Minutes of Board of Trustees Meeting of November 15, 2012
A meeting of the Board of Trustees was held this date at 4:01pm at the Library with Trustees Buckley, Little, Merry, Salerno and Schild present and Trustee Yale present and presiding. Ms. Tracy was present. Mayor Driscoll was absent.
John Doherty and Rose Grant of Eastern Wealth Management gave a presentation on the Eastern investments. They discussed the difficult financial times of recent years and gave their thoughts on the economic outlook for the future. The Trustees invited Mr. Doherty to attend the June 20, 2013 Trustee meeting.
Approval of draft minutes of September 20, 2012
UNANIMOUS
Current Library Use and Financial reports were distributed. These included the
FY 2011 Financial Statements and tax filings prepared by R. Peter Avila. Ms. Tracy and the Trustees thanked Trustee Salerno for his diligence towards the Trustees’ financial matters.
Ms. Tracy reported that she had met with the Human Resource Director and the Mayor regarding the vacation policy as a follow-up to the last Trustee meeting. Ms. Tracy passed out a revised vacation policy from Human Resources. No vote was taken as the policy was under review by the Mayor. However the Trustees were pleased with the revised policy and instructed Ms. Tracy to contact the Mayor and express their hope to confirm the policy at the next Trustee meeting.
Trustee Merry told the Board he met with Vinnie Furfaro and Frank Kulik of the Greater Salem Employees Federal Credit Union. They discussed the Credit Union’s request for the Trustees to send a letter asking that Salem Public Library cardholders be allowed to join the Credit Union. After some discussion it was agreed this was not something the Board wanted to do at this time. Trustee Merry said he would inform Mr. Furfaro and Mr. Kulik of the results of the discussion.
A Holiday Gift for the staff was discussed. Trustee Merry spoke of how important he felt this was to the morale of the staff. He stated it lets staff know how valued they are by the Trustees. Ms. Tracy expressed how much the staff has appreciated the gifts in past years. Trustee Yale made a motion to give all staff members a monetary gift at the same level as last year. This was seconded by Trustee Salerno and it passed UNANIMOUSLY.
Funding for replacement of windowsills and trim moldings for the building was discussed. Trustee Merry reported he had spoken to Stan Smith regarding a possible grant and he would drop off the information including the timeframe to Ms. Tracy. It was brought up that the CPA (Community Preservation Act) passed in Salem. This raised the possibility of CPA funds for the Library windowsills and trim. At the September Trustee meeting the Mayor confirmed this work would fall under the historic preservation scope of the CPA.
Ms. Tracy informed the Board of the deterioration of the wooden picket fence along the southern boundary. Before painting his side of the fence a neighbor spoke to Kevin Foucher about repair of the fence by the Library. Ms. Tracy and Kevin walked the length of the fence and feel the overall condition at this point warrants replacement rather than patchwork repair. The issue of the fence will be taken up in the spring.
Ms. Tracy informed the Trustees the Library would be adding Baby Changing tables to the two bathrooms in the Children’s Room. The walls in each room need to be shored up to handle the necessary weight. Roger A. Tremblay Contractors will do the work on the walls and the installation of the changing tables.
Ms. Tracy informed the Board of a Salem History Room project. Using funds from the John Bertram Fund established and expanded by Trustee Little many Salem Collection books will be repaired by Wells Bindery. Jane Walsh, Head of Reference, has selected the most damaged books to be resewn and rebound. Those that cannot be rebound due to condition will have custom-made clamshell boxes to prevent further damage. These books are heavily used by researchers and the staff is very excited about the project. The Trustees thanked Trustee Little for her continued interest and support.
Ms. Tracy read a thank you note from Betty Shea, widow of former Trustee Raymond Shea. The note thanked the Trustees for the beautiful flowers and said that the Library had meant a lot to Trustee Shea.
Ms. Tracy informed the Trustees the elevator is waiting to be inspected and all forms and application fees have been submitted. However there is a one to two month backlog for state inspections.
Ms. Tracy passed out information from the Massachusetts Trustees Association and a new Trustee E-mail List from the Board of Library Commissioners.
Trustee Schild read a Facebook post from a friend that was highly complimentary of the Library and the staff.
Meeting adjourned at 5:35 pm.
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