Board of Trustees Meeting – Jan. 14, 2025

Meeting Minutes

Documentation

• Meeting Minutes for Approval – December 9, 2024
• Professional Staff Reports
• Director’s Report
• Financial Report December 2024

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 7:04 p.m. by K. Penders.

Public Comment

None.

Vote to Accept Donation of $955.09 from Family Child Care Professionals: A local child
care professionals’ group, Family Child Care Professionals, is disbanding. Having worked with
Emma Brelsford in the past, they thought of the Library when considering what to do with their
remaining funds. They have generously donated $955.09 to the Library, to be designated for
children’s programming. J. Ooi made a motion to accept the donation of $955.09 from the
Family Child Care Professionals, to be designated for the Children’s Room via the DJ Campbell
fund. J. Parlapiano seconded and the motion passed 6-0-0.

Approval of Meeting Minutes

S. Halton made a motion to approve the December 9, 2024 meeting minutes as presented.
J. Ooi seconded.

Motion passed 6-0-0.

Correspondence:

The MBLC is doing a Love Mass Libraries campaign, asking patrons across
the state to share what they love about their library. These stories will help bolster their FY26
budget request by demonstrating the value of community libraries.

Friends’ Report

Sue Collins provided an update from the Friends. Treasurer Katherine Howard, with help from
former treasurers S. Halton and Bernadette Thie, reviewed which categories expenses and incomes should be listed under. A meeting is scheduled to review this info soon, but it appears
they are breaking even or making a little extra.

The Friends currently have 212 memberships, 15 of which are brand new. New memberships are
most often gained during the book sales, and the January newsletter will include annual
membership info. The Friends are hopeful that the new members will volunteer to help out with
future book sales and/or consider joining the Board.

The November book sale raised $5,000 and December’s Giving Tree went very well with 73
gifts being distributed. Only two books were donated, though the Rotary Club did a second
collection in the vestibule that received strong donations. The lights on the tree went out, so the
Friends will be purchasing a new one. Additionally, for the month of January at the Foxborough
Stop & Shop, $1 from the sale of every “give” bag they sell will go to the Friends.

The Friends meeting on February 5th is their annual meeting that includes the election of officers.
Janice Rosado will be stepping down as President. S. Collins has been nominated to fill the role.

Professional Staff Reports

L. O’Neill provided some highlights from the professional staff reports.

Fiero Code, a coding database for children and beginners of all ages, has been implemented and
is starting to be used.
Kim Ferguson is in her second year of ownership of the Seed Library and this will be the best
year yet. A designated webpage is being set up with great resources, a teen volunteer made a
logo, and teens have been helping put together the seed packets. Children’s is working on a
gardening club to go along with the Seed Library.

J. Huston is working with a teen to create a Together with Pride logo. Edward Underhill is a YA
author, whose first adult book came out today, will be doing a virtual talk for pride month for
just $400.

L. O’Neill has partnered with the Tewksbury and Ashland libraries to offer more virtual author
talk programming. Popular author TJ Klune is doing a virtual talk this week which Boyden is
able to offer through a consortium.

Financial Reports

As with last couple months, the book expenditures are a little low due to shipping delays with
Ingram. The Library is shifting from ordering from Ingram to Baker & Taylor in hopes of
alleviating some of these issues. The Trustees asked about digital alternatives to print books
given that the delays are with print books. L. O’Neill explained that staff do not curate what’s
available on Hoopla, it is “get what you get,” and we pay monthly per usage for the service. Staff
do purchase titles on Libby and SAILS also purchases some titles for system-wide use. Kanopy
is similar to Hoopla in that it is “get what you get.” Each patron gets 15 tickets per month that
count towards an annual cap. If the cap is met, service is suspended until the new year starts.

Director’s Report

L. O’Neill provided a Director’s report, with nothing new to report for personnel updates.

Library Operations

The elevator hasn’t broken down since early November. It is on the
Library’s capital plan all the same.

Programs & Services

The Library has had excellent year-over-year growth in the number of
programs offered and attendees for these programs. 2024 saw 188 adult programs with 1,994
attendees, 78 teen programs with 672 attendees, and 383 children’s programs with 8,619
attendees. This is a 24.3% increase in programming over 2023 and a 31.6% increase in attendees.
L. O’Neill is hoping to stay level with the number of programs offered going forward, but is
striving for an increase in attendees.

