##VIDEO ID:1e7OIE64MaA## this is a recording of the South bake Public Library Board of Trustees it is October 8th at 7M can you hear me Cindy and Tracy yes I can thank you I think hopefully TR I'm not Tracy Cindy the um hopefully it sounds better this time the computer person did an update on the owl so hopefully the the sound is a little better on your end yeah so far so good okay great okay we are recording we not muted we are good okay so we don't have any public comments um communication oh yes yep I'm sorry my mind isn't here tonight H so we will go around and introduce ourselves so I've got Lyn Blair we'll do in person first Andrea bunker Cindy Warner and Tracy's trying to get off mute but we have Tracy mesir as well okay so we have the September and I sent um I sent everything by email so hopefully you guys can have it um so this is the monthly report for the department head meeting I've just begun giving it to you guys as well this is what we also hand out at the um the monthly head meeting oh was that Tracy again know um so basic quick summary we finished July and August with over 6,000 circulations each month which is fantastic I look back for as long as we've been in CW Mars we've never gone over 6,000 a month um and I don't have the data for from like before 2013 2014 so but I I can't foresee that we've gone over 6,000 in the past as well so that's a new record for us so that's really good um and then September we finished with about 5400 which is really good for a month you know the back to school month so we are very happy with that uh I finished submitted the action plan that you guys saw last month I submitted it to the board of Library Commissioners um they approved it on September 16th so that is all set uh the CPC project for outdoor space is off to a good start I have that on here I'll discuss that later um we've been sending staff to open houses with schools just to kind of interact with families and spread the board about what we do um we have a good lineup of programs planned for the fall we have craft programs um a woman is going to be T leading a talk on homesteading in December which is something different we're excited about um we've got winter reading programs for adults and children um we tend to do less events during the winter just because it's the weather is unpredictable people tend not to not want to come out so this is something that people can interact with from home um the board of health nurse is doing a food safety class and she's also doing a stop the bleed class which is almost full so we decided to do another one I think we decided on either March or April in 2025 um the teen librarian hosted it was actually today a financial literacy class um with Westfield Bank for teens I asked Tanya I think she said that she saw four or five which four or five teens for financial literacy is pretty good so we'll take it um and then the friends at the library annual meeting is October 16 16 at 5:30 and they're following that with a presentation Dennis Bard um he is doing a presentation on New England Legends and ghost stories um and they'll be starting their annual basket raffle sometime pretty soon um galleries back up and running we finally started working on a good lineup of people so we have somebody up there now I think we're booked through the end of the year um maybe into 2025 so that's doing really well um Paul is our reference librarian he is working with Lisa who's the new Council on Aging director in order to promote some of our services like book delivery Memory Care kits um and they've got some other things in the works and she's been very responsive to all of his ideas and excited to see where that goes I mean sometimes people have questions or yeah we still oh yeah we we go around the room and everybody does their their little Spiel so they they hear what we've got going on um and then let's see uh new additions for the director's report um our new bookshelf arrived if you saw it's right by the public computers it's fantastic um I think it adds a real nice look out there compared to the the little wooden tables that we've had J this looks like something from Nordstrom rather than it's it's really nice um we decided to get another one just because it looks so nice people are really responding to the displays um so it it's been great um and then October 26th is the Trunk or Treat um the library will be handing out candy at the Trunk or Treat we are going as The Adams Family so we last year was Ghostbusters this year was Adam's family we will never win the competition because the fire department always has like really cool stuff but we try we have a lot of fun yep Wally Park um it's like 4:30 to 6:30 um so yeah there's myself and two other staff will be there to hand out candy in costume that's great yes probably Wednesday I think morti Mor Tish has been claimed um so I think I'm gonna be Wednesday which I'm okay with that um and then that is it for my director's report or for the communications um and then minutes if anybody sees any corrections typos anything like that just started in July always position when says I know what to pay do you have any no I didn't see any changes it looked good to me okay then what Michael [Music] Andrea Cindy I Tracy I so I have September statistic for [Music] everybody okay um so September was still a really good month um like I said we had over 6,000 July and August September still really good we never do this good for you know the month where everybody's getting back to school and trying to learn all their new schedules so that was pretty fantastic um you know still really good on reference questions uh 37 new patrons which is really good um good computer use so overall a pretty busy month yeah just watching at ho liing it's up from a year ago yes cation yeah Hoopa especially has really been getting some good usage lately which is which is good because I I feel like I haven't marketed it as much as I should have so people are still finding it and using it which is fantastic and then we give you as well our programs for September so um overall pretty good attendance for programs um children's room is is always busy with the activities that they do oh yeah no and I mean I think we we still had you know we did quite a lot for September um you know we had a a bunch of good programs so I'm pretty happy with it I the team MERS yes yeah the especially John gets a lot of people for the hangs and basically all we do