Board of Library Trustees - Grafton Public Library - Regular Meeting

I call this meeting to order at 7 o'clock. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes of June 24th, 2026?

I make a motion to approve the minutes of June 24th.

All right, any discussion? No, I didn't have any comments. All right, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Thanks. All right, unanimous. All right. We're on to the approval of the bills. Oh, great.

Thank you.

Have you guys officially started yet?

We have officially started.

Thank you.

Thank you. I'll listen for when.

Awesome. Great.

Thank you. All right. So do I have a motion for the approval of the lines?

in the amount of $2,619.03, warrant four for $67,236.26, and warrant five for $13,418.70 using the funds as mentioned in each warrant. Any discussion? I had a couple questions. I know there are a bunch of big ticket items. I'm assuming those are all our yearly subscriptions? Yes. all are front-loaded like that?

Yep, they sure are. Yeah, it's really like, especially warrant number four is the two big ticket items right up front are CW Mars annual membership, which is about $28,000, and the Bibliotheca, which is about $33,000. And those come right on, do right on July 1st.

They collect on this month, right?

Yes, they do.

But for those memberships, there's no other fees throughout the year?

Nope, this is it, yeah.

And then the second question was, I noticed there was another like $5,000 Renaud value. Is that coming out of that pool of money we gave you, which means it's essentially coming out of state aid?

That, ooh, where was that? Or is that your budget now? Because you have budget for the new year.

Actually, that's true. We're in the new year.

So is it in your maintenance budget? I think that one came out of,

Oh, actually, I see it on page 17, library state aid services.

Yeah, so I think that was the one that came out of state aid.

And it was right before the new year. I mean, it was in 629, okay.

Exactly.

Yep, so I know we approved all that. I think what we should do as a group, we should just keep an eye on state aid because we don't want to drain our state aid account with HVAC things. Like at some point, you know, we might have to go back to the town for some, capital budget or something for that HVAC system.

And I believe we got an increased maintenance budget this year. So the idea is that we should be using the maintenance budget first. And then if we're like, then we can kind of tackle that on the back end if we need to.

So hopefully that doesn't even come up until November, December. Or even later. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's right. I'm sorry.

I sometimes think that's our financial end of the year. Yeah, so the June time frame.

Yeah.

I actually do not have anything to report for the capital campaign we're just waiting

I actually had somewhat of a request for the capital campaign or something for us to think about supporting.

Like a request from this board or from the library perspective?

Library perspective.

Yeah, I don't know if that's really appropriate for this meeting.

Yeah. Is it from us, from the board? I would say. Okay, they purchased something, and I think that we should fund it.

Like we meaning? The capital campaign. Yeah, so this board doesn't have oversight of the capital campaign. There's a separate board that runs the capital campaign. Yep. And I happen to be on it. Yes. But so that request can just come separately outside this meeting.

And that probably needs to come from Katrina, just to kind of like draw some lines, right? Because if you're recommending it, like I think that needs to come through the library.

Yeah, I would agree.

Okay, sure. All right, we'll collaborate.

I mean, obviously, once you connect us, we can work with whoever the funding request is from directly. Like we've worked for with...

debbie for like the children's rooms or the teen room stuff in the past so that's no problem but okay yeah yep all right good to know perfect because i wanted to know what that process was yeah um no no problem that's great um thank you all right so it sounds like you'll work with katrina and then katrina will connect with the capital company sounds good all right

Carrie, any Friends updates?

Yes. So Katrina and I both participated in the Friends meeting. And again, we can have up to three trustee members join. So if anybody's interested in joining, you're welcome. And I think also, too, if you had availability, Stacey, if you'd like to join regularly like I do, you're certainly welcome and encouraged to do that. And then, again, we could have one additional person join too, so that would be great. So the big news is a change in the date for the back-to-school sale. So for a number of very good reasons, the date was moved. So it was going to be the weekend of the 22nd, and it's now going to be Saturday, August 29th. It will just be on Saturday. It won't be on Sunday, but the hours are extended. So the sale will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. So we hope that we get a good turnout like we have in the past. And it's really, really good. It's open to everyone, but there really is a big focus on supporting teachers in the community to stock their classrooms and get ready for back to school. So that's really the big item. I did ask Rachel about your question from last time about the signs. And so they are looking for a vendor to make the signs. So we're kind of trying to ask around if anybody has a recommendation as far as they're looking for signs similar to the ones like when we have the town elections that you can make the signs. I know the Boosters Club just had signs made so I can find out. Oh, terrific.

What's going to be on the signs?

It's going to be like book sale this weekend or also for the The monthly donations, just to kind of... Like the yard sign type thing. Yeah, the yard sign that people, we can have people host on their yard just to try to get the word out that people can donate their books online. the first Friday and Saturday of the month, or when we have, when the friends have the book sales, or any other, I guess they could do other events as well, but those, I think, are kind of the focus, and I think primarily because monthly, the book collection's just to kind of spread the word more. So I think those are really the two key items that we talked about. So it's a big effort to ramp up for the book sales. So that's going to be really the focus for the Friends. So yeah. And then the next meeting. So the next Friends meeting, I believe, is the 11th. Yes. And it's 7.30 via Zoom. The Zoom link does not change. So if anybody else is interested in joining IEAM, we plan to attend, but if anybody else would like to join, I'd love to have, the more the merrier.

So, yeah.

And I think that's about it for the friends.

I guess the, so I found out, I guess Mike Goulet made the, they had flyers, so I don't know if they can do signs too. Oh, okay. So if you want that contact information, I can send that.

Yeah, yeah.

I know Staples makes those too, but they're probably a little pricier than average.

They're very economical and it serves us well. So they're looking for, you know, they don't have to be the fanciest signs. They just need to, you know.

Well, I'd be willing to pay for my sign too. So I think that's something else. Like I don't think it has to come out of the friend's budget. That's wonderful.

I'd be willing to pay for them too. yeah yeah you know the friends you accept you just donations in general so that's wonderful and you know of course you know there's the membership too so we all um you know want to make sure that we renew our memberships if we if we have as much money i need to do mine because i usually do it in your meeting it's not there so okay okay so i think then uh library trust update

Me again, so I unfortunately didn't get the document circulated to the group before the meeting, so I can do that before the next one. But I have kind of created an Excel where I've combined the stuff that Skip Currier sent us and then somewhat like an overview, like that snapshot that I showed this group maybe two times ago, but I didn't send it out yet. So I will do that before the next meeting so that we'll have it in the packet for the next meeting.

Oh, that's great. Thank you. I know that there's a lot of work behind the scenes for... Yeah, most of his information is from Skip.

