Board of Library Trustees Meeting
December 12, 2006

7:00 p.m.

Medway Public Library

Attendees:

Trustees:

MaryAnn Cabibbo, Vice Chairman
Meena Jain
William Roberts, Secretary
Wendy Rowe, Chairman

Guests:

Margaret Perkins

Minutes:

1. Approval of agenda: (MAC1, WLR2) passed unanimously
2. Secretary's Reports

Motion to approve minutes from Sept 22, October 3, October 23, October 24. (MAC1, MJ2) passed unanimously.

Note that the Sept 5 and Nov 7 meetings did not have a quorum

3. Citizens Speak
4. Budget Report

Salary line items are going down as expected. Not getting statements for the Memorial Donation account yet (from which we are paying our expenses). Wendy is keeping track.

The electric bill finally got straightened out.

5. Acting Director's Report
• Head school custodian Rob Smith to start cleaning once a week in January.

Wendy will let the Selectmen know

• Next year's Minuteman Bill

Will drop from around $25K to around $15K as we need fewer ports. Switching to public terminals to Comcast thanks to hardware and labor donations from Wendy & family.

Fewer minuteman ports for the staff too.

Some question of whether we should continue with Minuteman at all, given that we could save still more money by getting our own library automation software. Everyone was against dropping Minuteman. We hope to be a real library again someday.

Motion to continue with Minuteman, (WLR1, MJ2) passed unanimously

• Wireless access coming for free

Again Wendy and family are donating the wireless router and installation effort.

6. Old Business
• Certification status

Jim Galligan, chairman of the Selectmen, reportedly told a Department Heads Meeting (at which there was no library representation) that the library wasn't going to get certified.

• Vote on Medway's Children's Librarian MLS requirement removal?

Nope, no vote

• Increase for-profit room use fee as of July 1 and create a revolving account at ATM?

Wendy explained the ins and outs of revolving accounts. Basically the money in the revolving account has to be spent on expenses directly related to the source of the income. Fees from room use can be spent on cleaning, for instance. Connection between book fines and Minuteman (old revolving account was being used to pay for that bill) was too nebulous for Revenuers

Wendy doesn't particularly mind our fines etc going into a line item in the general town's budget. They need to pay for Minuteman anyhow.

Further discussion was postponed.

• Closing Schedule

Closed week after Christmas.

• Hours Open

Question of whether and when to drop back to 20 hours.

Postponed discussion of this. Are going to keep at 32 hours until we lose certification anyhow

• Volunteers, cleaning

Our volunteers are spic and span.

• Fundraising
7. New Business
• Materials Purchases

Margaret is making them to the tune $2k a month.

• Revisit DVD purchasing policy

We aren't buying any now. However patrons do like them. Suggestion of having a mitten tree for the specific titles. Suggestion of asking people to donate DVDs in good condition. Consensus is that we should do this and the "mitten tree" (like we did successfully with magazine subscriptions).

It was generally felt that buying a few DVDs was probably a good idea.

Motion to spend $100-$150 a month on DVDs. (WLR1, MJ2) passed unanimously

8. Next Regular Meeting Tues, Jan 2, 2007
9. Adjournment

8:30PM, (MAC1, MJ2) passed unanimously