Leach Library Trustees - Regular Meeting

Okay, I would like to call to order this special meeting of the Leach Library Board of Trustees being held on Thursday, August 20th, 2026 at 7.02 p.m. in the Moose Hill Council Chambers in the Londonderry Town Hall, 268B Mammoth Road, Londonderry, New Hampshire. This meeting will be recorded for later viewing on the Londonderry NH Government Access YouTube channel. As has become my custom, I want to recite our mission, which is, the Leach Library's mission is to provide materials, information, and services for community residents of all ages to meet their personal, educational, and recreational needs. I'd like to start with the Pledge of Allegiance, please. I'm going to move into our consent agenda. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the minutes? Yes. Yes. Okay, very good. Before we approve the agenda, we do have a couple of meetings coming up that I would like to advise you of. Our next meeting will be Thursday, September 3rd, here in the Moose Hill Council Chambers Londonderry Town Hall at 7 o'clock p.m., and that will be a regular meeting. our next meeting will be thursday october 8th 2026 at 7 pm here in the moose hill council chambers in the londonderry town hall and that will also be a regular meeting May I please have a motion for the consent agenda? I make a motion to accept the consent agenda. That was a motion by Erica. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Any abstentions? You're opposing, not abstaining? Okay, very good. One opposed. So that was one, two, three, four. Four, one.

Madam chair, may I just ask a quick question? I had originally booked this room for September 15th. The town just wanted me to confirm whether we can give up that booking now.

Absolutely.

Great. Thank you.

OK. Public comment. Is there anybody here that would like to make some comments in public? Anybody. Don't be shy. Very good. Thank you very much. We will move on to the Treasurer's Report.

All right, and as always, thank you to Colleen and Donna for all your work with this. For the book account, we have an ending balance of 25-24, which is normal because it was for the end of the July, so that's with our financial year. So there's not a lot left. And then for the trustee account, the ending balance is $48,495.49. and then as well our budget committee representative Nicole emailed me today just asking questions that can help her better support the library with budget season I haven't had a chance to respond but I'm going to check in with Donna because there might be questions that Donna is more suited to answer relating to our budget and CIP and things like that so thank you for that

Can I just ask should we start having the ad hoc committee meeting to look at the the I'm having trouble talking the money that is earmarked in the trustee account so we can start figuring out what is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

so that we can kind of start spending down that money yes in the new but new year like sure yeah yeah that just don't want to hold that money because the town is that you know the community has yeah and that was part built it up for those needs okay okay so we can we can work on that very good especially before the budget season like eats up all of our time

Mm-hmm. Okay. Very good. Thank you for that, Asra. Thank you for everybody to help put that together. We appreciate your attention to detail. Are there any other reports? No?

Madam Chair, I was going to ask for committee.

Oh, sorry.

Are you under committee? Yeah. Okay. I was going to ask if Megan could report on behalf of the Grand Reopenings.

Oh, sure. Absolutely. You want to do that? I thought that was later in the agenda, but we can certainly do that.

Deliberations and vote under funding requests, but not a specific presentation or discussion.

