Russell Library Board of Trustees

Russell Library Strategic Planning Special Meeting Wednesday, March 30, 2023, 5:00pm via Zoom Approved Minutes Present: Kellin Atherton, Ramona Burkey (Director), Jennifer Hadley (recorder), Sarah Schulenburg (Chair), Eamonn Wisneski 1. Call to Order – The meeting was called to order by Trustee Schulenburg at 5:03. 2. Public Comment – no public 3. Approval of Minutes – Trustee Wisneski moved and Trustee Atherton seconded to approve the minutes. The motion passed unanimously. 4. Unfinished Business – no unfinished business 5. New Business a. Action items from Board retreat: ● Tailored messaging and “elevator speeches,” “what’s in it for them,” and the “Ask” ○ Target audiences/segments (list) ○ Elevator speeches ○ What are we asking them to do? ○ What’s in it for them? Kellin has emailed some ideas for talking points, some of which had come up while talking about the library with Matt Lesser at the Democratic Town Committee meeting. It is important to make sure the facts, numbers, and documents we refer to are correct. We can use work that others have compiled. Last summer’s survey results have helpful data. Director Burkey mentioned the recent survey of older adults, which has a clear message that they are concerned about lack of convenient parking close to Russell. Some seniors drive to other towns to use their libraries even though they are paying taxes in Middletown. We’ll need to tailor messages to different audiences, for example, current library users who are concerned about costs/taxes or those for whom the facilities are a barrier. Trustee Wisneski shared a resource for creating elevator pitches. Russell Library can also use the “Libraries Transform” toolkit. How can we organize various messages? For example, in canvasing,  sending postcards activates volunteers who aren’t able to go door to door and only takes a small amount of resources. What messages would be good for postcards? The senior survey also indicated seniors want volunteer opportunities and care about lifelong learning, as well as accessibility (inside and parking), so this could be a good fit. Other talking points (ie., the problems would a new library building solve): ● sustainable building that stewards public investment vs. spending money on repairs ● meeting spaces ● children and youth spaces ● cutting edge technology ● enough outlets and charging points ● community togetherness to create understanding and empathy, community engagement, fellowship ● civic pride and civic engagement ● think about grow, connect, strive and thrive ● use sentences from the strategic plan Sarah will create a document/table/template with some draft language and have it shared with the committee. At the next meeting we can work on refining elevator pitches for different scenarios. The to dos for committee members will be to look at the draft and come up with other ideas. b. Schedule of regular meetings We decided to hold regular meetings on the fourth Thursday of every month at 5:00. The next meeting, April 27, is less than 30 days away so that will still have to be a special meeting. Unfinished business for the next meeting will be action items from the retreat. There probably won’t be any new business. 6. Adjournment - Trustee Hadley moved and Trustee Atherton seconded to adjourn the meeting. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 5:58. Respectfully submitted, Jennifer Hadley