##VIDEO ID:nZS-vttj02Q## e e e e e e e start for for for we are now off mute happy is online on T apologies okay I think we're good to go Cappy do you want to run it from there remote uh yeah um so first call to order do we have anybody online or in the location I can't see for public comment not in the room not online Okay um and I think we can move on to the landscape committee recommendations is yeah should be yep excellent great I'm gonna share my screen just give me a spare with me I'm going to check the mic here Elaine Cappy can you hear me okay perfectly it's crystal clear all right awesome okay thank you um so my name is gady palowski I live at three harimon Avenue just all down the street and I'm here on the behalf of the uh Library Landscaping committee to kind of give you an update uh we provided you with some preliminary design review a couple of weeks ago might be a couple of months ago now and since then the committee came together had a very very productive discussion and so wanted to pass on what we've uh discussed tonight um you could go to the next slide so at at the core we are supporting libraries Mission and while I think the red rck is currently in flux are being changed fundamentally what we're looking to do is to uh you know uh establish communities and connections between people and one of the ways that we can do this is by giving them a third space um so you have your work and you have your house and third space is beneficial for folks to gather and uh have discussions on topics that you know might be interested to them so we looked at dedicated space uh that is outside of the library uh that would facilitate learning and activities such as you know concerts or shows um events that are currently held inside could potentially be held outside as well and in good weather and we also wanted to examine smaller spaces that can uh be utilized by smaller groups such as book clubs or tutoring sessions and that are easily accessible or more accessible than what is currently uh we currently have available to us uh just a friendly welcoming environment is really what we're after you could proceed to the next slide thanks so a quick review of what we've done up to this point uh We've engaged both the community as well as different uh members of the staff in the library and in the town hall and had uh discussions on this topic with them got some guidance from them we've also went out and uh worked with uh activitas provided guid to them activitas was designing plans of of as examples of what can be done how the outside space can be utilized in support of those core uh core goals and then they came back to us with a preliminary estimate which was uh about $1.2 million uh we never really gave them any bounds we wanted them to really focus more on designing the most welcoming space most the best space we could have effectively uh without coding everything in gold and so uh we don't want to limit ourselves they also provided us with a value engineering option which was about 800k and then since that meeting uh the the library Landscaping committee has gotten together multiple times we've gone through everything that was presented uh To Us by activitas we ended up ranking Things based on the community feedack back as well as what we thought would really uh suit the the the core mission of establishing you know relationships and connections so if you go to the next slide um this is the original activitas proposal we actually had four of them but the main takeaway here is the areas that they wanted to fix effectively the well on the slide it's the left side and the bottom side uh of the library they wanted to remove everything like pull everything out including the dirt relevel it and then start from there so they wanted a blank canvas which is where a significant cost was coming from could proceed to the next slide so our group was um focused on uh addressing a couple of core items that seem to always come up which was you know a patio a space for be entertaining or engaging learning teaching Etc as well as shade and provide native plants which would give us a bit more sustainable option they require less maintenance than non-native plants of course and the ability to maintain whatever it is that we create out there uh so uh it would be really helpful if folks could actually water plants that we put outside and and one of the items that we looked at uh was what is the most underutilized space and how we can better utilize that space this is a really I just want to take a moment here because this is a really cool point that was brought up when we first started these meetings me personally as a individual I was very fixated on a couple of items uh those items you will not be seeing tonight and I was advocating for them until a few folks Rose this particular point that we should really examine on the underutilized space that in itself isn't really important um the part where I think that is important is the fact that a bunch of folks came together and put out different things some of them that I've never even considered myself like that was a clicking moment as soon as I heard that it was a realization of wow that is actually a what we should be focusing on so this just goes to show you that there's strength in numbers when a lot of folks sit around the table and discuss how to achieve something um diversity of opinions is very helpful certainly was in this case sorry about the tangent you could proceed to the next slide so here we took the original design that was presented to us by activitas and we sort of cropped out a handful of different things highlighted the areas that we believe we could focus on right now uh to better serve the community so at this moment that is what we uh decided is effectively underutilized space I don't know how easy it is for you to read this map from a bird's eye view but on the bottom half you have effectively the slope that's there right and then we have um it's all right I think sometimes it's just difficult to orent yourself as to what it is that you're looking at if you haven't been staring at this map here we go and then the other part that we wanted to focus on is a little bit to the right over here um where we get um PL different vegetation again native and potentially U Ren Garden so that's what we focused on we thought that that would be the best best thing that we could put make a recommendation on next slide please and then maybe now just a little bit y so we focus on a handful of different items um so active program space right this has been a reoccurring theme we would like to have a stage um I'm calling it a stage there's a handful of different words you could use a pario going to use them interchangeably so just think of them as synonyms as applied to this presentation um we believe that we could accommodate a couple of dozen different people in that area um this was already uh estimated by activas for us the caveat was that they were going to put a very expensive uh seating there that cost like a little bit over quarter of a million dollars and that was a little bit outside of U what we think is feasible but that isn't to say that there's not an alternative approach to address the seating uh seatings there so the Landscaping of course uh again focusing on the um on the native plants and that could also be used for education purposes uh be know maintenance or discussion um and we do want to incorporate a syn that has been around since I actually don't know how old the sink is 1896 it's a really old sink from older than I am uh when this building was originally uh high school elementary school elementary school sorry before my time uh possibly before your time as well so we would really like to fold that back in you mean an act sink see it's in my it's in my yard oh there for years you must just seen it okay next time I will I'll pay attention it's very elegant and it could be served effectively as a bird bath so it just big around okay it justs on the ground okay it's not just a random sink struggling to understand I'm picturing a white cast iron s picked it up at Home Depot on the way to the meeting I don't want a place for people to watch their hands outside like I wasn't see me see me after after the Mee okay I'll explain it all all right we're going to have you dress up like Prince and do the do's Cry video the purpose of it is uh both decorate to sort of work with the other aesthetic elements that we would like to introduce as well as historical part of it is you know it's been around for forever and used to be part of this building so this is the sink coming home if you will okay uh with regards to um uh the M maintenance items so we do believe that we need to have you know a dedicated trash and recycling containers this would allow us to uh maintain the ground so when I'm referring to maintenance items here it's to how do we preserve whatever it is that we've crafted I'm using Royal Wii here as well we're not I'm not necessarily doing this part and then of course access to irrigation again we need to be able to maintain native plants and we need to make sure that um it's not a burden on to the staff or the DPW whoever is um you know watering them when when there's a drought we we don't want it to be a burden I think right now staff has to go on the other side of Library um not exactly sure where the connection is to the water but there is no one on the side so we would like to have one and there's Plumbing already so it's not a heavy lift as far as um I think um next slide please so there are some nice to have I think of these um as kind of like a bonus items um if the contractor is able to fold these in to their design without going over um the established budget that would be awesome right that would give them um in advantageous position when they're bidding against other contract contractors that's sort of the way I perceive it so um sustainability we would certainly like to collect or reuse water uh small group seating um different picnic tables can accommodate um a handful of individuals having Outlets outside would allow people to maintain you know like their laptops have a connection uh lighting that is uh dark dark sky compliant uh both in terms of you know well one preserving the the the the the night sky but also uh not really shining into any of the neighbors windows then of course there's decluttering uh should we uh you know work in an area where there's already existing items