Yeah, sure. Go right ahead. Okay. thank you so we met on Thursday August 13th for four members of the staff two members of the friends were able to meet to go over like what our goals were and kind of what the plan to get started with that so our date is still TBD pending making sure everything's going correctly and results come back well. The tentative idea that we had come up with is to have a couple dedicated time slots for an all-day celebration so people can come in in the morning we're gonna we're thinking 10 to 1 could be a like the ribbon cutting invite the press have refreshments in the meeting room so it stays downstairs off of the new carpet good plan have tours just to show everybody the changes that were made and where to find everything We had initial thoughts of maybe doing what was happening behind the scenes video, which I think Drew was interested in helping with. So that could be playing on our screen behind the circulation desk. And then to kind of... have some interactive elements to like a giant book with people putting their thoughts on of the library or what they missed or something like that. We have two easels that we can accommodate those on. In the children's room, we were hoping to do like apples, and they can decorate them and put them together to create like an apple tree. We wanted to have a raffle. For anybody who just comes in that day, all they have to do is come in and they can enter raffle. For the friends are doing a raffle and we, as a committee, we're thinking the funding request is a request from the committee to that, which we'll go over later. Then maybe have an afternoon celebration once the kids are out of school. And reach out to have like Kona ice on site. Do some lawn games and maybe have like a picnic, outdoor picnic style. And treats from the friends. And have like a lawn sign and one of those dancing things. men to yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like wicked excited about that. And just to kind of help bring people in to let them know that yay, we're reopening. We're looking at like a lawn sign and potentially do a special giveaway. That's just for that day for like the first set amount of people depending on how much it costs and what we have for funding, but ideas were like a mini tote bag or a key chain or a pen, something like that, and we're getting some quotes from vendors just to see how much it would actually cost. Great. Then reaching out for some donations of potentially seeing if we... can get donations in the from the orchards they've been very good in the past it's maybe get some cider and apples the friends are going to do baked goods for the teens and anybody who shows up in the afternoon and then we'll have a handmade welcome banner that uh colleen and alex will work on oh nice nice so make it really interactive fun friendly and very community oriented great great and oscar will be back he will be back the plan is actually if we're having a ribbon cutting ceremony in the morning to have oscars in the afternoon so the kids get to see it and have his have a little mini grand reopening with him you know of course the library is the star of the show but you know the oscar is going to steal it right yes he thinks he owns the library so that is he wrong well where is that he takes up a lot of important space i'm just so happy that we're finally at this point where we're talking about reopening seriously you know yeah once we get the actual dates we can kind of um pin down like who can help and Actually more specifics, but we do have a plan to re meet next week on August 27th. What time is that at 10 AM?

We OK.

question yes i don't want to jinx anything or are you thinking oh definitely a weekday or a weekend so based on our initial thoughts of our reopening plan if it all goes well we were thinking it as being a weekday okay and um either a wednesday or thursday kind of situation but that just depends on you know once we get the actual timeline in place we can put that down but it would work for a weekend day as well and is there any way the trustees can help or be part or any anything so there is a funding request later okay all right so that's kind of what I thought we were talking about but okay well and then if you have any Suggestions you can feel free to reach out and I can share it with the group Perfect.

Thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you Okay, any other committee?

Yes So it was tricky to get a schedule where we could all meet so we don't have a A copy yet to share but we will get that done and I'm hoping that if you'll allow it I'll read through what we have and hopefully we can just Just vote. Yes. Yes that we can get this done. So what she's saying is that the the What was the name of this? The job description subcommittee.

The job description subcommittee met right before this meeting. So obviously minutes haven't been posted. But because we're getting down to crunch time, I am going to ask Beth to report on that and give us the findings of that committee and report.

So because you don't have a copy, we can just read it out loud? Does anybody want to read it out loud? You want me to do it? You got it.

You want me to switch out?

Okay, so the summary of duties under the supervision of the Board of Trustees serves as the administrative officer of the library, responsible for planning, organizing, directing, and managing all aspects of the library in conformity with the mission, goals, objectives, and policies established by the Board of Trustees with appropriate municipal, state, and federal laws and regulations. And then under major duties and responsibilities, maintenance and management of the library facility, including electrical heating, water, and mechanical systems, sustain a viable and thriving library with a customer-focused framework, maintain the goodwill of patrons, the public, the town officials, and respond to the changing needs of the community, including creating a library environment that is welcoming and inclusive. ASSESS COMMUNITY PREFERENCES FOR LIBRARY SERVICES AND EVALUATE TRENDS TO KEEP ABREAST OF THE NEEDED CHANGES IN TECHNIQUES, MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT. DIRECT THE DAILY OPERATIONS TO ENSURE HIGH QUALITY AND COST EFFECTIVE SERVICES, ANALYZE OPERATIONS AND FUNCTIONS, PLAN, MONITOR AND PRIORITIZE AND SUPERVISE THE WORK OF DEPARTMENT HEADS. Encourage staff professional growth at all levels by supporting participation in professional associations, workshops, seminars and other activities. Ensure strict confidentiality of personnel issues, patron records and non-public documents. TEACH, MODEL, AND SUSTAIN EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE PRACTICES, LEADERSHIP, AND SUPERVISORY SKILLS. WORK IN PARTNERSHIP TO PREPARE SORRY, WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES TO PREPARE ANNUAL BUDGET FOR SORRY, THAT'S CHICKEN SCRATCH. articulate budget needs and answer questions related to the financial needs both in terms of operations and capital items present the request to the town. Prepare and maintain reports required for the town and state. Prepare correspondence and detailed reports for board members and town officials. Coordinate and supervise interior arrangements of the physical facility. Assess needs and recommend new or replacement purchases in adherence with the purchasing policy. Negotiate contracts in coordination with the town. Interact with service contractors and vendors for repair and maintenance. Represent the library to the patrons, the community and professional groups. Act as liaison to town administrator and town departments, patrons, the community, and professional groups. Serve as an active participant on local civic committees and in state and regional library organizations. Represents the library in consortial, regional, and state committees. Serves as the library representative to the GMLX Consortium Board. COMPLETES PAPERWORK RELATING TO THE HIRING AND ONGOING EMPLOYMENT OF LIBRARY STAFF, INCLUDING WEEKLY PAYROLL SUBMISSION. PREPARES RECORDS FOR ANNUAL AUDIT. CONTINUALLY EVALUATES THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LIBRARY PROGRAMS AND SERVICES IN RELATION TO THE CHANGING NEEDS OF THE COMMUNITY, DEVELOPING STRATEGIES TO MEET THOSE NEEDS. evaluates in coordination with staff the future needs for library services and the resources to meet those needs, manages library staff in compliance with union contracts, participates in the town's CIP process as appropriate, and leads in the library's strategic planning. There's one. responsible for hearing and resolving problems and complaints from library users and general public, manages the usage of meeting rooms and public spaces in the library and on library property, oversee the selection and general collection of books and other items and resources contained in the library, review major selection tools, approve library purchase orders, review books, periodicals, and collections which are outdated or not used, and coordinate removal and disposition, and to oversee the appointment of selectors for collection.

