##VIDEO ID:F8lfgr2dT7M## try you said you could hear us let us know if you have any difficulties um this is it sounds good sounds good okay perfect um this is a recoring of the South Library Board of Trustees it is December 10th at 7 o'clock pm and we will do a roll call so Lyn Blair Tammy sa Bon Andrea bugby Michael McMahon Tracy mesar all right okay we'll move into Communications since there's no members of the public unless they're on zo nobody on Zoom but Tracy all right Communications I'm sending around our um monthly report that we gave at the department head meeting Tracy I sent everything on email so just let me know if you need anything um so in let's see in November uh we circulated four 930 physical items that was up 17.4% from November 23 which is fantastic um our program numbers in November we had six adult programs 51 attending 14 programs 26 attending five children's with 38 attending and one General audience with five attending which is pretty good um our new events calendars up and running staff for getting used to the features it's embedded on our website if you haven't taken a look at it yet um I know Tammy's used it so it seems you know any feedbacks appreciated but it seems to be going pretty good um we let the public know about it people have been using it I'm no complaints or feedback yet so I assume we're off to a good start um December will be a busy month for programs the children's Department they're doing the gingerbread house making um this Saturday the musical instrument petting zoo unfortunately the presenter did not show so and there were a lot of families here so they rescheduled for January which was nice um it sounded like the presenter had an emergency oh and couldn't make it and so we rescheduled I believe it's January 13th um so hopefully everybody who registered before will come back um the adult department is doing two craft programs we did a session on homesteading I think we had seven or eight people there Andrea was one of them I think it was pretty well attended um you know it was kind of a yucky night out but the discussion was good people seemed interested and um I'm gonna kind of share what we got with Bert from the ad commission um and then kind of start bouncing ideas around and what we can do for program Services um a local dance group will be doing a holiday program on I think it's the 17th that was sponsored by the cultural Council um and then we're also working as we were discussing at the last meeting you know what populations we could reach out to um for more programs potentially Millennials intergenerational programs we've been working on that uh the morning knitting group seems to still be going strong and we have started one uh the evening one will be starting mid January and then each department is running its own winter reading program um participants can get raffle entries for prizes based on the time or the number of books that they read so we will have one for adult teens and children um and the friends of the library basket raffle tickets are on sale till tomorrow we are doing the raffle at 5:30 with the hot chocolate bar everybody's welcome and then our holiday closings close December 24th and 25th and we'll be closing at 5:00 pm on December 31st and it doesn't say it on here but will'll also be closed January 1 that was that um also in the communications um we were awarded our first rounded state aid in the amount of apologies I can't read in a straight line um the certification date was December 5th and the award was 14,680 31 so that is very very good and we're excited about that um mostly what we use state aid for is Furniture Replacements and um programs so that'll that'll go very far see um I talked about I was talking about programs um we have anything trying to remember it's been it's been a trying to remember what I have on the future agenda um based on what we were talking about last month um kind of looking at programs for Millennials um we're still working on intergenerational but um I'm getting some programs together for um January through April still doing a couple craft programs a month those tend to be extremely popular um we're doing a program on edible landscaping in January um because she said it's never too early to start thinking about spring so that's when people start planning so we're doing that um in February we are just going to try to do a board game night see if some kind of old school board game night works the daytime ones Tammy's been a staple but you know other than that we really haven't gotten attendance so we're gonna try to do it at night do something fun family friendly um we are doing a painting program in February this when I put a query out to other libraries asking what they do for programs for Millennials um and younger adults uh somebody recommended this one that sounds really fun that's like a spin on kind of like a Tik Tok social Med media Trend where you sign up with your partner spouse friend each sit on a different side of a table and you basically paint the other person um and it's kind of expected that it's gonna come out not so great because art version of nailed dead yeah exactly so it's um they're gonna paint the person that they come with and then at the very end everybody's going to kind of switch and see how the other person portrayed them so that was kind of somebody suggested that and I thought that sounded like a really fun kind of lowkey thing so we're going to try that see how it goes um I haven't thought for that I mean I don't know if people even do this much anymore but for the intergenerational maybe like scrapbooking or something like family photos because you're thinking like parents and kids right we're maybe something with like family photos and we could do something nice with that yeah I don't know if people still do I like traffic but cool um that was February also in February um the friends are hosting it's Saturday February 15th it's right after Valentine's Day it's h National read to your child day so the friends are going to have books to give away um anybody with a kid we're g to have books for all ages board books chapter books um people can come in get a free book meet some of the friends learn about the friends in the library and just kind of see the library the last time they did it a couple years ago was very well attended um so hopefully it should be again this year in March um we're doing somebody's coming in to do a concert um kind of like a Beatles music something like that um they're also doing another session of stop the bleed with our public health health nurse because that was very popular um we are having a program with the western Mass Food Bank they'll also be coming in April and then um some of you know Lee Hamburg who works with the Historical Society he's going to come in and do I asked him to do a class on like discovering the history of your home so how you can research you know the house your house when it was built who Liv there anything notable like that um and then