Leach Library Trustees - Regular Meeting

So, let's see. I'm going to call the meeting to order at 7.01 here at the Sunnycrest Conference Room for the Financial Ad Hoc for Leach Library. So, to the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God,

So since we had a meeting last week and a trustees meeting also day after, I'm not sure how many updates we'll have, but I think it's good to keep this going. So we can jump around, but if we wanted to kind of do an update about the missing deposit slips, if Have you and Colleen had any progress of looking through it or? Not yet. Not yet, yeah.

Really the big, the thing we know is still missing is obviously the Citizens Bank checkbook. Yeah. Register and voided, any remaining voided checks that were not given back.

Sorry, I'm sorry. Can you repeat that, please? Yeah. Thank you.

The thing we know for sure is still missing is the Citizens Bank checkbook, so any remaining checks that were not written, the register with it that's usually handwritten, and any remaining voided checks that had not been returned to us.

All right.

But the full, that will be on the list too, but we'll make sure you have the full list.

Okay. And obviously it's difficult to get a whole checkbook or register back. So we know that there's a chance that one person has it, but I don't. Do we need to ask for her to? Well, she's, of course, hopefully been to the meetings and seen the meeting minutes while unlikely.

It might be worthy of a direct question, just saying, these are outstanding. Please look. We need them yesterday, three months ago, seven months ago, 12 months ago, whenever they were supposed to be. I think we just have to be direct and if the answer is I don't have them or I'm not looking, then that's what it is. But I think we have to just be direct, like these are in your possession. Do you have them to turn over? If not, I need you to look.

Do we want to do this at the next meeting? Is this an email? Do we want it written down?

I feel like having it in writing is a good idea. Sending an email, maybe copying. the chair so that it can be denoted, but that way there's a paper trail noting that it has been requested and there has been a response or there has been no response and then a follow-on can be made.

A future meeting. And then we can pursue next steps just so that we can get this closed and be able to move on. And obviously, you're dealing with the budget and the building and things like that. And this is an ongoing issue. So whenever, yeah.

I can share, and I don't know to what extent, I never really know to what extent the auditors are going to ask for information.

on the board um accounts but excuse me the auditors are supposed to be here in august um so okay just so you know okay well i will start with their email at least just saying the checkbook yeah the voided checks because it's better coming from us than finding out that she's being you know that someone with a lot more power is requesting information you know like

Way better if she looks and says, oh, I found it in a drawer.

Yeah.

Because it might be a bigger problem in August.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'm willing to do that. And I will CC Nancy. Okay. Yeah, I can do that. All right. So... past budget line updates? How's it going with the salary? Yeah.

So I was going to bring up, I did make the changes that the board asked for at the meeting. So that moved us to a 4.4. I thought it was already 4.4. Come on. Come on. So yeah, I plugged in the new numbers. I think there were two lines that were updated, the maintenance and machinery and equipment. So that brought us up to 4.7 increase. I have been working with Sarah in finance, the controller. And she and I are both seeing that 1% may actually be correct. Oh, good. She found that I think last year the equation had doubled some of the merits, I think. So it would make sense where we went back and we fixed it in this equation. So I'm not totally sold. I want to do another Philly could look through. But I also want to, what I'm planning to do, and I just haven't had a chance to do it yet, is take the total I thought it should be with the probably about 6.5% and actually account for the money that isn't there to make sure we're covered. So still planning on doing that, but from her double check, it looks to be correct in my initial double check. these are going to remain kind of unknown until the fall the short-term disability and long-term disability benefit and life insurance and workers comp that usually is a number of finance has in the fall so I just left them the same but those are going to stay highlighted for now and custodial I have like been missing the person that I talk to. So I'm still working on that, on getting a final answer.

Don't forget the budget committee is here for us too. They've offered their help or anything that we need or if we need one of them to come to a meeting. But they're here for us.

Okay. I'm feeling pretty good about it though. And I wasn't sure if Are there any lines you wanted to revisit tonight?

I don't think so.

Pretty much what's going to go forward for voting.

I feel like we've been really diligent and thoughtful. You've brought some really carefully well thought out numbers and we've had very clear on the record discussions about each line item and why it is what it is. I feel like it's a very defensible budget to bring forward and to begin working with as the formal process heads forward.