He's the one who did all of the research about... how much money it really should be available for the library versus some other sources because a lot of these a lot of the wills were kind of worded differently and money went here and there and at some point like maybe like 20 years ago I think he spent a lot of effort with the town accountant to get everything categorized correctly in the accounting names and I gave you the actual physical point sure um and then you know you can have like an electronic version of it if there's not already something in the library somewhere i don't know there is yeah but it'd be kind of cool half of them are very difficult to read because they're all in like this cursive really strong cursive and you're like you know but they're really neat to kind of read through some of them And then, of course, Katrina's, in her monthly report, you can see at the end is the library trust. So you can see the actual balances. Which is great. Yeah, that's really nice. There's really two. There's like the George Fisher with about 20, a little over 20 grand. Wheelock has about 14 grand. And Winthrop Faulkner has about 10 grand. So those are considered a lot of money available.

A strategic plan update that was going to be probably, did you want to continue to add to it?

You're running the show. Sure, I can do that. So we had our first meeting on the 20th. I think it went really well. We've got a good group of people that are going to be running the show with me. We sort of went through, you know, kind of the basics about what is a strategic planning process in the context of a public library, went over the roles and kind of goals of the whole process and what folks might be handling or the kinds of tasks that we're going to be going through. We did some brainstorming, a little bit of team building, and then we planned for our next meeting and we'll be meeting Actually, I should probably put that in the next meetings at the bottom now, shouldn't I? Yeah. So we're going to be meeting on Monday, actually this Monday, August 3rd. We're planning to meet roughly every other week or so. And we're going to be assigning roles and looking ahead to specific tasks for our next meeting.

So who are the members of the committee?

Oh, I don't have the full list, but it's obviously Rachel and Prabhu and I, Alison Cusher from the staff. We've got Jesse Remillard, who's a community member. Sarah Salvo backed out today. Oh my goodness, what was... I know, I don't think I'm online. Actually, let me see. Hold on. strategic planning strategic planning oh i am okay so john roche santosha i don't know her last name betsy weldon from the friends natalie williams and manam who are both students

That's great. The students are a nice mix because one's a Grafton student and one's one who goes to school in Western but still lives in the community. So I feel like that's a nice piece too.

Like a college student or like a high school?

High school. Okay. Yeah. So it's a good group. I'm really excited about it.

I think we're going to do some good stuff. Some good work. And Katrina did a really good job laying out the plan and getting us all organized. So I think we will have our plan by the date. I think so. I'm pretty confident. Yeah. I might jump down to the list because one of the things we want to talk about is the November and December trustee meetings. So we want to look to shift them a bit because in order to hit that December 15th date for the strategic plan to be signed off, we're recommending that because our November meeting should be falling on Thanksgiving, we would do it, or the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, that we would have one before, right, the week before on that Wednesday. Yeah, and the reason is we want to be able to have a draft of the strategic plan so you guys can give feedback, just because we can't really have a discussion unless we have a public meeting anyway. So I think most of it will be stuff you'll expect. I think it will mostly be in line, but that gives you time to actually talk about it, and that would just be the full purpose of the meeting. And then we would actually have our November meeting that first week in December. So it would almost be like every other week a meeting, right? So you'd have your week before Thanksgiving, then you'd have the Wednesday of Thanksgiving, and then the next week after we would. So that way we could kind of get that sign off because we would need to vote it in in time for that mid-December date.

And then we would have another meeting further in December?

I think what we can do is we can figure out closer time. I would leave it on the calendar, and we have two options, right? So if we want to just have that December 2nd meeting purely just be devoted in and nothing else, we could do a Zoom meeting. We could do it really quick. I know December gets hectic. Mm-hmm. I think before we've actually taken that December meeting and moved it to like the first week of January just with the holidays and stuff too. So I think we can still figure out what we want to do the end of December based on like what we have for an agenda. If it's really light, I think we can adjust it there. And we could even say maybe we just have the second meeting and end up getting rid of the one in December. But I don't know what's on the agenda.

agenda last year. Um, the fourth Wednesday, December was Christmas Eve. So, yeah.

And so I think we just like, yeah, we might've even moved it up so we can play around, but if the group's okay with it, we'll be looking to do a meeting then on the 18th of November and December 2nd. So the 11th, the 18th and the second. Nope.

Isn't Thanksgiving the 26th?

Yeah. So it would be moved to the 18th, not the 11th. Sorry, I wasn't looking. That's okay. So it would be the 18th and then the 2nd. Does that sound right, Katrina? Sounds right. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So as long as there's no concerns with that, I don't think we need to vote it in. And then we'll figure out the December one because that's a lot of meetings in a busy time. But, again, we want to make sure we get that all signed off and –

And that's like the actual strategic plan that gets submitted to the MDLC. Yeah. That's not a lot of time, yeah. Not a lot of time between now and then, actually, because we're going to hold a couple community meetings and stuff, yeah.

But we're thinking December 2nd will, if not in person, it would be... a quick meeting on December 2nd.

Yeah, we can do like a quick like final vote because I think that's the value of having that meeting on the 18th is we really get to discuss and make sure everyone's comfortable with the plan and then we basically like make all the small edits and come in with that final final vote because we need that. I also like having the second in case something wild and wacky happens and we need one more edit that gives us time to make the edits, get the meeting on the calendar with the appropriate time, and not make Katrina pull her hair out and cross.

Much appreciated. Yeah, 100%. I'm good. All right.

Awesome. Sorry, I'm taking notes and trying to follow each other. I appreciate you. All right, so with that, a policy update.

Do you have something else on a strategic plan? No, we can go into policy, and then that'll be new business, right? Yeah. Okay, so this is down. Okay, great. The policy committee. Yay. We have been busy. We had our meeting. Unfortunately, Trevor was only able to Zoom in for... about an hour in the middle of it, but Katrina and I met at 6 until 8, so we powered through a bunch of our three main policies that we've been focusing on. The meeting room policy right now has been sent and forwarded to everyone, so hopefully we can... vote and adopt that one but along with that today we also sent the child safety policy which was formerly known as the unattended children's policy we did send it but if you would like a physical copy of it to review it was more of an update slash edit than a complete rework so we're hoping to vote on that one as well tonight and have that accepted. The main impact on that would mean that seventh graders are now able to walk up and enjoy the library space free without their parents, which helps kind of be in line with the community and how we have our middle school.

Which one do you want to start with first?

Because you can just make a motion to approve it and then we'll discuss and then we'll approve it. Sure. I guess the first one we should do is the meeting room because that one was sent out first. So I would like to make a motion to accept the updated meeting room policy.

Second.

Thank you. Any discussion?

I had just a question on So it specifically mentions social or private events. And I know that's not really what we've done in the past, but I feel like we've had some

in there, haven't we, in the community room? That space is separate than... Oh, this doesn't cover...

I asked Katrina the same exact question. Because it mentions the community room. So this policy covers only such times as when the library is open to the public. Gotcha. worth in full function, full library function. Perfect. But at the end of the prohibited uses paragraphs, it does say, for some of the above described uses and other private interests, please refer to the facility's rental policy. Gotcha. Which you will be very pleased to know is just about done. Excellent. Yay.

