##VIDEO ID:GFfED705KKE## this is a recording of the South Public Library Board of Trustees it is November 12th at 701m we will do a roll call I've got Lyn Blair Amy Andria bugby Michael McMahon okay and Tracy mlar is on Zoom public comments I don't see any members of the public here nobody online so we'll go after the communications all right so I sent everybody this on email so if you don't want it you can just round it back to me um this is the monthly report that I sent um at today's department head meeting with um the town chief administrative officer and all the department heads um a basic rundown of this is we had another really good month in October as you'll see in the statistics we circulated 5,430 items which is up 14.29% from October 23 um and then you'll also see when I do the program statistics but the numbers are there as well um our circulation librarian Tanya Sullivan resigned and um we hired Andrea to take her place Andrea will be starting tomorrow so that will be good she'll be training with some of our existing staff um she has worked with us before in the past around like 2018 2019 so I think it should be a pretty easy onboarding for her um the friends annual basket raffle is accepting donations of baskets the 9th to the 16th tickets will be sold will be 18th to December 11th and the drawing will be held on December 11th at 5:30 um it'll also feature which wanted to kind of have some ideas to try to liven things up for the draff um draff I'm sorry I've been here since before nine o'clock this morning my brain is not not here your brain is draff my my brain isely draff my brain needs bed um so we will be doing the raffle drawing on September 11th at 5:30 that'll also feature a hot chocolate bar um you don't have to be present to win you also don't have to buy raffle tickets to come in and enjoy the hot chocolate bar it's just kind of a nice feature that the friends will be doing um tomorrow I will be dropping off money to the food pantry we collect a dollar uh we have one day uh a month that our staff can opt to dress down and donate a dollar to the food pantry um I'm going to be dropping off our annual donations to the food pantry tomorrow um in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday so hopefully that'll be a little boost in the supplies they can get for the community um we are also doing a Giving Tree each year I check in with the food pantry to see what items they are in need of um we've done hats mittens and scarves this year they said they're in need of um warm socks for all ages so we will be collecting socks new unused socks from November 1st to December mber 16th um good range of programs being offered in November and December uh the public health nurse will be doing a stop the bleed training Nancy zun is going to be doing her card making program again and then we'll be doing a session on homesteading on December 4th and then patrons have asked us to create a monthly knitting group um and we pulled that together I saw that yeah so that'll be the first Tuesday of each month at 10: in the morning and did you you you came to the first one I've been to both I thought and I'm resentful that it is 10:00 a.m. instead of at a time when working people who knit could come just saying we can work on that they were very helpful knits just like hey neighbor can I help you knit that like just it was just lovely can I come and pay them to knit for me S projects but yeah I have 17 projects that I'm in the middle of it would be really awesome if it wasn't at 10 a.m. I thought it was very well attended um Everybody seem to really like it so um maybe if the um the woman who's kind of coordinating well we're coordinating it but um as you know there's kind of a woman who's leading it um if we can find somebody who's willing to kind of take it on in the evening that's always a possibility we just need to have somebody who knows what they're doing because I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to knitting I know what I'm doing you know what you're a Knitter if you'd like to check in with me um sometime and we'll see maybe we can set something up in the evenings this is kind of just it's basically just Dro in um so we can structure it the same way um we have a woman who's kind of teaching people basic knitting skills but also we kind of left it open to like if somebody's a an experienced Knitter they can come in bring their supplies and then just you know work with friends so yeah if you're if you're interested J just touch face with me and we I'm sure we can set something up easy enough um and then the company we were using for our event um they had a little downtime unexpected technology issues for about like it's like a week and a half or two weeks they came back up it was like a week later they sent out an email saying that they're sunsetting the feat teacher not offering it anymore as of like October 31st so um I am in the process of obviously trying to get a refund from them because we had just paid for our annual subscription the month before they decided to drop it unexpectedly um and then we are signing up for another um another another platform similar thing event calendar there was two platforms you were looking at is the one that you're signing up for the one that that you didn't originally go with actually we discovered a new one um that's called we were looking at one called aset and that one was actually more on the expensive side I found another one um called local hop and they are very reasonably priced we did a demo all the staff really liked it um so that's going to be the one that we're going with so I'm hoping for like a December 1st pickoff that we spend the time right now getting all our events on there getting used to it and then December 1st or whatever the first Monday is in December and then um really making it public for patrons um because it's really nice to have a platform to Reg have people register for events because having a handwritten document at the desk is complicated cumbersome um and I like being I liked it it was a little not your fault but I was bummed I was like what why would they do that so user friendly it popular feature and they're just would they I don't know I don't get it what is the new program