such as for example the bike rack we don't necessarily want it to be thrown out we would like to reallocate it so reuse those um items we could always expand the the patio in principle like in when when you write the scope and then potentially upgrade the irrigation system to include underground lines so that uh it's more autonomous than and a person with a watering can so these are just nice tohs and then next slide please Amy thank you and there's a handful of items that we believe that we can address ourselves like we as a community um these are not overly you know complicated uh we can work with the DPW to do some Landscaping um there are trees and shrubs that are all are already under their perview so the removal of it uh it actually has to be done by them as far as I understand uh we can't have a contractor come in and those uh trees or shrubs so we could also provide seating if you've been to the town hall recently they have a bunch of different uh I'm not going to pronounce this right um uh I'm not even going to try to pronounce that right they have like 10 chairs they have 10 chairs so um we could certainly come together as a community and purchase them or relocate them from the Town Hall in the middle of the night and not tell them about it there are means of providing seating here is all I'm trying to get across um the picnic tables should be of course accessible by um by everyone uh that's something we should always keep in mind and then the funding is um uh can be achieved not we never wanted a town to pay for this this is the first thing that we set out or crossed out uh so the funding can be achieved through different means being raising it from different groups that already raised funding for specific purposes or uh more of a community sort of sell a brick you get a little brick when Incorporated maybe into the uh into the seating outside or into one of the pavers along the road so uh while this option isn't completely flushed out we do believe that there are um there are means of achieving this goal next slide please so what we are recommending to the board of Library trustees as the library landcaping committee is to move forward with uh effectively in work with the town to develop an R I guess it would be an RFP or an RFI yeah it's RFP or an RFQ I or could be an RFQ depends on how I think 350 might be an RFP yeah um but we're looking at a budget of about 350 or so that would be our recommendation uh this budget was derived by examining the estimated cost from activas based on different items and the specific items that we are targeting and this budget could certainly change that's where I think the RFQ or would come in but that's our recommendation at this time if you want more details I'm happy to discuss how we came up to this um and then allow we are requesting that you allow the library Landscaping committee to continue to work with the staff get it across the kind of the finish line to get this RFP out there uh and explore the funding options that are available for this ultimately uh it is up to you and at this point it is up to you as in the bow is in your court uh we do need a little bit of guidance recommendations or directions where to take the library Landscaping committee next so we set out on this uh we set out about a year ago I would say yeah year a year and a half ago to explore what can be done um with the outdoor space around the library and I think we were able to achieve that we we we have this overall Vision that was presented to us that ran at about a million 200 U 1.2 million and we scoped it down um it could certainly be achieved over multiple phases if there's interest for that but the items that we've identified and talked about briefly today with you are the I think are the critical ones that we would like to see as a committee and probably as residents as well would like to see you folks really try to kind of address um and there is I believe a report more extensive report that will be shared with you that correct the oh the three four page yes we can yes it's information that we've shared with the actual build the landscape committee that we can distribute to you all um after this meeting that summarize sort of everything in the per refences basically how you got from point A to point B yeah yeah yeah and you know so there's a little bit more details there um at this point I'm happy to take any questions from the board if you have any um but I would we as a committee would like to hear from the board of Library trustees as to where do you think the committee should go next or what is the committies role moving forward I have a couple questions to get to the 350 was that did you go back to activity toas and say okay we're thinking these two and what do you how would you Scope that out or did you more look at their original proposal and if it was all a cart you picked and choose what you wanted to go with and then you came up with a 350 yeah so it was the latter option okay it was more of an all cart and I understand that that's you know there's some costs associated with them just coming out here here and bring a bunch of construction equipment right uh we try to play with those numbers tweak them okay but really it's a guessing game on our end because we are not activ y okay I so that budget can change can vary but in order to sort of so assume that it'll go over just a a bit right in order to kind of mitigate that part we also uh decided that it is more than feasible for us to do do some of the things on our own I think those two actions might end up balancing one another out but again it's a rough number yeah we also didn't know um how they decided on some of the things were they choosing more high-end things uh mid-range or lower and we don't really we didn't really know whether the Furnishings for example were going to be really expensive or not so that's another way we thought we could perhaps mitigate some of the costs yeah if we would if we had a better handle on that kind of stuff which we we didn't have because we didn't know how they price things right prices seem kind of high to me but maybe I'm just out of touch too yeah we also had a limited amount of Engagement with them because they were doing us a favor in effect by piggybacking onto the Birch Meadow project so they' already had an engagement with the town so a lot of what you would normally I think do with a provider I don't I don't want to say we didn't have the opportunity to but they were sort of throwing this in as part of Birch Meadow because of the relationship with the town um so we didn't get a lot of insight into how they came up with it and we had a very limited number of times we could actually meet oneon-one with them um to have them explain whatnot everything else would have been built extra as a consulting fee okay they did go up A Step Above what we asked them originally so I believe they had an they squeezed in an extra meeting with us as well as uh provide us with a value engineering that they were able to turn around pretty pretty quickly so they were they're good to work with but the scope of their work was very limited okay I'll just add too that um at one of our last meetings Jane Wellman is new assistant Town manager and she was for formerly the director of operations she's very familiar with the procurement process was on the meeting and she was very positive about it and she felt that the town that the town staff would be able to really craft something she's very experienced with it she felt very positive and that there were definitely elements that you could get um provided that there's a commitment to figuring out the funding half of it we just have to make somebody has to sort of make that commitment whatever that is whether it's through fundraising or reaching out to donors or whether it's um I don't know what is anything however you decide to do it but once you've decided on what the budget is and as kind of said you could do this all differently you could say well we'll just do $50,000 worth of work this year and then we'll you know do something in another couple years but at least the design I was very pleased with the design and how it came up in the helpfulness that was my other question is do we have to have a commitment for funding before the town will do RP that was my question as well yeah it's it's a little that yeah I think I think it's something that you want to approach with some organization behind it meaning have some sort of um budget plan and Target date um you can't yeah you'd want to be able to use you know we do have gift money that's um some of it is available I don't if you remember we moved like $60,000 into some of the trusts that could earn interests so we do have some things that we could we could work with we get state aid every year we could earmark at so um obviously it take a little while to get up to $350,000 but you're not as long as you think so um there's definitely possibilities and then um we also have other you know there's also other donors and private fundraising that that could be done so you'd want to kind of do them simultaneously maybe lagged am I correct that we've received some form of a sustainability Grant in the past or am I confusing organizations no no we have a $220,000 digging grant lsta grant which is specifically for programming Collections and then some facilities Improvement which might go to pay for like a picnic table or something like that or some actually right now it's mostly dedicated to the parking lot side um of the building um those those are sort of one-offs um so I don't know of any specific um building grants so one of the things if you don't mind me just adding on one of the things that the library Landscaping committee did do was reach out to uh state representative to see uh reached out to Jason Lewis to see if there are funding uh sources that are available for us to tap into be it at state or possibly maybe even Federal level I think Federal might might have been pushing it too hard and so Jason Lewis put us in contact with a couple of people um and then those people put us in contact with the library assistant director who just received the grant um it kind of one full circle so we we did do our we try to do our due diligence and see where there's funding sources available that isn't to say that we're out of ideas we we've tried the tried the state level one so I mean I would say as far as the drilling down and the process and how it's been