I'm sorry, we won't ask that question.

When you bring that one, can we get an overview of how you want to operationalize it, too? Yes. Thank you. I just want to make sure we don't improve that one without making sure you're comfortable with how it's going to operate within those constraints.

So even though we do policy, we sidebarred some procedural things for Katrina. Because as we walked through, my previous experience was like, oh, and you have to remember this in the background and this in the background. And I was like, but we don't need to write those into the policy.

Yes. I don't have the, I received the child safety policy, but I can't find the meaning of it.

It's in the packet. That one is in the packet.

It's on page, it starts on page 34 of the packet. Thanks, Katrina.

Do you think it's clearly...

okay and then why like in the appendix you mentioned all these other libraries what was that yeah so it's referenced earlier in the policy because the the residents of those towns are able to book any of our meeting rooms and study rooms it's a reciprocal understanding and that's just based

of location? Like why wouldn't Shrewsbury be on there or something?

That's an excellent question.

I believe it was part of the passes that we were collaborating with. So I think it's in connection with the libraries that we share the passes with.

something to think about in the future is if that's what it is maybe just note that's what it's in connection with so that way if you get another group we don't have to go back and update it right so um i think we can leave it as it is but that will just keep you from having to like keep updating it if something changes.

Because it specifically says Blackstone Valley Libraries and Shrewsbury is not part of that.

I see. Do you think, to Rachel's point, should you mention as of the date in case it changes?

um because it's so it's it's really the blackstone valley libraries that have all said yes we're doing this so yeah so okay that helps a little too i was thinking it's like we talked to these libraries and these are the ones we agree with but it's that that region and we specifically pass share with them so it is a specific group

THAT LOOKS GOOD.

I THINK IN THE PRIOR POLICY IT MENTIONED, LIKE, GRAFTON RESIDENTS GET PRIORITY AND SOMETIMES WE WOULD SAY, LIKE, YOU HAD TO BE A GRAFTON RESIDENT TO, LIKE, BOOK A MEETING ROOM. SO WE AMENDED IT.

ANY OTHER DISCUSSION? ALL THOSE IN FAVOR? ALL RIGHT.

THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT WORK.

Our second one is the child safety policy. I would like to make a motion that we accept this. The child safety policy, but it's more of like an amended policy, not like a total rework.

I will second. Discussion.

So I know we've talked about this a lot. Yes. Just remind me. So the challenge is there's like a certain age group that doesn't perfectly line up with a grade.

Yes.

So was the seventh grade like the key or was it the sixth grade that was the key?

Seventh. Seventh. Seventh.

So can you have 11-year-olds in seventh grade?

No. Occasionally.

No.

But it's like the 12-year-olds that are the borderline people that couldn't get into the teen room before, if they were in seventh grade. Correct.

I think there's 12-year-olds in sixth grade. There are 12-year-olds in sixth grade.

But they won't be able to go into the teen room.

Because they're not in seventh grade yet. Right. So the way that this is working, they can go into the children's room. They can view the collection. Anyone 10 and older is able to go into the collection in the teen room. That's how Debbie would like it. So anyone 10 and older is able to go into. 12 and older.

This says 12.

Because you're talking about the teen room specifically.

Do you want me to jump in?

Yep. Okay. So in the first, so what we were trying to do with this policy is make it so that all seventh graders regardless of age can be in the teen room together after school without having their adults with them. And it required us to do a little bit of parsing because Debbie, as Stacy mentioned, would like 10 and up to be able to hang out in her room. But we still need to require 10, you know, those kids who are 10 through 12 and in sixth grade to have an adult in the building with them. And so that's what that first, that section B does. So it says children ages eight through 12 and in sixth grade or below may remain unaccompanied in the library while their guardian is elsewhere in the building provided the child can use the library independently. And then we had to specifically parse out because of the teen room rules, children ages eight through nine might remain only in the children's room and children ages 10 and older can use any library space. So that makes it very specific where any of those kids need their adult in the building, this subsection can be in the children's room only and this subsection can use any part. And then the section C is the one where we explicitly state that children who are 12 years old and also in seventh grade or above can be unaccompanied in the library building.

So sixth graders, there hasn't been any issues with people thinking that sixth graders can be in the library without an adult?

Actually, no. There has been some questions about it.

Because it does seem, I mean, I know in Grafton, our middle school is seventh and eighth, so it is like a natural grade, but sixth grade seems a little bit old not to be able to be in the library by itself.

Yeah, and this is something that Stacy and I talked about, actually. Yes, so in terms of meeting our community, needs for right now we wanted to make sure that starting off this school year with the new seventh graders that we could let them know they're able to attend the library it's something that we want to look forward to allowing younger grades because i do think that that is a parent's decision i don't necessarily think that it's of when they would like their children to be unaccompanied. But I also don't think that it, on the staff's, it's not the staff's responsibility to parent slash babysit or monitor like bad behavior of children. So I was, our plan was to move ahead with this policy the way hopefully it is broken up now and then with strategic planning and reaching out to the community, seeing if that age limit would like to be changed further through strategic planning.

That makes a lot of sense.

But this does allow, I have a 10 and 12 year old specifically, so with this policy it could not hit home more than it does now because my 10 year old loves the teen room, thinks it's the coolest place. But it's also a teenage space, so I don't think I really want her in there necessarily right after school when all of the other teens are. But on like a Saturday, if she wants to go in and play video games or something like that or hang out and feel cool, like, you know. So as the parent, I like having that decision. And Debbie, as the teen librarian, is very comfortable with that. what patron she likes to have in her room. When my son was 10, no way. That's just a different mindset.

But my daughter, okay. One more question. It says in 7th grade. Are you in 7th grade as soon as 6th grade Like, in the summer?

Yeah. Yes. Your grade has ended. So, yes, that whole summer after... you have completed sixth grade you are welcome to the teen room they have to still sign a behavioral contract they still have rules that they have to follow um and you know debbie will enforce that but it would allow parents to do trial runs during the summer and see what their comfort level is rather than just being like walk up from the school i i think that starting like They technically are in the next grade.

And if Debbie's comfortable with it, she's the one who has to keep everyone safe.

So we don't mention the behavioral contract in the policy, right?

That is a procedure, not a policy. Yes, so that is something that Debbie does in running the library.

Yeah, that's true. And when we think about the next version, we might think about referencing it if you are required to sign one, right? So the actual contract itself wouldn't go in here, but if you say everyone who is, especially if you have that age group, or anyone in between must sign the contract, I think that's something that would be worth putting in the policy. I don't think we have to... We can approve it prior to that, but I think that would, then if someone says, I don't have to sign this, to go in and be like, you do because it's in the policy, right? Right now you won't really have that leg to stand on. If someone says, I don't want to sign it, but you can't say I can't go in because per the policy I'm of age to, because that would be the crux there.

