Hooksett Public Library Trustees Meeting

February 13, 2007 5:30 pm

Secretary's Report: Approved and filed

Treasurer's Report: Approved and filed

Library Director's Report: Weekly updates have been received by trustees

Unfinished Business:

• Budget
  • Budget committee voting on Feb 15th
• Boiler bid & HVAC
  • HS did a walk-through w/John Karpinski. They found temperature differences have occurred. They opened dampers in an effort to regulate the rooms to be more equal which didn't seem to help.
  • End user system- system not as user friendly as we had hoped. We will discuss options with Central Aire.
  • Status of punch list items-HS has questions that need to be answered, TH suggests the trustees meet w/Central Aire here and go over the issues.
  • Game plan for boiler installation-MF hasn't heard back from Scott Campbell.
  • Boiler alarm estimate HS-It is on it's way according to HS (next few days).
• Books for Babies Progress report - HS, TH, ML
  • MF will get babies names at Town Hall.
• Reprint of article in Parent & Child
  • MF will contact Parent & Child Magazine for reprint costs.
• Endcaps
  • Payment will be submitted when endcaps have been completed.
• Electrical issues
  • MB contacted the Fire Department and spoke with Deputy Fire Chief, Mike Hoisington, about the recent electrical surges. He refered MB to Michelle Bonsteel, the Code Enforcement Officer. She agreed with John Gimas that an extensive examination of the complete electrical system is not economical or needed. Michelle Bonsteel suggested that an appropiate response to the recent surges would be to ask an electrician to examine the main electrical panel and the grounding electrodes HS will check with Gimas to check grounding electrodes.
• Payroll Service and banking issues-BD
  • 1099s & W2s-all forms have been properly submitted.
• Greenough Grant-MF
  • It is roughly $2800 per MF. HS will let her know if it has not arrived by the end of the week. When it comes in BD will open account.
• Locking cabinets
  • HS office - size and price-Deferred until another time.
  • Trustees- Keys have been made-BD has keys and will test before distributing them.
• Policies
  • Holidays
    • Revision of Holiday Policy-Trustees are investigating a change in policy to total "hours" for holiday pay instead of "days" to attempt to correct inequities in overall holiday hours paid to different staff members depending on what days they work. JS passed out spreadsheet to show comparisons to show differences in staff hours. He also had samples of policies from several other NH libraries. Much more research on the part of the trustees will have to be done.
  • Vacation pay policy
    • Review of draft -Deferred
• Visit from Jeff
  • Computer backups, frequency, storage of backup tapes , ease of data recovery if needed etc.
    • JS says he currently backs up HS's computer every week, Mark's computer once a week. The computers are backed up to a portable hard drive. Hard drive is stored in JS's office. MF asked if we shouldn't be storing them offsite in case of fire. Flash drive back up for QuickBooks (3rd back-up) is kept offsite. The first two stay in the building. MF recommended backing up Quickbooks every time bills are paid. Other staff computers could be backed up monthly. MB asked where software CD's are kept. JS keep them in his office.
  • How numbers for meeting room, email list, circulation, program attendance are calculated.
    • Per JS-meeting room attendance-paper sign up sheets are located at each meeting. TH suggested to remind people who book meeting rooms that sign up sheets are needed.
  • Meeting rooms used.
    • Online booking is almost available (a month away). MF asked if a staff member reviews for meeting content. HS assured us that, yes, they check all reservations. Duplicate bookings will be impossible for the same room. Room use detail attendance sheets are kept for tracking purposes.
  • Email signups
    • Slips are given to JS as the administrator, he adds them to the email list. Patrons can also self-subscribe on the web site. He will keep track for us. Once a year he harvests email addresses from Horizon and asks if they want to be added to the HPL email list. The last effort he sent 900 or so, out of which 150 bounced. He estimates that resulted in 20 new subscriptions. Trustees asked that the number of new email addresses each month appear on the Circulation Report.
  • E file status
    • This is for E-rate funds; per Jeff, approx. $535 rebate (40% of phone bills) scheduled for 2007/2008 year.
  • MF suggest get high school kids' email addresses to get the word out for the Coffee House. JS thinks that that age group doesn't use email anymore.
  • MB asked JS if there is an item or a service that we are missing. JS will keep us posted.
  • Projector behind Circulation Desk- timeline for implementation.
    • Deferred
  • Color laser printer
    • MF suggested using Greenough Grant money to purchase one as it seems as though it would be an appropriate use of those funds. JS offered that a laser printer to handle big paper is extremely expensive. MF asked if as part of the marketing budget the board would like to pursue the purchase of a printer and a copy shop price for these types of things. The board agreed.
  • Vision Communications going to come back to drop a line by VD's desk in the next few days so that Vickie's computer, which will be equipped for checkout, can be hooked up.
• Flooring in meeting room MF,TH,ML
  • Need consultant to advise us on options-ML, MF, and TH met with Ed Meyers of A&E Flooring on 2-13-07. He recommends that because the carpets in the meeting rooms currently have an enhanced back (pad attached to carpet), and because the carpet is glued down to vinyl tile, we need to consider a taping system. That can be put right on top of the carpet that is already there. This way we do not need to think about removing the carpet which are likely glued to vinyl tiles which may have asbestos in them given the age of the building. We discussed different products from Shaw's and Lee. The trustees like the idea of carpet squares for the simple fact that of getting rid of problem stains. Ed has measurements and will call MF when he has rates for carpet squares and regular carpet from 2 companies-Lee and Mohawk. The one issue is the room divider -Divider's Plus is the company that installed the divider. HS to call them regarding the rubber runner at the bottom of the divider to see if a new rug (up to 3/8 ") would work w/the current rubber trim. HS to report results of her conversation with Dividers Plus to trustees so we know if modifying the divider is a viable option. TH looking into name of another contractor. Trustees would like 3 names total in order to make fair comparison.
• Status of ordering materials with Wal*Mart grant monies
  • Deferred. HS to report any monies left over from previous grants