called local hop thank you yep um and yeah like I said we did a demo the staff really liked it they have a lot of features they seem easy to use so we're going to go with that one um and then we were experiencing issues with our book vendor um there's just they they've gotten better in the past couple weeks but there has been a lot of delays um through all the libraries that use them this one of the big vendors that you've been using yep yep there's been some um really big delays they're getting caught up but um you know we used to be able to have things before they were published so we'd have them ready to go on the day of that's not the case anymore but then we were waiting like weeks up to a month or two for things and people want their new stuff so you know um it has gotten better still getting a few comments that you know where we're not getting the newer things in as quickly but it seems to be resolving it's happened to a lot of other libraries um some are actually experiencing a lot worse than we are so because there seems to be only a couple big companies that deal with and this this is the most popular one and even with the delays they're still the easiest to work with but just so you all aware so anybody says anything you know it's something we're aware of trying to resolve it seems to be getting better but um and then lastly the staff attended the Trunk or Treat we saw some of you there on the 26 um as The Adams Family and that was really fun the the kids recognized especially the children's Librarians they don't Rec I'm in the background they don't recognize me as much but they recognized the children's Librarians um there were three of us there it was a really a really nice time to to do some good Outreach um that was old business I have a question for new business can I ask it now sure okay um so we did the truck Retreat and it was awesome are you gonna do a tree at Town Hall this year yes yeah um Tracy offered to donate the cost of it um so we're going to have one of the indoor spots and um the setup is December 13th which is ironically I'm going to be off that day but I have two other staff members who are going to go over and decorate the tree and make it look nice thank you Tracy thank you I think she's trying to get off mute but she's smiling so no problem okay I have anything else for communication no I did not um so October minute thank you if anybody has any um edits or anything otherwise they could vote to approve than oh you have a spare I can yeah I think there was one that wasn't double-sided I think Tammy may have gotten that one yeah e e motion to vote all in favor Amy says I Andrea I I'm good Michael ey Tracy I on just on the age of Miser um my kids got home a summer camp cold Camp cough it's like kennel cough for children um it hasn't gone away yet I GNA say summer camp as in like August August yeah wow just keeps like it'll like die down and then it'll come back and I don't know what is in you or are you giving it to each other no it's just me so um October numbers as I mentioned previously were very good um circulations are up which is great um 30 new 32 new cards 143 computer uses uh door count numbers were good um and then still an increase on the digital collections the hoopla and the Libby are still doing very well as well W Li is about upper and most 100 for months that's great um and then the program's also doing good October um 11 adult programs 14 teens four childrens five general audience um overall 254 attended the programs and then all of the um passive and ongoing programs in the children's room are going well as well um the play area the Discovery Zone the crafting Center all of them very very popular questions on the numbers do you not provide a um a year before comparison for the programs because they're too they're too dissimilar well I can um it's not that it's dissimilar it's just that this was kind of I only started doing this a couple months ago I mean I could definitely dive back into last year's numbers and just put those for for future reference so you can see how we're doing I I think um I wouldn't task you with that added bit of work but I'm curious um it's nice to be able to see like oh like to have actual document Improvement um and do you have a sense of like what going well can you say oh yeah we started doing this and this is why our circulation is up or do you you know I think with the past since July July August September and now October it's just been doing really well um I think is that just I've really been focusing on the displays our marketing our Communications um really just creating a schedule for myself for having our social media posts out there our emails out there not burying people in emails um but just making sure we have regular Communications um and yeah I think I think it's just a lot of just trying to get our our marketing and our Communications in order which is what I've been doing over the summer and into the fall um I like the list serves because then people you know just get them all you said you're not you get what you're interested in yeah absolutely yeah and like the library where features where you can sign up for I want to receive like the best sellers by email or this or that you know you can kind of pick and choose um and then really just making sure that kind of everything out in our library is organized and attractive looking so that people can come in and have a good experience I think that really helps too um and I think you know the staff work very well to make make sure that it's a really welcoming place so we have a lot of new people coming in and we're really trying to make sure that everybody has a really welcoming experience and then they keep coming back um and people people really love this Library which is great um you know so what dramatic play that is if you go into the children's room right in front of the windows where that big plastic house used to be uh Molly and D have like a rotating um a rotating like theme so they've done like a flower shop they've done like a grocery store where the kids have like a play cash register and they've done a veterinarian's office so they have like a rotating theme for the play I think they do it maybe quarterly or every other month or so