Board of Library Trustees Meeting
September 7, 2010

7:00 p.m.

Medway Public Library

Attendees:

Trustees:

Carol Brown
Ed Duggan
William Roberts, Secretary
Wendy Rowe, Chair

Citizens:

Margaret Perkins
Matthew Buckley, Chair, the Medway Planning Board's Design Review Committee (DRC)
Cindy Dobrzynski, Chair, Franklin Library Board of Directors
Monique Doyle, member, Franklin Library Board of Directors
Felicia Oti, Acting Director
Margaret Perkins, Assistant to the Director

Minutes:

1. Approval of agenda

Motion to approve the agenda: WLR1, CB2

2. Secretary's report

Motion to approve July 6 minutes as amended: CB1, WLR2, passed with no vacillating

Motion to approve August minutes: CB1, WLR2, 3-0-1 (Ed wasn't there so he abstained)

3. Citizens Speak
4. Budget Report

Direct Energy finally admitted the error of their ways, at least as far as their billing of the library goes

Ed felt that the Friends deserved public acclaim for all they've done in supporting the library. He volunteered to write a press release.

5. Director's Report

We've been asked to supply input for the town's new Five Year Capital Plan.

There was discussion of the new new library card form.

Felicia said that in Franklin they've had occational problems with kids forging parent signatures to either get books their parents object to, or to simply run up fines when their parents prefer to keep the family's checkouts on a single card for management purposes.

There was the question of what age to stop requiring a parent's signature.

The form should have the requestor's age.

There was the question of what ID to require with the form. If the forms are being handled by the schools then it was felt that that should be sufficient. The Trustees felt that determining the ID requirement should be left to the Director's discretion.

Felicia is going to discuss the process with Meena (the elementary school librarian who originally requested a way to get library cards issued through the schools).

6. Old Business
1. Library Long Range Plan

Awaiting feedback from the MBLC

2. Floor repairs

Will happen next week

7. New Business
1. Revisit after-hours Library use policy (re Design Review Committee)

Back in the golden age, the requirement was that after hours meetings needed to have a staff member present. Of course the library was open until 9 four nights a week so the situation rarely arose.

After the fall, the requirement was relaxed to allow a Trustee to suffice.

The Medway Design Review Committee (DRC) currently finds itself homeless and in the person of Matt Buckley, its Chair, wonders if it could use the meeting room two Mondays a month. Wendy has chaperoned 2 of their meetings. This clearly isn't sustainable.

There didn't seem to be any great objection to allowing responsible town committees to use the rooms when the library is closed. It should be possible to lock the elevator and the gate up the stairs is closed so the public's access is limitted.

Matt said they would not need a key, just the code that alarms the doors.

There was discussion of how to word the motion so that it let the right set of town groups meet (in fact, as Matt pointed out, most of them have good homes (like Town Hall) and so it is unlikely that many will need to use the library). Basically, we want official groups whose members are sworn in.

Anyhow, for the moment, the simplest thing was just to allow the DRC to use the rooms and worry about the broader case in the future, so

Motion: Pending a general policy decision by the Trustees, the Medway Design Review Committee is allowed to use the meeting rooms after hours without staff or Trustees present as discussed. WLR1, ED2, passed unanimously

8. Fundraising
9. Adjournment; next meeting October 5 2010

Motion to adjourn (8:05), CB1, WLR2, passed unanimously