It does say follow all library rules, but maybe say rules in, procedures or something or policies?

Yeah, just something to think about for the next version if you want to give Debbie a little more like So she'll be like, it's in the policy, you have to. It's kind of a nice thing.

Do you have another question, Carrie? Just formatting-wise, I like the green, but we kind of lost the green after the... Yeah, I noticed that after I printed it out, so it's fixed on the... And then there's a little extra space, like a follow all library rules, it looks like it's just in there.

And then I had a quick question, and grammar's not my strength, so you guys can tell me if this is not grammatically right. But in section B, it says children ages 8 to 12 and in the sixth grade or below. I would expect a comment after there. Sure. Does that? I don't think it needs a comment. No? Okay. there's i know there's always kind of strange rules where you need a comment it's usually that you don't always have to have a comma do you it just felt like it was hot like it was almost like emphasizing your point of like that's the age and maybe it's just the focus here so that was my only thought for b and c but the group feels like microsoft word didn't pick it up yeah but yeah it would if so if the group's comfortable with it it just feels like

I think because that sentence continues throughout the building, comma, it would... Okay. We would then have to start to separate. Okay. Like I said, this is...

I'm not a good person to ask.

No, that's okay.

I think it's okay. Okay.

Any other discussion?

No, no, this is exciting. All right. Well, actually, just I guess, like, again, like tweens and teens There's parentheses around ages 12 to 18, and there's not parentheses around the other ages. So I don't really care either way, but just to be consistent. Thank you. Thanks. You're welcome. Actually, I do like the parentheses better.

Yeah, me too. So then we added ages.

I have the thing open already, so I'm making the edits as we go. I officially got access to the SharePoint.

I'm part of the town again.

Do you want to update your motion?

Yes, I would like to update my motion that all edits that we have spoken aloud once they are adopted into the final edition that we can then move forward with accepting. Can we just say amended?

As amended. As amended, thank you.

I'll second that. All right, any discussion? All right, all those in favor? Aye. Unanimously approved.

Yay, yay. Okay, our third big update.

Yay.

Doug, you're going to be so excited. I am. The facility use has moved on to legal.

Great. Yay. That's exciting.

We took verbiage from many town sources to compile our policy. So right now it's going to go out to legal. And then once that comes back, I would like to present it at the next meeting, like the meeting after it comes back. So that way we could kind of do more of a deep dive with that specific one.

That's great.

Because I know we're looking forward to moving. Yeah.

AND ADVERTISED.

I THINK IT'S A GREAT WAY TO POTENTIALLY BRING IN SOME MINOR FUNDS FOR THE LIBRARY AS WELL.

AND MAKE IT MORE AVAILABLE FOR THE COMMUNITY. JUST MORE AVAILABLE.

IN TERMS OF THE GRAND SCHEME OF THE POLICY COMMITTEE?

SORRY, THAT ONE IS NOT WORKING.

I WON'T BE ABLE TO RUN THE MEETING.

Are you good?

No, but we'll just wing it, so it's okay. Oh, mine? Undo mine, because mine was working. Oh, that's so strange.

There's four here. I know.

Oh, is it your key?

Maybe the other half's not plugged in.

All right, I don't know. Oh, we don't know. This is just me being stupid. It helps if I plug in the right spot. No, that's okay. All good? All good? Yeah. No? I don't know. We'll wing it. It's all right. We'll keep going with her. If you start to die.

I put mine in low battery mode because I don't have a charger.

You don't have a charger? Yeah. Does my charger go for yours? No, probably not. Okay. We'll make it quick. In terms of the policy, these two have already passed and then facilities is our next big one. After that, we are going to, as a committee, look at what is out there and build the flow chart so that way... Everybody who is involved, the union, legal, our board, everybody kind of knows when they will be available for input or when we reach out to them. And then hopefully we'll get a nice timeline of when things should get reviewed. So that way we're not always scattering to update, but then we have some space available when policies come into question and we need to work on that one right away.

Okay. Grafton Day planning. That has me next to it, but Stacey, you... Oh, my bad. I'm sorry. That's okay. No, I responded that Stacey put that on.

And I was like... And I said, yay, I have great news for that. Okay. Grafton Day. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. For Grafton Day... I wanted to leave it open and available that anyone that wants to stop by and participate or help is able to. I want you guys to also be able to experience that day and go around. I will be at the table the entire time. Which table? We're going to have a table at Grafton. Yes, but instead of Just it being specific board of library trustees. I would like to represent the entire library As libraries as a whole I would like to showcase all the different faces of the library, so the friends, it falls before their book sale, so I really wanted to push that.

Yes, that would be great, and it is the following week, so hopefully people could be like, oh, I can...

Exactly, so I really wanted to pair up and make sure that we could push for the book sale, and then also I wanted to reach out to you and Jackie about your renewal form and kind of have like a little blurb or... about joining the friends because I love to support that at our library table.

I think Jackie would be definitely a good resource. Yeah. Okay. Great. Um, and hopefully she's available cause, um, yeah, it's good. Yeah. I am not available that day. I, I, unfortunately, um, but, um, that Friday.

So that's okay. Um, as long as I have promotional material, basically, um, That's pretty much what I'm looking for for kind of each department. I thought it would be great to showcase the library as a whole, what services they offer, different things. I wanted to showcase the new children being able to go into the teen room. Erin, specifically, some of the requirements for that day are we have to run a game or have a fun family activity. Paired up with the library They have like gift spin wheel where you like spin it and it lands on a prize So I found some fun prizes like working with the library and then I know we had mentioned Funding a little bit for the community event So the library itself has stickers for the children's room and There are bumper stickers that are magnets that we could give out that are like GPL stuff.

Oh, I brought some. It's in my car. I forgot to bring it in. I have one in my car. Yay! And I've got them. At the end of the meeting, I can hand them out. But they're like the pretty oval. I saw it on somebody's car. I'm like, how did that person get that?

They say GPL. They do.

I'm going to go get them. They do. They do. They're beautiful.

And everyone's looking. It's usually a city, right? It's usually an island or a town or something. So I thought that was really fun. Tattoos are a big hit both in the teen room and the kids room. And I thought a little bit of candy to represent the teen room. So I was going to do little things to kind of represent their room. But there was one. So we also have a tablecloth.

It's like a six-foot table, I assume.

I assume it's that. So it's going to show promotional materials with the teen room update, the children's room update. They have 1,000 books before kindergarten. So I want to push that promotion and kind of like big ticket, like big things that go on the library, big changes for the table.

Could you do something like a did you know and randomly put up all the things you can do at the library.

Oh, no, I like that.

Like the library of things. Because some people, you're going to get obviously all ages.

Or the seed library is really cool. I know. Yes, I like that idea.

You should do like a lift the flap. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yes. Did you know? And then like just 20 different.

