Minutes from January 2, 2013
The Board Meeting for the Trustees of Brown Memorial Library was called to order at 6:05 p.m.
Attendance: Mary-Chris Duncan,Garry Kalajian, Patty Furness, Lorraine Macleod, Bea Howe, Connie Scheffy, Rod Jones, Meg Fearnley, Nola Jordan
1. The secretary’s report was accepted as presented.
2. A motion was made and passed to accept donations to Brown Memorial Library in December in the amount of $870.20. Bea reported that we finished the year in good shape financially. We exceeded our budget by slightly less than $6,000, but fortunately we were able to cover the additional expense from donations and special funds. The town budget committee will be voting on our request for 2013 this evening. The Treasurer’s Report was accepted as presented.
3. Our end of the year circulation statistics showed increases in adult materials loaned, program attendees, and downloaded e-books as well as the overall number of patrons. Meg credits Laurie Buchar for creating programs that have attracted many children and parents. She also mentioned that more and more patrons are coming to the library to use our computers and wifi connection.
4. Under Old Business, the Trustees expressed their gratitude to Steve Patten for trimming the tree branches that were a concern at the back of the building. We are glad to have that taken care of.
5. Under New Business, we discussed Garry’s question as to whether or not there might be a way to allow patrons who want to use the wifi when the library is closed some access to the building. People can and do access our wifi from the parking lot, or, in good weather, from the picnic table in the front yard. But we agreed that doing so was really impractical from several standpoints. Bea will ask Mike to look into whether we could provide power outside in the summer so that people could hook up their laptops to an outlet rather than running on batteries as they have to now.
The next meeting will be Wednesday, February 6, at 6:00 p.m.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Nola Jordan, Secretary