described at this meeting and throughout I I think it's very impressive I don't know what your vote was for but my vote was for the patio and steps so that was exactly I think there's so much use that can be done out of that and I can just see parents sitting there enjoying their coffee while their kids are putting on their little plays and people are in another world but I think it could be summer reading just tons I think I think that was my favorite part from the beginning so unlike you I got lucky stay there um I was more focused on The Upfront uh um seating area what it pergas oh yeah yeah and I think maybe a part of it was just me seeing something shiny and just admit it was impressive I mean it was it was it was good when it rained like come on would a check for 75 grand let's go you know as I said through the discussion in this all mentioned was like it was just a light bulb in my head like oh I can just but the the native planting around it and just that space I think could be very very useful um trash and recycling I I I think it's both important but I also want to make sure that we just start a trash bin for whoever happens to be driving or walking by the library um you know cuz that's always can be an issue um you know the and then I would just wonder about the chairs and table stuff to make sure like we aren't running down and you know us and Matt kralis are stealing each other's Furniture uh just to make sure it's not there but I think it's all very impressive that and I think from where you started to where you got I think you get a lot for that I do think from my own personal experience with Library related fundraising it's a big ask that's a big nut um it's a big nut to cover and the it probably takes many hands and many ores whether it's going to a few places or organizations to see if they can make a bigger commitment whether it's doing the bricks so it's like the tennis courts and everywhere else that have done those in the past um a way of piecing it together uh that would be my only worry from my understanding is that that's a big number one question would be to um so the Landscaping committee is a public committee which falls in its own thing and there I think one question that the trustees would want to consider is and this would might be a joint meeting with the two funding groups that we have um is do you keep do you create a third fundraising group that is just for you know exterior landscape improvements or do you find a way to work with the two existing fundraising groups so that they can have campaigns um so I think that's that's a discussion who the existing fundraising groups are that you're referring to yeah we have the friends of the reading public library and the writing Public Library Foundation I just didn't know if it was some Town thing I no no these are these are basically our PTO or boers yeah makes sense thank you sorry so you could create you could ask and try and found a third one um or just for this particular campaign I think the the real question or one not real question one of many of questions is the the the figure to start yeah and then the figure on a yearly basis going forward yeah because that's where it becomes what is what is that actually going to be yeah um I don't I mean I would worry about a third group but I don't think I do think having discussions with the friends and Foundation and perhaps even doing a presentation at their meeting or if we do a could organiz a joint one I imagine um I I think it's both organizations have different priorities and different donation histories though however so that's something to keep in mind but that said um adding a third group to the mech I think if it's a special onetime raise that's one thing if it's another ongoing then you lead to confusion because nobody knows I think would be one right so I have a question um just in regards because this is not in my wheelhouse I've never had to raise large amounts of capital for improvement project um so I don't have experience with it but I know how we came up with a 350 um what is the um process let's say that we find that it could we could do it a lot more cheaply do we need to commit to 350 before we do RFP RFQ as no you just need to commit to a certain amount you need to commit to a certain amount so if you can get a chunk from here a chunk from there and a chunk from wherever the Magic Money fairy that I say is always going to come down um then you have that committed amount and then you can go out for an RFP and what you would do at that point is just say this is the section you want to do maybe it's just the patio you know not even doing step since you said the town has experience with this people it feels like other than us in the library landscape committee who have no clue how much a patio costs they will yeah they do 350 what are you talking about we could do that for 125 right no and and guess where the expertise lies is what my question is yes and um there's also been a number of situations kind of like you do with hiring which is you can take your um RFB or RFQ and you can go out and if everybody nobody responds then you've learned something right the absence of data is sta in itself which is like okay the market is not going to bear this or and sometimes it's just like what you do with your house like nobody wants to fix your little bathroom now because they're all doing whole house renovations so then you have to kind of adjust what you're looking for um and you know like same thing with jobs sometimes you got to go out a second time post that job a second time just because you didn't get the right resumés so you're always welcome to say you could even put out the bid you have them committed to money put out the RFP get responses look at the responses and say yeah you know I we're not ready to we're we're we're going to cut we're going to pull it we're not going to do it so there's always a until you sign the letters and you have the thing you know the town always has a right of refusal um but the contracts are made with the town not with the library that's just one thing remember so and it comes all under the town liability so and we've you know one byproduct of this this whole process is you know we've really had some great conversations with the town engineers and all the folks in DPW about things that can be done here under their perview which is not considered extra work um that is considered really part of their actual care of Maintenance of the property and some um some of their directives so there are directives there are environmental and sustainable directives that they they have so for example I mentioned possibly have a rain Garden or Swale or something on this side where we have a lot of erosion well they already had to do that down you know with all these other projects that they're doing and they are required to do a certain number of that I whether it's a part of the Green community initiative um but a lot of their grants and things to rely on that so they're all on board and they want to help and they want to you know create spaces in town that are sustainable and green as well um but you know just some of the stuff is definitely outside of their purview but I I've learned a lot so so what are next steps for this for us is this something we need to commit to now or can we put this on the agenda for say uh October once we have a little more information I mean because it feels a we I know we need to move but I would like to get a little more transparency into the fundraising and the ability or sorry the costs I guess yeah y um you know we might in other words if we can find out people we can get to the 350 number yeah but but our estimates are you know are larger than expected we may it more than we bargain for or expected which would be great and also they may have a better understanding of how to compartmentalize this saying oh if you do this everybody's gonna be on board then they're going to want to do this Etc so it would be an easier fundraising ask than dumping a 350k yeah on somebody's plate um well one thing is you Pat you mentioned presenting to those groups are having a joint meeting and I guess do you give permission to the landscape committee to do this presentation to the friends and Foundation would you like the committee to approach them and you know I know their meetings are starting up now now that it's September to get on some agendas to start the discussion um you know as GNA said the more brains in the in the room the better you know you're going to get some different ideas and some different thoughts um would we need to give that permission I don't think you need necessarily a motion I just think it's good good etiquette not to have somebody just randomly approach someone and say I mean Pat's the chair of the foundation we have your blessing can we do it yeah can we do it can can can can I don't know who I think it' be Denise wi for the friends and I think Andrea could actually even make that that introduction I mean I do think it's a different conversation with the friends though I think it's two different missions and that's that's I I would view this as yeah I just think it's they are two different missions of the two different entities and that this fits one better than the other in my eyes yeah but um yeah I mean I think setting it up makes sense to getting on the agenda great but yes Absol you don't in fact you don't definitely don't have to make take any action on it tonight I think tonight was just we've been handed the package we've been handed the presentation we just have the recommendation we don't have Vote or anything in the the notice anyway you I mean honestly you could have a discussion in October and say this was all great folks see you later we're going to disband the committee I will I will say the unless I've it's changed again and I've missed it I believe the Thursday the 19th is the next Foundation meeting two weeks from now yes we moved it a week so that is a potential date um it is a date that is looking very problematic for me but I uh I don't have the best track record at Foundation meetings anymore but it's Thursdays I'm just going to throw this out there at me I I don't have any issue at all with uh the committee approaching the friends I'm just more wondering if that's a good fit I think it I think it really is just I the only reason one of the reasons I bring it up to them is bring that up is that I do think they should know