they change it up um and it's really nice that they keep track of all the statistics because even though it's not you know circulation statistics they're still we can still say look how many people are coming in per month to use can go or actually touch the stuff absolutely it's nothing that's borrowed but it's something that they can do while they're here that's that's interactive and you know even if they don't check out any books our numbers can show that they're still coming in and using using that play area any other questions speaking of children's do you have a tuni have you heard of those we do we had the the tuny the Tony box the little red square thing yes we have one of those yep okay good that's just good to know because with the kids thank you what's a Tony box I don't have it's like a little it's a little box and then there's little figurines that you can kind of put on the box and they'll like sing songs and tell stories think we have some that's like Paw Patrol and you can get different like Disney Princesses things like that okay I'm thinking through an idea a thought when we look at the adult programs and we say okay there's 11 of them and we had 128 people which is like about 12 people per program that's great do we ever track the demographics of the people that are coming in no um by demographics you mean like if they're like Millennials or like you know what I mean yeah so here's Here's my thought right like I got sad when the knitting program was at 10: because there's no day that I'm ever going to be able to come to a knitting program at the library at 10: even though like so there right and I know like when I'm looking at like okay the teen attendance we had four programs 32 kids children four programs 33 kids General audience five programs 61 people like and I'm thinking about it I'm like I know that there are tons and tons of teens and kids that would be in those doors all the time right and there's tons of parents who came when their kids were taught and then they stopped coming when their kids get to be school AG children and then I'm sure that they come back at some point but my guess is and I don't have any data to prove it but my guess is is that there's these chunks of people that don't have the same kind of interaction with the library that they did when their kids were young or they do once their kids are out of the house and I'm wondering if there's a way to track that and see if it's possible to start targeting some of those demographics that have found it less accessible um by thinking about what times programs are done or thinking about like having uh Children's Program um concurrent with an adult program so the kids can be involved in one thing while parents are involved with other stuff like that um in terms trying to capture data the annual survey that you do in April ask what programs or what things the library does that you like or you don't like or what would you like to add and people for the last 10 or 12 years have always said well if you open on Sunday afternoon or two or 3 o' on Saturdays or if you open Friday nights which again is always the Staffing issue we don't have enough staff to do Sunday afternoon but like right now it is 7:20 on a Tuesday how often do we do programs like at this point in the week right again it's just a question because I'm curious and I know like I would do more things and I know that I have friends that are my age that would do more things if it was time different and there was other things going on for other age groups you you got a was the last month for the the Friends Meeting because we had a speaker talking about ghost were 25 or 30 people in the row yeah I mean I know kind of one of the one of the unasked groups is you know the Millennials exactly you you're I'm an exal actually but okay I mean even people my age you know is is the ones that we really trying to reach so I'm I'm always kind of looking for new ideas for programs and and whatnot one thing that I do I do have to keep in mind and and you know and please don't think that I'm that I'm trying to you know you know say anything about that is um you know my job is the Adult Services librarian slash director so I do all of the you know the day today and all of that and as as well as the adult programming and handling everything in the adult department so I'm I'm kind of in the point right now and I recognize what you're saying is that I'm trying I feel the demand for new programming and new things but I also feel the the time constraints you know and we're also a library not the community center and I'm not trying to say like we need to up the numbers or that there's a problem I'm just curious what the absolutely I think what you're kind of suggesting is we fill in the gaps because there's no boys and girls club there's no YMCA there's no etc etc etc we just don't have that in the community certainly yeah well with the staff there's only so much yeah there there's only there's only so much we can do and I think we're kind of approaching the point of what we have the the time and the Staffing for which is not a bad place to be in because you know we're we're doing really good really good things really good programs um you know in in the perfect world we'd have somebody to just run the adult programs but you know obviously if we're as we're going to discuss for other Staffing there's there's other areas of need first but um yeah so we do try to run I I have actually been getting some and dare I say it I never want to kind of group anybody into what I'm assuming that they're their generation is you know they've um we have been getting some people new people into the craft programs that we're doing um which is which is really good um I try to do like maybe one of those in the morning or afternoon and then one of those in the evening per month um but but yeah that is that is kind of the the major untapped group that I've really noticed I think people are just so busy so I have to make sure that it's something that they're really going to make the time for you know because somebody my age is super busy they're not going to make the time for something unless they're really gonna enjoy it or get something out of it or um because again when you're telling