Russell Library Board of Trustees

Russell Library Strategic Planning Special Meeting Wednesday, February 15, 2023, 5:00pm via Zoom Approved Minutes Present: Ramona Burkey (Director), Jennifer Hadley (recorder), Sarah Schulenburg (Chair), Eamonn Wisneski 1. Call to Order – The meeting was called to order by general agreement at 5:03. 2. Public Comment – no public 3. Approval of Minutes – no minutes to approve 4. Unfinished Business – no unfinished business 5. New Business a. Election of Chair President Wisneski nominated Trustee Schulenburg to take on the chair role. Trustee Hadley seconded. The motion passed unanimously, and Trustee Schulenberg ran the rest of meeting. b. Review current Strategic Plan – Director Burkey reviewed the plan with the committee. There are intentional common themes with the city’s conservation and development plan. Staff have created an operation plan to carry out the goals. There is a spreadsheet to keep track of activities, with a team captain for each activity. Every month staff update spreadsheet, and Director Burkey uses this information for her report. The strategic plan is a living document. It helps the library keep an eye on mission critical priorities and say no to things they don’t have the resources for. Trustee Schulenberg had been part of SP process as a community member – it was a structured and welcoming process. She appreciates the action plan that staff live every day. How will this committee help the Board be accountable for the plan? What kind of synergy will help with building plan? The annual reporting process is one way, as well as getting feedback from stakeholders. c. Scope of Committee work How can we inform people about the strategic plan and how its objectives and strategies are intentional to help the community? Would a presentation to stakeholders help – for example, a library 101?  Director Burkey has been reporting out twice a year at the company meetings. Perhaps this committee can help support that report and push it out to the community. Could we videotape the presentations and make them available to the community? However, we don’t want to create more work for staff. Perhaps we can consolidate presentations/information for the public to make the case for future plans. We should note that Russell’s 150th anniversary is 2026, which is also the 250th anniversary of 1776. The SP process was consultant led and took a year and half. Because we have a good framework now, we might not need to go through the entire process again when we update this plan. Director Burkey suggests the committee refamiliarize ourselves with our SP, the Riverfront Master Plan, the Middletown Plan of Conservation and Development, and the Middletown Public Schools Strategic Plan. She will put documents in the folder. We don’t have to reinvent the needs assessment, discovery process. A big portion of the upcoming Board retreat will be strategic planning. That will inform this committee’s work. d. Annual report – When is the annual meeting? It is usually the Monday before the June Board meeting, but this year it will probably be the week before since that Monday is Juneteenth. June 14 is a possibility. e. Set meeting dates/times/formats – We will wait until after the Board retreat to decide on our next meeting. We may not need monthly meetings but should meet at least once before the June meeting. 6. Adjournment - Trustee Wisneski moved and Trustee Hadley seconded to adjourn the meeting. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 5:47. Respectfully submitted, Jennifer Hadley