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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-03-10 Library Board of Trustees Minutes Approved Board of Trustees’ Meeting Minutes March 10, 2025 9:00 am Board of Trustees Attendees: Courtney Orrock, Alethea Fleming, Briana Alzola Lindquist, Mike VanQuickenborne, Jhana Shimizu Library Attendees: Michelle Hanna, Diana Farnsworth, Jeff Vogel, Trish Wilson, Stacy Paull Absent: Sydney Brady Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 9:01 a.m. by Courtney. Approval of Minutes Minutes from February 2025 meeting were approved. Motion for approval by Alethea, second by Mike. Manager Updates Jeff • Planning for the 2026 budget has already begun. There is a Department Heads meeting on April 17 and a meeting with City Council on June 12. Council has asked for a 3 year vision plan from all departments. • The Library is due for another strategic plan. Jeff would like Board input on topics to include, such as the consortium project and continuing building projects. • The Teen area is a bit behind schedule due to supply chain issues. Completion goal is mid-May. We hope the glass walls will be installed later this month. • Maritime Shelving is complete. The next step is looking for furniture. • The most recent Maritime program went well. It was presented by members of Skagit Bay Search & Rescue. • The FOL Book sale was very successful last Saturday, bringing in over $1,000. • We had to trespass a patron a week ago. This patron is a regular and had previously been trespassed for 3 months. The staff works with this patron diligently to avoid trespassing them but ultimately the decision was made for the safety of staff and other patrons. • The open page position has 27 applicants so far. It closes later this week. • There is a State of the City talk with the Mayor on April 10. The Board is invited to attend. • The Friends meeting is this week. One of the subjects on the agenda is grant opportunities. Diana • Diana attended Emerald City ComicCon last Thursday and Friday. She attended the end of a presentation on autism representation in comics, and also attended part of a panel led by students and teens regarding teen outreach. • The teen writing group is still going well. Stacy • This month features a new program called “The Emotional Life of a Child”. We are presenting this program via Zoom. We are testing out a new format and time to see how it works for attendees. • Summer reading planning is underway. • We are expecting a bequest for providing books to all who sign up for summer reading. These books may be distributed through the schools for all K-5 students. • Sinclair awarded us a grant last fall to upgrade the tech in the children’s activity room. The Sinclair engineers are coming to talk to the kids about being engineers and will use the tech that we bought. • The picture book project is ongoing. • The Ukranian program was very successful, we had lots of people dressed in traditional clothing. Trish • Trish is adding a new book to the collection entitled “The Book that Changed My Life”, featuring short stories from local authors including our own Board Member, Briana Alzola Lindquist. Briana signed the book for us during the meeting. The book was produced through the Whatcom Writes Anthology. • We were not awarded the Rotary grant that we requested for new Maritime furniture so the Foundation will be supporting the purchases. • Book a Librarian: This new feature is being advertised on our website and will allow patrons to make an appointment with Trish for help with research. The first appointment was booked last week. • We are starting to purchase items from the tech grant we received. One item we are looking into is a document reader, which would allow our tech assistants to project images from patron’s screens similar to an old school overhead projector. • ILS cleanup continues, and we are down to just a handful of missing items. • Programs in general have been very successful. The DW Ulsterman author event had 73 attendees. The most recent game night had the highest attendance so far, including a neighborhood cat who followed someone in and wanted to join in with the games. • Summer reading is just around the corner. We’ve reached out to Village Pizza to offer pizza prizes for adults who complete their summer reading goals. The theme this summer is “Level Up”. • Trish will be taking an online class from the Juice Academy called “AI for Skeptics”. It will talk about ChatGPT and hopefully help us answer more AI questions. • Trish and Stacy will be attending the ALA conference in Tacoma April 10-11. Partnership Updates • Foundation o Jhana reported that Hoopla budget has been approved and will now support 5 checkouts per month per person instead of 10. o The Foundation is drafting a letter for a fundraising campaign later this spring. They are looking for donors interested in offering matching gifts. • Friends of the Library o Courtney reported that there has been a policy change in the FriendShop that now allows for holding up to 5 books for 3 days. o There is still interest in having a Friends/Foundation “mixer” when the teen space is ready. o Noon Kiwanis group is looking for a June speaker from the Library. Courtney will attend the meeting, and one of the Librarians will attend as a speaker. New Business • The slate of officers for the next year was presented as follows and will be voted on in April: o President: Alethea o Vice President: Briana o Secretary: Mike • The representative for the Friends and Foundation will remain the same: Courtney will attend FOL meetings and Jhana will attend Foundation meetings. • Courtney will begin an email chain amongst the Board to begin brainstorming strategic plan ideas. The meeting was adjourned by Courtney at 9:44 a.m. The next meeting is April 14th at 9 a.m. in the Community Meeting Room.