that kind of age group they're working during the day people work during the day well they they could be in their living them room or they could be in an office or factory or wherever it might be so the only time they can come is evenings are on a Saturday yeah exactly and they're not going to come for something that's not exciting to them so we have to make sure that you know find stuff that's that's really engaging um and the crafts I've noticed have gotten some people um it's tough because they fill up so quickly that you know and we only have the you know the resources to offer a certain amount of them but um yeah that is but maybe maybe there's something we can do when I can talk to our children's librarian and see what she thinks of like mommy daughter Ormy dad you know kids over here adults over here working on something maybe that's something they can do together maybe it's something that you know the kids are over there working on their stuff and then mom is still in the same room but also like you know having a little bit of peace and quiet with other adults something like that I can see if something that's something she's potentially interested in we can collaborate on because you're running like two book clubs one during the day and one in the evening yep try to hit different markets hit different markets yep um we try to offer I try to do a couple um evening programs a month but also to being mindful of of my schedule and the constraints on that you know because if we have an evening program like for example today I got here before 9:00 this morning and I've been here you know I'm not going home till after 8:00 tonight um you know because I am expected to be here during the day so I've really been trying to not overwhelm myself with the number of stuff we offer at night because it's it's a challenge you know to try to maintain a schedule and have some you know how did it go at the was it a craft program that you did at three was thing that you started at yeah the craft programs yeah the ones we've offered at 3 pm have been pretty popular yeah so the 10: a.m. 3 p I've been doing like 10: a.m. 3 p p.m. and then some starting at like 6 6 6:30 depending on how much time we need and those always fill up oh yeah we always have a weight list so those are always really good um so and yeah you know we have a cookbook Club in the evening we do our craft and chat in the evening uh we have a a book club in the evening and then I try to do a couple other you know special events per month which um you know I think we've been doing more events now than we have in the past which is really great it's really great for our numbers I think that's what's bringing in a lot of new people which is great to see um but just trying also to kind of be be mindful about you know time constraints and and what we what we do or don't have time for and it it changes you know from from month to month I mean sure this month maybe this month in December I have a little bit more time for things but you know I know in January when we're losing a staff member for her maternity leave you know I'm not going to have as much flexibility because I'm going to be doing that plus what I'm doing so it's it's kind of a game to just try to find the most balanced thing possible while also handling all the unexpected you know dayto days that pop up but yeah no I I appreciate your your feedback and I think that's it's something that's kind of been and I think you're doing a great job you know was that Tracy yeah yeah I said I just doing a great job and you're know really good so and I don't want you to think that what I'm saying is that you're not oh yeah absolutely no I I I 100% hear what you're saying yeah I was part of the um fiveyear plan committee and one of the things um I wanted to say was one of the things we focused on was marketing and really getting out there and that's exactly what you said you've been doing and it's made a difference and I can see all of the marketing it's not like oh marketing did it it's all these little pieces and you have to keep doing it and keep doing it so that is a lot of work and the other thing that ly brought up as we right in the beginning was I need this demographic of people in their like mid 30s to you know maybe 50 where there's still kids at home and you're working during the day and you know all we could think of was give them wine but that's not wine wine and chocolate there a limit on those one day liquor permits yeah but so I I do know that it's been on Lynn's radar for a long time and just to piggy back off of the not only I've been doing phenomenal job with marketing but the just collab oparation not just like you know the trunker tree but all the other community events either you're um working together with different groups in town or um trying to H you know programs I know the historical society was here for something or you know and I know the Adcom and and just I just I like that I like collaboration yeah yeah I think I think our staff do a really good job of that and luckily you know the groups in town are always really Welling to to work with us and and so yeah so maybe that's maybe that's like a winter project let me sit down with Bolly see what she thinks about like children's programs adults programs maybe work some kind of like story together like something yeah something that they could kind of collaborate on you know a project that they could work on together something tangible they could take home and have it be like a special thing um or also have but you know maybe the kids do a version of Something the adults do a version of something and you know yeah see how that turns out the live version western Mass do they still periodically meet just in terms of finding out what works for you or what have you tried and either do it or say no it didn't work at all yeah I mean CW Mar still has regular much as they did during like Co times when everybody was trying to keep a breast of what everybody else was doing but um yeah there's still frequent meetings with usually it's more Statewide um but that's not a bad thing um to see what everybody else is doing and and we also have the email list that we can just blast out a question and say hey who's we this is this is