about it I think they should understand it and that it's an initiative on the um part of the library um this has always been sort of the um with any fundraising um you don't want people to feel like they're fighting each other that it's sort of a a you know clitorial thing so if someone can say like we're not saying at all like oh house tour funds would go towards this but just bew in addition of the house tour there's going to be four other fundraisers in the spring or something like that for for you know what I'm saying so I think it's really important um especially for a project like this and you know for our new Mission um you know building connections this isn't necessarily about what the C landscape committee wants or what the library staff wants or even what the trustees want we want to get as much Community involvement yeah in with this because we see this as as building a community space so I think the more it's out there um and um you know we have schematics that we can put out and a group wants to take on that just want to be very clear that the landscape committee is itself as it stands and as it's put together as a public committee cannot do any fundraising the trustees cannot actually do right fundraising um there's just a lot of it's you just want to make sure you're following the ethical laws yeah you can certainly ask people to donate but you can't have a big sit of course Library staff can't donate thank you all right appreciate the time thank you G have a good thank you thank you you appreciate it um okay uh any questions on that or I think we can move on with the fall programming and summer reading report unless there are any questions or comments just share that hello I'm Andrea if you're head of Public Services for the fans joining us from afar um so I'm going to do the fall update but I'm also going to recap summer reading for us uh if we can go to the first slide in the next slide I should say um so we had three we didn't have an overarching theme the summer the children's room um did a sticker based prize program um where they handed out little scratch ticket bookmarks and kids could choose what to do on it and come in for a sticker um they also had five um karaoke machines that they raffled off for raffle prize winners people who spotted our giraffe around town our giraffe um and you can see that the program attendance was robust with 1,150 um kids coming out for 57 programs and um a stunning 2,887 for the passive programs which are the little thematic areas throughout the children's room um adults there in the middle the really boring looking one is a bingo card which was the first year we've ever done this and the Bingo spaces had books you could read but also um download an app from the library or various different Services plus some Community things they could join in and if they got a bingo they would win um they got they got a chance to win a gift card to Whiteland books and if they did a blackout they had an opportunity to win um a larger gift card to Market Basket the the teens had a steam a science um technology engineering art and math theme had three um baskets steam themed baskets to raffle off uh and kids could submit reviews or they could come to programs to get a raffle ticket um across the board participation was down this year um in terms of people actually signing up to participate or submitting reviews or coming back with the bingo card um we're not exactly sure why that is with teen submarine participation has been down ever since the high school stopped requiring specific required reading and so that's been going on for I don't know maybe three years maybe four years or something like post pandemic I guess so they used to have to come in and get um specific book list for 9th through 12th grade and now that only happens for 6th through 8th grade and so we've seen a real decline in teams coming in to find books at the library they may well be reading more on our apps that's almost certainly true um but there aren't as many actually having to come into the library to find specific books they can read whatever they want um yeah and all all the programs I'd say were pretty well attended uh so we you know we had interaction it wasn't like people weren't coming to the library and participating in summer reading events we had pretty good turnout but actually participating in the summer reading program it was a little more lowkey this year next slide please okay so these are some of the things we did out and about in the community um beyond the walls of the library the friend speaker series that we launched in June we took that out to the Pleasant Street Center and we've done um we've done two recorded sessions and then discussion um series and we have one more coming up this week or next so we've done one with um legal correspondent Nina totenberg we did one with uh Chef Lydia Bastianich and Rick Steves is going to be speaking at the next one so this is a pre-recorded event um where we have chosen it for the content because it's like discussable um we had the book bike at all the um reading wreck uh Concert Series in Parks this summer we had weekly Sunset story times in various Parks throughout ring we started um this new Outreach effort um this year that we're piloting treats and beats it was we went to uh we took our really popular concert series for children that we've just launched and took it out to apartment complexes especially trying to find folks who live farther away from the library are more likely to be renters and more likely to be multilanguage Learners and those were really well attended and those audiences were definitely the ones who came out um we went to the Lions friends and family day and tabled there like we always do we also took the book bike to the um Lions annual Fun Run all right next okay so the friend speaker series um at last time I was here I was talking about how we were just going to launch this in June and since June um we've had six live watch parties so these events happen live first and you can join them virtually but we also have had in-person events here at the library to do that and we had over 95 attendees um at those six different live watch parties and we've had over 4,000 live and archive viewings of the content since we launched in June which is kind of Staggering and we actually didn't believe that statistic and we went back to them and said really but those are the folks who are finding it through our website so people who are interacting with the content through our website so this is is just a small sample of what we have on offer um these are all available all the time for people to get but you can also join them live and submit questions so that's been mostly a stunning success all right next slide please um Fall highlights I'm sorry that's really small can you read it yeah you can read all those things okay so for adults um we have mental health first a again offering that with the reading Coalition for prevention and support we have a disaster preparedness with the Massachusetts Emergency Management agency um Salem Witch Trials search for alien worlds um with the Earth's largest telescopes that's uh joshuan liman a local PhD candidate well he's not studying locally but he's from ruding who's going to be speaking in a hybrid event um couple big friend speaker series authors Leanne morard who's the international bestseller and a talk called liberating Latin American literature with author Sylvia Moreno Garcia she's written several bestsellers uh and finally we're having an artist reception for our community seed beading project so with um the vice president of the massachusett tribe we've H we've offered all these seed beaing workshops over the course of I it's almost two years now where um Thomas who's a a massachusett educator and artist has been teaching the seed beading process and then they put together a final project um and we're going to be having a reception and that's going to be permanently housed at the library um something that represents massachusett art and culture and will permanently be housed here to sort of establish uh that relationship and that presence of the massachusett people that is still with us but we haven't really acknowledged so well until very recently um with the children's Department we are opening the tween space officially we're going to be inviting donors and um the friends and especially the twin who are going to be planning this party for us and if you haven't gone up I know last time I spoke I think the mural had just gone up but now all the furniture is there you've probably all seen it it's very nice and it really is being used um by twin there's a creeping at Real Horror writing workshop for Twin Trails and tals series um that's going to meet on conservation land and it's for grades one to three they read a science story they hike and they make a nature craft so that's pretty great um we have this concert series because we've had such High attendance at like Peter sand Sheridan all these other um concerts we have had we've decided to try to invest some money in bringing in some big and more Diversified concerts for kids and also out of the community um plant lab on the patio is going to be planting pumpkins greens and house plants our teens uh are doing their sixth grade tours coming up this fall that's always a big undertaking they're doing a cemetarium craft um they're launching the teen advisory do you want to know more about the cemeterian craft okay so here are my notes okay jeans can assemble a fun spooky scene with a gnarled tree gravestones mushrooms moss and haunting characters all contained in a covered glass terrarium jar she said the thought was little my first reading was crematorium [Applause] crafts it's big on mine and still so I didn't go there yeah yeah yes there is definitely like a fall Halloweeny kind of through line here in all the ages um there's build wave a Hands-On building game and uh K-pop crafting event coming up these are just highlights there's so much more than that all right we can go to the next one so these are some um new things or some things that haven't been happening lately that are coming back I'm sure Amy's already briefed you on the digin grant so that the money um drops in October and we're going to be doing programming reporting all the way through September so it's really going to be a year-long thing and that's why some of the programs the highlights of the Fall um are kind