Beth, do you want me to read?

Yeah. OK. Sorry, my brain was.

It's OK. No. Maintain current knowledge of public library services and trends through reading appropriate literature and attendance at approved conferences, seminars, and other professional development programs. Responsible for acquiring grants when appropriate to enhance aspects of library services. And that drafts and recommends policies to the trustees. And make sure I'm going through this right.

Okay.

I guess both of us.

Provide monthly management. That one.

right here we go provides monthly management financial and planning reports to the board to assist in short and long-term planning and implementation keeps the board informed of new developments and information reported by the new hampshire state library and other sources maintains membership in professional organizations such as nhla we'd cross that one off because it replicates something else sorry sorry sorry And then collaborates with the Friends of the Leach Library to foster a strong relationship and support for library services and programs. And then manages library staff in compliance with union contracts. Yeah, we did that one. I said it on another page. And then participates in the CIP process.

I already said that one. I just read it off the other page. responsible for acquiring grants when appropriate to enhance all library services and then there was the minimum qualifications

minimum qualifications master's degree mls or mli preferred from an american library association ala accredited school plus five years of library experience with at least three years supervisory management experience or equivalent combination of education and experience

Do you want to jump in for this part? Yes. Okay. So then under knowledge, ability and skills, excellent leadership, communication, project management, planning, organizational and interpersonal skills with proven effectiveness. Strong technological skills and the ability to leverage cutting edge technology to keep each library competitive. Ability to work and communicate effectively with library trustees, elected officials and community groups. Ability to serve and motivate Leach Library staff and volunteers and to communicate their needs and concerns with Board of Trustees. The ability to be innovative and a visionary leader. A working knowledge of fundraising and has the ability to travel to workshops and meetings. And then there was physical requirements. Minimal physical effort is required to perform most duties. The employee is frequently required to stand, crouch, walk, sit, speak, hear, use hands to operate equipment, and to reach with hands and arms. The ability to push and pull carts weighing 250 pounds or more is required, as well as lifting and carrying up to 20 pounds of books. THE EMPLOYEE HAS ALSO FREQUENTLY ASSISTED IN MOVING TABLES AND CHAIRS FOR PROGRAMS SET UP AND CLEAN UP. VISION REQUIREMENTS INCLUDE THE ABILITY TO READ ROUTINE DOCUMENTS AND USE A COMPUTER. MUST BE WILLING TO TRAVEL TO MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES. REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS ARE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST AND BOARD APPROVAL. And then under the posting, it's the same as we had shared before, just with making sure that the qualifications is in alignment with what we had already put. Leach Library Board of Trustees is seeking a new director for its busy mid-sized library in Londonderry, New Hampshire. The Londonderry director reports to the Board of Trustees and works with a management team to facilitate, for example, personnel supervision, collection development, and programming for all ages. Londonderry is renowned for its excellent school system, proximity to a range of recreational areas, and for its warm and friendly community. Serving a population of more than 27,000, the library has an annual budget of over $1.6 million. The job of library director is full-time, 40 hours per week, exempt position with a hiring range of $95,035.20 to $105,000, commensurate with experience and includes excellent benefits outlined in the Leach Library personnel policy. This is an in-person position. And then the minimum qualifications. Master's degree, MLS or MLIS preferred from an American Library Association, ALA accredited school plus five years of library experience with at least three years supervisory management experience or the equivalent combination of education and experience. And that is it. Actually, there's the part about to apply. Please submit a cover letter, resume, and three professional references and a completed employment application available on the HR page of the town website. via email. It's got the HR email. Please follow these important instructions. Please send all documents, cover letter, resume, and application in one PDF document. The title of the document should be library director in your name, and the subject line of the email should read library director in your name. No phone calls or in-person applicants, please. So if we are in agreement to that, somebody can.

