Pollard Memorial Library Board of Trustees

[Draft: 6/14/2023 for distribution to Trustees] Pollard Memorial Library (PML) Board of Trustees – Meeting Minutes Date: The meeting took place on June 7, 2023. Location: It was held at PML, 401 Merrimack St. Lowell, MA, as a hybrid meeting, both in person and via Zoom. Opening Business Meeting call to order The meeting was called to order by Donna Richards at 5:35 pm. Attendance Present Excused Steve Robichaud Christine O’Connor Donna Richards, Chair Katy Aronoff, Vice Chair Judith Davidson, Secretary Ellen Anstey Suzanne Frechette Helen Littlefield Muriel Parseghian Amy Watson Guest(s): Lisa Golden, Director, Lowell Department of Health and Human Services Acceptance of / Amendment to Agenda The agenda was unanimously approved on a motion by Donna Richards and seconded by Amy Watson. Prior Meeting Minutes approval The meeting minutes from May 3, 2023, were unanimously accepted on a motion by Donna Richards and seconded by Judy Davidson. Public Comment Period No members of the public were present to make comments. Current Business Welcome New Trustee Christine O’Conner was welcomed as the newest full member of the Board of Trustees. She sends her regrets about missing her first meeting, but she is attending the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference at Middlebury College, a very prestigious and competitive program for writers to which she had been accepted prior to this appointment. Approval of Public Comment Policy The Public Comment Policy is a new policy for PML. It has been reviewed by the Library Director and staff, as well as the Governance Committee before being distributed to the Trustees for their review and approval. There is discussion of a few desired changes by the Trustees before Donna Richards made the motion to approve the policy with the stipulated changes as discussed at the meeting, which will include the formal policy wording at the end. The motion was seconded by Katy Aronoff, and it was passed unanimously. Update on Strategic Plan Culture Committee (Judy Davidson/Amy Watson) The most recent meeting was cancelled and re-scheduled for 6/26 2-3 pm Advocacy Committee (Katy Aronoff/Donna Richards) This group will meet next during the week of 6/20. Due to recent staff resignations, only Bridget Cooley remains and the committee will need to be reconstituted to move forward. Outreach Committee (Suzanne Frechette/Muriel Parseghian) The Outreach Committee met recently by zoom. They discussed the bookmobile and expressed how grateful they were to the PML Foundation for the tablecloth and other promo items. They still have questions about dollars for the swag that they are seeking from the PML Foundation. The Trustees believed that the library director had agreed to pay for the swag and they direct Chair Molly Hancock to recheck with Steve Robichaud about this issue. Welcome Committee (Ellen Anstey) Ellen is new to the Trustees and new to the Welcome Committee, which currently has no other Trustee members. No report yet. Engagement Committee (Helen Littlefield/Judy Davidson) This committee was chaired by the former Assistant Director of PML, and no new chair has been appointed to anyone’s knowledge. We assume the committee is not meeting at this time as neither Littlefield nor Davidson have been invited to a meeting for several months. PML Director Steve Robichaud will check on this and other committee issues and report back to the Trustees. Reports Chairperson’s Report A Special Thanks Thank you Mimi Parseghian for this Armenian feast!!! Change of Monthly Meeting Date As promised at the May meeting, Donna Richards made a motion to move this meeting to the 2nd Wednesday of the month. Mimi Paraseghian seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. 2 This means that the first meeting of the 2023/2024 PML Trustee year will be held on Wednesday September 13, 2023. FY24 BUDGET: Trustee Chair, Donna Richards, provided an overview of the process to this point. She praised PML Director Steve Robichaud for his efficiently prepared budget that was submitted to the City Administration, winning their approval before it went to the city council meeting of 6/6/23. Richards points out that City Manager Golden’s cover letter specifically mentioned the library in describing the budget. In the budget that was presented, there is an increase for PML, which will allow PML to meet MAR (state funding requirements) this year. There were some questions about State Aid. Richards noted that in the budget section for capital expenditures there are dollars for the library boiler. Health and Human Services Director, Lisa Golden, noted that the Energy and Conservation section of Facilities is soon to become its own division within the City Administration, and they are already talking to PML about how to improve heating and cooling in the building. FOLLOW UP—Initiating an Annual Planning Process: Katy Aronoff, Assistant Chair, led the discussion. It was proposed at last month's meeting to have an 'annual planning process' to prepare for the upcoming year. The goal was for the planning process to be something to help the Trustees anticipate what the next Sept/June year would include and help the Trustees to prepare for that work. The aim was to use a format that would allow everyone to contribute. The Trustee planning process would dovetail the strategic plan. Aronoff asks the group to think about the priorities for the Trustee Year that will start in September 2023 and run to June 2024. Eventually we would hone down our ideas to 3-5 priority areas that would help us in thinking about new projects and insure integration of the Strategic Plan Work. A question was raised about how broad or narrow a priority area would be that led to more discussion defining the notion of priority. The following were ideas that arose as Trustees thought about possible priorities. 1. Book Mobile will need focus in the next year as it rolls out. 2. City Election Year; In September we need to map out quickly what we will be doing…so we can get the attention of candidates and help to inform them about library issues. 3. Voter Registration: National Day is in September (Could we plan an event with Lowell Votes organization?) 4. How can we go about laying the groundwork for more regular formal conversations with our elected officials? How can we ensure we have all elected officials (and other key decision makers) there when we do an event? 