Minutes from September 4, 2013
The Board Meeting for the Trustees of Brown Memorial Library was called to order at 6:06 p.m.
Attendance: Mary-Chris Duncan Garry Kalajian
Patty Furness Connie Scheffy
Bea Howe Robert Toppi
Nola Jordan Meg Fearnley
1. The secretary’s report was accepted as presented.
2. A motion was made and passed to accept donations to Brown Memorial Library in August in the amount of $318.00. That amount is entirely from general donations. The $268.00 we earned at the Labor Day weekend book sale will be included in the September report. Bea has prepaid our oil with Ayer and Goss. Trustees again commented on how great the new ceiling fans blend with the existing décor of the library, and Meg added that the fans do make a big difference in the comfort level of the building. The $1,200.00 (from our special projects fund) was money well spent. The Treasurer’s Report was accepted as presented.
3. Except for e-books and audio books, all circulation figures for August were down and Meg is not sure why. Some of it could be because as the start of school approaches, families switch out of summer mode and may use the library less.
4. Under Old Business, Meg announced that 73 people attended the Masons’ fund-raising dinner for the library last month, but she has not yet heard how much we will receive. Bea mentioned that at the busy times it would have been hard to fit any more diners into the available space, and Nola added that she heard numerous comments that evening about how good the food was.
5. Garry once again brought up the matter of getting a sign for the front of the building that states when we’re open. The trustees agreed that it is something we should do as all too often folks approach the library from the walkway at the side and don’t read the sign out by Main Street and are disappointed to find the library isn’t open. Garry will continue his research about options.
6. Under New Business, the trustees decided that we should submit two items for consideration by the Capital Improvements Program: (1) installing a new roof and (2) repainting and re-carpeting. Paul Gross recently checked out the roof and believes the situation is more serious than we thought, so that item needs to be given a higher priority. Meg and Patty will work on getting estimates before the next meeting.
7. A motion was passed to authorize the purchase of a new CPU, keyboard and mouse to replace one of our public computers that is very slow and tends to freeze up. The money will come from the fund reserved for technology.
8. The trustees agreed with Bea’s suggestion that we not run a Columbus Day weekend book sale. The only sales that make significant amounts of money are the ones at Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. Instead, we will try opening the basement book sale area to interested “shoppers” whenever the library is open. Meg will see that word gets out to the public.
9. Meg announced that starting September 16, a chess club will meet at the library the third Monday of each month from 6:30 – 8:00. She also mentioned that she’s hoping to host another Sky Watch program sometime in October or November around the time of a new moon. Our telescope has been checked out about ten times since we’ve had it.
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 2, at 6:00 p.m.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Nola Jordan, Secretary