There was, I'm sorry, there were a couple sentences missing, Beth, just in the post. So there was essential, to keep the essential skills include excellent internal and external communication that inspires the community and motivates the dedicated staff. Previous experience with union strategic planning and capital projects is highly desirable, and a complete job description is available at londonderrynh.gov. OK.

Very good. And I thank you for your work on this and meeting right before this meeting to get this done for us. So comments or questions by the board? This is the second time, second or third time this has come before, second time. Second, I think. And as we're approaching rapidly, hopefully rapidly approaching our grand reopening, it's important that we get this done. So questions or comments by the board?

Sounds like you've done excellent work. A lot of it. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. So generally we would put this on another agenda to be voted on, but we're not meeting until September the 3rd, and we want to get this done immediately. So we are going to fast track this tonight. Yes, Moira.

So there was one part where you had said something about, and I don't know if I got it, the whole thing, because, I mean, I don't have a paper copy, but there was something about complaints. And I think you should make an addition to that and say, and escalates as appropriate. And there are a couple of other things in here too. I mean, I don't, I personally dislike the way the posting says the stuff about the town because it sounds really like 1950s, but you guys can do that if you want. If you're doing, if you're making someone do an application, they don't necessarily, the stuff in the cover letter is going to be the same as the stuff in the application.

Not necessarily. I write a new cover letter for every application.

And at our previous meeting, we discussed the reasons why we're doing this through the town. I don't know if you weren't at the meeting when we talked about it.

I'm not asking anything about what you're doing through the town, so I don't know why you're bringing that up.

I guess we're confused. What town reference are you saying sounds like the 1950s? Yeah, it's the description.

I don't think it's necessary to say all this stuff about we have 27,000. If you want to do it, it's fine. But it really sounds dated.

I think that's pretty standard.

Yeah, I think it gives people a perspective on are we talking a tiny little place or are we a thriving municipal area? Like if they're not from this region, I think we need to give them some more directive about what Londonderry is.

I think as somebody who's neither library staff nor a library director or anything like that, one of the things I find beneficial in a description like that is helping me to set my expectations for if I were walking in there, what kind of library am I being expected to helm? Am I helming a library for, like the town I grew up in had 4,000 people, not even when I graduated. But we had our own library. That library's needs would be very different than the library that serves almost 30,000 people. So I think that kind of thing.

Or if a college town would have different needs. Oh, sure.

Exactly. So are you looking at posting this also?

the standard places to post would be the New Hampshire library job line which we can send to the State Library to add to that blog that is the most well-known source locally for library job postings also up to the board if you want to look at something like I think Simmons has their own job board site That would be more of a, probably get more regional, like New England, people looking at that. I believe if you wanted to do as much as ALA, that there'd probably be a cost. And then there's also the New England Library Association that you can post to, I think, probably for free. I'm not positive.

I believe so. I don't know if you have to be a NELA member, and I should know the answer, but it doesn't hurt to check.

And then at the board's discretion, we could post on the library's website and social media to share that there's that opening. I can also, there's a listserv that goes out to any state library that participates in the listserv. I can distribute it that way. I can also distribute it through gmilks. So there's a lot of free ways we can get the word out, I would say.

Well, as my one vote up here, I certainly support all freeways. And if there is one of these that you feel is beneficial that there is cost to, we should know that and talk about it and see if that's something, you know, a way that the board wants to proceed. Do you have a date in mind, Donna, that you want to get this out?

