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Home My Public Portal AboutJanuary 11, 2017 minutes with links Trustees of the Watertown Free Public Library January 11, 2017 Present: Sheppard Ferguson, Leanne Hammonds, Penelope Peoples, Raya Stern, Carol Tierney, Timothy Tracy, Trustees; Leone Cole, Director; Caitlin Browne, Assistant Director Mr. Tracy brought the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. The meeting was not recorded for WCA-TV. A round of introductions took place. Public Forum: No one signed up to speak. Secretary’s Report: Ms. Stern moved to accept the November 15, 2016 minutes, as amended; Ms. Peoples seconded. All voted in favor. Financial Report: Ms. Cole requested a transfer of $10,000 from Part Time to Overtime. This should last us through the end of the fiscal year. Ms. Stern moved to approve the transfer; Ms. Peoples seconded. All voted in favor. HATCH financials: Ms. Peoples asked if the Makerspace fund listed on the Funds and Grants sheet is also included in the HATCH Financial Report? Yes, it appears there in the Special Gifts column. Ms. Tierney noted a $4,000 discrepancy between the balances in the two reports. Ms. Cole will ask the Library Clerk about this and report back. Ms. Tierney moved to accept the Financial Report; Mr. Ferguson seconded. All voted in favor. Director’s Report Capital items update: The painting project will begin next week. The Town Council has unanimously approved $260,000 for carpet replacement. After the contract is signed, the vendor will need six weeks lead time before the work begins, probably sometime in March. The library will be completely closed for two days while the main hallway and stairs are re-carpeted. Work in other parts of the library (Children’s, Teen Rooms, etc.) will be scheduled from 6:00 am to 2:30 pm, and each affected area will be closed during those hours and reopened from 2:30 till closing. The entire project should take about four weeks. Ruth Griffin fund: no update yet. We’re still not sure how to reflect it in the FY18 budget sheets. New Business Computer Use Policy: no changes recommended at this time. Request for use of images in a book: A local author has requested permission to use photos held by the library for a book called Watertown Square through Time. The book will be published in the Arcadia series, Images of America. We’ve never had a request for multiple images or where the author stands to profit from the project. Providing the photos would cost us nothing as they have already been digitized. The library has produced its own book on historic Watertown in the same Arcadia series. Trustees raised various questions and issues and decided to invite the author to our next meeting for further discussion before approving the request. 2 FY 2018 budget submission: The library proposes a level service budget totaling $2,792,029 for the next fiscal year. Ms. Cole explained a few discrepancies between the current budget and next year’s proposal: • Book Processing was increased to $62,000 in FY17 by a one-time allocation of $25,000 for restoration of historic maps and photos. • The FY 2018 allocation for Longevity is lower because of recent retirements. Contractual raises have increased Full Time and Part Time budget lines. • Approximately $6,000 added to Computer Maintenance is for the new RFID security system. Requests for additional funding: • $70,116 for a full-time HATCH coordinator. Ms. Cole handed out a draft description of the job, which is a unionized librarian position. The coordinator would do program development, recruiting and management of volunteers, equipment maintenance, and direct customer service. The amount requested includes $19,500 required to cover benefits for new staff positions. • $36,500 for Project Literacy support. Would eliminate uncertainty of grant funding and reduce wait time for service by adding one more class and one more tutor training session as well as more hours for the PL volunteer coordinator who also works in Circulation. PL currently receives about $11,000 annually from its Friends group and $70,000 from the Town. The extra funding would free up the Friends and PL director to focus on community fundraising instead of grant writing. • $10,000 for library materials. To provide popular materials in multiple formats and to widen and deepen the collection. We requested $35,000 last year and only got $25,000 for materials; this request is for the difference. • $9,565 for noise mitigation. Would add glass doors to the café and to the Periodicals Room on the second floor. We requested this last year but didn’t get it. Mr. Tracy mentioned the idea of joining the Rotary club (as a non-profit) in order to raise awareness of and funds for the library—“getting our face out there.” Ms. Cole said that John Airasian had offered to invite her to a meeting as a guest, but that hasn’t happened yet. Ms. Peoples noted that the high membership fee (about $1,000 a year) and weekly meetings represent a big commitment, but what does the library get out of it? We should also look at alternative ways of raising our community profile. After a brief discussion, we decided to prioritize additional funding requests in the order they were presented (above). Ms. Cole and Mr. Tracy will meet with the Manager and his budget team to answer their questions. Ms. Stern moved to accept the FY 2018 level service budget as outlined by the Director; Ms. Peoples seconded. All voted in favor. Thank you letter: Ms. Cole handed out a copy of a letter from the niece of Eleanor T. Sullivan on the occasion of the installation of a plaque honoring her memory in the Children’s Room. Old Business Library Director evaluation form revision: Ms. Peoples will prepare a draft for the February meeting. Requests for Information Ms. Tierney: How is our social media strategy going? Ms. Browne: Brittany is doing a great job. We’re getting a lot more traffic and engagement on social media. 3 Mr. Tracy: Do we have charging stations for phones? Ms. Cole: Yes, over by Macs on the second floor. Ms. Hammonds: What’s with the old Verizon phone booth in front of the library? Can we get rid of it? Ms. Cole: It’s hard to find anyone responsible for phone booths anymore at Verizon. Ms. Stern: Has any decision been made about the Community Path route that might take away library parking spaces? Ms. Cole: No news yet. Announcement: There will be a meeting on plans for the old Police station at Town Hall on Tuesday, January 17, 7:00 pm. Next Meeting: February 7, 2017 Ms. Stern moved to adjourn at 8:02 pm; Ms. Hammonds seconded. Respectfully submitted, Carol Tierney ENCLOSURES: Agenda; Draft December 6, 2016 Minutes; FY17 Year-to-Date Budget Report; FY17 1st Quarter Budget Breakdown; FY17 Funds and Grants; Burke FY17; Hatch Financial Report; Memo re: Computer Use Policy; Computer Use Policy; Memo re: Request to use photographs; Email re: Photographs for Proposed Book; Permission to Publish Request Form; Memo re: FY18 Budget Submission; Memo re: Instructions for Fiscal Year 2018 Budget Development; Schedule – Budget Review Meetings; Watertown’s FY2018 Budget Policy Guidelines; Watertown Town Council Resolution #2012-72; Watertown Town Council Resolution #2013-76; WFPL Staff Salary Chart; Supplies and Services Expenditure Worksheet FY 2018; Operating Capital Expenditure Worksheet FY 2018; Town of Watertown Next Year Budget Comparison Report; Special Revenue & Expendable Trust Worksheets FY 2018; Requests for Additional Funding FY 2018; Department Licenses, Permits & Fees Worksheet FY 2018; WFPL Budget Narrative FY 2018; WFPL Organizational Chart; WFPL Staff List; Draft Job Description: HATCH Coordinator; Thank you letter from Rosemary Miller.