Pollard Memorial Library Board of Trustees

Pollard Memorial Board of Trustees – Meeting Minutes Date: The meeting took place on November 8, 2023. Location: It was held at Pollard Memorial Library (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 5:31 pm. Attendance Present: Excused: Steve Robichaud, Library Director Christine O’Connor Donna Richards, Chair Suzanne Frechette Katy Aronoff, Vice Chair (On ZOOM) Muriel Parseghian Judith Davidson, Secretary Ellen Anstey Helen Littlefield Amy Watson (On ZOOM) Guest(s): Belinda Juran Lisa Golden (Director of Health and Human Services) Acceptance of / Amendment to Agenda The agenda was unanimously approved on a motion by Donna Richards, seconded by Helen Littlefield. Prior Meeting Minutes Approval The meeting minutes from October 11, 2023, were unanimously accepted with specific revisions on a motion by Helen Littlefield and seconded by Donna Richards. Public Comment Period Public comment time was made available. However, there were no members of the public present to make a comment at this meeting. Current Business Update on Strategic Plan o Culture Committee (Judy Davidson/Amy Watson) ▪ They are planning to meet soon. Mtg not yet set. Regrouping right now. o Advocacy Committee (Katy Aronoff/Donna Richards)  ▪Advocacy team representatives reached out to some candidates for City Council and School Committee. The focus was to meet with individuals whom we hadn’t met with previously in person. Trustees from the Outreach subcommittee volunteered to be our partners to accomplish this before the November 7th elections. Belinda Juran met with Fred Bahou (SC). Virak Uy (CC) responded Nov. 6th but we were unable to meet with him before the election. ▪ The trustees want to get information on library financing to city councilors – old and new. There will be more outreach actions coming up. o Outreach Committee (Suzanne Frechette/Muriel Parseghian) ▪ Will partner with Advocacy Committee for Outreach activities o Welcome (Ellen Anstey/Christine O’Connor) ▪ Bridgette Cooley will be reforming within staff. o Engagement (Helen Littlefield/Judy Davidson) ▪ Staff working on this committee have gone offline, doing collection development work. They have been meeting internally on a monthly basis. By the end of January they will probably be ready to meet as a whole group—trustees and staff. Reports Chairperson’s Report o FOLLOW UP to Annual Planning Process: Davidson and Watson suggested that coordinators and trustees meet in the new year to discuss the state of the strategic plan. Richards contacted Fast Forward Libraries consultant Amanda Standerfer for recommendations and pricing. ▪ Standerfer: “Your plan was ambitious...and now is a good time to recalibrate. Maybe it's too much? I recently worked with a library doing a "refresh" of their strategic plan and they learned a lot.... mostly that they were able to prioritize in a different way after working on the plan for 3 years. This would be a good conversation to have with PML staff and Board! Continuous improvement, right? Reflect (what's working, what's not) and update (where do we want to go from here). ▪ Standerfer: I prefer to meet with folks in-person if that's at all possible...as you know, you can get a lot done with people in the room! ▪ She can do a more formal proposal with thoughts on agendas. So... next step? A proposal? If you think what I described above works, I can easily put something together. If you think that PML needs more (a community survey???), let's talk. I feel like you have accomplished SO MUCH in such a short period of time and that you've also had so much transition that this feels like a "reflect and revive" retreat vs a "let's start over" retreat. ▪ I typically charge $3,500 for a 1/2-day retreat (3-ish hours, that includes preparing for the retreat (this usually involves a meeting to go over goals and logistics), facilitation, notes, follow-up/recommendations/whatever documents you need). If I could meet with staff (1/2-day, 3-ish hours...maybe just the leadership team/full-time folks?) on the same/next day/day before, I'd add another $2,000. There may be a need to do some "pre-work" with the Board and Staff...a survey or something. I feel like Bridget could do that in-house and provide me the data (I can work with her on this as part of retreat prep). Travel expenses - $500. Total is approximately $6,000. 2  Discussion following Richards’ report on the consultant: o Donna suggests if we do this that she/Donna would like to see Standerfer work with staff, in particular. Trustees have already designed upcoming goals that mirror the strategic plan goals. o Previously, PML met with the consultant twice, in addition to several zoom meetings in advance for planning. o Lisa Golden: “We aren’t starting over.” o We are beginning our 3rd year, and we don’t want to lose momentum. o B. Cooley reminded the group that the Book Mobile was an idea then…and it is now real. Because of the PML progress with Book Mobile, Community Outreach staff now need to have new goals. o We have new trustees who haven’t been through the process. (and trustee positions open.) o Lisa Golden: May also have more city councilors interested in the library’s program. o Don’t want to make more work, but this should be “good work”. o Logistics discussed—closing library Saturday am…setting up staff who are available. Lisa Golden will talk to the city manager about calling a closure. o Why is this the best person to do this work with us—consultant has spent much time learning about us. She is also a library specialist—as opposed to being outside of this world. Went through process of selection the first time…not sure if this will need to be done again. o $$ for project can be found in library budget. Bridget will figure out where this is. Lisa G says we need to assume time for getting the contract through. o Everyone agreed that we can do this with an interim director, and it will not be necessary to wait for a new director. o January was suggested as a time for these meetings, but more