To get it out or to a deadline?

No, no, no.

Date that you want to post it on. To post. I guess, have you gotten any feedback from the HR department?

I'm not sure how much time they need to turn it around is my thought. That I don't know. I would think, I would hope that they could help us get it out sometime next week.

Next week, okay.

Obviously, they would need these final documents. I could finalize the documents. I also don't know if they have their own municipal channels to post that we don't usually post through. That could certainly help as well. I'll call Tara. Okay. And then I would say you should decide, though, on an application deadline.

Right.

Okay. Do we need to decide that tonight?

Yeah, because that would go in the post.

Okay. Perfect. Okay. First of all, were there any other questions or comments? Not at present. Okay. Okay. Very good. So let's take this chunk by chunk. So I think that we should vote on the language. Go ahead. I'd like to make a motion to adopt the job description of the library director and the description for the posting and yeah as presented as presented this evening thank you perfect that's fine so that's a motion by Beth is there a second I second it second by Erica is there any other discussion or questions all those in favor please say aye aye all those opposed opposed any abstentions It's a 4-1 vote.

Wonderful.

OK. So then the next thing that we need to decide is deadline for the application. Is that right? Yeah.

OK. Let's take a look at the calendar. I think typically it is out for at least two weeks, right?

Does the application say review of applications starting X date, or do we also need to have the deadline?

I think we have to project when it's going to be made live, because it's going to take a little bit of time to get it to all these places. And then we should just assume, pretending it's out X date, and then count out from there.

Yeah, that makes sense. So obviously, we're looking at some time in September.

Is two weeks sufficient? I feel like that's what I've seen somewhere, but it doesn't seem like a very long time.

It doesn't seem like, especially if you want to have. Right. I think three.

A month? Yeah. A month?

Three weeks? Three months?

I mean, we've been closed for Donna, give us some guidance here. We've been closed for so long, you know, I would, um, I would say appropriate time is three weeks to a month, three weeks to a month.

Um, I, I, from the post, from the postings I've seen from the HR department, there's usually a hard date and time deadline. Um, so generally like a Friday at five, for example, um, especially if you're going to be working with HR on this.

I would suggest following that. Yes. So the wild card here is how long it's going to take Tara and her staff to get this put together. But are we comfortable with a deadline of Friday, September 25th? Yes. Or do you want it sooner?

Is there a way to phrase the motion to make it contingent upon when HR posts it? A week from when they can post it? Yes. Yeah, so like set it for, you know, you know the deadline for applications to close be four weeks after the posting date except that our posting has to say the date yes oh that's right yeah so yes shoot I'm communicating with people um so we're pretending that they might be done

May I make a suggestion?

Yes, please. I feel like it would leave enough wiggle room if you just called it September 30th. September what? 30th, the last day of the month.

OK. OK. Yeah. I'm good with that, too. Yeah. OK. And then at 5 PM. 5 PM.

OK. Yeah. Perfect. And I think we can just do that by consent, can't we? We don't need to vote on that. OK. OK. OK. So we're making progress on that. Mm-hmm. Okay, anything else on the posting for the job description for our library director? Okay, very good.

Madam Chair, did you want to choose specific places to post or are you just going to leave that up to you?

I'll leave that up to you. Okay. You and Megan and your staff are the experts. Okay, thank you. But again, if you find one that is, you know, one that has a cost to it, not that it's going to matter because we're going to meet after the deadline anyway, so never mind.

No, you'll meet on September 3rd.

Oh, excuse me. Excuse me.

That's right. Yes. So if you find one that you think is worthwhile, that costs, you know, some money, bring it to us and we'll talk about it. Okay.

Sounds good. But we're not having them post, right? Are we, we're posting it. We are. Right.

Um, I thought you just said you wanted us to work with HR to post.

HR is going to post to all those places. Um, that's what listservs.

Yeah, it would make most sense for a member of the listserv to post on the listserv.

Okay, I just don't want to give you jobs.

Yeah.

Are there any of those, like, places that you want us to take?

Um... I mean, if you wanted to reach out to the New England Library Association or Simmons, that would be helpful.

I do both, because I'm part of Mila, and I'm a former Simmons graduate.