In terms of what's actually going to be submitted to finance, they have a new template they need me to fill out that's going to be a line-by-line look at what's actually spent within it. It is what's submitted to finance. I can still give the board a copy of it once I've filled it in, but It will be the same numbers, obviously, that's approved by the board. It's just that it's going to – I didn't want to present it to the board that way because it is, like, a lot.

Yeah, and this is simple and color-coded, which is nice.

Yep.

And so this is going to go – if I remember correctly, this is going to go to vote for the special meeting.

And it's worth us sending another email to remind people that it's their duty to look at it, ask questions beforehand, so that we don't need any more time, because there's no more time.

In terms of the timeline for this, are there dates set yet from the town?

I have not received any new update on the budget season dates yet. That doesn't mean they haven't been posted because last time I think I had to go dating in, I don't remember if it was budget committee's minutes or somewhere. But I also hope to be meeting with Sean before I go on leave. So I can ask him if I haven't found it by then. I can ask him if there's an update.

Yeah. And we can just email Nicole and just say, hey, get back to us with the dates that you guys are. We don't have to chase it. She'll have the calendar.

Okay. I can email Nicole. Yeah, I can do that. And I'll forward the information. And then if there's firm dates and times, I can see whichever ones I can go with you.

And she needs to meet us privately to get information. you know, her head around it before we go to the larger committee, that's fine too.

Yeah. And, yeah, feel free to, like, to bring to us you know what are the dates that we are expected to be there and we can sort of divvy them out so that it's not all falling on like one or two people to do that yeah and that way also we can have a consistent presence and voice at these meetings which is so important yeah it really shouldn't just be left to the staff to have to talk about it having trustees there this is part of our job yeah advocating for the budget so I'll go ahead and do that as well um

The other thing that will be going to the board is the information about the two positions that we talked about. Awesome. The two positions? Yeah. So we here talked about the executive assistant position. Yes. But at the full board discussion, it was an ask to me to bring information for the full-time library technician as well.

Okay, okay, okay.

So it'll be both for the board to consider. Thank you. Moving forward with a request to the town. And then I'm working on the warrant article ask to. I don't know if I'm going to have that for next week. Yeah, so that's kind of where we're at with FY28 budget.

Okay. All right, so... And then NHTLA membership, it seems like there wasn't a decision made who was going to bundle?

Yeah, I don't think we actually posed a direct question about that. Because I was watching the video and heard that.

It was just sort of an update, like, hey, this is the information about it.

Yeah. So we just need to, what's the deal? I missed the last question.

at all right so yeah um just kind of with talking with the nhtla treasurer she said typically it's the director who bundles um because aaron was um previously the bundler um and they're moving they've moved to a new software um that it would just make sense for the nhtla treasurer to set that all up for us. And we can move the bundler name email, but it would have to be the set number. That is a little bit harder to adjust. So question being, who would do it, staff versus trustees and then also how many um be the seven trustees and the director but would we want to also add the assistant director because in situations like these where hopefully you there won't be an interim director but if you're so and it's about 30 it's 35 for each person every year is there a deadline just to sign up Not that I know of.

I think it's just ongoing. I believe we typically pay it in August. Oh, okay. I mean, the invoice doesn't need to go through in August.

It's just like that's when we usually have in the past. Okay. And if we sign up, Are we signing named members or it's just three passes and anybody can use them kind of thing?

Yeah, it would be the trustee's name, but whoever is the bundler would go in every year and update. Okay. So whether there's trustees that we need. But we would always get seven? Yeah, seven plus director plus assistant director if we wanted to, yes. The membership is good for conferences and workshops.

I volunteer, but I think it has to be somebody with a credit card or access or somebody that writes the checks, right?

I guess it would be the process.

They should be able to issue an invoice. Yes. Sorry, that was another question. I know that credit card is preferable, but invoice is fine.

Okay if credit I mean we can pay by credit card but in that case it would need to be a staff member.

Yeah I think since they said invoice is fine just to keep it the same as it as it was in years past.

Do you want me to request a membership then? I'm just trying to

So it's who wants to be the bundler, what position? Is it treasurer, chair, staff member? Because every library does it differently. A lot of them do have the directors be the bundler.

I think either the director or the treasurer would make sense because the treasurer managing money on that director makes sense because they're a more consistent feature than trustees. So who knows? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Is this something that would have to come to the board, or do you think it just shouldn't be?