focus on the calendar needs to take place. Planners will try to schedule two meetings back-to-back. Committee Reports Governance/Policy Committee (J. Davidson*/S. Frechette/M. Parseghian/C. O’Connor) ▪ The PML Website policy page (under "about" and then under "library policies") has the Public Comment Policy posted. All trustees are invited to take a peek over the entire thing and see how much has been accomplished--new policies, standardized format, dates showing that we are reviewing in a regular manner--this is great!! It will make you feel really good. More to be done but take a moment to savor the roses. ▪ We are waiting for policies to be reviewed in Steve's group of program leaders. ▪ Another policy that the group has on the front burner is Privacy, which we will wait on until current policies under review are completed. ▪ The Governance Committee has been requested to review the by-laws. Committee members will review individually, sending corrections, changes, and suggestions to the chair by Friday 12/1/23. The chair will integrate suggestions into a draft copy that will be re-distributed to the committee for a second review. At that time the committe can then decide if they want to meet as a committee or go back to the full Trustee board with what they have. 3  ▪ Trustee Documents The Governance Committee has been charged with developing a system for organizing and storing Trustee materials. Discussion of this need raised several questions: o Is there a cache of electronic documents that we also need to consider? o How long are we required to keep documents? electronic and/or paper o Is there a records retention policy? Medical records are for 7 years…and nonprofits do 7 years. o What do we save—just the minutes or supporting documents? o Can the new IT person help us on this? o Just what do we have in the box in the Director’s office? B. Cooley, who has experience in historic archives, agreed to work with us in establishing a reasonable way of doing this and developing a policy to describe the system. Members of the Governance Committee will meet with her to work on this. ▪ In the October 2023 Trustee meeting, there was discussion about need for a Monument/Plaque Policy. The Governance Committee asked that the Trustee Building and Grounds committee take the first swipe at developing the Monument/Plaque Policy. This team could formulate a first draft, and it would then go to the Governance Committee who would put it through move it forward through the policy system. There was general consensus from the Trustees to move forward in this way. Art Committee (Amy Watson*/Ellen Anstey/Donna Richards) ▪ Michael Breda, a PML-Foundation member, has a source for the repair. Pictures have been sent. Mr. Breda will bring the restorer to the Library to see the frame in person. (He has not been back in touch with Library Director. ▪ B.Cooley—In conversations with community organizations related to the Book Mobile, these groups have expressed strong interest in seeing more art in the library that reflects the Lowell community, particularly the art of different cultural groups. PML has an accepted policy for art acquisition, but the art display policy is only informal. To date local displays have been set at about 3 weeks duration. ▪ An Art Display policy is needed now. Issues this policy might cover include time limits, location of displays. In addition there will be need for new furniture, such as display cases. B. Cooley will locate the draft Art Display policy and share with the Governance committee—to get the new policy going. Security/Building/Grounds (Suzanne Frechette*/Helen Littlefield/Amy Watson) ▪ Helen Littlefield reported that the exterior window frames, at least those on the ground floor, need paint. The sills are peeling, and bare wood is exposed. She is concerned the frames will rot if they are not protected. ▪ Robichaud reports—weatherization audit will be done by end of April. A number of windows in the building do not close flush—and that will be an issue with weatherization. ▪ Lisa thinks it will be DPW carrying out the weatherization repairs. 4  ▪ B. Cooley is going to be doing a list of the problems next week and identify who will be responsible. She will include Littlefield’s concerns about the exterior window frames. ▪ October 3, 2023 the City Council approved $333, 000 as part of the weatherization project for carpet replacement in the library. Outreach (Donna Richards*/Katy Aronoff/Judy Davidson/Helen Littlefield/Mimi Parseghian) ▪ See above with Advocacy with City councilors. Nominating/Personnel (Katy Aronoff*/Donna Richards/Ellen Anstey) ▪ Nothing right now. Director’s Report Steven Robichaud reported he is leaving to become head of collection development at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire. He has given his letter of recommendation. His last day is November 17, 2023. The position will be posted until 11/20/23. It will be posted to InDeed, and MBLC. He will also be posting for Trustee positions. Because the Head of HR is also leaving the city shortly all postings will be shared with several of the HR employees to ensure there is no slippage. Bridget Cooley is being recommended as interim director (City Manager must act on this.) o Steve Robichaud prepared the November Director’s Report and distributed it to trustees via email prior to the meeting. Robichaud reviewed all categories of his report in detail. Special discussion arose around numerous issues including: o Per the October Meeting, Robichaud was able to include the general circulation data. It will now be reported monthly to the Trustees. o Staff teams are in the process of reviewing resumes received for open positions within the library. o In discussing the open custodial positions there was a question about shifting to 2 full time positions (rather than 1 full time and 2 part-time). Richards states that she has asked for a possible increase in the position pay as currently the police department has the same position listed for $5.00 more per hour). o