is just buy cookies and drinks and they play Playstation I was going to say Xbox we have PlayStation so yeah yeah yep yeah there I think one there was one of them recently that he had like 15 kids which is really good move on to old um yeah so CPC project is still in the works um I haven't heard back from the tree company about the cost for taking down the trees I followed up with them earlier this week um they'd be taking down two of the crab apple trees in the front to uh make room for the project that we're doing um hoping to hear back this week or I can check back in next week if we haven't heard anything yet um so that's still going and then I also um I sent the specifications of the items were're putting in out there tables the metal structures um to a guy who works for a cement company and he's going to kind of paint it out give us a price for what it would look like in the space so that's kind of where we're at now with everything um the capital project for the telephone system they're supposed to be installing the system next Wednesday which would be the 16th um they have to postpone it but that's looking like it's going to be the date that it's going to be installed um they're going to be training us on it on the 17th and then tomorrow they're coming in because they need to install a firewall um so that was an additional expense that wasn't included in the capital request but it's only $100 so we're just going to cover it out of the state aid funds um because if they recommend it then we we do need it so um they're coming to do that tomorrow and then hopefully by the end of next week it will all be done and unless they have to postpone and then we'll have new phones so we're getting for stationary phones um and then two cordless phones so that the staff can kind of answer and then walk around the building so we don't have to put people on hold will you have an interruption in service yes if if we do it'll be brief um it sounds like the installation will they've got all the wiring done they really have to do is just plug things in so if and of course you know we'll we'll post and advertise I can't imagine that it would be longer than maybe an hour or two I'm not a professional with these things but I think everything's in place they just need to hook them up so y oh um yes book drops the book drop that's okay that's okay um they were supposed to be delivered or they were supposed to start shipping on the 19th which is why we wanted to make sure we got rid of the old ones before the new ones arrived and then um they were delayed I called the company I was because I was concerned that it you know was GNA be delayed because of the strike and everything like that but um but they said but they said no they said no but they're still delayed um they were supposed to ship this week and I'm just waiting she said she's going to have an update for me pretty much any day so hopefully soon but so we we definitely got rid of them sooner than we needed to however with my luck you know if I didn't ask maintenance to get rid of them they would have shown up like the next day and then it would have been a bigger mess so it seems to be fine right now patrons are very patrons are actually more concerned that we get vandalized than actually missing the book drops you know so people are pretty good with you know coming in with their item nobody's been upset about it and what happened to the uh maintenance took them and I'm assuming to the transfer station wherever they would take larger items that they're disposing of they were really in in very poor shape so there was there was not much salvaging there I was in Springfield I was like oh these are worse than ours oh yeah yeah once once once they really started to move them you could tell that they were in very bad shape some of the rust was especially on the ones to the right of the door was really bad um so hopefully we'll have shiny new ones maybe next week um I'm hopeful at this point it's kind of out of our hands you know they're already gone so we will just hope for the best um as I said before our Action Plan update approved by the mblc uh September 16th I've gone ahead and posted it on our website at the last department head meeting I also gave our new chief administrative officer a copy of our strategic plan um our latest action plan um and just so she had a copy of everything if she wanted some light reading and then under new business um I have these are the front is the policy the back is the um form when we put in the uh study spaces in the back corner I'm sure you guys know um we were having everybody fill out you know the form just in case I think we were afraid of you know something getting damaged or whatnot people have been very good we found that you know having people fill this out every time is a lot more cumbersome than it needs to be so what I would propose for this policy is that you know we'll still have we'll still keep the policy for the use of the study meeting spaces but then just I can remove where it asks us to fill out have patrons fill out the form if if the approves of that you know I'm just I'm suggesting this because I feel like this you know having people fill out the form is much too complicated you know I can just change the policy to say you know we'll remove the form no form is necessary but if they want to reserve a time just call us in advance type thing well you see the dayto day in terms of what works in the ter yeah and I and I would say my opinion is that the form is is just I'm ending up with bunches in bunches of these people you know people are frequent users of it they have to fill it out all the time it's become kind of an annoyance um so I would and I would say you know people have been very respectful of it I think we think we were kind of afraid of you know something being damaged nothing's been damaged people are respectful I would just recommend that we um that we get rid of the form we'll keep the policy and then just ask people you know if they want to reserve just call us in in West Springfield when you use a room they hold your card do you do that here we do not um I would be afraid of us you know forget if the patron doesn't ask for it back we may be we may forget to give it back to them um so and I'm I'm kind of against kind of holding any any property you know what I mean because I it's a liary oh yeah yep yep um yeah so I mean that's that's my proposal at least just to make things