January 2024 Minutes

Trustee meeting: 01.23.24

Trustees Present: Wendy Neil, Vice-chair Gloria Parkinson, Colby Armstrong, Francisco Ramos, Jill Ashton.

Representatives from State Govt: Madelyn Bedard from Rep. Meg Kilcoyne’s office and Susan Templeton from Sen. John Cronin’s office.

Absent: Karen Nugent

Call to order @ 06:02 PM

Introductions of members in the meeting.

Motion to amend the order of the agenda to move grant discussion to under public comment made by Wendy 06:04 pm second by Colby. All in favor of the motion.

No public comment.

Gloria gave the background of the grant application to Maddy and Susan.

Marie gave further explanation about the grant process and where Clinton is in the process. Also gave examples of other towns that were awarded the grant. Marie stated one of the other site options could be 150 School St (current Superintendent’s office).

Over 250 libraries have benefited from this grant.

Wendy made a motion to accept draft minutes, Francisco seconded.

Motion to amend for spelling error made by Wendy, seconded by Francisco.

All in favor of the motion.

Director’s report: Marie talked about her experience at the personnel board meeting for an assistant director position. The job description was accepted, but the pay scale did not change from level E. Recommended that she to talk to TA Ward and Town Counsel regarding the pay scale and concerns about discrimination.

The Focus group on 1/13 went well, 5 members are on the waitlist for the next session on 1/24.

The library closed early last week due to a staff shortage.

Interviews are going well for the library assistant. The second round of interviews will be soon.

Salaries Budget will be revised before it is sent to FINCOM. The budget does not have to be submitted until the end of February.

Friends are planning for Mini-golf at the library last weekend in April.

Sub Committee/ Policies:

  • motion to accept the pet policy made by Colby seconded by Wendy, all members were in favor of the motion.
  • Internet use policy will be tabled once we hear from town counsel
  • Wendy made a motion to accept the community room policy, and Colby seconded.
  • Motion to approve as amended (spelling and grammatical errors) made by Colby seconded by Wendy. Approved by all members

Subcommittee/Advocacy & Outreach

  • February 7th at 11 AM Gloria will discuss a library capital campaign webinar she watched with Marie.
  • The Advocacy & Outreach sub-committee met and talked about better ways to reach the community, meeting with other community members who have valuable connections.

Unfinished business: trustees talked about the current Internet situation and an update on the situation. Trustees also spoke about the timeline to spend ARPA money.

The adjournment motion made by Francisco seconded by Wendy at 07:10 PM approved by all