our idea what's what what are your Millennials like what are they actually coming to and then you'll get suggestions and then maybe we can you know twist it to to work with what we're doing here I'm also hoping we're doing um an adult winter reading program in starting at the end of December so I'm hoping that kind of testing the waters with something like that like if it's something that like Millennials can do from home like I have an app I'll just log my hours put my tickets in for a prize maybe it's something that's a little less structured you don't have to be here at this place in time but you're still participating with us and you know something for that um and I've also been kind of focusing on the collection and like I hate it's it has such a negative connotation but like the book talk books you know make sure we have the the classics the best sellers that people want from the New York Times bestseller list but also what is book talk talking about these books that you know Millennials want to read what what's book to it's like Tick Tock but for books so people get on there and talk about the books they're reading and like what's popular and you know it's usually not the kind of stuff like the the classic literature that's G to come up on like you know but it it's more of like fluff stuff but also making sure that we have that balance in the collection that's you know might you uh oh the other thing is you I wonder you know your electronic loans are increasing yes and you don't know the demographics of people who are using those at all do you I think there's there's probably a way to find out because that I mean I wonder wonder if I if I were Jen beldin that's how I would be doing my if I had four kids in a job and coaching and no fi talking is done I'm not coaching anymore but but wait what am I doing though like reading electronically yeah I don't books anymore and also just FYI Audible and hoopla are my best friends because then I can listen to books in the car I'm sure there's a way that if I reached out to either CW Mars and hopla and said like cuz well yeah you have to give you I think you have to you have to have your your CW Mars card is designated you know we have like juvenile young adults adult senior citizen they should probably be able to kind of give me a breakdown if I said give me a picture of October and what it looks like you know if there's a percentage of like you know I mean adult is kind of a wide range it could probably be from like 19 to to 60 65 whatever they determine senior citizen to be um but you could see how many like teens are using them how many children you know so on so summary you're doing a great job there's always more to do but yes absolutely s SLE I job um well while Jen is is looking for a book talk oh sorry I had to redownload because my son played with my phone and deleted all of my apps all of them and then when I went to look at hoopla to see what I was reading I realized I hadn't redownloaded it yet so now I'm distracted I'm sorry that's okay but yeah long story short book talk is like Tik Tok where people go online and talk about books you know and they're usually you know I don't know how well you know that they're usually like Colleen Hoover type books that's you know they're they're they're popular Fiction it's not something that's going to win like the Nobel Prize or you know something not whatever I can't the the equivalent of like literature is no magical Victorian murder mysteries are absolutely where it's at see there there you go something like that that's not you know and it's it's not bad I read them too I go home and I read junk it's fine it's it's fun but um but making sure that you know we're also I think that's kind of helping is recognizing what people are reading what's popular on social media and having that available you know because although it's not Jane Austin it still has a place in collections and people want it so anyway May moving on go done moving on um telephone system up and running it is yes that's on here uh so the telephone system is up and running however we have a couple bumps in the road as there always is um the wireless phones that the staff really wanted they are not working out um they are the ones that we got they're very small picture like old school flip phones you know the keys are very small they're difficult to use they don't interface well with the regular desk phones like transferring calls and it's just not so um I have the rep looking into what we could do to just I think it was nice the idea of the wireless phone so we can talk to people as we go but they're just they're the functionality is not working for what we need I'm sorry so now we know so we're looking to see if we can replace those two wireless phones with just and one of them is actually broken one of them the home button doesn't work so I haven't been able to like I noticed it when we first got them installed and I went to like record a voicemail to it doesn't work so you can't get into any of the features or anything like that so one of them they have to replace because it's broken I also feel like there's something to be sad with not having a phone next to you all the time and it's okay yeah so that's that's the story with that but the ones that actually do work the corded ones work just fine um we like them they're fine it's the wireless ones that are causing the problem and you got the boxes outside and St yes did you have to do it yourself no no no no I almost did it just cut the stuff off maintenance maintenance came and it was it was mostly getting them off of the pallets um that we needed assistance with so maintenance came they are there the doors are not functioning very well and I'm going back and forth with like the company we ordered from in the manufacturer because the doors are like in an angle so they have like almost fallen so the manufacturer is telling me to check the pavement check the sidewalk that they're on make sure that that's level it's got to not be level that's why everything's messed up and I'm like so I'm going to get a level I'm home tonight bring it in tomorrow see if the ground is actually level and then if it's perfectly level I'll take a picture of it and say look but um yeah it's