New Business:

• Acceptance of donations
  • Designated purposes for memorial donations
    • Voted to accept $30 from Model T Club.
    • Also accepted $934 gift from Marcelle Grimard memorial fund. HS asked for trustee assistance in choosing a piece of furniture. ML and others volunteered to help.
• Hiring/Staffing
  • Game plan for additional staff position-HS will continue to think about options
• Staff Hours
  • Same as above.
• Newsletter
  • Frequency- two different versions for library and PTA? HS will submit PTA version to Claudette by early next week.
  • Possible locations in community to place holders-discussion deferred until March meeting.
• Policies
  • Meeting Room Policy
    • Update on staff feedback and recommendations-HS passed out revised meeting room policy for trustee review.
• Museum passes
  • HS is looking at Museum of Science discounts. MFA as well. TH suggests doing a survey to the email list.
• Website upgrades
  • Discussion deferred until March meeting
• Facilities manual subcommittee HS,MB,TH
  • Vendor spreadsheet -HS is in the process of creating the spreadsheet.
  • Next steps-TH will make a list of things that need to be replaced or necessary repairs such as the concrete on the front steps.
• Evaluation of current Programming -HS
  • Will look at it for the past year.
• Marketing of current programming
  • Nature Exploration Programs for Feb vacation-Circulation desk poster and sign up sheet are in place as well as notice in PTA newsletter/calendar
• Update from Heather on meetings
  • NHSL Marketing meeting-deferred to March meeting
• Definition of success
  • MF suggested that for each program, a quantifiable definition of success be established ( ie how many attendees for the reptile program would constitute a success? This is particularly important when staff time is involved in the programming. The Trustee and HS agreed that this is a good idea. We need to come up with an implementation strategy for this.
• Next policies to be reviewed and revised
• Date for HS review preparation-Tuesday March 27th
• Date for HS Performance Appraisal-Monday April 2nd
• Other new business
  • TH told HS that two of the PTA Reflections winners named their favorite place being the HPL!! HS will have Leeanne and Mark check into it and post in the Banner and the library.

Items we are tracking:

• Insurance-TH
  • List of questions for David Jodoin
• Creation of Library Personnel manual
• Preparation for Trustee Retreat
  • Feedback from HS on her online program
• Monuments- boundary markers- MB
  • To be finalized in the spring with Amy Alexander
• NHLTA meeting
  • Annual Spring Conference-MF
• Wireless internet policy
• Wish list items ( audio books, DVDs etc) possible Banner article
• Volunteers
  • Recruiting
  • Criminal Background checks
• Grant Opportunities 2007-2008
• Insurance for library contents-TH

Next meeting: March 13th 5:30pm