Minutes for Dec. 12 Trustees Meeting

December 15, 2022

Minutes for Dec. 12 2022 Trustees Meeting


The meeting convened at the library at 7 p.m. Present were Cindy Binzen, Miriam Newman, Carol Wilson, Rachel Kurland, Curt Albee, Marty Frank and Melissa Strayton (librarian).


Minutes of the November meeting were accepted.


Librarian’s Report: Melissa noted that the most recent financial statement does not account for recent purchases of books and DVDs. The budgeted amount for children’s books has now been spent and all but $130 of the amount allocated for adult books has been expended. The after-school program is chugging along and most of the kids who have been attending signed up for the next session. Melissa and Sarah will probably expand registration to 10, accounting for the fact that not everyone shows up every week. Melissa still hasn’t talked to Kaitlin about restarting a preschool storytime, but plans to soon and will aim to begin that program after the holidays and school vacation. Doug Erhard worked on our computers, fixing the printing problem and, after Melissa experienced a hack on her laptop, adding some security software. No progress has been made on the patron questionnaire. Melissa and Kevin Lynch plan to resume collection weeding shortly. The state-offered Palace app is now live for borrowing e-books and audiobooks, and Melissa plans to inform patrons about its existence and how to use it soon.


Friends Report:  The Friends are having their meeting tomorrow, after which we’ll be informed about how well the Holiday Sale went.


Treasurer’s Report: Rachel reported that we remain in good shape financially as we approach the end of the year, in part because of the large bequest we received earlier. The pending bill for preparing this year’s 990 is expected to be much larger than originally estimated because the accountant had to spend a fair amount of time sorting out previous year’s balances. The good news is that he’s willing to continue preparing our taxes, and future years shouldn’t be as time-consuming. We finally received word from the IRS that there will be no fine for our late filing of the 2019 990. 


Rachel has put together a first draft of our 2023 budget, which currently projects that expenses will run about $7,000 more ($64,919) than the current year. Much of the increase reflects increased spending for fuel, personnel, collection development (inflation) and cleaning. We’ll receive nothing from the separate endowed funds. We have $27,000 in the checking account. The trustees discussed possible line item changes to reflect the increased popularity of streaming services and the best way to cover the likely gap between spending and income. Final decisions will probably be made at the January meeting. 


Jessica Brown has expressed a willingness to take over the cleaning from Ed Eastman. The plan is for her to do it twice a month and charge us $32 for each hour spent.


Other Business: Carol reported that the website improvement committee met with Geoff Hansen and made some progress. Geoff checked out the Yola platform we’re using now and thinks he could tweak it so that phone-users could more easily navigate the site. No decision has been made on that, however, because of questions about how it compares with other platforms for ease of maintenance. Kate Siepmann has agreed to design a logo for us that could be used on the redesigned website and stationery. Cindy proposed purchasing four washable leaf-shaped pillows for the children’s room. Curt reported that the ladder is now stored in the barn across the street — it’s hanging on the right. 


      Several people have been asked about their interest in serving as a trustee to replace Curt when he steps down; none expressed any. The trustees will continue to explore options. Miriam has gone through the notebook where we have collected the various policies adopted over the years and discovered a fair amount of to be done in terms of culling and updating. She intends to continue her review and have something for the board to consider by February.


        The United Church of Strafford has asked us to co-host a discussion group of the book Becoming Nicole by Amy Ellis Nutt, which would be facilitated by Joey Hawkins. Trustees expressed support for the idea. Cindy also raised the possibility of hosting another program that would feature Kevin Martin, author of Big Trees of Northern New England.


       Marty moved, Miriam seconded, that we go into executive session to discuss personnel. That discussion lasted about 10 minutes before the board returned to regular session and adjourned at 8:45.


       Our next meeting will take place on Monday, Jan. 9, at  7 p.m. at the library.


Submitted by Marty Frank

 

December Trustees Meeting Agenda

December 8, 2022

Morrill Memorial and Harris Library Trustees Meeting

 

Monday, December 12, 2022, 7:00pm

Agenda

Any items to add or remove?

 

Secretary's Report

Approve minutes from November meeting

 

Librarian's Report

Ordering for collection - monthly, postings

Afterschool program 

Preschool story time - start-up date?

