Minutes from February 1, 2012
The Board Meeting for the Trustees of Brown Memorial Library was called to order at 6:05 p.m.
Attendance: Patty Furness, Garry Kalajian, Bea Howe, Lorraine Macleod, Rod Jones, Connie Scheffy, Nola Jordan, Meg Fearnley
1. The secretary’s report was accepted as presented.
2. A motion was made and passed to accept gifts and donations to Brown Memorial Library in January in the amount of $1,112.00. $1,000.00 of that amount was an individual donation. The money may be spent as we deem appropriate. Otherwise, the finances for January are very much as expected. Bea added that her husband had been able to locate a new router for only $55.98 and it has been installed. The Treasurer’s Report was accepted as presented.
3. Circulation figures for the month show that library usage was up dramatically in all categories over last January, but particularly in the number of audio books and e-books downloaded.
4. Under Old Business, Bea reported that she had spoken to Fire Chief Mark Goldberg about our situation with the front door. His first suggestion was a dead bolt that opens with a key on both sides. Both Bea and Meg felt it could be dangerous to have to look for a key in an emergency. The Fire Chief then spoke with the Fire Marshall who explained that the rules are less stringent for a building that is never occupied by more than 100 people. If we had a dead bolt lock on the inside we wouldn’t be in violation of the fire code provided we had a sign next to the door stating that the dead bolt must be left unlocked and it was accompanied by a picture of the unlocked position. We wouldn’t be in violation, but he made it clear that he did not believe this would be an ideal solution. Garry has found a company that makes what is referred to as a “classroom dead bolt” which cannot be locked from the inside. It can only be locked from the outside with a key. But once locked, it can still be opened from the inside. It costs approximately $100.00 more than the dead bolt we had been considering. The Trustees agreed that this is the safest solution even though it may not match the rest of the hardware as well as we would like and authorized Garry to go ahead with the project.
5. The Trustees continued to review and update the library’s policies.
6. Garry mentioned that he has discovered the prison sign shop is only open on Fridays. He will go back on a Friday as soon as he can to check out what they may be able to do.
7. Under New Business, Bea brought up an e-mail Meg had received asking if the library would like to be part of a conversation about developing endowment and charitable giving under the aegis of Ameriprise Financial’s Charitable Giving Outreach campaign for this area. As we know very little about what this would involve, the Trustees asked Bea to contact them for more information to see if this is something we might want to pursue further.
The next meeting will be Wednesday, March 7, at 6:00 p.m.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Nola Jordan
Secretary