of nature based but we'll be doing we'll really be kicking into that gear in the winter and the spring and summer programming um teen Advisory Group this is a group that has been on Hiatus um we've we've working with Michelle and Megan Clemente and Megan mcabe our team libr and we've really re-envisioned it as something that teens apply to we're asking the teens to be older we had did have it open to 6th to 12th grade but that's just like kind of a ridiculous range to try to get um kids that are that young and that old to work together on something meaningful so we're really we're focusing on an older age group have to be at least in eth grade up to um 12th grade and they're going to be doing a digin themed do we have a name for dig in yet uh just about I'm um so we're going to soon have a a actual name for our dig in Grant but that's what the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners calls it so we're going to be um aligning the teen Advisory Group with with program and and content around the grant um as well as building some job skills for the team so we've really we've really thought about it as a very very much beneficial to the teens who can really put it on their college applications or their resumes as well as a relationship building with the library um nit nit crochet group um is coming back we used to have a group um but we haven't had it since covid so they're coming back maang meetups um are restarting we have some new book groups as well as some oldies uh the real story is a new non-fiction book group that's starting up this month we're to bring in a few folks that we might not have been appealing to as much with more uh fiction based groups we have a new Outreach um book group at Peter Sanborn place which is housing for it's um income sensitive housing for disabled and elderly folks um that meets every single month we've had a really nice turnout for that the RPL book group which is which is Patron Leed is now going to be called fact or fiction and the old stalwart word of mouth is a having either their 26th or 27th anniversary next month so they're still going strong uh like I said the children's room has put together some like really big thoughtful concerts um including the soina trio Brazilian music um Marian maroto movement in music with Miss Julie and legendary Peter Sheran we have the national voter registration day um next week with the town clerk Laura jeen um and some volunteers who will be here helping people register to vote and then we have a couple of um we have a couple of community Le programs in the children's room we have a new Mandarin story time that some local parents have put together um story time that's completely in Mandarin uh we also have two new programs uh that just started today with the Suburban North Suburban Child and Family Resource Network work a Music Makers um class for toddlers and a hello baby new parent group which I'm really excited about CU it's scary being a new parent scary being an old parent yeah um so yeah that that's just like a very quick run down of what we have on to what we did this summer questions can go to the next one if you want next slide that's it questions as always great yeah great great questions me very detailed as always thank you Mara and MCO was crazy pants mulle times because that was crazy kids love them though you do uh thank you very much Andrea perfect as always um next on the agenda we have a discussion and vote on the meeting room policy updates hey should we look at the red line or do you want to see the final version share either sharing I'm good with either okay all right um sh do you want to just if we accept the meeting room policy as presented I I yeah I actually have questions about it we can have disc we can have a vote and we have a discussion and then we vote at the end okay great so we have a second for the motion have a second to the motion okay now the chair is about to invite discussion and recognize Miss varer discussion I just thought you were GNA give us an overview uh so last time that we um met we talked about how we were just doing some brief changes um we talked about um adding just some um specific language because we're moving our software um so the language would be specific to that um believe a lot of the changes that we ended up doing based on last month's discussion had to Megan correct me if I'm wrong some of it was formatting Y and reorganizing things so that sentences there weren't two points in one sentence and eliminating dup duplicative statements making it clear making it clear yes I did have one question about because I've seen this on a lot of contracts where it says you know if use a credit card additional fees May apply um it's number 12 there you just saw it how does that work exactly like do you tell them post hey you're using an ax we got to charge you 6% or how does that work so it would be something like you ever pay um online uh for any kind of town processing so it would be similar to that it would just say if you're paying online you're going to pay 35 cents more um it's usually a percentage and it's a flat percentage regardless of of the card you use I know what you're saying which is like MX charges more than Visa which charges less than some frequent flyer mile thing but it's usually just a percent either a per percentage and since we only have very limited numbers it would be a certain percentage of the of the amount so $10 would probably become $150 or something like or $111 it be I don't need any language changed I've just always been curious what that mean yeah I think the principle for us to put this in is um is not obviously it's for a nonprofit it's to help defay the cost um assuming that more and more people will pay um we we don't do this now on our printing because it's 10 20 cents a page and it's very difficult to to calculate things like that so we absorb the cost on that but with these different amounts it just is going to be easier to handle the um we get we get much less much less funds from the room rentals than we do from printing basically so we do need help assisting with the defraying of the credit card fees makes perfect sense did um anyone have any questions about the meeting room policy as it is written is there any discussion I personally do not have any questions with the changes as presented well we have a motion on the floor may we move this to a vote need to do a roll call yep um how am I going to see that oh I guess I have to call you out I can't see you guys um we go thank you okay is every nobody else is online just me okay good um Pat I vote in favor onette yes carry yes I am in favor as well I believe that is everybody nobody else is online correct so four is a quorum and we pass with a vote of 4 Z excellent next on the agenda was scrolling scrolling scrolling pardon me um the discuss and vote of the tutoring policy um again this was just shortening it up re doing some renumbering um trying to make it as reasonably enforcable as possible and we updated it to uh we took out Safe child policy and put in responsibilities regarding minor policy are there any questions s or comments on the tutoring policy as written or the changes I should say specifically not for me I think we covered it last month not for me either um do we have a a move to accept the tutoring policy as revised we have a second second um and can we have a vote vote Pat I am in favor yes onette yes yes um I in favor as well uh the motion passes for zero thank you very much uh next on the agenda is um the discussion vote on the Strategic plan the fiscal year 26 fiscal year 30 y so I just want to thank um those who worked with me to refine the language after a very robust discussion last month um there were only two areas two points um which was the second uh strategic area of focus on Community Learning and engagement the first uh goal number four um which originally was talking I think primarily about I think kids and tween um to teens but uh the board wished to expand that to make sure that we're looking at all types of transitions um oops sorry so the change in language was to number four is to develop transitional strategies for all ages to grow into Library Services Foster relationships with teams and caregivers through programming and enhancements of the tween space so that allows us to focus on this brand new space that we have develop programs and ser program services and collections for post-secondary emerging adults which is going to attack our over 18 um younger than probably 30 group and then um really assess the usability of existing teen room to meet the evolving needs of teens and that really is just um an area that gets a lot of use we we see a lot of changes in how the students um how the teens are using the space so we want to be able to um you know think it's been around for eight years what are the changes that we might want to make upgrades to in that area and then the second area um the second change um to the proposed um strategic plan was in library of space in place and really sort of um addressing that W that sort of belonging um piece which is to implement strategies to increase diversity among Library staff and volunteers and um the first one which didn't get changed was really just talking about what we do internally to look at our strategic Recruitment and looking about our looking at our staff membership Break um makeup but also to really look to review and to develop a plan that has that reviews and has strategic recruitment of diverse volunteers at all levels which may or may not include obviously board members but um it really speaks to getting the community engagement with as many folks from our community different backgrounds different perspectives so those were the two changes I did not include the whole I don't think I included the whole um strategic plan seems like the rest of the Strategic plan including the new Mission which I was on Guinness side um nobody had any problem with that so these were the final changes and presented to you to vote on hopefully this evening so that it can be submitted before October 1st to the mass jit Board of Library Commissioners are there any uh questions or do we have any discussion around the changes to the Strategic plan is presented I have nothing on the two final edits I think we've hash it out over the last couple months and I think it looks good I I don't have anything me either I'll move to adopt the uh fiscal year 26 through 30 