Computer - updates

Patron questionnaire

Collection weeding

Holiday schedule

 

Friends' Report

Holiday Sale

 

Treasurer's Report 

Review profit and loss statement

990 - 2019 rejected, 2021

2023 budget

 

Other Business...


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Minutes for the Nov. 14 Trustees Meeting

November 18, 2022

Minutes for Nov. 14 2022 Trustees Meeting


The meeting convened at the library at 7 p.m. Present were Cindy Binzen, Rachel Kurland, Curt Albee, Marty Frank and Melissa Strayton (librarian).


Minutes of the October meeting were accepted.


Librarian’s Report: Melissa noted that the profit-and-loss statement circulated before the meeting doesn’t reflect her most recent purchases, which total about $500 for adult books. Outside has been added to the group of magazines we subscribe to and has been c...


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November Trustees Meeting Agenda

November 10, 2022

Morrill Memorial and Harris Library Trustees Meeting

 

Monday, November 14, 2022, 7:00pm

Agenda

Any items to add or remove?

 

Secretary's Report

Approve minutes from October meeting

 

Librarian's Report

Ordering for collection – monthly, postings

Afterschool program 

Preschool story time 

Computer - update to Windows 10, passwords

Patron questionnaire

Link regarding censured materials

Collection weeding

 

Friends' Report

Holiday Sale

Discovery Books

 

Treasurer's Report 

Review profit and loss statement

990 - 2019...


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Minutes for Oct. 3 Trustees Meeting

October 6, 2022

Minutes for Oct. 3 2022 Trustees Meeting



The meeting convened at 7 p.m. inside the library. Present were Cindy Binzen, Melissa Strayton (librarian), Marty Frank, Miriam Newman and Diane White (for the Friends).


Minutes for the September 2022 trustees meeting were accepted.


Friends Report: Diane said this year’s annual meeting will deal exclusively with the election of officers. The Friends have decided that the 2022 Holiday Sale will be a repeat of the previous year’s — selling raffle tick...


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October Trustees Meeting Agenda

September 29, 2022

Morrill Memorial and Harris Library Trustees Meeting

 

Monday, October 3, 2022, 7:00pm

Agenda

Any items to add or remove?

 

Secretary's Report

Approve minutes from September meeting

 

Librarian's Report

Ordering for collection – monthly, postings

Afterschool program 

Preschool story time 

Computer - update to Windows 10, need passwords

Masks available – children and adults

Patron questionnaire

Link regarding censured materials

 

Friends' Report

 

Treasurer's Report 

Review profit and loss statement

990 - 2019 ...


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October Trustees Meeting Date Change

September 29, 2022
The October Trustees meeting will be held on Monday, October 3, 2022.
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Minutes for September 2022 Trustees Meeting

September 26, 2022
The meeting convened at the library at 7:00pm on September 19, 2022. Present were Cindy
Binzen, Rachel Kurland, Miriam Newman, Curt Albee, Carol Wilson, Melissa Strayton
(librarian).
Minutes of the August meeting were accepted.
Librarian’s Report: Melissa was happy to report that at long last our Unique Entity Identifier
(UEI) has been assigned to the library and now we are able to qualify for grants, etc. through the
federal government.
Books for the collections have been purchased at a discount ...

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September Trustees Meeting Agenda

September 15, 2022

Morrill Memorial and Harris Library Trustees Meeting

 

Monday, September 19, 2022, 7:00pm

Agenda

Any items to add or remove?

 

Secretary's Report

Approve minutes from August meeting

 

Librarian's Report

Ordering for collection – monthly, postings

Children’s summer program statistics, afterschool program plan

New baby bookplates

UEI (Unique Entity Identifier) update

Computer - update to Windows 10, need passwords?

 

Friends' Report

 

Treasurer's Report 

Review profit and loss statement

990 - 2019 rejected, 20...


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Date Change for September Trustees Meeting

August 26, 2022
The September meeting will be held on Monday, September 19.
Continue reading...
 

Trustees of the Morrill Memorial & Harris Library


The Board of Trustees meets on the second Monday of each month at 7:00 pm at the library.