yeah in April I'm hoping to kind of work with um the Agriculture Commission I kind of presented the idea to them up like maybe doing some type of plant swap because somebody also suggested that Millennials love plant swaps so that might bring in some new people so we're going to try to do that in April maybe May if it doesn't come together but I'm going to try to go to the um January Agriculture Commission meeting to talk to them about it present kind of what what we're thinking of for the event and see if they help and that's the rest of the stuff that's just kind of what's officially on the calendar yet um the other stuff is kind of up in the air at the moment but we're getting there um and that's it for that so I have the um November meeting yeah start a file just let me know if you see any uh Corrections or anything needs changing e e Corruptions or additions or subtractions to the meeting minutes want's take a vote on accepting the M minutes for November all those in favor Tammy say I Andrea yes M yes Tracy yes I mean I I don't know why it came out yay yay is also applicable it sounded more offici so excited or May right I guess I think I tried to say yes and I at the same time the program numbers so statistics are going around um obviously if see thought from the other report um circulation numbers were very good big increased there uh reference numbers increased as well same thing with new cards computer usage um and the um the online library still seem to be pretty popular as well so all in all very good there um and then I did in the programs one I did a snapshot of November 24 and November 23 um I'm happy just to kind of give you guys an idea what what it looked like because I know Andrea asked about it last month um I'm happy to continue doing that with the with the program numbers it's a little bit trickier though you can't it's harder to kind of compare it you know November 23 to November 24 because you know there could be different things that can throw off the numbers we could be a different kind of Well a different yeah we could have had agan paranormal and F40 people or we could have had a couple smaller ones with less people so it's kind of difficult to compare them month to month um and some months you know we tend to if if by chance a lot of it kind of the bigger programs depend on when the presenters come so maybe they they couldn't we couldn't get something for that month and we did smaller stuff on ourselves but you know I'm happy to continue doing it if that's what you guys like to see but I just want to just make sure you know with the little disclaimer that you know we comparing month to month you know there's a lot of factors that can that can come into that so you know I don't want you to think that you know oh something really went down that month maybe it was something like we had 20 people show up for the musical instrument petting zoo and then the presenter didn't show up or something like that so you know I think if it's not a relevant use of your time I appreciate your you're hearing my suggestion and doing it but I don't think you need to if you don't think it's worthwhile then don't absolutely any questions about any other I think we're we're having a fantastic year so far so we're very thrilled to see the the circulation numbers staying so strong again just looking at the door count you're getting 25 2600 fet in a month it's good why do you think it is that more people are using riby versus hoopla I think there's just more stuff on Libby um there there's more stuff it's kind of there's more stuff but there may be longer wait times but Libby tends to have more of like the newer popular books as compared to hoopla um the nice thing about hoopla is it's on demand so if you see something you don't have to join hold list for it you can get it right away but I think um Libby just has slightly better collection more materials um po plus sometimes kind of Trends more towards like the I want to say like the pop culture type things but um yeah Libby covers a lot more ground with their collections I mean that's a lot getting about a thousand people a month yeah taking stuff out on on movie online yeah it's I think it's it's been really good um you know I'm I'm very happy with those numbers I might have missed this because I'm mildly distracted and I apologize but why is there's such a huge gap between the gifts from last year and this year oh um because last year we got our state aid in the first round so that's yeah so like that number so it'll be yeah hopefully um yeah add that to the donation the the deposits for the next round y y well the doar amount is higher than it was last year yes by like almost $2,000 yeah we did we did pretty good yeah yeah the state a generally tends to be trending upwards each year yeah so it's yeah I keep thinking eight or 10 years ago like $110,000 a year now we're talking over 20 w couple of years theyve been very good by the legislature they've had a lot of cash and they've been giving us up yep and that that helps pay for things like you know almost one state aid payment um the book drops were 11,000 something so you know one stated award paid for those send the actor Shel oh those beautiful shelves I love those shelves they make me so happy they're such a great display thing and when people walk in first thing and see them they love them just because of the GI they had to be moved out of the way y so so after tomorrow I'll be Thursday morning I'll be dragging everything back out and setting all our L displays again if anybody doesn't have any questions um I can move on to the old business which is just basic a quick update um for those of you who haven't met Andrea out of the circulation desk she's our new uh evening circulation librarian she's been here about a month now and seems to be doing very well um and then I know I mentioned it before the friends of Library basket raffle dates ending tomorrow the raffle will be at 5:30 um so if anybody's out and about and they want to come by we're doing a hot chocolate bar I think Nancy said she got like peppermint and chocolate spoons for the hot chocolate so should be pretty good so hopefully one of the big things with the baskets this year they got a number of gift cards from businesses because it used to be there might be one gift card I think this year is like eight or nine or something local restaurants and yeah no it's it's a great variety this year yeah and great job Jen and Andrew with putting the trustee baskets together thank you you know a last minute thing you guys mentioned it the last aming oh never thought of that no but it's good I I think there's a lot of tickets in it so a great way for the trustees to kind of get out there and it looks great so now we can move on to new business y um so I'm I am plotting along with the CPC project um I did get finally get a quote for the tree work um to take down two trees as we discussed last time to kind of make some space for project uh the quote they came back to