kind of we've been going back and forth about that they're great they look nice but for what both of them the doors you really have to kind of up and in to actually get it to close because they're just like and one of them the pins on the bottom it's not locking because the door's not level so the pin on the top locks but the bottom doesn't so when you check the lock there's still kind of a so that's fun and these were not inexpensive oh no no yeah yeah so that's that's been fun love but they do you know when I did buy them I asked the company we bought them from if they honor the warranty from the manufacturer and they said yes so obviously something is it I don't think the ground at our front entrance is that un level as to cause the the doors to drop that much because you've had the biggiest ones there and and they were that was yeah if it's not level maybe maintenance can get Whatchamacallit one of those things to just make it level um but when you bought these did they have a whole section about how the ground had to be perfectly level in order for it to work I don't think so I think you should look into that and then I think you should go through a list of all of the books that are overdue get really really angry and then call them oh i' i' i' I've been angry because it's um you know our this Saturday our one circulation staff person who was working wasn't able to empty the bookd drops this Saturday because she felt uncomfortable she wasn't she might not have been able to lock them and unfortunately I wasn't around to be able to run by to open unlock empty and then do that so our drops weren't empty on Saturday we emptied them this morning which is fine we backdated everything nobody's getting fines or anything like that um but but something that is supposed to be causing convenience should that make for more stress yeah exactly so we'll tomorrow will be the deciding factor we'll see if the ground is actually level or not there's something to add to the library of things about level oh level yeah and even if it's not unless it specifically says in the paperwork upon buying it that it has to be installed and perfectly Lev ground it's still not your responsibility yeah I would I would I don't believe it said that I was I mean it said a lot about you know Ada and making sure that it's accessible and this and that but I don't believe there was anything but that is a project for tomorrow um um so we talked about the telephone system um the CPC project update I am still I'm still waiting on a quote for taking down the trees um they came to look at it like maybe a month or two ago and I've checked in twice to try to get them to send a quote still waiting on it um also still waiting on a quote from the cement company about the path to see what that cost will be um he said he was going to stop by last last week I didn't hear so I'll have to check in again sometime this week to see if we can get some numbers for that so we know where we stand um my concern as I've been discussing with Michael is obviously you know the longer we wait to order things like the the features the benches the instruments price goes up the price is going to go up um I was hoping to have them ordered soon but obviously still waiting on the costs of everything else just in the future there may be tariffs on reported Stu we there's there's there's things we don't know yes so um I I've but I don't want to order them and then put them in the basement right you know so I mean I think the least we could potentially do is I could look into ordering the materials for the story walk that would probably be okay in the basement I don't want to store metal in the basement over the winter maybe we can get the for the story walk well how's the deif fire thing remember a couple years ago you had a deemi aier but you demp it every week or no every I maintenance hasn't been using it everything seems to be fine down there so yeah that's a not an issue I probably miss it and I'm sorry to ask a question that's been answered that's okay um why are we getting rid of the crab apple trees oh um because we need the space to put in they are too low and we need to be able to put in a path for our the metal instrument features going in out there and um they're in they're in the way they're too low they're way with the public you have to have concrete like sidewalk to get to it and it has to be a certain way certain so that it's someone came in a wheelchair babies right yeah y because I know the kids climbing those trees all the time yes yeah that all that yeah unfortunately yeah they're they're just in the way so and they're not the prettiest things to look at they only look good for like a month out of the year if that um they smell Del like they smell nice and they look pretty for a brief period of time um but overall I think I think it will look nice once we get everything actually in place um so I may try to look into ordering the stuff I don't want to overload our basement with a lot of stuff I may just end up having to wait till the spring I'm going to try to check in with the cement guy and the tree guy this week see where we're at with everything um if if I do have to wait till the spring to order things um is there any issue with that or I mean I think at this point if it is what it is unfortunately um but so that's that they covered the telephone system um budget discussion we we started that last month the only other update I have is um the position that we're asking to change the 18h hour circulation position into a um last time we asked for 29 and a half hours I just said we're just going to go 30 just round it up it makes more sense um so what I did a couple years ago when we first asked for that we had a job description for it I went in I reviewed the job description I added some new things because the needs have changed um that job description is currently with the Union so they're reviewing that they're also going to give back to me on what they think unacceptable rate would be for that position um oh the Union contract did get signed off on in Mid September yep so um and the employees are getting the new rate of pay yeah retroactive to Joy okay yeah yes so um I should hopefully have more information for you about that uh