a lot more streamlined at the desk and if you didn't have them fill out the form the policy would still stand and be posted someplace oh yeah absolutely I mean you know there's the policy will will stand as it is you know anybody who wants to use it you know call us in advance if they want to reserve it no more than five people you know we can't accept reservations more than one month in advance type of thing but it would just take out the need for having them to stop and and fill out the form every time because I mean if if something were to happen you know I think we have cameras you know staff usually knows who comes and goes so I make a motion to improve this and is this second the motion is to approve removing the need for um patrons to sign a document before using the reserve stud yes yes yes we would just edit the edit the policy to remove the need for for the document ask M Andrea yes Tracy yes Cindy yes okay and then um Heather finished the financial report so Andrea we um we I know I may have said this before we do two reports every year that goes to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners um the one we do first usually do me find the eror it was like September yeah um is just basically all of our statistics programs building counts how many people come and go anything like that um and then the financial report is where they basically ask us questions about our budget make sure we meet our Municipal appropriation requirement and all the requirements by the state um so Heather finished that report um and that's yep yep but we finished that um we finished that Michael signed it um so that was submitted to the state so then we will just wait to hear back for our state aid Awards um the other thing I was going to ask was um the Civic fund does the winter trees which I think is a really nice thing you know if the library were to have a tree my only question is is how would we go about paying for it because um you know every the other departments have nice trees where they Decor they decorate you know we could do like Library style decorations I think in the past it's been about like a100 that hundred yeah usually it's like a $100 um but if we were to try to do it we'd have to with the accounting department we'd have to get them to send us an invoice to try to get a check to then send to the Civic fund I'll donate the money I'll donate it and set it up for you guys oh thank you Tracy yeah I can let you know um I can once I hear about it I'll let you know how much it is I think it's about like a hundred we already have the tree in the basement um we have two trees so we have a tree already um it's just the entry costs but I think it's really nice to kind of you know get the library outs I think like police and fire do one too so you want to outside be one of the applicants tree I think inside's probably better for the decorations we would do yeah okay yeah thank you Tracy yeah I'll follow up with you as soon as I get word that they're um they're looking for applications and then we'll we'll do an inside one because I think we we did it years and years ago and we may still have some decoration but they are definitely not weatherproof um and then oh I went I went right by the policy the well the winter closing policy it I put it on here to review because um I sent it to the new chief administrative officer just running by our procedures on how we close for winter weather um to see if there was any change on how she wanted us to do things and I didn't hear back so I'll just table this until I hear again again if we need to edit it in any way but I just put it on there just in case she got back to me and we needed to edit it and then the last thing we have on here is um to just start thinking ahead about our um budget proposal for January so in January we will get a packet from the accounting department where we have to submit everything for the budget we're going to request for the next fiscal year um and just to kind of start the discussion so that I can keep it in mind as we're working towards that because I like to try to get as many ducks in a row as possible before we get the form um do we want there there's two Avenues I'm I'm thinking the past two or three years I believe we've tried to request to take one of our four part-time circulation staff um who work 18 hours a week give them more hours and last time we called it just the borrower Services librarian so that they would kind of oversee the general circulation area so all of the kind of front side stuff at the circulation desk um so that's what we've asked for the past couple years hasn't been successful um the other option would be trying to create to have like some type of on call Pool of Staff you know that we could call fall in however with that it's it's always feast or famine we're either fully staffed or we're very under staffed and you know it could go months of being perfectly fine and fully staffed and then all of a sudden short staff so there's no it's not going to be anything that's predictable or you kind of thinking of you quasy hire somebody and say you will work you call yeah that would I think that will work well yeah see that's my concern is that you know we never know you know so if somebody they can't rely on it you know because it could be oh some hours here and then for months we don't need anybody so it's yeah yes yeah and I so but I wanted to present both kind of things what I was thinking of um I mean we could always try again and ask for the borrower Services librarian to just see if we can I mean what is what is the board's thoughts on this I don't want I don't want to keep you know we keep throwing it out there and you know it doesn't get anywhere I mean we can keep trying I suggest can of try that because when I walk with the library at it's 4:30 or 5 o' S the library director running no me somebody's yeah have you gotten feedback as to why a circulation librarian with more hours is not accepted why you don't get that basically the way the town operates is both the select board and the finance committee is you can't add more staff or ours if your DPW oh you want another guy drag the bulldozzer down the transfer station okay oh fire department you want to go from two full timers to six okay oh police you want to go from eight police officers to 16 okay so could you ask does it work to ask an 18-hour employee hey we're short staff this this either next week or tomorrow can that 