strategic plan uh as presented in various meeting materials to finalize it and we need to authorize it to be sent to I just need to accept I just need to accept actually if you could accept it with any minor Corrections and typos that director may have noticed while she was going through it today I will move to accept the fiscal year 26 through3 strategic plan uh in substantial form as presented to the board today with eyes and teeth crossed and any other edits that are necessary things I noticed without running grammarly on it yes I second that motion thank you call roll call Mr Egan I vote in favor onette yes sherim yes I am in favor as well the motion carries 4 Z thank you very much for the hard work on that that was a lot of work yeah well done well done in a long process but well done and already been implemented from the fall programming about the man Mandarin Reading it's a perfect example I know we're already had of ourselves see it's a nice thing about I know we have a checklist we already did it done done done done done no um Step One make list um okay next on the agenda reminder for State ethics commission advisory 11-1 Public Employee political activity I think I did include that did I include that it was on the it was not in there I meant to include it I apologize um just a reminder um I think uh we had a obviously we had a state election on September 3rd and we have a federal election coming up Andrea mentioned our voter registration day um just a reminder I gave you the number if you want to have some thrilling reading to go back and remember the ethics of political activity and your role as an elected official and our roles as employees and when and when it is appropriate and when it is not not appropriate to campaign or have political voice of course support 100% First Amendment right to express yourself and also recognize that um we want to make sure that we are as you know neutral as possible in political in the political Arena um I think it's just particularly sensitive topic these days it's getting to be a very heated he um political and it's also something that can be quite divisive so um I just I wanted to just put that out there and encourage you to look up the um and if you've completed all your ethics training hopefully that still fresh in your mind as well so I just wanted to bring that up as we head into the election season and if you have any questions I think Cherry will attest the fact that Laura Jem is extremely good to work with and she is and if you have questions or concerns about what you can may or may not do um please give her a call um I'm probably not the person you want to call call um but Laura is excellent to work with and anyone in her office should be able to to answer any of your questions thank you thank you um I assume this does not need any action from no it truly was just a reminder thank you very much um next up on the agenda is the financial report and the supplemental spending recommendations for fiscal year 25 um just first I wanted to mention that um we did file our um financial report and state aid application um and while I mentioned and it was filed with the nblc thank you Cappy for getting me your signature on that um we met our materials expenditure we meet all the minimum requirements of service um I just wanted to as a slide note to that um in town meeting um they will be discussing the MBTA communities and um we were asked to um report on any funding that might be in Jeopardy should MBTA communities not pass a town meeting and state aid is one of those things uh we got $58,000 I think last year 8,497 last year and this application that we just put in is is relevant um it's not jump change for us it is you know it's a couple percent of our annual budget so I did report that to the town accountant and the town manager and that's something that we would um not like to lose if we had had the choice but we did very well this year and I feel very confident that um we'll have a nice um state aid award this year um for supplemental spending um that was included in your packet I won't you don't have to take motion on this you don't have to vote I think um I would take changes advice you can vote if you wish but I think it's more of um you know what do we do with that state aid what do we do with the gifts that we have what we do what do we do with the trusts that we have and I try to work on a um multi-year cycle usually usually about five years wish I could do 10 but I can't that makes my head hurt so um I try to think out about five years we're constantly going with the staff asking what their wish list items are we're looking at things like um do we want to buy ader onck chairs we're looking at things like do we need new equipment what Furnishings need to be replaced so larger items that are not included in our operational budgets supplemental spending for um uh professional development so the first page just gives you a summary and um the total recommended spending additional spending outside the municipal um budget is $103,500 roughly 4% actually I think it might be 4.5 almost 5% of the municipal budget um but it's allocated very specifically to um help with additional programming um we have a special we're working on a local history project um which will include transcription and more digitization of our materials um it's going to help with the dig in Grant um the digin Grant application included a commitment from the library to do what's called inine spending so you give us 20,000 we promise another thousand or another amount of money to help the program be successful and to be sustainable past the onee Mark um we always do all of our marketing communication spending through suppl spending um we are working as you know we are in progress of updating our app up updating our website and we did just update our room management software this was on the to-do list so it's hitting right when we wanted it to um and um if needed we do supplement the materials budget when I say that it's not that we need it for certification it's more that oh we really really want something and we ran out of money so we'd like to buy something with it or it's a unique purchase um so state aid um basically right now we are paying for the big upgrade to the app and to the website and room management software out of state aid that will be rolled into our um the the maintenance and update upkeep of that will be rolled into our annual Municipal budget after this year um we are going to have some equipment and Furnishing purchases some of it to support the digging Grant some of it is additional equipment that we um know we need local history project marketing communication and I always throw a little bit of in there for for miscellaneous I base those this Budget on what we received the previous year so basically it's um that way whatever we get this year will be next year's budget um ifs any any question about state aid how we use it that's not too variable right a state aid yeah is it like like a couple of thousand a year increase yeah increase or decrease um actually it we've had significant increases in the last couple years um it was down around 32 34,000 a few years ago and then it jumped to 40 and then it jumped to 50 um and this year I believe the state budget approved um recently did Inc had a significant increase for state aid to public libraries as well as state to the consorti so Noble so I expect it to go up and in the last few years it's been more than two or 3,000 it's been more than like 2 or 3% it's it was significant number so like 8 10 12% I don't expect that to continue um but it had dropped significantly in the early 2000s and it I think somewhere around 2000 20 2019 it sort of had come back up to where it was supposed to be so they've been catchup for a few years it's like ear Mark separate it's ear correct yes it's separate and it's only free for the library we can use it for anything that we want to so um it's not I mean obviously you're right it can drop it could drop so I feel like I've just jinxed myself saying like oh yeah it's been going up yes exactly ex exactly so um but they have um the mass Board of Library Commissioners oversees that line and does the they present the budget their budget to um to the state house and and through that whole process um gifts which are a little less predictable um but we do get gifts some of them are directed some of them are not um again more money for equipment and Furnishings we really don't have just so you know we don't have any money in our current budget for equipment Furnishing so we always supplement that um very specifically we do we are looking into providing a space within the library that is a fully accessible station in terms of like a table that goes up and down it's wheelchair accessible would have power outlets we're debating a few different spaces but it would involve purchasing new furniture and then obviously supporting the dig in Grant and outdoor spaces uh professional development we I put in a decent amount of money for that um we do have that tuition reimbursement I do expect to have a couple applications for that this year if I don't spend it we don't spend it um it's entirely up to the um into the to the employee whether they want to apply for that um it's 2,000 I think if you're a full-time worker and 1,000 it's $2,000 a course Meg um I think it's a maximum of of 1,000 of course for course and 2,000 for for year that's what it is for a full time and then half of that if you're part-time but you have to work at least 20 hours um again more programs and services and then supplies just in case you run out of pencils and um some miscellaneous and then for trusts um as I mentioned earlier we do have a significant amount of money earning hopefully earning money in our trust funds not significant for me for us it's significant um the Expendable funds right now are up to $112,000 um of that I only anticipate needing maybe a maximum of $5,000 to supplement for materials again this would be if we already meet our materials expenditure requirements we spend all of our Municipal money and there's other things that we want to purchase um having said that we can also use that some of this money for equipment if we need to there's at least two Grant two trusts I'm sorry that um allow us to purchase whether it's art or whether it's Furnishings or you know shelving that kind of thing so we do have some flexibility there but right now I anticipate that