The Elevator repair timeline has been pushed back to March. o Library carpeting is confirmed. $333,000. It was approved by the city council. It will not affect the elevator repairs. It is part of the weatherization package and must be completed by April. o Training for new Book Mobile staff is taking place now. They have started to meet with community-based organizations in advance of the book mobile launch. Gwen negotiated with the Fire Station so it could be fueled up from their location. There was a question: will it be in the City of Lights festival (That was confirmed). Also, the Lowell Sun will do another piece on the book mobile. There is a soft date for startup at the Sr. Center in December…There will be an official launch to which city councilors, community partners, public, and others will be invited. o Discussion of the current use of the reconsideration Policy: Exp. Re: Macbeth books—is this an appropriate use of the form: could we create a separate pathway for this kind of request. Does the staff think it is problematic? Shouldn’t librarians be allowed to decide where the 5  materials are placed. Staff has had same concerns and believe the cataloguers judgment is important. o The first Wedding and Baby Shower occurred at the library. Both were held on Sundays in the Community Meeting Room. Thus, it was covered by the Meeting Room Policy —and there was an appropriate charge for the event. Our director covered the event! o Robichaud quickly reviews programming and library incidents. There is an individual who has received a full trespass. LPD has been involved in the incident. The individual has tried to enter building 2 x’s since receiving the trespass order and wants to negotiate. o Discussion about reporting of incidents in the Directors report: Going forward the Director’s report will not name the individual in an incident but will use initials to identify. o Circ Stats. Are now included in the Director’s report. Grants o Mass Cultural Council Grant Opportunities Several grant opportunities have opened in the last few months that are on the radar of PML staff and trustees (see below). To date, PML has only done limited work with outside grants. There is not a city-wide grant writer, nor a grant writer on the PML staff. The Trustees will continue to keep abreast of these opportunities and consider how PML can best address them. ▪ 10.11.23 - The Trustees discussed the new Operating Grants for Organizations fund, which would be non-restricted. ▪ 10.11.23 - Director Robichaud had information on the MA Cultural Facilities Grant. Applications open 10/12/2023, but the final closure date is a few months later (December). We meet their criteria on several levels. We are old, have cultural significance, and are a governmental/non-profit group. There will need to be a 1 to 1 match of funding which we can probably arrange. ▪ 10.11.23 - Christine O’Connor also suggested CPC funds as a possibility for library improvements: Community Preservation Act. We could use this for improving building/allowable uses includes historic preservation. This will be opening soon. O’Connor and Frechette, both are experienced with grant writing, and offered to support any library activities in this area. ▪ The Community Development Block Grant applications are due no later than 11/17/23 at 11:30 a.m. Inquiries should be sent to: communitydevelopment@lowellma.gov. PML Foundation (Donna Richards) o Donna Richards provided the following PML Foundation Report. ▪ The most recent meeting was held on Wednesday, September 20th. ▪ Discussed plans for the Fall Appeal. This is a major fundraiser for the Foundation. Letters should go out this week. ▪ The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 15, 2023. Friends of the PML (Helen Littlefield) o Helen Littlefield provided the following Friends Liaison Report. ▪ The Friends’ next meeting is Thurs Dec 7th at the Library. ▪ The Friends were approached by a representative for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library— They believe it to be beyond the scope of the Friends as it doesn’t fit with their mission. 6  The Friends will decline and suggest another group. Helen will send the info to Belinda Juran of the Library Foundation for further review. Old Business o One City, One Library program update. ▪ Chris O’Connor is reaching out to Worcester to arrange a virtual meeting with PML trustees regarding Worcester’s experience with the addition of full-service public library offerings in each of the four elementary schools. The WPL is working towards improving K- 6 reading skills. ▪ One City, One Library (urbanlibraries.org) New Business (Announcements and Questions) o Amy Watson, Helen Littlefield, and Judy Davidson attended the statewide Massachusetts Library Trustees Association annual meeting on October 10th in Shrewsbury. There are 10 library boards that are members--is PML one of those? Donna has checked in with the organization about joining—About $150.—There will be a legislative event in April where Library Trustees from around the state go to Beacon Hill to lobby legislators. On average it draws about 300 participants. o The meeting was closed before this question could be asked: Was anyone from the Library, perhaps Gwen, able to attend the "Festival and Event Planner Resource Group" hosted by DIY Lowell and Mosaic? It was at LTC, November 1st, 6:00pm. This was for any agency that plans public events or festivals—they discussed collaborative fundraising, outreach, knowledge sharing, and other ways to amplify efforts by working together. Adjournment o The meeting was adjourned at 7:08 PM on a motion by Donna Richards and seconded by Judith Davidson. All in attendance were in favor. o Our next meeting is Wednesday, DECEMBER 13, 2023 at 5:30 pm. TRUSTEE - Library Trustee Mtg Mins Library Director Lowell Combined 10.11.23-jd Trustee Meeting notification NOV 2023.pdf- rev-2.docx Monthly Stats OCT 2023.pdf Report to Trustees 11_2023.docx The 11/8/23 minutes of the PML Board of Trustees were approved: 12/13/23. 7