I love all these ideas. One of the things is we should just check back with the email we got originally. Yes. They ask committees. So I think the way you might just have to position it a little is the board of trustees promotes and enables all of this. So just to make sure. Oh, this is great. Thank you. So just that would be one thing to check in because if everyone else is like committees and then we have the public library. So as you're approaching, I think you can still put all that stuff in. I think so. You might have to tweak it. Yes.

And then Aaron seemed really interested in getting a trivia bit. So I thought if they spun the wheel and they got a prize that they didn't 100% fall in love with. that we could ask them a trivia question. And if they answered their trivia question, then they could pick the prize that they want. Nice. So we're trying to incorporate all of our different elements. Feel free to also, like,

fine-tune it right that's a lot to tackle so yeah yeah definitely feel empowered oh just say yes these are all great ideas but we can only do five really well and these are the five we're gonna do no one will take offense that's what i was thinking like yeah you don't have to go into details of maybe in the children's room the teen room and all these different but have like a big thing like these are all things that go on and then of course get them to come to the library to find out more details and be like look

promise we have activities for all ages yeah and do you need people to be there from us like so aaron was hoping that anyone that was available would i'm planning on going there right so i think i can help before in advance too if you need help okay great thanks um do we need to supply our own tables i'm not sure on that part um i have to figure out the

Do you have some contact information?

Yeah, I have all of it. This is like the 21st? 21st, yes. But on the note of the giveaway things, I heard through the grapevine that potentially the strategic planning committee might like to hand out something for filling out their survey to incorporate community participation and I thought well with this community event we could probably pair up with that So we get many samples at the library, and one of them was this awesome pen. And I wanted to show it. It's a really nice pen. It's a really nice pen.

Because sometimes we get pens and we're like, oh, it looks nice.

And then it's not. So this one has been peer tested by many of us. We've previously, for the friends, bought notebooks and pens. Which were so cute.

Everything's good except for the pens were not good. The pens with that one were not, but the notebooks were.

So we have peer tested this pen. thought process was if we potentially got these pens for that night and also for the strategic planning if we kind of paired all of that together and then as a giveaway doesn't expire we will have them for a long time it's a great promotional So this is like an older one that I had from, I don't know, they send them to Allison all the time.

So I guess my thought on the strategic plan, we bring it back to the committee, but instead of a pen, we might want to give out something that would direct them on a date they can go somewhere to fill out the survey. I think if they take something from the table that says, whatever it is, it says go to the Grafton Public Library on this date to fill out the survey, right? So I think that would maybe help give more traction because the survey is going to be online. It's not like a paper survey. It's not like by sitting here and filling out the survey. I think we want to avoid that.

Could we have like a QR code?

Yeah, so however we do it, I think if there was something we wanted to do as a giveaway, it would be to direct people to the survey when it's open. Okay. And we wouldn't really have an ability to get people pens when they filled out the survey. I don't know if that, unless you had a different thought on how that would be executed.

But this gets them thinking about the library, and it's, you know.

Yeah, I think it's a good giveaway, but maybe not necessarily for that strategic plan piece. Right, yeah.

I'm not saying you shouldn't do it for your piece, but I don't think, like, it wouldn't promote it. So if your goal was to do something that would also promote people to get them to fill out the survey when it's up, because I don't even know if the survey will be up by that date.

Oh, probably not. So these were two separate things. Right. Like, if you filled out the survey, or when we did it.

There'd be other uses for the pens.

It's not down the road. Just as general input, a lot of our community is elderly, and you're not going to want to just have a...

I'm sure we can have some paper ones around, but that won't be the... A large...

population of the library so yeah we can't right i think it's all details to figure out but i think if we're at the event so i guess that helps i thought you were trying to drive people towards no this i want to swag like as like an option it would be great as an option um so if they're because aaron had mentioned there might be like a slight a little bit of a budget so i thought that this would be a solid item because this is really it's really gifted

Not at this first event, but various events.

And a couple questions, just because I have that on you. So Katrina, you asking for the funding request for the pens. So how are you thinking about using and what's your vision for the pens and what's the budget?

So this originally came because the staff were looking for giveaway items for National Night Out. for the school visits, the curriculum nights that happen early in September, and we were trying to figure out what items we would like to purchase so that we could have them available. The next day, I think, this came in for Allison. And she was like, look at this. What timing. And there's Grafton Green in there. Yes. 100%.

There's a Grafton Green. It will be Grafton Green.

So the department managers and I all said, this would be wonderful. It's beautiful. The price is right. Let's take it to the $0.69 a pen for that, which is really nice. And so that was really the purpose. And to the strategic planning question, I was like, oh, I wonder if we could use some of these as, like, an incentive. Like, if you fill out, you know, take a look at this QR code or here, have this paper, and then we're going to give you this beautiful pen. You know what I mean?

Unless we're not tracking people down to get pens. No.

So more of, like, an incentive, like, if you happen to do it, we're going to give you a pen. But it wasn't really fully fleshed out.

But it was really driven by this national layout, the school visits, curriculum.

And then I thought I could piggyback Grafton Bay on it.

And the great thing about pens is, like, if you get one at this event and you get another one, it's okay.

Like, you can never have enough pens. So is there... We're at the new year for the budget, right? So are you looking to pay for your budget?

We don't really have a budget for marketing promotional materials.

What do you do with the general donation fund that you guys have? Like that people donate money. Don't you put the money from the copiers into some general...

Oh, like a gift fund?

Yeah, the gift fund.

Yeah, so we do use that. Sometimes it's for programming. We use it for the staff room supplies, museum passes.

Is there enough money in that for something like that, for the giveaways, or not really?

I mean, we could cover it, but it's a small fund.

So what's the total cost?

I don't know how many you're looking for. So the library staff were hoping for $1,000, and then I think you wanted about $500? About.

I think that would help cover all of the different events. I always, if we're ordering, usually when you look at the price per each goes down. So $69 is the best value?

It's the best value, yeah. That's $690? So for $1,500 it would be $1,035.

Plus shipping and handling and whatnot.

Oh, so 500, so you want 1,500 pens, 1,000 for the library in general, and 500 for Grafton.

But then the rest of these will go back. Go back, yeah. Because they are sharing their kind of other swag with us. So I wanted to kind of supplement. And it's all for the library.

I also know that you're trying to save states, so.

But it's, I mean, $1,500 isn't a lot in, they're not perishable, they're very nice, and they promote the library, so.

Yeah, I mean, we've done them before. I don't remember what we spent on them before, but.

Is that, like, I haven't bought, like, how, when you buy pens, how many do you buy normally, like?

I don't think I've ever... Like a thousand sounds like a lot. It does.