me with was 2,800 um I was talking with maintenance orig originally and they thought there was money left over from a previous Capital project where they took s trees on this side of the building apparently it's not we can't use that um so what I'm also waiting on is I've been trying to get um the guy who would be doing the concrete here um I've been trying since October to have him come here and just give us a price of what we're looking at because I think we'll probably have to go back to the CPC and say know project needs have changed this is what we're looking at as far as a price um we could potentially use some state aid funds for the tree work I don't know what you would prefer um and I have I have no idea how much the cement work would be I don't I don't even have anything to compare it to to kind of give you a ball or what that would like until You' got the cement number the tree number and all you you know you look at the total package you say well we got X number of dollars from CPC and now it's X plus 3,000 or 5,000 or whatever the number puts out to be yeah yeah so um I'm hoping I'm gonna I'm gonna try to reach out to the cement guy one more time and just he can just come and look at it you know he said a couple times that he's going to come and look at it and he just hasn't been able to get here well we just he could come before the snow yes that that too you get a chance to see um what you're talking about so then that way I can kind of get a final number um because if we're going to the CPC for more funds obviously you know we're going to need to put it into motion before the Maytown meeting so everything is kind of waiting on that so do you have you have to use this a certain like a town recommended cement person no I don't I don't think so um the the one that I was the one that I was working with was just recommended to me by somebody um but you know the the guy who recommended them is kind of helping me with the project because a lot of the stuff I'm kind of lost on and I don't know what I'm doing so I wanted to go with the guy he recommended um to just get a quote and start seeing what we're looking at as far as pricing goes but I just I haven't been able to to get him here to get a number and and see what we're even looking at you know is it I don't think it's going to be an astronomical number but again I have no idea what the market rate is for this type of thing right now so it could surprise me or not I mean but that's at least the plan right now I'm going to try to get him here before the end of the month um I know things will get tricky with the holidays and then I'm I'm hoping by the January meeting I can come to you guys with a number and say you know this is what we're looking at what do we want to do do we want to go to the CPC and ask to like revise our final number for the project yeah again the cost of the stuff that you're buying Also may fluctuate absolutely you know versus what it was six months ago versus yeah what it might be next month actually it's probably the quotes I have from them were before the town meeting so the quotes I have are probably from like January February of last year so it's almost been a year since so you've gotten the original quotes from all the the structures outside and then if there any 10 or 20% tariffs go up absolutely what's the grant deadline for the CPC oh we have a we have a couple years it's a it's a couple years Grant but you know we were awarded it at the town meeting in May of last year it was voted on so it's we're coming up to a year now so so it it's just if you need another two or three, C you have to have CPC vote on it and then it go to the town meeting in May so that that's why you got this lag time yeah and I imagine CPC needs to know that we need extra money yes within bias oh yeah absolutely because it has to get on the the Articles and everything for the town meetings so yeah one of the things about CPC is that people coming with a thought they say okay in effect put a dollar number attached to that don't say well it's two to 5,000 they have to have an absolute number to work yes so that's what we're looking at um I will I'll do my best to try to get um somebody here to try to look at the cement by the end of the month after that I'll just start looking into other options um and then hopefully we could even if we get folks from a couple different places to see what things look like and then my my goal is to you know get things get the numbers for that stuff the trees and the cement finalized by mid January and that way we know whether we need to do go to the CPC for more um but yeah and then so we were discussing at the last meeting um I can't remember who was asking about the uh digital Collections and who's using what and how do we know um um so oh yeah somebody wanted to know about demographic yeah 20 year olds or 60 year olds that are using X yes so what I did the hoopla one is a little bit easier to read so I gave everybody a copy of that um the liby one I'll just describe to you because I had to run multiple reports to get the numbers but this is um going around his HLA um and I printed it let's see what did I do I think I did um I think I did the month of October for this one I notice it doesn't have the dates on here but it says last full month so I'm thinking it's October um so it looks like to kind of give you an idea for usage it looks like there was um you can tell what was checked out for adult fiction music um it looks like it's mostly adult materials that are being used um the adult fiction audiobooks mainly um in non-fiction audio books as and the ebooks as well so for hoopla um looks like it's mostly adults that are using that and then I think Libby is trying to remind myself of how I ran these reports um the liby ones also um yeah so this was this was the uh oh this was the total so out of the circulations um the young adult materials 49 checkouts um juvenile materials 67 um and adult materials 786 it really skews um the adults are main then again teens can check out adult books kids can check out adult books you can't really tell um but that's just looking at that then that's kind of what it tells me is that it's it's mainly the adult materials that are being taken out I would assume mainly by adults so I think I probably had that question and I do want to clarify I'm full of questions that doesn't mean doesn't mean a homework assignment but it's but it's helpful I think it's helpful for people to know because I think you know it kind of tied into a lot of the other discussions we were having that night and and and to me it's really comforting to see that so many adults are using it and when when we have a conversation about not hitting Millennials well Millennials are really busy they're in a really busy time of life and maybe they are using the library and just not coming in maybe yeah so this kind of paints a picture that that could be quite true absolutely although I love the drawing idea too to kind of Lear them I