Board Meeting Minutes November 2023


RML Board Meeting November 7, 2023

Attending:  Bridgett Taylor, Steve Hall, Fran Flannery, Ed Castner, Phoebe Roda, Ed Castner, Dena Wilkie, Lu Aubin

Called to order: 6:33 p.m.
  1. Consent Agenda – motion by Fran, seconded by Steven, all in favor
    1. October minutes
    2. September financial reports
    3. October Director’s report
  2. Fundraising and community outreach
    1. Soup debrief
      1. Increased price
      2. Less walk-ins
      3. ? staying linked with trunk or treat vs. return to original format of sit down dining
      4. Need more bread
      5. Need thank yous for Ellen Chap, Kristen Strong
        1. Maria  to send thank you to Lois at North Tunbridge Store, 
        2. Lu to send thank you to Soro Coop
        3. Dena to send thank you to Ellen and Kristen – 
    2. Winter/holiday mailing schedule
      1. Letter close to being finished
      2. Uses ‘grand list’ for town property owners
      3. We buy the mailing list from an online site(? Melissa’s)  for 05068 ($35)
      4. Voter list from town – less than ½ of town, multiples to each house, per post office it is grossly inaccurate.
      5. Donor mailing list – < 100 people
      6. Mailchimp + traditional mailing – buy the list, review the list and mail merge
      7. Goal is to mail early January –
        1. Ideally it’s printed and ready to go in December
  3. Policies, staffing and procedures
    1. Accountant and banking update
      1. Possible transition to new bank is on hold
        1. Phoebe requesting Ed take over as Treasurer if move to new bank due to time constraints
        2. Phoebe and Ed to have a discussion
    2. Evaluation update
      1. To be started in January 
    3. Director meeting schedule/frequency
      1. Lu would like to keep meeting bi-weekly and is happy to have rotating board members come thru.
      2. Lu will set up a format for scheduling
  4. Budget review
    1. Discussed honoring our vote from 1/2023 in which we agreed to use $5k from endowment to build up salary – Pam will add
    2. Deferred approval vote to December 2023
    3. All agreed to appropriate 5k to salaries-
      1. Pam will look at benchmarking
  5. Other business
    1. Hilary is starting to host our Story Time hour
      1. Celebration this Thursday 11/9 at 10 am
    2. Bookclub!
      1. Endpapers to be read in January

Adjourned 8:08 p.m.  

Policy review schedule: (Feb: Collection Development; April: Service Policy; June: General Operations; October: Internet Access, Art & Craft Exhibits; Revision of Policies)

Strategic plan reviewed in March