So 1,500 sounds like a real lot. A lot of pens. So I was like, I don't even know where you're going to keep all the pens. because we do so many outreach activities in any given as long as you feel like they'll be used in the year we want to see and we can calibrate in case there's i do i really i have confidence is there any issue with just ordering 500 now and well we want a thousand because they all say 69 cents each so

So we could. Special offer. I think this particular offer is only good for 30 days. Of course, that's how they get you. Who knows if it'll be the same. But who knows if it'll be the same.

It's also the time to place the order again.

Look if you have them. I think that this will give us a data point because it will kick off all of the... yearly events for us so we could see in a year how many.

I'm comfortable if that's the number you want, Katrina. My recommendation is that we don't just leave them around and they kind of stay locked in their office because pens will walk away suddenly everyone's grabbing a new pen every time.

we think we'll use them right even if they're not perishable right so maybe we use them for a couple years and it's not a big deal as long as they don't just kind of go into circulation not around I totally agree and that was a good observation that Allison Kusher made is let's only get one color because I'm the kind of person who would want one of each so yeah I would definitely love the blue but the green is the color to go with I also think that most of

these special like the special order only come out when we do our events like the stickers and these bumper stickers and things like that those only come out when we're doing the promotional totally fine however katrina wants to manage it so like as long as that you're managing the distribution i'm good with it i'll need the operational details

OK. So it sounds like then you're looking for a motion to fund $1,035 from maybe $1,100 because they're shipping the tax or whatever.

want to do some pens and something else maybe. I don't know. I mean, it looks like, I mean, I'm just doing a quick Google search, but 69 cents actually looks like a pretty good deal. Yeah, it is. Most of them are over a buck a piece.

Yeah, per pen. Nice quality pen. Do you want this from State Aid?

That would be great.

Yeah.

Okay. I second. Any discussion? No. All right. Looking forward to seeing the pentagram. Thank you. Did we actually vote on that? Nope.

I'm waiting for the all-in.

I think what it is is I already started typing it. All right. Thank you, everyone. All right, the next is the walkabout with Chris. He's not here, so I don't know if you saw anything from him on it. So then we'll go to the... You might have skipped new business.

You missed new business.

Oh, right.

Oh, sorry. We went to the pens, which were the last item. All right. New business, we'll go to ethics training. Thank you for sending that note out.

Yeah, so... Just, since we sent the note, but just a reminder that everybody needs to get their paperwork and trainings in based on the schedule that the town clerk sent me and that I sent out in the trustee packet.

Thank you. If you have any questions, let me know. I was confused when I got the email because I was like, it's only every other year. So I was confused, but I kept going. Thank you. You got it.

I was excited to have already done it.

Pretty unusual, pretty unusual.

Victory! The next new business item is upcoming filtration system enclosure dates.

So I spoke with Tyler Smith, who is the plumber who is doing our filtration system upgrade. And he's going to need, he said, two days in order to do all of the work that he needs to do to install and patch. And there's a bunch of very specific technical terms that keep us jargoning over my head. In discussing with him the best course of action, obviously there's going to be some down water time. He did offer to do this off hours so that we didn't have to close the building, which is great. We can do it. He did say that the cost would increase about $5,000 for the labor. of off hours.

5,000 to do off hours? Wow. It's multiple people.

It's many, many hours, multiple days. So it would be significant. So I was like, well, the trustees did not vote to authorize that. So his recommendation was to close in the morning. of a Friday and then open the half day because he'll be able to shut the water off, do the work that he needs on that morning timeframe and then be done in time for us to open in the afternoon. and then finish the rest of the work on that Saturday with no issues, with no water issues. Can the staff be there while it's closed? No. I mean, I can be there, but we can't require the staff to work without water.

So the library would be closed Friday morning, it would open in the afternoon, Friday afternoon, but then it would be closed on Saturday?

It would be open, but they're going to have to do it, because they just need like a half-date. Yep, they need the half-date without the water.

I can't remember. Do we have to talk to the town administrator if the staff is going to get paid for a half day off?

That's an excellent question.

Yeah, I don't remember.

But it's not their choice. Like, we're forcing them. It's like a snow day almost. It is like a snow day, yeah. And they could work from home. They could do the training or something, yeah.

I don't think that we have to.

Okay.

Yeah. I think that sounds reasonable. I kind of have to, so. Yeah, I was thinking it might be worth when you say you're going to open, like, noon. Maybe put, like, a little note in parentheses next to that flyer that says, like, maybe delayed. It felt like it takes a little longer. Like, I'd hate for people to show up at 12.05 and be upset. Yeah.

Like, we still have the water on.

Does it have to be a Friday? Like, what's your least...

least populated day well that's and that's the thing I think it was Friday yeah I think that's in looking at all of the different possibilities I think we landed there because it made sense

I don't think we have to vote, right? Just that's no concerns.

We don't have to vote? I think we probably do have to vote.

We have to close library. All right. And is there any other, just trying to optimize that.

Which, I'm sorry, which Friday? I don't know. Okay. It's a Friday morning. A Friday morning. It's not scheduled for him yet. Okay. things to potentially think about. Songs in the Park for the littles with beats of Dance in the Park is a Friday and towards the end of the summer I think it bitters out so that might and then if it does bump into when school starts making sure that the teens and tweens now know that they can't go up on that Friday and like communicating with the school.

And then obviously if there's any other maintenance work, you know, by the custodian or something else like painting or whatever, you know, try to get that done at the same time, right, if there's any work that the custodian can do. I don't know if we need a motion. I'll make a motion to authorize Katrina to close the library for half a day for the plumbing repair.

I'll second. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor?

Aye.

Thank you. All right. So that then brings us down to Professional Development Day, Katrina.

Yeah, so I made a mistake and scheduled myself away during the previously planned professional development day because I didn't have the calendar in front of me. I would very much like to be there because it is my intention to run the focus group for the staff for the purposes of the strategic plan. So I would like to propose moving the previously approved professional development day from August 20th to the following week of August 27th.

Is there any issues with that in school?

Well, school is back. So in school, it's a little different this year because actually they go back on the The 26th, right? The Tuesday, yes. So the kids will be back in school.

Is the Friends book sale, are they dropping off? Do you have the room the 26th? No.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, I mean you can post it in other areas, but just Potentially know that that room will be sorry like yeah, my brain works.

Yeah You're right that that is that is a key period for for you guys But I mean

You don't have to have the staff meeting in that room. There are other options.

I guess maybe we can talk more about the school start. To me, that probably feels like the bigger one. Is there a week earlier that would make sense?

It actually helps out for any parents that work, having their kids be at school that day, and they have to take the full day so they don't have to worry about child care. So it works in parents' favor that school is started. Because kids are more likely to do it.

Yeah, it's more of an advantage. Kids right after school would be going to the library after the first or second day.

Is it the full day? I can't remember.

Oh, it is.

You closed the whole day. I closed the whole day.

I think it's OK.

I think it's OK, too. I mean, you can check what you're going to have to do. Cancel or whatever but based on that I think it's okay.