at our next meeting um as far as the new business I covered the event calendar and registration software we're hoping to debut local hop local hop in uh the beginning of December um I will Circle back to the mlta conference um but the circulation librarian position um Andrea will be starting tomorrow night um and she will be doing evenings and Saturday so we're glad to have somebody back for the evenings um and then I already gave you the friends of the library basket raffle dates and then we will Circle back to we can finish the evening with if Andrea I also sent these via email but in case you didn't get them if Andrea you wanted to add anything about um the conference and if you had anything wanted to share with Andrea these are great thank you so yes um Cindy and I went to the conference and Cindy was wonderful she drove and gave me a great background on um being a library trustee um it was a very welcoming group I think we should all be aware that it's $25 a year for membership Cindy and I are now members but for $100 our entire board could be members and we could just all chip in and have a you know chip in $20 or $15 or however the math works out and become uh members anyway um the first Speaker had this great um on the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners site he pointed out a um a link on their website that shows um Library statistics for every Library across the state and you can find out how much of your Town's budget goes into your library well of all of the tax dollars that are collected in the town of Southwick only like 1.61% or 1.73% come to the library now the state average is 1.2% but the town doesn't know the state average and if you look at what however many people come into the library on an annual basis and offer that statistic um it's a lot of people for 1 Point You' say 73% of the library of the Town budget to be covering um so that was helpful information um I thought it was really helpful in talking about what our roles are our roles are to be advocates for the library talk it up and we all need to have this sort of the same story we all need to be saying the same thing we're not speaking for the library because that's up to Lynn and her staff but we are advocates for the library um and we need to talk about amongst ourselves well what are the library strengths what are the things we want to talk about share that story amongst each other and repeat it and repeat it and repeat it um oh d adapt your language to the people that you're speaking to so if you're talking to the schools you know talk oh this is literacy this is um this is exploratory learning if you're talking to the senior center change change your dialogue again if you're talking to the finance committee change your dialogue again um that was very helpful um and just to put this in they they warned us that to watch the town Charter for changes that might move Library governance from a Board of Trustees to the town and they said in particular that might happen when you get a new town chief administrative officer I don't think that's happened we we don't have a CH oh there you go because I looked online I couldn't find I was there to find okay so we're safe um is this too much I think it's helpful okay um the keynote speaker Jason Homer of the w w Public Library um he said you know the whole point of being a library is we're all here to create a positive impact for our communities that's the team we're on um he he challenged us to take a few minutes to get everybody's why like to go around and say B Lynn what makes you you've got a hard job what makes you come to work every day what's the thing that draws you here and um Tammy like what makes you come from your busy life and come here and be a library trustee and Jen my goodness how you know so really talk about why we're here what we believe in and that also goes into our story of what we're advocating for um connect with the community so this guy Jason Hosmer Homer sorry um he started I think it was during covid where people weren't returning their library books because it was covid and everything was a mess and finally they adopted the program of just getting rid of fines which we've done and he said they in so to connect with the community not do a library thing but to just connect with the community they're like hey send us a picture of your cat if you send us a picture of your cat then uh you know your your finds are all forgiven and then they had all of these pictures he was like interviewed by the BBC and he was on like Good Morning America or something just like for doing cute little things that don't really have a purpose except to have fun and make people like the library like you were saying part of your vision that's really important is if you're going to work here you have to be nice and welcoming because we want people to love the library so um I thought that was really um wise um we said ask ourselves do we trust our library director I do just Library director trust us we hope so we we hope you would come to us um and not feel he said it's a Lon place because you're not the staff and you're not a trustee so you need to feel comtable and knowing where you can go to get help and asking for help um and just as an aside to add Lyn also started right before Co so yeah I remember initiation like a month um oh invite Town leaders or local legislators to Big Library events so invite to the uh Coco hour in December like invite um the select people um invite Mr baliga or Paul Mark is really good it's showing up to stuff you know if something's going on just send them an invitation even if they don't come they're like oh souw public Li that's a happening place they got stuff going on all the time and it lets you know it lets them know and they're that so build the relationships before we then go and ask them for more money um and then there was a panel of three experienced Library trustees um and they talked about being clear on the roles of the staff and the director and the friends group so that we're not tripping over each other and causing problems for each other and also um kind of collaborate a little bit like the friends group like maybe I happen to know someone on the friends group I was like hey can I donate something