Yeah, OK, that'd be great. Well, so am I, but I'm not a library science girl. OK, anything else regarding this posting and the job description that we need to discuss or that anybody wants to bring up for discussion? If not, we're going to move on. Very good. And thank you, everybody, for working that. Are there any other committee reports? Okay. Moving on to presentation and discussions. Building update. Take it away, Donna. Thank you.

So we are moving right along according to schedule, which is the good news. I do have a little bit of unfortunate news to share that is very recent to me just figuring things out today. So REARC shared that they did, in the process of patching things up, they found two places where mold was found. one being in the janitorial closet where the floor sink is so obviously because there's moisture there and also underneath the kitchen sink in our break room where we had a leak situation underneath the sink that they were patching up for us. The janitor's sink, they did tear out one of the walls and removed all the molds before patching it up. The kitchen sink, they removed the small spots that they could see without tearing up the wall further. And patched it up. I did talk to Bob Slater on his thoughts on this today. And he and I are both of the opinion that before they do final touches on these areas, that we prefer it really thoroughly patched. things be pulled out and checked since we've gotten to this point where we really want the place to be healthy and make sure there's nothing else. So while I appreciate REARC having done the cleanup for the things they found, they needed further direction to... open things up further to make sure that there's nothing else in those behind the walls.

I would agree.

So the kitchen space is going to require them to take cabinets and countertop out to thoroughly check. I did ask Peter, who's currently our project manager, if there's funds left under the RE-ART contract to do this work, and he said yes.

Oh, okay.

That's a little bit of good news. He's confident that it could be done. He's also confident that if it's a matter of just checking and not finding anything and not needing to have vendors back to remediate again, that we could still stay on schedule. So there is good news to this silver lining. Okay. Um, so really what I'm looking for from you is the okay to do that thorough check. Um, still within using what's already been budgeted for the project um i think we can do that by consent yes yes i would say so okay so everybody's nodding their head yes okay perfect okay great thank you aside from that um our mold retesting was done yesterday those two areas because they did not have findings initially were not part of the recheck. So they checked all the areas that had findings on the first really extensive report. So those results have been rushed for us and I expect to have them, the initial results next week. That, along with now what they find in the walls, will determine whether we can put a date out to the public officially. So I will be in touch next week with word on what we discover.

And we expect in the subject line to see the words great news. Yes. That is my hope. Seriously.

Exclamation point. Seriously. More good news that our elevator is finally back in service as of today.

Sorry, the thing's about to turn off behind you. I don't know what we need to do to keep that on.

Not okay.

Cut the red cord quick. All right. We'll be okay. Okay.

You can press power button again if you need to. I've got two screens.

The spaceship one. Don't forget the spaceship one.

Okay. Well, Megan does that. We're going home soon, you know.

I also wanted to share that since I brought it to you at the last meeting, the rooftop unit work, I did share the quotes with you. I've scheduled or I've reached out to schedule and they expect they'll be able to fit us in next week. So that work, I think, will get done. plenty of time before reopening. I've also scheduled our cleaners for the deep clean. They're going to actually work on things gradually since we have a little bit of time to play with. So I spoke with them today about that. They're on board. So I think overall we're

we're still on schedule assuming that the those two items um go the way we want them to the way we want them to go yes very good okay very good thank you for that any other questions or comments by the board okay thank you again i know this has been a hot a haul so we appreciate your hard work and your patience but we're getting there light at the end of the tunnel OK. As promised, we finally have prepared for you, ready for you, a draft of the Board of Trustees bylaws. Erica and I have been working on this diligently since April. And Erica, as you know, has chaired this committee. So I am going to ask her to lead this discussion. So go right ahead.

all right so what i sent out to the board and to um donna plant i'm saying this for the members of the public who are listening um was i sent out the currently in effect bylaws that were voted in by the previous board and then the revised copy that nancy and i have been working on for the past several months um i Yeah, I used to track changes in between meetings on my own copies so that I could keep track of what was being changed and what was being kept. But what I sent out to everybody was a clean copy of each so that so that individuals could look at what had changed and what remained the same so that hopefully it would be less cluttered looking than it was with everything, all the The documentation is still there. So what, um, recipients have is stuff that is, is a document that has some texts that has been left alone. Um, some texts that is yell or highlighted in yellow, which reflects where things have been changed. Um, where wording has been remade, where it has been redone. Um, plants have been, have been modified, et cetera. And then there are some areas where texts text is highlighted in green and those green areas reflect, um, wording that is statutory. wording that comes from like the Robert's Rules of Order, that these are things that we really can't rephrase, we really can't add or remove, that they really belong in there as is. So, Donna, would you, are you able to pull it up on here for folks to be able to see?