Um just in the grand scheme So we're gonna close for plumbing then we're gonna close for Labor Day Then we're gonna close for professional development all right around all right around Back to school just so you guys all know Labor Day is late this I mean if the plumbing is not

like it's not a super urgent you could do that after school starts and then it's going to affect less people in the morning right if it's if you close for the morning because everyone all the kids are in school except for the parents like early kids liberty's september monday september 7th so maybe yeah maybe do the plumbing in September, the first of September somewhere.

I don't know if there's a way for us to kind of try to consolidate. Not with the plumbing? No, because it'll be a holiday.

What do you mean?

Oh, labor will turn into holiday hours.

Well, I'll make a motion to allow the moving of the Professional Development Day from August 20th to August 27th with the knowing that katrina is going to manage all these days off to make sure that we're not off like a bunch of days in a row yes we'll make it work i'll second i'll second the motion although any discussion all this in favor thank you Next item is ground cleanup with Doug.

Yeah, I had, so I think it was mentioned at Walkabout, I don't know, maybe last month, and Katrina's brought it up, and I was there last week and just noticed a lot of overgrown, and especially, I think you mentioned some of the Donor signs you can't see anymore because they're all covered in stuff So it's good that everything is growing but a lot of it's not supposed to be growing in there So I reached out to Christine. She's the volunteer that does a lot of the gardening work and asked her if she would Be willing to run like a volunteer outing So if we could have volunteers come in at a certain date or time And she could kind of direct them like what to do and they would do that She said she would be happy to do that. So I don't know I What if you guys are familiar with any groups that we could get or how we can encourage volunteers, but you know whether it's like a weekend morning or Even like a late afternoon like a four o'clock, you know, just for two or three hours sustained Grafton group What is that? Sustainable Grafton.

Yeah, Sustainable Grafton. Shannon used to work at the library. So I think if we could piggyback, like, collaborate with her, that would be great.

I was going to ask Erin about the Boy Scouts.

Yeah.

I mean, I was thinking that... you know, even if you just did it one evening, like for three hours, like not a huge thing, and then maybe try to do a second one if that's successful, you know, not to do like a whole half day thing or something like that. And then I would propose to the capital campaign to fund, you know, whatever, get gloves and trash bags and maybe pay somebody to take away all the rubbish, you know, all the brush and maybe provide food or something, depending on when it is done.

Yeah, and then, Katrina, do you have a note in your director's report that you're having trouble getting all the mulching and things done, and so you were looking for a volunteer effort to run that?

Yeah. Yeah.

I think Doug and I were sort of collaborating on this. Yeah, so it's all the same. So it's all the same thing. Yeah. OK. I didn't know if the mulch and the signs were all the same.

I mean, the mulch, we were originally looking to pay someone to do it, but my person never came back with a quote either. Yeah. I think those people are just so busy. I agree. And so much of it is just, I think, weeding. A lot of it is just weeding. But then you've got to get rid of the weeds and all that stuff.

Because we're a town building, does the town do any maintenance on outdoor? Isn't that?

They do, but the level of detail, maybe. They do the most.

roughly, and then they actually have done some of the mulch in the past.

So is it the DPW that we use?

It's the DPW, yeah. Right?

It's actually Joe. Oh, really? And Tim.

It falls under the custodial services? It falls under the building. Oh, okay. So they, I've had Congress. They're the ones that did the mulch? They are the ones that did the mulch. Oh, really? Okay, I didn't realize that. Yeah. I've talked to Joe and Tim, and I kind of got the sense from both of them that they're incredible. incredibly busy and it would be very difficult to get them to do that kind of work.

I'm assuming the town gets some kind of discounted rate for the amount of mulch they acquire. Could we see if we could at least coordinate on the delivery and see if there's some kind of deferred rate?

I wasn't even thinking mulch at this point. I was just thinking weeding. We're just weeding.

Because I know the schools, the PTO handles the... lower schools, and there's committees and things like that that handle that.

It might be something to see if the National Honor Society in town would want to be interested in engaging that for volunteer hours, because that could just kind of, if we need it once or twice, those students are always looking for hours, so that might be a good group to plug in.

So I don't know what the next steps are. I mean, Sure. And we can just explore options?

Yeah. I will say my contact for NHS is the teacher who runs it and he's not, he doesn't work right now. Oh. Since it's summer vacation. Oh, that's true. So I don't know that I would have, I did try to reach out to him right before school ended and I think it was just too much chaos so I never heard back.

uh so maybe we target the boy scouts i think the boy scouts i think i think it might be tough to get the yeah um maybe even the girl scout like yeah yeah yeah i think the scouts organizations as a whole yeah they're more outdoorsy i will however there's also an h4 and if we get like i don't know pizzas or something like depending on the day it might be worth playing flyer up in the team room if we're offering free pizza for a week

I think honestly, if you were to get like 10 people, that would be awesome.

I can, um, we have a, we keep a list of our current volunteers. So this is something that I can email all of our current volunteers as well. Many of them are teams. Can I make a suggestion? Yes. I have a great idea.

What if we do it as like a library program as a, like make our library beautiful and we do like an all call. make an event right but it's drop-in so that way like families can come and also help that's cute yeah cuz I think if you just spread the word that like people would show up like if I have that night off I'll totally come up but like so I think if if someone wants to run with that that would be great and I feel like it should be a collab between upstairs and downstairs yeah yeah okay

Do you think an afternoon, like start at 4 and go till 7?

Want to be careful of mosquitoes. Maybe we can, and we are, I think, getting into too many details. Yeah, that's fine. Because I think these are all important things, right? But there's a lot of calendars and stuff. No problem. And then let us know because we would love to participate. Yes.

I will collaborate with Christine and plan an event. And Doug, if you want to get back to me about Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and their interest.

I'll see you on the email. We used to have to do watering, which is not really my thing. I'm not great at, but do we... Our plants are probably established now. Oh, yeah.

I think they've been established, because they were all native, which was part of it.

They were designed, supposedly designed that way, that we watered in the first season, and then they were supposed to survive on their own. I don't think it's a problem, because there's a lot of stuff going on.

They look alive. They're doing just fine.

I think whatever other is doing pretty well. I know what she mentioned, actually, I meant to ask you is, do they have to be quarry checked if they're doing an outside program? Like a one-off event? I wouldn't think so.

Just who have to be Corey Jackson? Adults.

Any of the volunteers that come?

Oh, see, that's why I don't know if we should call it volunteers. Or a program. We should call it a program because then... Oh, I see.

It gets around.

Yeah. Not... I mean, yes, gets around, but also...

It just seems odd for a one-off event that you need all that.

Yeah, allows for more community participation. It's not like there's going to be anybody by themselves. It's a big group. Supervised, too. Okay.

