Board of Trustees Meeting – Jan. 9, 2024

Meeting Minutes

Documentation

• Meeting Minutes for Approval – December 18, 2023
• Professional Staff Reports
• Director’s Report
• Financial Report December 2023, FY24 YTD Book & AV Breakdowns
• Pod Use Policy
• Teen Room Policy
• 2024 Holiday Schedule

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 7:02 p.m. by K. Penders.

Public Comment

None.

AED Discussion with Tom Kenvin, Foxborough Fire Department’s Deputy Chief EMS:

Foxborough Fire Department Deputy Chief Tom Kenvin attended the meeting to speak to the Trustees about AEDs after having done a walkthrough of the Library with L. O’Neill a few weeks ago. T. Kenvin said that while the Library hasn’t had a medical emergency in a long time, it’s always good to be prepared for the worst. With the varied population here, having AEDs would serve the community well.
T. Kenvin explained that AEDs regulate an irregular heartbeat, the largest cause of cardiac arrest. When someone goes into cardiac arrest, the first action should always be calling 911. From there, the AED machine has an automated system that will walk the user through using the machine, and the 911 operator will walk the user through performing CPR compressions. While the emergency response time to the Library’s location would be minimal, it’s best to be prepared in the event that the emergency teams are responding to other calls and are delayed. Additionally, high quality chest compressions are the best way to elongate life in the event of cardiac arrest.
Addressing the primary concerns of staff, T. Kenvin assured the Board that staff do not have a duty to act. If anyone is incapable of or uncomfortable with using the AEDs during an emergency, they are not required to do so and cannot be held responsible for inaction. K. Penders received the same information upon reaching out to Town Hall on the matter, staff would be held harmless in the event of inaction in an emergency.
T. Kenvin suggested having one AED on each floor in a centrally located place, preferably near a landmark within the Library for ease of locating (they are often close to fire extinguishers). They require minimal maintenance and have obvious indicator lights when any kind of service is required. T. Kenvin’s department would be happy to do the training and certification for staff either at the Library or at the Public Safety Building.
Given the benefits and lack of staff liability, the Board and Director are in favor of installing three AEDs at the Library. The Board recommended doing some amount of community promotion once they are installed to share what staff are doing and the benefit to the community. K. Penders suggested including it in the newsletter when the time comes. C. Earnst suggested potentially doing a patron program around AED use, though it would not culminate in a certification. In terms of next steps, L. O’Neill will get a list of AED vendors from T. Kenvin and will bring price quotes to the next Board meeting.

Approval of Meeting Minutes

J. Ooi made a motion to approve the December 18, 2023 meeting minutes without changes.
C. Earnst seconded

Motion passed 4-0-1.
Igo Freeman abstaining given her absence from the December 18, 2023 meeting.

Correspondence:

The Library received a donation of $75 from Kathleen Belko in memory of Robert Woods, a patron who recently passed. A vote on the donation will be on next month’s agenda.

Friends’ Report

K. Howard gave an update from the Friends. They kicked off the year by saying farewell to Don Jenkins, the chair of membership, who will be stepping down. There will be a vote next month on Colleen McManis, a member at large, replacing Don as chair of membership. Additionally, the Friends have four open positions on their board and welcome any suggestions of friends or family who would like to join.

The Friends have decided to hold their biannual book sale May 9-11 and November 14-16 this year. They will be organizing book drives around those times, though the exact dates for the drives have yet to be determined. J. Ooi inquired about the preview events the Friends have done in the past and whether they will be continuing. The Friends are unsure of whether or not they will hold previews this year given that the early look was not particularly well received at the book sale this past November, with only five people coming early. K. Penders suggested holding the preview event again this year with more advanced notice and promotion as it can take time for aspects like this to catch on and become part of the fabric of the sale again. K. Howard will
take these suggestions back to the Friends and mentioned that the new membership chair will work more on benefits for Friends members once they start their term as well.

Professional Staff Reports

L. O’Neill provided updates from professional staff. Tim Golden and Suzanne Roberts worked together to get the Library ready for the pods, with T. Golden removing the books and materials from shelving and S. Roberts breaking down, moving, and reassembling the shelving.

Karen Dugan is working on an all ages “Who Do You Love” online art project through Padlet for Valentine’s Day.

Emma Brelsford is coordinating a Little Librarian of the Week each month. There have been so many sign ups that she is now doing two each month.

The seed library will be set up again this year. Kim Ferguson is helping with research, planning, and purchasing. The Library had a grant for this program last year. It will be paid for by the Library this year, though L. O’Neill advised that the grant can be applied for every other year and she will pursue it again for 2025.

Financial Reports

L. O’Neill reported that all financials are on track. The library supplies account is being spent down quickly. The professional development/conference line item has a high balance, so she is working on spending that down via the Public Library Association conference in April. L. O’Neill is attending with E. Brelsford. The total for the conference will exceed the remaining balance of the professional development/conference line item, the remainder will be funded from State Aid.

Director’s Report

L. O’Neill provided a Director’s report, starting with there being little to report on in regard to Library operations or personnel updates since the last meeting. She spoke on programs next, with an update that all adult workshops have filled up within two hours of event registration opening. Some have even been generating a waitlist, including a glass painting program at the end of this month that has a 25-patron waiting list. C. Earnst mentioned that it’s great to have this level of interest. J. Parlapiano suggested the possibility of holding multiple sessions per day for some of the programs with extensive interest. L. O’Neill felt this suggestion may be viable given that we have the funding to facilitate doing so and stacking program times such as 4-6pm followed by a second session 6-8pm would prevent her from needing to be here more than two nights per week. L. O’Neill also mentioned the possibility of hiring a program coordinator down the line to help with programming, something she did at the Norfolk Public Library that was successful. While it likely wouldn’t be for two to three years, it would likely be an 18-19 hour per week position.