should know kind of a nice like date night or yeah you know come with your friends and draw really bad pictures yeah so yeah no I mean I I don't mind these these questions because I think it makes me stop and think about you know I really haven't thought about who's using our digital collections but now we know um you know so now we know maybe it's time to try to Market it maybe the teens could use it more you know it sends Us in certain directions which is which is good I don't I don't mind the homework assignments because honestly I'm so busy sometimes on the dayto day that I don't stop to to think about something like this and be like okay let's actually look at the numbers and and see where we're at maybe there's something we can do differently so I don't I don't mind I like research that's true I you know that about you um yeah so any other questions about any of the ebook numbers anything like that this was for last full month so was that for November yeah so I printed it on mine I wrote that I printed it on November 13th so it would have been octob numers I don't know I mean it would yeah if kids used it more but I think if even more adults knew like it is just as easy to borrow a book from or an audio book from as it is to have an audible a lot cheaper to it is yes it is I think people don't realize that and and I think I I think I've heard this statistic before but I I don't quote me on it because it may not be 100% correct but I think I recall hearing that the CW Mars digital libraries the Libby is one of the most used digital collections in the country I'd have to I'd have to look that up again but I I think I recall hearing that somewhere that was kind of an issue 10 or 15 years ago when libraries were trying to convince the state to spend money on libraries at that time it wasn't as much digital it was do you realize your patrons are borrowing X number of books at 25 or $35 a book whatever your town has saved say $660,000 of books they didn't have to buy because they're borrowing from the system type thing you know whatever the numbers were at the time but it was that kind of concept and this is now with AUD and digital and all the rest of it absolutely yeah and I know there's still there's still always a lot of issues I it was going through legislation um about how expensive the ebooks are for libraries to buy they are astronomically expensive you know you could buy a book yourself from like Amazon or something and it's a digital book and it's not that expensive but the price they charge libraries is miles above that and so very very expensive um but and that's why there's such long wait times is just it's impossible to purchase large numbers of popular books because they're just so expensive and you don't get them forever there's a if you buy as an individual you got it forever a library only has it let's say for 18 months or two years or whatever and then you're going to go back out buy it again or a certain number of checkouts you know they limit it in certain ways depending on the publisher so yeah that's that's the only complaint I really get is the long wait times for things but you know to think until the prices of things change it's unfortunately it is what it is but the good news is it's big collection so there's always stuff that's available um yeah so the event calendar software that I briefly talked about before is up and running um see seems to be going good no complaints staff seem to be getting a hang of it um registration seem to be going good we did however get this lovely letter um Plymouth rocket is the one that was kind of the parent company for event keeper um and so when they decided to Sunset that feature with basically no notice back in October I think it was like a couple weeks notice two weeks or something like that um I kind of immediately went into let's work with them to try to see because we had just renewed it it was like $725 we just renewed it had it for like a month before they decided to cancel I think everybody is contacting about about refunds because they sent out this very nice letter nice big bold red letters um that no refunds will be available nobody's getting their money back um the company going under something yeah they're closing completely so they're saying you know there there nobody's getting any money back or anything like that um so I did report this to um the Town Administrator and the accountant because even though it's not from the town appropriated funds we used our state aid funds for it um still thought they should know um Nicole the Town Administrator had me reach out to other librar see what they're doing um everybody else is kind of in the same boat going really um she reached out to somebody um an GOI she's not I can't she's a representative I can't remember her off the top of my head um and then another Library said that they were reaching out to the office of the Inspector General I reported that to Nicole she said go ahead call them you know see it could be an inappropriate use of public funds um and I called them and basically they said we could just write a letter to them you know saying that but we ain't going to do anything exactly and I was like well the only contact we have is the uh president of Plymouth rocket who I'm sure is not checking his emails and Plymouth Rocket's lawyer that they got on board and it also says do not contact the lawyer for refunds so basically um it looks like a couple other libraries are doing the same thing so we just decided to kind of see where if the kind of if The Feelers we put out right now go anywhere check back in in the new year see if anything has come of anything that we've put out there asked about um it's just for 700 something dollars when you talk to lawyers they they like yes that my my kind of thinking is that honestly if we were to go and I don't know lawyer up to try to get our money back it wouldn't even be wor it for unless unless the state of General said what about the you're breaking law XYZ and we'll take it they would all the library now I know but my question is make a little extra something because if nobody's gonna worry about that $745 then it's gonna add up really quick I was gonna say it's 745 for you but how many other libraries use it right yeah a lot um yeah so it's it's it's 725 but but it depends on the side I think they charged on the SES of the library so the larger libraries are probably losing out on a lot more so I mean that's stuff yeah it's it's it's a really it's a really bad business practice um so you don't recommend it as my retirement plan I would I would not would not sounds a lot like fraud to me yeah so I think um kind of how left it that um we put we put the word out there we talked to a few people other libraries are kind of doing the same and we'll touch base in the new year to see if anything has come of the people we talk to because the chances are the law firm the town uses for most things that's probably two hours of their time it's a very very interesting worded