I guess the question is if you want, I think it makes the most sense for it to be director, honestly. Because, yeah, they can continually update and you don't have to worry about someone who's leaving the board having to work with an HLTA to get that figured out.

Yeah.

But it's not a priority, so we don't have to do it right now.

You've got so much on your plate. My question is more so, do you want to wait until you have a new director to go through the process, or would you rather get paid for and you can put it under me and then I'll work with an HLTA to transfer it to the new director?

I don't think it's, I think it would have been more, I don't want to say important, but for the conference. So I can get back to her and say that we're waiting until the new director comes on.

The only issue is if there is an event that's going to be coming up where someone wants to go and use the member rate.

then we would I think there's a workshop happening in August I don't think it's conference level but there's going to be one so it kind of makes sense then do we want to just have you be the bundler for this year and then once we hire a director transfer that over I don't think that's unreasonable right? I'll double check that it's okay to go from treasurer to staff so Director, and so are we doing eight or nine? Nine. Yeah.

Nine? Okay. Yeah.

So I'll do that. Citizens Bank update, I think that went along with the missing deposit slips, but I'm glad that we were able to get what we could from Citizens. And you have the, I think I gave the business card to Colleen, so if you have any questions or you need to meet with a gentleman, he's happy.

OK. It seemed like, if I'm looking at it quickly, that the deposit receipt, I can't remember if he was able to provide the slip or the receipt. I'd have to go back. But one of them seems like they're not able to go back and provide. But I think that will be OK, since you have something to show for the deposit. I'm not really sure if, I mean, I don't think it would hurt to also still have a memo that says that those items are lost or missing.

And are those additional items to what they were able to provide from citizens? Or do we have question marks about? sums of money not being deposited.

No, it's just a matter of the money's accounted for. It's just a matter of that extra piece of paper that we just don't have. But that will be on the full list that Colleen and I...

Okay, but at least right now I can email the past treasurer to try to get the checkbook, voided checks, and the missing register. And then the non-collection item removal form policy.

I looked at the town's form. So they call their form The surplus property disposal request form. I don't think surplus is really going to apply to us all that much, so I did take the surplus word out. And then this all pretty much matches the table with the description. The only thing that's really different is the approvals, because for them it's like department head and then town manager, whereas the policy right now is just saying library directors for us. So that is pretty simple. And then to go back to the purchasing policy, what I did in the last section, and I'm having to change wording of this too. I kind of just put it in and hopefully make it make sense. I put the items of significant value purchased by the library may determine that, yeah, may need to be disposed of due to, I did put surplus in here just so that it's there if we need it, but surplus or obsolescence. The necessity and method of disposal to be determined by the director, that's the same. Disposed items must be documented by staff on the Leach Library property disposal request form. in that we're keeping it the same, that it pertains exclusively to materials not in the collection. And then there's a list of potentially what that includes, equipment, furniture, and technology. And that was it. The last piece is the same. It's just really this that I've added. and the significant value. It was hard to come up with something so that it wouldn't be misconstrued to be like every piece of office supplies or something. Yeah, but also, the reason why I don't really love it is that by the time we're getting rid of it, it doesn't really have significant value anymore. Yeah.

So... And the current, the value from 30 years ago... Yeah.

So if there's a different way to explain it, that's fine.

Um... How about items of significant value at the time of purchase?

I like where you're going with that. It's clunky, but I like what you're going for with that. What if we rearrange a sentence? The library director may determine that the library needs to be disposed of items purchased at significant, previously purchased at significant value due to surplus or obsolescence. I do better when I'm writing it out. What about, may determine that items purchased by the library at significant value now need to be disposed of due to surplus or obsolescence.

Yeah. Yeah? Yeah. I think that would be clear. Purchased just by the library at significant.

At previously significant value. Yeah. Because that allows us to cover things like furniture or something like that. It indicates that there may have been substantial, you know. Yeah, yeah. you know, monetary investment, but it's no longer, yeah.

Like we're not going to have appraisers coming in to appraise a 30-year-old chair.

Can we get rid of by the library? Because the library director may determine that items purchased at a previously significant value, because that way if it's from the friends, if it's a donation, it doesn't matter. Yeah. A?

Does it mean A? Mm-hmm.

Yeah, like that.

No.

No? Yeah, that's right. The friends or maybe the town. It doesn't matter.

We don't need the origin story. Donation. The table doesn't have links anymore. It's going out.