5. How can our efforts to support the library engage library patrons to speak for the library? 6. (A theme for the future library shared by Trustee Suzanne Frechette). The “Library as a convener”— how can we drive specific convening activities that would be good for the library…and embrace our 3  ability to have larger civic events that could raise interest in the library? If we are conveners—we need a welcoming space, and it needs to be in good shape. 7. Data; what data do library staff currently collect? What parts of this information will be useful to the Trustees? Currently PML data is focusing on the collection development—Things that have come up that would we need good information for advocacy for are: salaries, materials, professional development; how to use information to make this place a good place to work? What will help us to promote the staff? Information is also needed so we can go for larger projects, grants, and advocacy. 8. We need to get current and past Trustee documents in administrative shape. 9. We definitely need a master list of all building issues—everyplace water is leaking, 10. Policy focus has been strong over the last few months. This will continue to be a priority until that work is accomplished. 11. Helping with visioning for the city—envision what the library could be for the city; what possibilities exist for libraries. 12. A few years back Library Director was on LTC…now off. There are many ways PML and LTC could work together. Could LTC make a short video on the library to play on the Cable Channel? Aronoff reviewed what she saw as emerging priorities: 1. Visioning—Promoting a vision; a community convener 2. Advocacy—Advocating for this vision and its needs 3. Staff Support—Making this a good place for them; making sure they have what they need; improving salaries 4. Infrastructure /Building—Elevator, flooding, technology, Info services—how is the building used? Is space allocated to meet the vision? 5. Policy—Laying out the ways staff and patrons work together in the library Committee Reports Governance/Policy Committee (Judy Davidson*/Suzanne Frechette/Muriel Parseghian) POLICY Overview Review (Attached at the end of this document.) There were no reports this meeting from the other committees: Art Committee (Amy Watson*/Ellen Anstey/Donna Richards) Security/Building/Grounds (Suzanne Frechette*/Helen Littlefield/Amy Watson) Outreach (Donna Richards*/Katy Aronoff/Judy Davidson/Helen Littlefield/Mimi Parseghian) 4  Nominating/Personnel (Katy Aronoff*/Donna Richards) Director’s Report Steve Robichaud prepared the June Director’s Report and distributed it to trustees via email. He highlighted the key points (minus discussion of the large building issues). ▪ City phone and network issues; MUNIS access; ▪ Library Network issues…all phones dead…not all computers offline. Network switch needs to be reset. Reset was done today—all computers are back; only some of the phones are back; ▪ Elevator repair moving forward ▪ Security Guard Contract ending in June…had to go out to bid. New contract will be for 3 years ▪ Outdoor Library signage; discussion between Steve Stowell, Steve and Donna on the replacement of the outdoor kiosks. PML Foundation will be asked to fund it. ▪ Materials Complaint: A patron came in to complain about a non-fiction children’s book titled, “It’s Perfectly Normal”. This is a frequently challenged book and had recently been identified on Tik-Tok. The patron was provided with the Materials Challenge Policy but no formal request has been subsequently submitted. ▪ Personnel: HR needs to make the next move on the Community Planning Coordinator that has been identified to be hired. All custodian positions are full. Bookmobile positions-Steve has advocated and got the positions into the library budget before the council. Bookmobile positions will be Union positions, not ordinance. Admin Assistant still posted. IT Support Technician has quit and will need to be refilled. It has been suggested we need to double IT Position from 1 to 2 people. ▪ The Book Mobile didn’t arrive as scheduled and needs more work. It is arriving Thurs 6/22. ▪ Programming discussed. ▪ Some incidents described—security cameras were not operating because Network is still down. ▪ Budget; 80 percent of the budget has been spent thanks to Bridget Cooley’s work as the new Assistant Director. ▪ Questions arose re: employees and identity theft concerns—all City employees will have access to Lifelock. Going back to June 1, 2023—will be for 2 years; Only individuals with tax forms/I.D. are probably exposed. Can call HR to ask if Trustees would be part of the breech. Grants An RFP was sent from Representative Lori Trahan’s office: Connecting Communities Digital Initiative Announces Next Round of Award Opportunities for Libraries, Archives, Museums, Higher Education 5 and Artists/Scholars in Residence. The Webinar for more information is June 8, 2023. PML Foundation (Donna Richards) o Donna Richards provided the following PML Foundation Report. ▪ The meeting was held on May 17, 2023. ▪ Author Night held on May 4th with Lauren Belfer was a very successful event. ▪ Board members who did not wish reappointment at the end of their terms are Jim Wilde, Niki Tsongas, and Mary Johnson-Lally. Newly elected board members are Kerry Jenness, Linda Kilbride, Theodora Doulamis, Jacquelin Coles, and Georgia McColough. ▪ Jamie O’Hearn (chair) and Germaine Vigeant-Trudel (co-chair) have 2 more years on their terms as officers. Bob Gilman is stepping down as treasurer and Donna Richards will take over that position. ▪ The next meeting is our annual meeting planned for June 14, 2023. It is at this meeting that new members are welcomed. Friends of the PML (Helen Littlefield) o Helen Littlefield provided the following Friends Liaison Report. ▪ Book Sale was held June 1st – June 3rd. ▪ Next meeting is 6/8 at 6:00 pm. Old Business There was no old business to discuss. New Business There was no new business to discuss. Adjournment o The meeting was adjourned at 7:29 PM on a motion by Donna Richards and seconded by Helen Littlefield. All in attendance were in favor. o Our next meeting is Wednesday, SEPTEMBER 13, 2023. Documents Attached: PML-PubComPolicy-tr Library Director 6-7-23 Gov Comm ustee review.docx Report to Trustees 06_2023.pdf Planning Doc.docx 6