The FY25 budget has been submitted and L. O’Neill and K. Penders are set to meet with the Acting Town Manager and Finance Director next week (1/16/24).

L. O’Neill is now a certified adult mental health first aider, having completed an all-day training with the Department of Health here at the Library. The certification teaches attendees to identify the signs that an adult may be in distress, as well as the questions to ask and how to ask them should they believe someone to be in distress. From there, those certified can connect the individual with relevant resources. L. O’Neill is going to work with the Children’s Department staff on becoming certified in the children’s version of the training.

While it will be two to three years before the contract with the current vendor is up, L. O’Neill inquired about the Library logo and whether it could be redone alongside the website when the time comes. Staff have volunteered to design a new logo, helping to minimize some of the associated costs. K. Penders advised that he and the Trustees would hear a presentation and proposal on the topic, and mentioned the need to give the Friends as much advanced notice as possible so they can align their marketing and promotional materials with the new logo should one be approved in the future.

New Business

Study Pod Policy – Discussion and Vote to Approve:

L. O’Neill had circulated the proposed study pod policy. Though not stated in the policy, L. O’Neill explained that she and R. Spinner will monitor reservation requests and the pods in general. K. Penders suggested removing the number of pods from the policy so it needn’t be updated if we obtain more in the future, as well as adding a line that states that there should not be any expectation of complete privacy or confidentiality while using the pods. Both C. Earnst and K. Howard suggested posting the policy in the pod, and the former suggested printing and posting the daily schedule on the pods with the hope of minimizing the oversight needed.

C. Igo Freeman made a motion to approve the study pod policy as amended to reflect the aforementioned changes. J. Parlapiano seconded.
Motion passed 6-0-0.

2024 Holidays – Discussion and Vote to Approve:

L. O’Neill provided a proposed 2024 holiday schedule that balances the needs of the community with those of staff. Summer Saturdays, closing the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, and shortened hours the day before Thanksgiving and on New Year’s Eve are all consistent with last year.

C. Earnst made a motion to approve the 2024 holiday schedule with the additional closures provided by the Director. J. Parlapiano seconded.
Motion passed 5-0-0

Old Business

2024 Community Read Update:

L. O’Neill shared that Brendan Slocumb, author of The Violin Conspiracy, agreed to do our 2024 Community Read for the agreed upon fee. She will be planning supporting programs for adults, teens, and children with staff and will provide an update next month. The main event will be held on Wednesday, March 27th with a meet and greet at 6pm and author talk at 7pm. The Friends of the Library will be doing promotional materials as they’ve done in the past. While a quote still needs to be obtained, the materials will likely be in the range of $150. J. Parlapiano will be doing the catering again this year. K. Penders suggested considering an orchestral tie in with the school for programming. This is on L. O’Neill’s radar and she will be reaching out next
month, as well as considering getting a violin for the Library of Things and/or doing a program on learning to play. Finally, the Senior Center has bumped their March book club selection in favor of Slocumb’s book. More details will be shared as they become available.

Teen Room Use Policy – Discussion and Vote to Approve:

The updated Teen Room Use Policy was circulated with the changes following up on prior conversations. K. Penders called out the three strikes aspect of the policy, as well as the decision-making authority related to this policy residing with the Director. After some discussion, the group agreed that the policy does not need to define the phrase “culpable teen,” that anyone participating in bullying is considered culpable and discretion will be left to the Director. There was also a discussion around involving the police in regard to the issuance of letters of disinvitation. K. Penders advised that doing so is standard procedure in town buildings, and it’s important that police be aware of disinvitations in the event that there’s escalation and a no trespassing order is needed. The only edit to the policy was to specify “teen(s)” rather than “teen” in the event of an incident involving more than one individual.

C. Igo Freeman made a motion to accept the policy with this amendment. C. Earnst seconded
Motion passes 5-0-0

Update on Trustee Town Email Addresses:

After conferring with both the Town Hall and Town Council, the Board received a definitive no on receiving Town email addresses for managing Board affairs, largely due to the cost associated with maintenance. Board members have two options for managing this going forward: members can create their own secondary email address for Board affairs, or the Town’s public records email addresses can be cc’d on correspondence. The Board members agreed that it is not within their purview to police each other on email retention.

Discussion of the Upcoming Election of Trustees:

C. Earnst announced his decision not to run for his seat again next term. He voiced his pride in the work L. O’Neill has done since joining as Director, and the confidence he has in stepping down as the Library is in great hands. As a result, there will be two seats open this year. Papers will become available soon and will need to be returned around mid-March. K. Penders encouraged everyone to consider who may be a good fit to serve with a focus on those who will be willing, interested, and engaged should they be elected.

J. Parlpiano mentioned the Lane Learning Center as a potential home for the diorama of the Town. They have a glass look through at the upper street level that may be a great fit. L. O’Neill will look into this further.

Scheduling conflicts for the February meeting among multiple Trustees became evident. After conferring on schedules, all agreed to move the meeting to February 15, 2024 at 7:30pm.

Adjournment

Respectfully submitted,
Renee Spinner