letter yeah would it be worth this is I'm wondering I'm not asking you to do would it be worth does the Massachusetts library system have their own attorney and have all of the libraries that you know that use event keeper contact the Massachusetts library system and say hey this happened to us like I think they're aware of it I don't think they have somebody that's for you know that we could kind of tap into for that usage I'm sure they have their own for their own purposes but I think they have something that we could kind of tap into yeah I think you're basically talking the nblc the state agency has the staff that kind of stuff yeah yeah yeah but I think they Farm out most of that stuff would probably go to the State Attorney General's office which is the the litigator for the state rather than individual agencies and when did our next our last thing get paid uh we we renewed our subscription uh onor around September 11th so we had it for about like a little over a month before they decided to to just for the benefit because Tracy I know you're on Zoom I'm just gonna read the part in red excuse me is please note that Plymouth rocket de deeply regrets that it lacks the funds to Grant refunds to its customers with rocket servers will only be available until December 31 of the Year you'll be able to download your data from those servers until that date no downloads will be possible after that date all data on the servers will be destroyed and unavailable for download after December 31st 2024 and then gives their Lage information and connection with their termination of operations contact info says please feel free to have your Council call him directly if you have any legal questions about the shutdown do not call about a refund unfortunately none will be forthcoming and then so there is is there any data that you want no I mean we had unfortunately you know we' put up a lot of we um Molly had been prepping a lot of the calendars in advance for like um her leave you know but it's it's basically we were just copying and pasting the events into the new calendar yeah there there's really nothing that on there you're not losing anything no no we're not losing anything except $725 money so since we used State you said it was from the state aid yeah I don't know I feel like there's something's got to be done to I mean some like they're not even going to be available yeah ex after the end of the year but I feel like it needs to be reported yeah and that's that's when I talked to the um the office I think it's the office of the Inspector General um I spoke to one of their employees about the attorney I think um I think somebody somebody was reaching out to the attorney CH another library was doing that um so what you might want to do is talk to Tracy offline because she has a legal background oh I didn't know that sorry that's you oh there you go Tammy yeah so that's that's what that is I mean if you have any any additional thoughts or anything you know check in with me next time you're here and and yeah I think I think unfortunately a lot of the times when you when you try to you know if you use you know a lawyer to try to go and get your money back you're going to spend more paying for that lawyer than your actual refund is going to be worth and that doesn't make anything that they're doing here right I think that's just kind of the un fortunate circumstance of things well looks like you might get something in the mail that says did you buy this product join our large case and you might get $532 back it's it's bad business because Unfortunately they event keeper was a staple for a lot of libraries for a number of years so it's it's very surprising but and also completely out of the blue well probably not to them when they took your money the month beforehand what did they do with it and when I want to know they're saying we lack the funds well where did it go maybe to retaining their lawyer for I mean if it was if it's something that you paid in January I'd be like well a little more lenient but not when you paid that close to exactly so that's that and you know I just wanted to kind of update you guys and what was happen happening with that um very unfortunate so um just to kind of a brief report on I did mention a few things before but I also really um dug deep into researching um programs for Millennials um and people we potentially were not reaching um so I mentioned the plant swap um the painting night people also really suggested kind kind of um they suggested crafts everybody loves crafts um cooking demos cosplay which we actually have somebody coming this summer to do cosplay which is really good what's that um that is like and this is probably a horrible way to describe it but it's the best way I can think of um it's basically people they kind of you know people who do like comiccons where they dress up as like and there's probably a much better way to describe it but um there DND players take up some phone swords in play for real but not really for because they're pH serious um but yeah any any type of like you know video game characters anime I wonder if you could connect oh know you're thinking a little bit older I was thinking like high school AG can see what after school clubs they have and see if there's yeah some kind of event yeah I can see if John can um reach out to school then maybe there's something we can collaborate on yeah so we have a lady coming to do a cosplay session that I booked for adults but then I said John Let's rope it and make it adults and teens um and they're going to be making stuff which apparently another Library hosted her said she was fantastic so we're having her here the summer for a summer program so we're already doing that um trivia nights um and then other people suggested things ignore Paul checking the door um like book clubs and other clubs off site so I was kind I was like well that would be cool but it's harder in a small town where we don't have like cafes or anything open later you know what I mean to Something in the evening time but maybe there's I yeah I think that the library that suggested that was from a lot of libraries do stuff offsite as well I don't know about evening because I know they're not open but I know kongan coffee is very open yeah they do stuff yeah I was just thinking um you know things for Millennials like if they're working during the day if we did like an off-site thing something in the evening but it's hard to find you know we don't really have any cafes other than Duncan and I don't think Duncan would appreciate a large group of people coming into chat about po at 7 o'clock at night but if you're trying to talk to Millennials they don't want to drink coffee they want to drink beer so you go to Westfield Brewing Company and you have like books and Brews yeah there's something like that too again it's also kind of the timing and just making sure that we have the staff that can do that um and I don't know if there's any you know if if we were to do