Let us know when you need us. Thank you. Thank you very much. The walkabout, Chris isn't here, that moves us on to the director and staff. I think everyone's had time to read it, so we can take two approaches. Katrina, if there's anything you need our feedback on, and then if anyone has specific questions, we can kind of tackle that first. I appreciate that. I don't

i reviewed this right before the meeting but it's great that the union contract Yes, we're very grateful. I did actually have one other update as of this afternoon under personnel and staffing. Karine Castano has officially accepted the department assistant position. Yay! That was nice. Oh good, I was going to ask about that. Yes. Who is it again? Her name is Karine. Karine, okay. She's got a tremendous amount of marketing and admin experience. I'm really excited about bringing her onto the team. I think she's going to be a great fit for everybody. When does she start? That has not been determined yet.

We're looking forward to meeting her.

Yes, definitely. Very excited. Yeah, so any questions for me?

That was one I had.

Just wanted to call out for the group, the visual on the strategic planning there. It's just good for this group to know how the board's going to interact with it. So take some time, look at it. We'll come back with some more information. But we'll be engaging in that.

I know Allison Piconi retired. I know. She's wonderful. She's so talented, I think she's focusing on her art probably now.

I think she's doing a number of things.

Yeah, she's filling her time. Her husband retired, so she is spending some time.

We're excited for her.

Any other questions for Katrina? It's been a great month. Any other business before we go to public input?

i just wanted to bring up um we typically do a staff appreciation in the fall right i think this last year when we did the little water thing i can't remember the water bottles well that's what we did i think last year um so i was just asking like if you had any other like historically we used to do it at someone's house which i like enjoyed because it got trustees and staff and their spouses or significant others to kind of interact but i know not all the staff thought that was always that great or they couldn't make it and all that stuff so um just seeing if you had any ideas on what the trustees can do yeah so i i have put this out to all of my staff and everybody's sort of done a collective shrug

There was a couple of staff persons were like, ooh, staff outing. Can we do the smash room that's opening in Westboro? So throwing that out there. And then I thought it would be kind of nice to do like, because I remember you saying at the trustee's house, but what about like a cookout at Purgatory Chasm or something in a public space?

So I don't know. Definitely up for whatever you think. If you think that it would be more comfortable in a public space, happy to do something there. We can always be happy to host at our house. We host a lot. So I think whatever they feel most comfortable with. If they'd rather like an event space or purgatory out or wherever, just great.

I feel like someone's house would be a little easier logistically. Probably. Because all the trustees would bring an appetizer, or we'd buy appetizers, and we'd bring a bottle of wine or whatever. Yeah, because we're cost-effective.

Because I don't know. I don't think we can use state aid for staff appreciation, right?

We haven't in the past. I don't think it was all just trustee donations.

I'm just wondering about the Smash Room. I don't know how expensive it is. I don't either.

That is not something that I looked into, unfortunately.

Well, I guess maybe we just think about it for the next month, and maybe we can figure it out in August.

OK. Yeah. And I'll connect with you, Katrina.

We can kind of talk through it. I did have something for the end as well that came up within 48 hours. Perfect. So you'll remember that towards the end of the fiscal year I had mentioned that we were going to go about $33,000 over on the personnel line and that we would have to cover that with stay date because it was well over our budget. very happy to say that it is not $33,000. We managed to get it down to $14,176.99 through a combination of staff vacancies and austerity measures. It's good, but it's still over.

And so those just happen to be people working extra time or just based on people's holidays and bringing people in?

Yeah, a lot of it was so-called overtime.

That's by and large the bulk of it. And I think there was some early learnings on the actual process versus what people have historically been doing that live as they choose, so we won't see that again.

Correct, yes. I think there was a tendency to cover all shifts with subs and whatnot, irregardless of need or... fiscal availability.

So do we have to come up with a source of funding? It would have to be stated, right? Yeah.

How much was the envelope? $14,176.99.

$14,176.96? $99. $99? Okay. I make a motion that we cover the FY26 overage of $14,176.99 from state aid. I second. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. All right.

All right. Any other business before we go to public input?

I am here on other business. I think you have public input, unfortunately.

But yes.

So we're good? We're good. Okay.

Come on over. We did all of our side things. Thank you. All right.

All right. My name is John Kelly. I am the chair of the Charter Review Committee's subcommittee on Article 3. Article 3 is all elected offices, which includes the Board of Library Trustees. So we had our first meeting, and in going over all of the different boards that are mentioned, there were only a small few that we didn't have any immediate thoughts or comments on. But I feel it's very important that we give each board the opportunity to give their own input as the ones who are going to be living the outcomes of any of our decisions. Other background on the board, any proposals we make go before town meeting and must be voted on in the majority there. So we cannot unilaterally make any changes at all. In reviewing section 3-6, subsections A and B, which goes into the compositions Terms of Office and Powers and Duties, there's literally only one change that we could come up with at all, and that is under Powers and Duties, the line 3, all funds of money and property that the town may receive by gift or request, so on and so forth, we thought about adding the word the after the first and so all funds of money and the property that the town may receive because it could be perceived that that sentence is stating that all funds of money the town may receive by gift or bequest rather than all of the funds but other than that which it wasn't even set in stone we did not have any issues with the way the charter is written out so i just wanted to I would speak before you to give them an opportunity to give their own comments.

It's kind of like the comma earlier.

I know. I don't really think it needs the though.

I'm not sure what the different intent is with the though or without, but to me it reads the same, but I have no strong opinion. All funds of money and property, that's a ton of all funds of money and property.

I think the only reason we discussed it, and I wrote it down just because I couldn't remember myself even why, was to make sure that it didn't seem like you guys were in charge of only all of the funds the town may receive by gift, but again, it doesn't even truly read that way, which was to show how Well, this part is written. The changes that we have suggested are in line with the entire document, which is just general typos. Everywhere that it says by bylaw, it will no longer say by bylaw. We are going to put better verbiage ahead of that so it doesn't read as poorly.

I think it reads better without the, to be honest, because it's like all funds of money and of property.

I agree. Because the sentence before is talking about our responsibility for the property. So it's distinct. This second sentence is just talking about really kind of gifts and money that's received.

SOUNDS LIKE THE COMMITTEE'S PREFERENCE IS THAT WE DON'T ADD THE THEM. YES. ANY OTHER FEEDBACK? WE'LL APPRECIATE YOU BRINGING THAT IN. THANK YOU. THANKS. I think that's our only public input. So then our next meeting, the subcommittees to be determined. So let us know on that, Stacey. The Friends of Grafton meeting is August 11th at 7.30 via Zoom. The next Board of Library Trustees is Wednesday, August 26th at 7 p.m. in this room.

And the book sale is Saturday. The Friends Back to School used book sale is Saturday, August 29th from 9 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Grafton Public Library. Thank you. And the next meeting is the 11th.

All right. Our next meeting. So with that, can I have a motion to adjourn?

I motion that we adjourn.

Second.

All right, Doug, and Lee, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. The meeting's been adjourned at 8.29 p.m.