Library Board of Trustees

By City Clerk at 5:17 pm, Mar 09, 2023 Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes - February 2023 Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Location: Amesbury City Hall Auditorium Wednesday February 8, 2023 7:00 PM 2023 Board of Trustees (BOT) Members present: Anne Campbell, Laurie Cameron, Pam Gilday, Brenda Rich, Delia Rinaldi, Bethany Sullivan, Jessica Ducrow, Audrey Proctor, and Gail Browne APL Staff present: Aimie Westphal, APL Director and Meghan Fahey, Head of Archives 1. Call to order at 7:00 PM by Anne as chair. 2. Friends of Amesbury Public Library – Discussion regarding Book Shop and by extension funding support to Amesbury Public library provided by the Friends – represented by President Katie Fawkes and Secretary Shannon Carrol. The Friends Book Shoppe (used book store), which had been in the APL basement for many years went online during COVID and the book shop inventory was moved out of the building. The online method of sales has been in place since. This method is labor-intensive and provides substantially lower revenue than when the book shop was available to patrons in the basement of the building. For example, average book shop revenue now is about $100/month; it was $800 or more when the bookshop was in the building. The proceeds from the books shop paid for most, if not all, of the programs offered by the library each month as well as ½ of the museum pass program subscriptions and more. Because of the ongoing issue with the back wall, lintel and the inability to use the back door under that lintel, the bookshop has not been allowed to reopen in the building basement. The Friends have continued to supply the revenue used by APL for programs and ½ of the museum pass program since the shutdown of the physical book shop through their substantially lower revenue (including a small shelf of books offered for sale upstairs at the library) as well as very occasional pop-up sales AND by depleting their savings. They are at a breaking point now and came to tonight’s meeting to talk directly to the Trustees about what they can do to help get the bookshop back in the building. They intend to discontinue the online bookshop – the meager revenue is just not worth the time and work involved. They can continue to do special book sales events but those are also labor-intensive and don’t yield much in the way of revenue – certainly not enough to keep up with their history of funding the library’s programming, and ½ of the museum pass program subscriptions, and more. Without the bookshop being allowed to reopen at APL as it had (and not just with a small shelf upstairs), the Friends will not be able to continue that funding going forward. Discussion ensued, including staff recommendations that a facilities person be dedicated to physical building issues/maintenance at the library. The Friends Board and the APL Board of Trustees will draft a joint letter to the Mayor and City Council explaining this issue and the need to get the back wall/lintel into good enough shape so that the back door can be opened in a way such that the Amesbury building inspector can sign off on the egress. If and when the egress becomes available again, the bookshop can reopen at APL and the Friends will again be able to provide the not-insignificant level of funding that APL relies on for programming, museum pass subscriptions, and so on. 1  Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes - February 2023 3. Secretary’s minutes Motion to approve January 2023 Board of Trustees meeting minutes by Jessica with 3 identified minor edits, second by Laurie. Motion is approved unanimously by all who were present at the January meeting. 4. Communications There was no email and there are no communications to report. 5. Budget report Aimie presents the FY2023 monthly APL budget for February, including these highlights: Aimie has added a notation in the upper left of the budget report template to indicate month number in the fiscal year and date upon which the numbers were pulled, which this month was on February 1. The Library Trustee Trust account has a balance of $6185. Aimie would like to use $1200 of that to pay for leadership coaching, which was an item identified by the Directors Review subcommittee. She’d like to use the rest to supplement library materials (the sorts of items that would be part of the Books line item). Because the BOT had voted in an earlier meeting to move this $ into this fund, we do not need to vote again on its usage tonight. All told, the fund will have a remaining balance of about $10. The Electricity line item will likely be overspent – Aimie is discussing that with the Mayor. 6. Facilities report Aimie presents her monthly Facilities Report to the Trustees for February 2023. This document is included in the addendum (Addendum 1), including these highlights: Water damage to the building and gutter/flashing replacement needed. Meghan spoke about forged copper replacements to maintain building’s historical and physical integrity. This relates to information from the Preservation subcommittee on the subject. Note that the Preservation subcommittee meeting minutes of February 6 were discussed in more depth later in the meeting. The City has filed a water damage and related insurance claim with the MIAA - the claim is still pending so no info yet on what the amount of the insurance payment will be. The 2 window replacements identified in the Facilities report are part of the window restoration Capitol line item. 2  Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes - February 2023 7. Director’s report Aimie presents her monthly Library Director’s Report to the Trustees for February 2023. This document is included in the addendum (Addendum 2). 8. Sub-committee updates Laurie presents the Preservation subcommittee meeting minutes of February 6 to the BOT. She and Meghan describe the rationale behind a new suggested Preservation Budget line item to be added to the FY2024 budget and the Preservation subcommittee vote to approve suggesting a value of 3K to that new line item titled “Archives and Preservation.” Meghan also presents a capitol planning tracking document that was discussed at the meeting as well as a letter to the Library Board of Trustees from Inspectional Services dated February 1, 2023 titled “Library Violations – 149 Main ST.” This document is included in the Addendum (addendum 3). The subcommittee membership present at the February 6 meeting vote to approve the minutes. The minutes be posted to the City website. Bethany presents the Finance subcommittee meeting minutes of January 25 to the BOT. The FY2024 MAR is $891,846. Aimie supplied 2 budgets that evening - a “MAR budget” that factored in COLA etc. at $899,451.93 and a “Level-service budget” (which she was asked to prepare by the Mayor’s office) at $959,696. At that meeting, the subcommittee agreed to recommend the level-service budget of $959,696 to the full BOT. The subcommittee membership present at the January 25 meeting vote to approve the minutes. The minutes will be posted to the City website. 9. New business Aimie presents both the “MAR budget” and the “Level service budget” to the BOT and discussion ensues. Both budgets are above the state-set MAR (Municipal Appropriation Requirement), primarily because of COLA increases. Note: See https://mblc.state.ma.us/programs-and-support/state-aid-and-aris/regs-standards.php for more information about the MAR. The BOT also discusses the proposed $3000 “Archives and Preservation” line item with Meghan, Aimie, and Preservation subcommittee members. Pam makes the motion to approve the presented APL FY2024 proposed “Level-service budget” of $959,696, with the additional $3000 “Archives and Preservation” line item, bringing the total budget that Aimie would present to the Mayor and team of $962,696. Laurie seconds the motion. The motion is approved by the BOT, with one No vote (Gail) and no abstentions. 10. Matters not reasonably anticipated in advance of the meeting. 3  Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes - February 2023 None. 11. Adjourn: 9:10 PM. Motion to adjourn by Laurie, second by Brenda, unanimous. 4  Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes - February 2023 Addendums February 8, 2023 -- APL Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes Addendum 1 – Facilities Report to the Trustees for February 2023 5  Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes - February 2023 Addendum 2 – Library Director’s Report to the Trustees for February 2023 6  Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes - February 2023 Addendum 3 – Letter to the Library Board of Trustees from Amesbury Inspectional Services dated February 1, 2023 titled “Library Violations – 149 Main ST” (3 pages) 7 Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes - February 2023 8 Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes - February 2023 9