Programming for pride month is coming together. J. Huston has a virtual author talk planned and
Boyden will be partnering with the Ashland Public Library for use of their Zoom account. Their
account allows for unique log ins for registrants, so Boyden can pursue additional cosponsors
who can then track their attendees for the event. There will also be a “Queer History: Amazing
Stories You Never Knew and Why They Matter” program for adults and a program with The
Pineapple Project, a performance group for kids that helps “broaden the conversation as well as
advocate for and validate each child’s individual freedom to be who they are.” More info on The
Pineapple Project can be found pineappleproject.org.

.

Old Business

Collection Development Policy:

L. O’Neill reviewed the Collection Development Policy to ensure it is thorough. The change
included a no reconsideration period of five years, during which time an already challenged title
cannot be challenged again.

C. Igo-Freeman motioned to approve the changes as presented. S.
Halton seconded and the motion passed 6-0-0.

2025 Community Reads Program:

The 2025 Community Reads is coming along well. L. O’Neill passed around a brochure that
Kathy Bell-Harney put together to advertise the event and related programming. J. Parlapiano
will use this to inspire the refreshments. An Unlikely Story (bookstore) will be selling books at
the Library on the night of the author talk.

Programming will kick off with a gallery reading with medium Tiffany Rice, sponsored by the
Friends, on March 3rd. Adult programming will also include New England Legends with Jeff
Belanger, a basket weaving demonstration, a bookmark weaving program, and Library, as well
as Senior Center, book clubs will be reading The Cliffs. Teen programming includes an afterhours
ghost hunt with Noah Faraday and a bookmark weaving program. Children’s programming
will include a special story time highlighting stories of home and family, along with a craft, and
a Wampanoag pottery program with the Plimoth Patuxet Museum. E. Brelsford is also taking the
lead on using Padlet to create a digital book club where readers can share their favorite quotes or
scenes, photos of the book, and whatever else the story inspires. A new discussion question will
be posted each week to encourage engagement.

FY26 Budget:

The Town informed L. O’Neill, K. Penders, and P. Ivanovskis that there will be a budget
shortage and the Library must cut the proposed budget down to a 3% increase, which is a cut of
about $5,000. Proposed cuts include $500 from the substitute library assistant line, $2,000 from
the capital technology line, $1,000 from office supplies, $1,000 from library supplies, and $500
from meetings and conferences. L. O’Neill will follow up with Paige Duncan during their
monthly meeting next week to confirm that the Library’s cuts were acceptable and implemented
into the Town’s overall budget proposal.

The gap on O&M is a result of the $24,000 shift made last fiscal year to bring the teen librarian
position from part-time to full-time. This shift will not be rectified this budget cycle.
L. O’Neill, K. Penders, and P. Ivanovskis will meet with AdCom before the next Board meeting.

L. O’Neill will work with K. Bell-Harney to put together a presentation for AdCom that will
point out how much the Library pays for programming from outside sources, and that the Library
is the only place in Town that is free and open to all ages. K. Penders will touch base with
Rafaela Zizza-Feinstein to confirm whether or not she is still our AdCom liaison.

Union Negotiations:

Union negotiations are still underway. The Town has tentatively agreed to increase all longevity
payments by $25. The Union has withdrawn the request to lower probation from six months to
three months. A tentative agreement has been reached to increase vacation time from two weeks
to three weeks for staff who’ve been with the Library for 1-4 years. The Union has requested that
any staff member, regardless of their current role, be brought up to a librarian level II after
completing a master’s degree in library science.

There has also been some discussion regarding additional compensation for Saturdays.

The Town is trying to limit how much PTO part-time staff have and how much comp time they
can earn. They are proposing the comp be used within sixty days of being earned, and there has
been a lot of back and forth on how much you can earn (one proposed idea was to have staff only
earn comp time for scheduled Sundays and pay must be taken for Sundays picked up from other
staff). The Town declined paid parental leave and proposed part-time staff only receive prorated
sick time. Existing part-time staff will be grandfathered in to their existing paid time off,
regardless of how negotiations on these items end.

Adjournment

Respectfully submitted,
Renee Spinner