something like that I'd want to check and make sure that there's like no legal repercussions if you know something came to your books and bruise and had too many Brews you don't want to be a sponsor exctly but but it could be like you know like a a restaurant or something like that and but again it's you know the timing and do we have you know do I have the time to go do this outside of you know what's going on here um do we want to make sure that you know we don't want to make sure that we're like sponsoring people to drink something like that um but yeah so that's that's kind of what we're thinking of we're start I'm just start off with a few things like I talked about see how far those go and just keep asking people and and seeing if there's if there's any other fun ideas all right I have a couple um policies to briefly review um this is the library card registration application so two things on this um I was having a discussion with one of our circulation Librarians on um she's been here and we have a policy that says that you have to be 5 years old in order to sign up for a library card and I said well why do we have that you know is other places I've worked anybody at any age can sign up um so I did pull other libraries because I was curious and I said you know who has age restrictions who doesn't um the ones that responded um seven said they have no age restrictions five said that they restricted to ages five plus one say one said ages two and up um and then one just said kind of vaguely they have to be old enough to have a school ID which I would assume would skew older like middle schoolish probably um but going through the responses at first I was like wow it would be really nice to have anybody any age can sign up for a fard that sounds nice however somebody brought up a really good point and they said um you know signing up for a card is kind of like a really nice Milestone and when they're five then they remember it and it becomes a special thing I remember mine yeah exactly so at first I was kind of like I wanted to come here tonight and be like let's just have anybody of any age sign up and then somebody's like what about this and I was like you know it's kind of nice that they remember getting their first card and um you know it's a nice little mini event they can get their card they can sign it themselves they can actually remember it happening so you could even like that's something to partner with a school with right like talk to the kindergarten teachers and be like can we have like a first Library part celebration yes yeah we we have had kindergarten visits in the past and they just they haven't come to be in the past I say ever since covid we used to have like a morning where the kindergarten classes would come over and we had like a magician and Miss Marty yeah so they come over they sign up for well I don't know if they had them sign up for because they didn't have parents with them but maybe we gave them a form or something but we had like a presenter and a little event and they did a walk around to the library and met everybody and it just it hasn't come together since then and we're hoping and we're trying so um I would I would just I would recommend leaving our policy as is and doing five up I think that I think that is a good point is that it's a nice Milestone that kids don't remember getting a card if they're two months old you know but they're going to remember if they're five years old and it's it's a nice thing I remember bringing my kids yeah yeah I know exactly who gave me m so that that I was that I I I put the discussion out there but I changed my mind um the other thing about the library card registration application is to make things easier for our circulation staff I would love to just um add something on the registration form because um we have if people have a card they can have a spouse family member whoever be authorized to pick up their holds for them um and I think it just makes sense to ask from the beginning to get that person's name because what happens now is you know if you know Jen sent sent your husband in to pick something up for you and he's not off authorized on your card that was hard Choice how about my daughter yeah yeah your daughter whoever wants to put you on there and um and then what we have to do is we'd have to be like oh let me give her a call right now to make sure that it's okay that Jen can take the stuff and it it gets complicated but it it all is that information on the I think that's what she wants to add the website I mean the database or whatever or would you have to you know is that data when you're keying the stuff in is that information already in on the system oh when we're like creating a card right no yeah there's there's just a blank box that we just type in like oh so and so is approved to pick up for so and so so I I just mean so you're not complicating oh yeah no no actually I think it would actually make things easier so then we don't have to go the route of you know Jen's here to pick up for Juliana but Jen isn't approved on Juliana's card so we have to call Juliana and say can she do this and so that way it kind of eases a lot of that you know so I think um I would suggest just adding that to the library card registration that way when they're signing up right off the bat we can just ition that we had it yeah I second all in favor I I wonderful I all right then what um the two other policies on here we I don't even think we're going to skip the part that says children what ages they can get a card I just put that on there just in case so we can skip the welcome policy because if anybody had any strong feelings about you know changing the age but it seems like we don't I have a strong feeling about keeping the that's that's perfect so then um um the last policy to talk about we have I noticed when I was going through we have two different things for um this is the public service policies yeah um that says signs can be if if people drop off a form for us to post in the lobby this one says will be displayed for up to 30 days we have another one that says um notices will be removed by Library staff following the date of the event for three months um so we have two different things that says how long we will put up posters for so I would just recommend I think 30 days is more than enough um we tend to get a lot of them and that's fine I I agree with that just because I think it's you know you have a lot out there for you guys to be looking at that every day oh yes oh did this event happen and just yeah whether it be the beginning of each month month or whatever the what you say 30 days whatever the 30 days falls on yes so I will just edit the policy on handouts and Public Notices that they will be removed by Library staff following the date of the event for 30 days just to make it easier because three months is quite a long time to have something posted up there so does if everybody approves that make a motion yes please okay Tammy makes a motion