sure that staff sees Trustee Meeting Minutes. Cindy will do this at staff meetings. Cindy has also promised to take time off as suggested by her staff.
• The library was decorated by Nancy, Shelly, Sue Conklin, Jim and Nancy Burnham. Patrons have commented that it is a welcome sight.
• No updates on capitol improvements. Matthew is very busy with tech at the schools. There will need to be some upgrades according to Cindy.
• Two new positions for Trustees in March. Shelly plans to run again. Diane will have to run as she took over for Margie whose tenure is up.
• Shelly will continue to look for the 2017 minutes after Christmas.
• All comments on policies should be sent to Cindy and she will have final editorial comment. Page=break problems will be corrected.
• Memorandum of Understanding tabled until Diane and Rick are both present. Donna has asked to wait until after the budget is presented.

New Business:

• Rick asked Trustees to be aware of any deadlines that they are made aware of.
• Rick met with the Building Inspector and the ceiling damage is possibly a maintenance issue or capitol improvements.
• No need for a warrant article for the library this year.
• Limrik deadline is February 10th.
• Steve moved and Nancy seconded to adjourn the meeting @ 7:40PM

Next Meeting, January 12th 2021 @6:30 PM

Respectfully submitted; Nancy Blair, Secretary