Minutes - February 2025

Meeting of the Library Board of the Hamilton Public Library

February 12, 2025 - 4:15 p.m.

Presiding: Bruce Moseley

Attendees: Bruce Moseley (President), Lynne Kvinnesland (Vice President), Travis Olivera (Library Director), Suzanne Watson (Past President, Friends of the Library), Kate Reynolds, Erin Childers-Loranty, Kathy Steward (Vice President, Friends of the Library; attending for Diane Finch, new President, Friends of the Library), Liza Taylor (Assistant Director), Kara Rusch, Jeff McArn, Amy Jerome, Sami Martinez (Village Liaison), Rebecca Upton

Absent: Tiffany Horn (Secretary)

1. Call to order 4:15pm

2. Discussion with public or employee visitors (N/A)

3. Review & approval of minutes from January 2024

        Kate, Jeff; unanimously approved

4. Village Liaison’s report no report, but Sami has some questions. Will ask later in meeting. (buildings and grounds)

5. Friends of the Library report

1. Suzanne has resigned as President, Friends of the Library. Introduced Kathy Steward, Vice President, Friends of the Library, who is sitting in for Diane Finch, new
2. Current 8 members of the Friends of the Library Board (9 allowed according to Friends’ by-laws)
3. Approved funding for additional American Girl Doll case for library; also approved funding of 2 new computers and a monitor
4. Latest fundraiser netted about $2000. Some postal issues which resulted in some Hamilton residents not receiving the fundraising letter
5. Currently designing a library bookmark for National Library Week (April)
6. Planned fundraiser with Gilligan’s
7. Bruce Moseley attended the Friends’ meeting this past month

Bruce asked for a copy of the fundraiser letter. Travis will share.

6. President’s Report

1. Working on budget
2. Attended Friends of the Library meeting

7. Committee reports

1. Personnel (Kate Reynolds)

1. Meeting scheduled for 2/18 to talk with Travis about Director Evaluation

2. Nominating (Lynne Kvinnesland)

1. Onboarding new Board members - Meeting scheduled for 2/25

1. Working on an orientation checklist for new board members. Will share with board for comment when finished drafting
   

3. Finance (Erin Childers-Loranty)

1. 2a-2025 included $23,520.68 in payroll & $5,300.92 in Village-paid expenses and vouchers.

Kate, Amy, unanimously approved

2. 2b-2025

                        Erin, Jeff, unanimously approved

3. Revenues

Took in $392.30. Amy asked about cost of color copies; does cover the cost of color toner.

4. Approval of Donations
   Kara, Rebecca, unanimously approved
5. Action on Bills

4. Building and Grounds (Need Chair - Jeff McCarn agreed to be Chari)

1. Repairs/Maintenance progress
2. Repairs/Maintenance needs

1. Heaters (women’s restroom, baseboard in local history)
2. Women’s restroom handicap stall out of service as of 2/6/25. Was repaired. Heaters in women's/men’s bathrooms now not working. Village looking into the latter.
3. Entryways - no progress
4. Exterior door locks still need replacing - no progress. Sami reported that she mentioned this problem at the last village board meeting. A locksmith issue? Village will look into whether it is a locksmith issue.

3. Roof Project

1. Nothing to report

5. Emergency Management Plan Committee (ad hoc)

1. Draft typed up, reviews ongoing. Travis will send the draft to Board members.

8. Library Director’s Report

1. Statistical Reports

1. Programs (previous & upcoming)

1. Most well-attended  programs were Winne the Pooh activities, tea parties, finger painting day. Smart board was used by Rotary Club Exchange Program.

2. Circulation

                        Ebooks/Audio books higher circulation of the year

                        Circulation in general up from December

                        Total items added increased

                        Website visits very high but could have something to do with Google analytics

Travis provided broad strokes on circulation statistics in this month’s newsletter

2. Incident Reports (when applicable)
3. Staff Trainings/Meetings/Conferences/Outreach

1. Liza provided Sexual Harassment training. Well attended.
2. StackMap - allows users to map where an item is located in the library. HPL the only mid-York library currently using. Works through library website, but not yet through HPL app.
3. Travis attended Advocacy Day and met with our representatives

9. Unfinished Business

10. New Business

1. 2025-2026 Budget Draft ( Kate, Kara, unanimously approved Proposal 2)

1. Addition of full-time employee
2. Finance committee met with Debbie Soule and put together the budget early. Travis shared with board members. Includes two different 2025-26 budget proposals. Proposal 1: If we don’t change much, library budget will be about the same as last year (reduction of summer hours of service, which has been requested by staff due to lack of patrons in the library during first and last hours on Saturdays; affects personnel budget line). 9-3 to 10-2 proposed Saturday hours.
3. Proposal 2: increase budget by 10%, which would include another full time staff member: Program & Events Coordinator. Turnover rate for that position is high because employees want full time work. Travis compared to Cazenovia and Clinton programming, which is more extensive due to a full time Program & Events Coordinator.
4. Buildings and Grounds budget line. $0.00 for 2025-26. Friends of the Library funded the line last year.
5. Cost for IT services has increased.
6. Asking for a more significant increase from village as well as from school district

2. 2023-2024 Annual Report

1. Jeff, Rebecca, approved as presented

11. Communications

1. Donation of $10,000 from Joe Angelino’s Office - Bullet Aid

1. Travis recommends using for roof project. Carpet replacement is another possibility.

12. Executive Session (when applicable)

1. Kate, Amy, approved to go into Executive Session

1. Library Director Review

2. Kate, Kara to leave Executive session

13. Announcements and Adjournment  5:43pm

Next meeting March 12 at 4:15 p.m.