to have it be the day after the event or up to up to 30 days yeah about 30 days about 30 days for yeah officially 30 days after the J second yes I I I yay I all right let the record show that everyone approved it and then lastly um just quick budget things as we're approaching That season um I'm just I'm working on the budget right now um we do have the the union got their contracts so we can kind of Base um base their their we actually have numbers to work with this year for the salaries line um I calculated our Municipal appropriation requirement and that is good um every year we approach that closer and closer though so we just have to kind of keep an eye on it um one thing to note this year is that um my contract is up in June so I just don't know what my salary will be so it's just kind of difficult to determine that basically it's it's just boiling down to a disclaimer um for Andrea who's kind of new to the budget and if you want any more information I'm kind of happy to sit down with you and explain it to you because it can get really convoluted um 19% of our Municipal appropriation require our Municipal appropriation which is the budget we get from the town has to be spent on information materials which is anything that's available for checkout books movies library of things Museum passes anything like that um but what's difficult is that that 19% is taken out of the whole budget and we don't know what that whole budget is until you know we know about the salaries um I know we also want to make sure this year that that Heather is continue to be looped into the um the administrative salaries and whatever they're are getting um so I'm going to do my best with the numbers um and and just know that um we do have to make sure that we meet the municipal appropriation requirement which takes into account the last three fiscal years um divided by three times 1.025 and that is the number that our budget has to meet um it's basically our budget with a slight percent increase we have to meet that every year year in order to meet our Municipal appropriation requirement um and every year as our budget is not going up by much we are steadily approaching that Municipal appropriation requirement and I've been keeping eye on it um hasn't been an issue yet yet but as we get closer and closer the numbers could probably get kind of squirrly well since we still have the same town account for the last few years she at least understands she does I don't know if you'd recommend to um I can reach out to Nicole and see if she wants to kind of sit down and I could explain to her how it works with you if she decides that way she knows that she's you know that of why we ask for what we ask for in the budget um and then when it comes down to the specific lines um honestly you know the I'll I'll talk to maintenance about their line um all of the other ones the all the other utilities seem to be really well um supplies seem to be well we could always ask for more in programming because we do usually our programming line item is spent by like it's it's basically already spent by now and we're not having halfway through the year yet but that's just because we have that's why you have you had the friends group who had to kick in to yeah so um and and I think you know they they gave us 5,500 last year so it it is it is pretty good it takes us through half of the year and then we supplement the rest through state aid and the friend so the line for phone is enough and the line to fuel is enough the 8400 or what already yeah the telephone line I'm working on with accounting because they still need to close out the purchase order for our old phones and then work with our new phones but oh did you get the um the portable phones straighted out no not yet we're still waiting on them to replace those so yeah this been a month of like nothing moving forward are the book drops working properly now not yet we're just waiting on Mains to come in to fix them to the ground um but I did ask them earlier this week to try to come and do that before the snow hits before we get a really big snowstorm and the book drops or you know um I dropped off a a book after hours with my husband and I was telling him oh those are the new book drops and there was a rest problem and he said well that's because you saw the front and when you salt the front that's corroding the bottom yeah so I saw how long I I saw that the book the new book drop sat there for a long time and and maintenance has a lot of work to do so I saw that they sat sat there a long time and I know that maybe they can't run out and do this but if they have to solidly affix it maybe they could put it on some kind of a stand to keep it away from the salt and that investment will last longer that was was a lot of money yeah they they are not cheap yeah maybe I can mention that to them when they because I think he said he was GNA try to come this week or next week and because apparently you got a new boss y over building grounds I I don't know who the person is but somebody yeah he's working yeah he's he's been one of the maintenance people and he got promoted to the head of the department so he's very responsive so I'm sure he could come up with something yeah so we're we're still waiting for them to fix it to the ground but hopefully I want them to do that before the snow comes and it becomes a problem so I'm just curious maybe for next meeting or whatever just um just curious for my own s do you have like a wish list for like the library of things all I don't at the moment I'm sure we could come up with something something I curious yeah I'm sure I'm sure we could come up with something um right now Andrea is being fantastic and is reorganizing her area out there so once she finishes that then I'm going to see what we have room for um I was thinking about because some of things like the cornhole in the big sets take up a lot of space and I was like what if we rotate them seasonally but then somebody could be doing an inside that event and they want it during the winter or something like and then we have to run around and find everything so yeah we're we're organizing it right now and um if you ask me again in like a month or two I should have idea but yeah that's that's kind of where we're at for the budget um I'm hoping to get the stuff from accounting early January so we can have something for our January meeting speaking of which that's the last thing on my agenda and I did hear that um January 14th is what would be our next meeting is going to be a town meeting so we would need to find another date um but I also heard that the 14th is the town meeting but also the 21st is the um snow date for the town meeting so I'm not sure what we would want to do for the next meeting I think January 7th would be a little bit too soon for me did at the 21st you would now I mean I don't know how Advance you have to give notice of the what we could do is um yeah obviously I would know on the 14th you know if they're meeting on