18 hour employee work extra hours oh yeah as long as um yeah they can do it you know sporadically they can't yeah they can't do it for you know they they if there's like a sick call or somebody's on vacation and we need somebody or we need somebody unexpectedly yeah they can certainly work over the hours the town account state law says somebody works 19 I think it's 19 or 20 hours from more complete and we've got to provide benefits you people had somebody working more than 18 hours two weeks in the last three months is there a TR going up you said like no or just so so my other my other question is what else is needed to present to the select board that this is something that's necessary how have we tried it for the past two years that it's been turned down does the whole entire board need to show up for a meeting in force to talk to the select board and and try to push this through because you're right if the DPW is getting everything that they possibly need and every other town office is getting everything that they need why are they ignoring the needs of the library out of one year this is five or six years ago almost Saturday morning meetings with fin count and SB I can't remember who's the town clerk or S office some Department said we need this because we get X number of people coming in per month and oh okay so I can see why you need a few more hours we need another part time or whatever so then we said we're the only Department in in town government gets over 3,000 people a month from they you get 3,000 people see the number would say 37,000 for the year so that's oh wow knew had a couple of time people would then ask well how do you know what we've got a coner on the front door so we coun number of people coming to the door oh you got that technology I mean that was available in the radio sh 50 years ago I I don't know I think maybe the library trustee Board needs to get cranky yeah it it's a it never hurts the same as if you look at the cultural Council they get three or four of their members to show up at their budget hearing the the um Senior Center gets eight or 10 senior citizens sitting in the back R and S oh Mr Jones Mr okay so so we will support you Lynn you let us know when you need us to be there and we will support you and I have no problem being cranky and pushing the select board a little bit of the fact that okay we're here for the third year asking for this it's not a huge ad ask it's necessary our library is beloved in this town you need to do something about it yeah I mean and we can we can compile the numbers you know to show that you know our circulations are strong door counts are strong um program numbers are very strong and I think and I think when we ran the numbers last year to make we ran it to be an 18h hour position to I think we made it 29 and a half the the increase was about10 to 12,000 much yeah yeah so which you know that 10 to 12,000 you know is is another person out there to who who would would have a little bit more Authority than what they do now to kind of handle some of you know the day-to-day problems that come up make sure you always have basically two people out one of them may be stocking on the shelves if it's a quiet period otherwise just people do ask questions you know yeah how do I get this kind of audio book or how do I get or sign I mean there's a lot more to it than interfacing with patrons you got to process all these books you got to get a men you got to order them you got isin numbers and things with broken spines and I mean there's a lot of work yeah abely and you us volunteers for new well personally I'm Rebel Rouser go ahead what I said I'm excited to be a Rebel Rouser let's do it okay we're GNA storm the castle all right well I'll keep I'll keep you guys being nice I'll keep you guys in the loop um when we get the budget materials and we'll usually be voting on it at our at our meeting in January if they don't get it to us in time for our January meeting we usually schedule like all right and then yeah meeting but an extra an extra meeting mid to late put on the yeah put it on the agenda before you know the meeting with the select board and we kind of plan our attack sure okay all right great then that's that's at least the direction we'll take okay perfect that was um that was all I had for this meeting anyone anything else and the next meeting actually when is is the next meeting going to run into there's one there's one meeting that usually runs into something election election yeah but but we'll be okay on the 12th I don't think there's anything there's there's one time of year where we run into something I think that might be in the spring time yeah spring yeah yeah so our our meeting would our next meeting would be November 12 okay who who is going on the 19th to the mlta conference I am that was Andrea oh Sor y okay because I've signed up for it as well so so that is Cindy I'm happy to car pull or I'm happy yeah yeah I mean I I don't mind driving if you um I'm sure Lynn can give you all my contact information and okay okay yeah yeah I would love that I'm a newbie and I just said oh should probably go to this so this this will be this will be my first foray in doing it as well so we can fumble through it together super yeah I'll I'll send each of you an email tomorrow so that you guys can coordinate perfect perfect thank you I appreciate the webinar that you sent book fans and it was very interesting y yeah I mean hope a good support system out there yes absolutely and I think we have a very good policy that we put into place year or two ago maybe it's been a year but yep much more problem yeah but fin stabilized fin you know I haven't I haven't heard anything it's I I don't it's very weird I don't hear anything from Connecticut across the St across the border you know like I'll hear things from across the state but like every we each have like our separate email lists there should be like one that you know a couple weeks ago wentc website under jobs all of a sudden it reappeared revised as of let's say August going we reopened we're still looking for director assistant they had some problems past year with the local politicians for in toall yeah no I have not heard heard any updates from them right um if nobody has anything else then we will meet um November 12th at 7M do I hear a motion make a motion tojn the meeting seconded Andre I Cindy Warner I Tracy mesar I all right have a good night everybody good night