to the basket raffle like it would have been good for the trustees I bet a lot of us here May have made a donation to the basket raffle um so if we can open up those channels of communication a little better that might be good for everyone I don't make a trusted basket yeah Jen it's the the the deadline was the nth no it's it's the nth to the 16th so you have till Saturday that's so much time all right all right I will add too before I forget um our new chief administrative officer Nicole is coming by for a tour and to meet the staff uh Tuesday the 19th at 10 I'll be yeah that's okay I just figured I'd add that to anybody who's interested you do like a nice basket of like local stuff and I think that's cute do you wanna I that just give me a minute okay don't let me get distracted by me um oh they suggested that we divy up so we are very lucky there are bigger problems at bigger libraries across the state um a lot of them were talking about uh fighting to get social workers on staff because of the homeless populations that use the libraries um just some much more serious issues however they did say that we should divvy up the trustees should divvy up looking at the agendas for all of the Town meetings and just be like okay you always check the planning board you always check the select board and just in case there's a library adjacent issue going on so that we are very aware of what's going in town and how it may or may not affect the library um and then when making an Ask have the data to back it up you have all this data you're going to ask for a 30h hour position and you have data to back it up so you can say look at this like we are doing our job look at all of these people we are serving more people we need more staff that's what we've done in the past at some of these finance committee meetings they'll say you know you're there early so you may have heard DPW or some other department before you or after you and say well we have 35,000 people in 40,000 people whatever the numbers that time coming to the library every year and I remember somebody in the fincon one year said how do you know and whoever the library director wasn't attempted because we're tracking it every time somebody go through the door oh right you know kind of blow you really have data yeah yeah and then the um they shared the trustees shared on the Massachusetts library association website um and there's another one I found that I thought was easier to use called centraline Public Library where you can go in and get an idea of like oh this is how to quantify the services like this many books this many audio whatever all of like what this is lending pouring into the community as far as resources and that's another like helpful little marketing tool to be like I sat down I figured out for myself and I save over $1,000 a year from what I bought borrow from the library um and then the trustee of the year I just liked his quote um he happens to have been a percussionist with Tanglewood and he said one person doesn't do this alone it takes an orchestra so I would like to end by saying if Jen and I put together a trustees raffle basket does anyone else want to be part of that or donate to it and Jen and I can maybe talk about it afterwards yeah I did want last couple years for for commission I think that would be I think that would be nice and if you had something on it that says in a nice you know not like an inyour face way but this is from the library trustees then that could be really nice okay thank you I always do one too I could put it from the library trustees too so that will be two mov yeah the only thing we ask is on on the forms no alcohol please you're so funny thank you sorry I just I just put the screws on everyone thank you you did your ask with your data so I did that's right we'll be delivering two uh baskets tomorrow one from us and one from thank you the president of friends of the awam library that's we we we do that every year do you do no you're all right yeah thank you yeah so um I know they're setting up the baskets Saturday so Friday's ideal but if you get it to us first thing on Saturday I'm sure that's no issue thank you what's your first thing on Saturday we open at 10 so does first thing equal till 1 or does it equal till 10:30 I would say till like 10 311 because they're going to be here setting up the baskets because I think technically they're still collecting on Saturday so you should be fine just don't show up at like 1255 we grabbed a list where some person get filled out what's in the basket Pat has a program at home she's got all set up doing this for years she then inputs it prints it out it's all printed out what's in that basket because people want to know like absolutely am I going to put my tickets in this basket or that basket or that basket and if it comes in late we always have a few stragglers it's not it's not a big deal yeah there's usually a few on Monday or Tuesday let's rethink how we're presenting it to our audience they're not stragglers they're not late they're just making an entrance ending with a bang you're we in your boot the boots look fabulous what can I say Sor this is very nice nice summary list dress it sounded like an inspiring day it was inspiring and we got lunch it was in um right outside of Worcester was it wasn't it Shrewsberry yes shuberry Shrewsberry I didn't say because I always compute yeah and was lunch good yeah was yeah did they have a lot of people there were maybe I would say maybe a hundred people that's really good a good Journal a lot of groups from libraries um but yeah so it seemed like a good group I haven't heard anything from them since then but even just the conference I thought was very helpful that also gives you a chance to see some of the staff from the mblc because they they're usually at that conference yeah absolutely wonderful this has been a lively inspiring meeting all right um so our next meeting is um December 10th at 7M every time I hear already you're oh I think somebody's looking for you D but yeah so our next our next meeting is December 10th at 7M and if we want to adjourn to adjourn by Tammy all those in favor I I I all right so thank you everybody we will see you uh next month have a Happy Thanksgiving bye