the 14th so we could plan on the 21st sounds like the best or otherwise we don't have one because then if you go any further you're closer to the February one right yeah yeah and usually I think the 21st would be a good one because I usually get the stuff from accounting beginning of Jan anuary sobody else be speaking forone we're moving the 14th to the 21st yeah t tentatively um as long as the the town meeting on the 14th isn't rescheduled for the snow dat on the 2 first then and then if if that happens then we will figure it out because the 28th is the cookbook club and we cannot take the room from the club I don't think I'll be a the 21st but I'll let you know sure I think I'm on vacation I think I start that day but I might leave on Wednesday I'll let you know though what day what day are we doing knitting in January you can leave Paul if you if you guys are done Y what was that what day are we doing knitting in J in January um I want to say it's the 21st I think we made it the thir third Tuesday at 6 um yeah I check the calendar to be to be 100% but I believe it's the 21st and then it's 6: to8 so it's dropping so if like somebody comes at seven that's fine very casual so I can go back and forth oh yeah yeah absolutely yeah so let's um let's say 10 L the 21st and then um and then we'll we'll go we'll go from there if I would know by the fth obviously I'd know by the 14th of January if the town meeting isn't happening on that day so that sounds like an awful lot of work and a lot of good news and problems tackled so good job yeah I feel like we haven't had much traction on the outside project the book drops and everything thing and the phon I one more question yes because I know it's been a few years I think maybe three time just going by so fast but do you need like another evaluation from us um before your contract expires at all or you know I don't I don't know what the plan is for that because I know um Nicole was talking about doing some type of evaluations for department heads and I wasn't sure where the boards fall into that and who we see with total no Administration yeah God know I mean I would I would love than an informal one yeah I mean I would if that's something I give you two thumbs up yeah I mean I I would love an evaluation even if I don't know if that's something the board can do Michael um is that something you'd have to reach out to name no it's something we can do the my only hesitation with any of the stuff is if you do it it's a public document okay and I don't know if you want a public document on your performance yeah you know well I mean if you could ask Nicole like if she's doing that if we I mean I don't want to have you be like hey can I have an I mean I I know at the last department head meeting Nicole mentioned that they're putting something together to do like a a review for department heads so maybe you could reach out and see you know how the boards interact with that as well I mean because obviously you guys know us best you know so that would be that would be helpful and because I'm just going to go on record of saying this I would think that the town Administration would want to hear from us about you yeah yeah so with renewing a contract for anybody not just you abely yeah and I know I it would be helpful to have um feedback because and in of next year's budget I assume they would like to nail down your salary for the next two or three years in advance of that yeah which means before no before May yeah yes like last time we met with Carl and he handed you a piece of paper what do you think of these numbers oh okay because we had no idea what they were going to ask or if they were going to have numbers on a piece of paper if they're going to turn so what do you think you know because every employer is different right yeah abely yeah so if you if you ask I mean sure that would be helpful to just see you know because you you you all know what we do you know more so than the town I mean you guys are always here and always up to date on everything so well we would assume that the assistant director would get the two or 3% the department heads are getting that our assumption or yeah I mean is there a way to kind of clarify or just kind of remind them because I think what happened a couple years ago was it just got lost in the mix it just disappeared for three or four years there was no increase yeah so we just want to make sure that you know you know even if that's something that you talk about when we go to the um the budget meetings in March and just making sure that you know that she is included in that and general we have to kind of do that ahead of time because they generally want a number when you send the budget over to them yeah yeah so how how do you want to do that do you want to come up with a number or um you know or calculate yeah we could calculate calculate what would be like what you think would be a good percent yeah we could do that okay and then I could um I could include that in the budget packet that put together for January because I think that's what we did last time saying well if you look at the cost of living it would be this area and if you look over here would be the area yeah yeah so I can I can do that for the um yeah what would you think would be a good what what is the standard percentage now is between two and 3% forther it that's the way that the town's been dealing with it for years and if you look at the cost of living if you look on CNBC or whatever you're talking 2.6 2.8% you know the current rate yeah it varies from month to month but the idea of 1% or half percent or something that won't cover the cost of the increase in a in a stamp which goes up three or four yeah so should we say like I think two 2.5 three perc yeah there it'll be I I can pull some numbers together it's easy enough to justify that sure perfect yeah when you pull something together just um send to me and drop it off and that way yeah sometime in the next couple weeks would be good because I'll start trying to finalize numbers the beginning of January have everything ready and are you g to try to increase the circulation person or yes y sorry I'm going to go no no go for it um yeah so we're we're going to try to ask to make um one of the 18 hour positions 30 hours um and then I'll kind of do um do the numbers out for that so we can kind of see just what the I think last time the increase was only like 10 or 12 thousand right so it wasn't it wasn't that much for the amount of help that it would give us right um but yeah that's that is going to try to happen as well the job description I did change a few things the union okayed it um so that's that but yeah if you get those numbers to me that would be helpful so we know where to go there thank you so we will plan on a uh tentative January 21st meeting as long as the town meeting doesn't get rescheduled because of snow okay perfect all right everybody do I hear a motion to adjourn the meeting motion to adjourn he me seconds all motion favor