What if the library director may determine that items purchased need to be disposed of due to surplus, obsolescence, or significant depreciation? No, that makes it about the monetary value of the item and not... Yeah, never mind.

Scratch that.

Or just the library director may... You know what's missing is the damage piece.

Yeah, due to surplus damage or obsolescence.

Yeah. I mean, I guess you could argue that damage is no longer relevant.

But I think you have the right to throw away things. So we can maybe even make that top paragraph simpler. And then, and just like make the part about the documentation, the next part, like, so we don't need to question why it's being thrown away. Yeah. The library director may dispose of items that are damaged, you know, obsolete or

Yeah, just like taking a significant value out of the equation.

Yeah, just, and then saying the necessary . Yes. The director will document.

That just leaves it open for us to document every little thing.

Right, but then you could just, in that sentence it says the disposed items must be documented by staff. You could just say the library director will document items.

But does it have to be the director?

Yeah, because the, well, the staff will document. Yeah, the staff will document items that had...

I kind of like keep, I mean, I hear what you're getting at. My concern is if we take significant value out of the first sentence and we put it into like the documentation portion, then that opens the door to like, well, what is the dollar value of something, the minimum dollar value that requires something to be documented? Is that the dollar value at time of purchase or dollar value at time of disposal? I feel like that opens the door to nitpicking that we really don't need. So I hear what you're getting at.

Yeah. I do kind of like, instead of the determine, just can dispose of it.

Yeah.

May... Yeah, may dispose of items.

Dispose of.

So get rid of that items.

Or what if it says library director may, yeah.

Yeah, I think this is simpler.

And then just take out need to be disposed of.

Yep, previous is significant value due to.

Yeah.

Yeah, better. Maybe we don't even need previously because purchased is in the past tense.

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's sort of, it's more indicate.

But. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, you're right. Purchased at significant value. Yeah. Yeah. Then maybe that's disambiguating something that doesn't need to be disambiguated. Yeah.

That works.

Mm-hmm.

Are you done? Yeah.

You want to bring it to the next one? Yeah, do. Okay.

Whichever one has an agenda that's not truthful.

Yeah. I mean, we could just, I don't know, I guess I can leave it up to Nancy, too, if she would rather wait, but... Because the big thing on the 22nd is the budget.

Yeah. Well, hopefully this shouldn't be too hard to approve.

It should be an easy, like, readable... Before you come, yay or nay. Just add it to the... And this has already been presented, too.

Yeah. And that if you have questions or edits that you bring it, then. Because this is going to be voted on one way or the other.

I do love that she formats it that way. That, like, here's this meeting. I'm presenting this. This is when discussion happens. The next one is...

don't like be ready yeah i love that i i feel like it keeps things moving efficiently all right so that works for me no changes to the form nope

Okay. All right. Is there anything else you guys need? No? No. Any public comment, I guess. Sorry. No. No, it's fine. I don't have to gavel, so.

You have no power here. I'm not making any votes here.

So, yeah, it doesn't seem like there's public comment, but I always want to remind the public that they can certainly send us questions, comments, Read the meeting minutes and come to our regular and special full board meetings as well. Anything else, Donna? Do you guys think we need to schedule another meeting or do we? Are we thinking we're okay right now because there's going to be a vote that's going to happen? Yeah.

So the only thing that was on the agenda, because there's no progress at the moment, is the sorting through of the donations.

Okay.

Yes. I don't think, I mean, with me going on leave, I don't think there's going to be any movement there until... I'm back.

Yeah. Do we want to defer discussion of that? Because there's not going to be moving on that for a couple weeks. And, you know, we've got, in addition to that, like, I'm, you know, in and out for August. We're kind of, summer reading is going to be wrapping up and all that. Do we want to defer, like, once that's ready, then we say we schedule the next ad hoc meeting and we...

Yeah, that's fine unless there's another request from the board. Sure.

Yeah, and the NHTLA membership should be taking care of the missing deposit slips and whatnot. Those can be updates at the meeting. I'm sure there will be more discussion if things are still missing and we might have to go come back with that. But I think for right now it should be good. Okay, so yeah. I'm okay with that. Okay.

All right. There we go.

Adjourn? Yeah, okay. I don't need it. Oh, no. We don't have the devotions.

Oh, we don't? No, because we don't have, we don't vote on anything. Okay, okay. They just say adjourn at 734. Yeah.

All right. And I can send you these right away, Donna, and also make sure.