and these are just things I plan on um we do have a couple things coming in um library of things storage um which is right now it's sort of piggledy piggley all over the library and you need a treasure map to figure out where the karaoke machine is and um we TR the staff tried to keep up on it but we are looking at some sort of self-service lockers that would allow people to are they self-service yeah yeah self-service lockers that would allow us to people could go over to the locker and check the thing out yeah um that's we don't have an exact price on that yet so that's there's some holding numbers for that but we'll adjust that as needed when we talk about gifts and 40 40,000 coming up gifts what what is our fiveyear average of what we earn in gifts for year it really depends because you know we seem to get you know I would say we average about $110,000 a year I that's generous I'd say about6 or $7,000 a year actually and then we get some larger gifts periodically so that's why I say 10,000 because if you average it out because then you get the you know a bequest all of a sudden comes out of nowhere or a large gift or there's a memorial somebody there's a you know sometimes we have people who are remembering people's birthdays so it comes and goes um I would say safely the6 or $7,000 um but we did not spend gifts I would say for the first five years that we were in this building we were very right but what have we spent the last I mean I just I looked at 40,000 and you know that's that's a run rate of four to five more years of that fund yes but we also have a balance of 100 188,000 right so if we spend 40 a year yeah we'll be done in the next five years with that fund so is that you're thinking you're GNA guess I'm looking to understand more what's your longer term view for that I think that number is going to go up and down as projects come and go I think it's been sitting there for a while there was another like I said another $60,000 in there that we still hadn't spent so yeah and you know I mean I'm a fan of spending because I I think that people give it to be used people give it to be used and and no one wants to give their money and see it sit there forever and ever and ever so people get it to be used I just want to make sure that yes it's still always there and active I guess yes well and I think that's great for the trustees to to Really discuss about what you want as your rainy day fund whether it's in state aid or whether it's in gifts or whether it's in trusts you know what's the minimum amount I mean that you that you feel comfortable going down to and then then holding the spending but that that's a big issue so the gifts are just sitting correct so the trusts earned correct 10 11% last year on the cour right or or they've also had a year where they lost correct I we understand but they are at least poised yes to generate a better return right than I mean are we able to invest the gift money in like one of these high yield accounts and get it we have to put it into the trusts would have to go through trust would have to but is there any restrictions on that 188 as to how what we could are a few of them are like a few of those 188 accounts are somebody has given specifically for adult books and we need to track that and we do need to keep that that there so um but overall it seems like the trusts are more restrictive than the gifts correct so it's a little tougher to depend on the trust be a rain day fund yes for the flip side is it's better to touch the gifts before the trust because they're not doing anything invested yeah um I do think that it is really helpful to be able to say so for example ifin the next five years we say oh we need $75,000 to um redo the team to to upgrade the team spot the teen room so the tween spot which was brand new I think that was I don't don't ask me where I came up with that $75,000 I just made it up but the tween spot was like about 60 $60,000 all told so we want to do a complete re re refresh or rehab of our tween teen spot and we decide that there's a number there that is that's partly why we have a strategic plan it's partly why I do the supplemental spending so that I can look ahead to see where that is but it's also where we end up going to a foundation to say this is a big project that we want to do um what happened in 2016 was the foundation gave us a ton of money not a ton they gave us a a substantial amount of money that's what we've been shipping away with um and they haven't really per se done any specific donations they tend to work more on a we need this thing could you fund this versus just a blanket here's some money so um now I know now we will know in 2028 when we want to go do the teen spot because we've had a designer come in or we've done surveys we will be able to have that money I'm hoping we'll have enough money in our gift account still in 2020 but if we don't we know we can have that Target and we can ask that's where we'll start asking like the foundation or stuff for that kind of thing so yes I can't count on it but does that answer your question kind of it does I I I yes I guess yeah I was just trying to understand the Run rate you were using on that money if you were mentally thinking okay 40 a year is the max I want to I'm going to spend and I'm hoping if we get I didn't know how much came in yeah if you know 10 Grands coming in a year I'm really only spending 30 and then what's my run rate that's going to carry me X number of years and I feel good about that or it's more I think we need 40,000 this year to achieve all the different things we've talked about in the Strategic plan that we want to achieve this year and and next year I'm I'm going to look at it from a clean slate perspective not I didn't know if you were you see what I'm saying there is a fiveyear plan yeah okay there is a 5e plan that doesn't decimate the or it doesn't maybe decimates it but it doesn't completely deplete it okay and I don't know what the income will be or the revenue will be um and like I said sometimes they're just surprises um but I do think in general the goal is to sort of spend it down to I think when we started didn't have that much in gifts right so it's it's unusual for us to have this much gifts just hanging around yeah so thank you so this was added the supplemental spending thing was added I think three years ago I started doing it and that was a budget transparency kind of thing because we got a lot of questions about well who pays who's going to pay for those Lo who paid for the book bike and we can say oh we paid for that out of gifts yeah so we have some track some record of where where money's go um any questions about the supplemental spending the only thing I have there there's no way to get that gift money in anything that generates any type of Interest no we just have to put you can you can vote to transfer it to the to one of the trusts we have two trusts that that have wording related to equipment furnishings I think and you could transfer it in there um and that's what we did it's just that to transfer well I don't think you have to transfer it out I think I can pay directly from it I'm not sure um I have to talk with the town accountant whether we have to transfer it back to the to the library fund to spend it or whether know that just because it's I mean it's not doing anything it's a correct correct correct and that's you know we could run some numbers but to Pat's point is I I well not to P point I do need to look into whe whether it's of that total number how much it can be chunked out and how much of it can be moved some of it can't be moved because it it is allocated to a specific purpose that um you know we have and in the past we've done other things um those of you may remember we used to have adopt magazine right and that were those were gifts that people could donate money to support our various periodical we have a hefty very lovely magazine section um you know there's definitely something that we could we could do with that and that would change our materials budget and you know so there's other things that we can do um if we if we do start to deplete those amounts does the the gifts figure include the foundation money that is here so that's with it a gift yeah so strike that we do report to you when we purchase like yes thanks we were paying for the some of the hybrid technology because coming from our foundation yeah like always look at Megan because I assume she she's just going to nod her head and say that I'm right um I believe paying for a function a portion of this hybrid technology upgrade out of that Amy can we ask for a future meeting can you can you ex get the information and explain to us what it would mean to move that gift money to trust yes so the question my assignment Megan would be to talk to the town accountant about spending I think is that the question like can we just spend from the trust or do we need to transfer is that what you and then also the impact on what flexibility do we lose with that money if we move it into a trust I want to make sure we understand right there's there's a might be a cost to the movement that makes it such that we don't want to do it exactly just want make sure we understand that I would I I fully support that and honestly the first time we moved that money I was really nervous and nothing bad happened so it was all good um but it just yeah I don't think it had ever been done before to my knowledge so and all of those trusts have some of them are very small but all of them have a portion of non-expendable funds which I don't report on it's they must retain a certain amount of money so that amount is just the Expendable amount thank you um are there any further questions on the supplemental spending if not we can move to the director's report um so the director's report is in your packet I won't go line by line um um but I did want to just really point out really quickly that Pat Ean was quoted on our online our article from the readings magazine that was all about our book by the RPL and wheels it was a great article if you if you had a chance to see it um Andrea actually covered a lot of the programming highlights and um uh one thing I forgot to put in here um but she did start on August 26 was Carrie Bine who is our new children's librarian started on August 26 so we welcome her um we have a bunch of people I think by the time we no I think we'll meet before Nila but our New England Library Association conferences coming up so we actually have several people attending that and Megan was able to applied for and was able to get a scholarship so we're very pleased with that that's Megan you where is it this year it is in Portland Main um very nice so we're looking for new two High School pages so if you know anyone I think there's still applications are still out um and then Andrea mentioned the community beaing reception for the community Beijing project these rooms will be out of commission from October 15th to 19th we will not be able to use them at all because they'll be doing the hybrid upgrades um there some few Horizons I would like to give um a little shout out but kind of a large shout out to Michelle who's been working really really hard on three major projects one is changing up our event and calendaring system two is event changing up and updating our meeting room reservation system and the third is managing to upgrade to our app those three are actually all tied together um so they kind of had to be done in a bundle and um it has not been it has not been awful we've actually communo has been a great company to work with some of the other companies have not been so great to work with which is why we're not using them anymore um but it's it's a lot and there's definitely a few bumps in the road but in general everything has gone very very well yeah and and um I think it's going to be really worthwhile the app is going to be um a bigger transition and that's going to be in the next week or two yes y go live in the next week or two yeah um hopefully by the 25th and I will reach out um as I said before for beta testers with the um Apple product she's working on it and hopefully maybe tomorrow the next day I'll be reaching out okay yeah sounds good I just it's a lot of it's a lot of moving Parts not only for the staff but for the public and it's a lot of change um so I just sh's done a great job managing that so it's just it's not easy especially when none of us are sort of trained on managing these things question October meeting where will it be um oh we did we talk about that oh we were wondering whether it could actually be all remote or we could we could do oh I'm sorry no we decided local history we the local history room okay with remote participation we'll use the owl camera yes it will be in there okay would it be easier if we did it all remote no no I mean everybody can be remote but I think it's good to have a solid space for people to come to I think it's probably easier in the long run never what looking forward to it I don't think I've ever been in that room that's the right I just can't have my coffee in there so makes me very sad no you my fingers with sharpies and running there I know exactly everybody running around but have a remote option in there is there a screen yeah awesome this big screen there so yeah we've actually done them done them in there we've had other meetings in there we had the landscape committee meeting in there and okay great um but um and that's all I had for the director's report unless you have questions I do not oh yeah yeah I do not anyone else if not we can move on to the ad hoc commemoration establishment committee appointment I was not given a deadline on this I did check with the person who contacted me about this um so the you will have one design um to represent the library and board of Library Board of Trustees and Albert actually also has the design uh for the office of equity so um but that's that's Albert's decision your decision is to find somebody it could be from the board it could be the library staff member or it could be a reading resident similar to how the board appointed Phil Rushmore to be on the celebration trust committee um it's up to you and if you I didn't get a deadline I think they're just trying to get out to all the groups all these groups on that list to say hey you got to pick somebody so they don't have an exact date yet but I think it's coming down coming down the bike has anyone expressed interest I advertised it or anything it's up to you all what is this one again this is the Bill Russell committee that's what I thought okay thank you but the ad hoc memor the official this this is the uh you know that's what that is what the intent of it is they're just not using Mr Russell's name and I mean I would just be curious of you know getting a sense from from people as to to who would be interested I mean I I'll tell you I had two people that jumped out when I thought of this but I don't know if any of them would be either would be interested but I know like um Joselyn did quite quite a bit of work right um on this issue already working on the documentary so I don't know if she would be somebody interested um uh and or or others I didn't I didn't you know well I'd be happy to reach out to the staff we have you know staff meetings in a week actually couple weeks I'll tell you from my personal position uh whether it was somebody from staff versus the Board I'm less inclined of just a a resident that's on behalf of the library I don't really have a reason for that I just that's just kind of how I feel um but otherwise I'm I'm kind of quite flexible but I do think that this is um oh a commitment it is a commitment and you just reminded me it can't be someone like Joselyn because it has to be someone who's a weding resident just oh Al committee well that could certainly impact the pool does impact the pool might be interesting to share um this with the friends and the foundation in case there's someone there who might want to be interested great idea might be more or inclined to support that then just you know they I think would would well represent the library do just racking up the presentations to the Friends of the foundation take over their agenda exactly so um and we can put this on a future agenda item in the meantime and but and I it says designate from the reading public library and Board of Trustees appointed by bolt I believe Pat you're probably read the bylaws more recently than I have but I think doesn't need to be a vote I think Cappy as the chair can does the appointments that sound does that sound Vaguely Familiar I I don't I don't know because I think I would need to go back and see because the liais on the bylaws speak to the chair selecting liaison different people but this I think would be much more akin to the um the charter committee oh okay Andrew was officially appointed Charter committee or the celebration trust okay I I would I think a vote would actually be required I'll let I'll let the chair and vice chair research that so that is that it's on us well when you said coming down the pipe do you have any any idea no I think you should be prepareds by I'd say by November maybe okay thank you very much we've had this floating on the agenda a couple talked about it generally but maybe it's time to think about folks I I would maybe have a discussion in October with a final decision by November maybe okay and there's nothing that precludes I'm sorry just there's nothing that precludes a trustee from speaking to individuals as long as you guys aren't talking to each other but if you're talking to the friends or if you're talking to a staff member that's fine and you can all do your own research just just you just don't want to be talking to each other about your choices or suggestions don't know why that light went um okay uh we should put that probably on the future agenda items for October then to review it at least or at least to discuss it um next is the approval of the August 12th 2024 meeting minutes I have reviewed I have no comments myself I have as well I have none I move to accept uh the August uh 12th 2024 minutes as presented we have a second roll call vote Pat favor Monette yes yes and I am in favor as well motion carries 4 z um final item on the agenda our future agenda items um and I think we're going to add put toys for to on there early so it will get it approved before November because we always do it in November after they've already started their pickups that's right so um I'm just very proud of myself only take it eight years um every year I'm like oh nuts that's late um actually if you have anything else do we collect anything else did you do Festival of chees in October we don't do any colle oh um to yeah we should us usually do ask for permission to post yes so we'll put Festival of cheese on there just in case what to create a tree or no just to host them they usually do an advertising they put a tree up in the lobby oh yeah okay with an advertisement but it's it's it's not something that's normal and was it the Lions last year who did the Scarecrow thing is that gonna be yeah that was cool yeah that was great my kids loved it that was great they didn't use any of the kit but they loved it feel like that was already two years ago I know I will I will follow up on that I'll follow up on that but I don't know if they're doing it again this year um yeah I remember them sitting outside yeah Saturday so that's a good question guess it's getting to be that time of year where people are um collecting things and then just a reminder that I'll be doing the the FY 26 level on budget I will present it in November hopefully um because we're supposed to present to the select board um the first two weeks of December so um I think there's a couple fincom meetings in between now and then where they do this state of the budget Sharon goes over the projected revenues and the cash gets certified but I don't think that's still October so hopefully we'll have some Direction by then well sounds good thank you very much um any other points of discussion this evening just a quick question just to make sure I under this keeps freezing sorry uh the end of the agenda or I'm sorry after the minutes but before the Strategic plan there's a onepage of writing Holdings by Aris statistical categories uh breaking down you know formats adult y this is I think what we talked about at the last meeting of just those those were that was Jamie's presentation yeah uh what is um oh never mind okay I withdraw the question it out excellent um if there are no other questions do we have a motion to adjourn I'll move to adjourn second uh Pat fa pette favor yes yes uh sh yes I am affirmative as well so we are officially adjourned as of 8:50 p.m. thank you thank you sir you thank you all very much I'm sorry for being late I appreciate you thank you very much guys e e e e e for