Or Megan?

Thank you, I've got it in front of me, but I figured we've got three members here who have not gotten a chance to see it yet. So it did not change, or I, we, this was a joint effort, did not change much under Article 1, Section 1. Under Section 2, we clarified the process for how to fill a vacancy on the board. Um, to be congruent with sort of what happened, um, with the vacancy that we had this term. Um, and to clarify. The ownership of the board over that process and to clarify, um, how we work, um, in collaboration with the town council to, um, recommend candidates to, um. to them for appointment because the appointment power falls to them. Under officers, we tried our best to remove some redundancies and things like that that were existing. We outlined a little more specifically the roles of the chair or the authority of the chair and also clarified very specifically that the chair is, while they have authority over the conduct and functioning of meetings, they do not have the authorization to override the will of the board or to act outside the scope of the trustees. We cited the RSAs to be clear for that. We clarified some of the Secretary's responsibilities and clarified the Treasurer's responsibilities. This took in some input from Azra, who's currently filling that role as well, to make sure that we were really adequately reflecting what's going on with not only what the Treasurer needs to do, but how the Treasurer works with library staff to be able to make sure that everything is accurate and well documented. We did remove a couple of things that were in there about like there was a Vice Treasurer section. We removed that. Things like that under duty article 2 duties and obligations. We added a section 1.1.2. We added a paragraph regarding the expected conduct and responsibilities of elected officials and trustees. So we specifically said that trustees are elected officials and are expected to conduct themselves accordingly. Trustees shall attend all meetings set by the chair, notify the chair in a timely manner if they will be unable to attend a set meeting, prepare for meetings by reviewing all documents and materials set for the meeting's agenda, participate appropriately in meetings, and communicate respectfully and professionally with other trustees, library staff, and members of the public. Trustees who serve as officers agree to fulfill the responsibility of those roles in a similar manner. There are a couple of things that are sort of highlighted, like in consort with. There was some discussion about what the term consort means, and I learned a few things, which was fun. Under 1.5, we clarified what the non-lapsing separate fund is, that that is indeed referring to the book fund, so that we can have a clearer distinction for trustees like myself who weren't entirely certain of which fund was which and how that gets used. We clarified the paragraph regarding the trustees appointing a library director. Clarified that the library director may discharge or remove any employee of the library from misfeasance or inefficiency or incapacity unfitness to perform their duties, except in cases of urgency or public safety, the director shall notify the board prior to the employee's dismissal. and that the trustees shall maintain awareness of financial reports prepared by the director. One of the things you will notice is missing if you have looked at the previous copy before is that this section or this article used to have a large outline regarding the director's responsibilities and roles and accountability to the board. We removed that because we felt that these are bylaws that govern the conduct of trustees. This is not the director's job description. That is what the director's job description is for. So we took that out. We figured it was unnecessary to have in this document. UNDER MEETINGS, SECTION 1, I HAVE HIGHLIGHTED IN GREEN THE REALITY THAT ALL REGULAR AND SUBCOMMITTEE MEETINGS SHALL BE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AND AUDIO AND OR VIDEO RECORDED IN ACCORDANCE WITH RSA 91A. I clarified what the meetings may include based on the current agenda. We left it as may include because every meeting is different and every chair is different, so we don't want to say that this is how things have to be run, but that this is the basic structure to be expected. Under 1.4 and 1.5 on the next page, we clarified, under 1.4, we clarified the right of a trustee to be able to a press with the board that they feel insufficiently informed on a topic or something that's being brought to the board for a vote. And we clarified that the board may then discuss that information, come to a consensus on whether to proceed with the topic or delay the vote to the next meeting. The intention in having this in here is to Offer trustees the opportunity to advocate if there has been insufficient time or insufficient information presented to be able to pursue a topic, but also to clarify that this cannot be used as a means of stalling or otherwise. Preventing the board from being able to function and proceed with discussions of materials. And under 1.5, we clarified the importance of public comment and also the, the appropriateness or the necessity of creating boundaries for the appropriateness of everyone. So. that the chair may, specifically that the chair may set limitations on public comment in the interest of time, efficiency, respect, and fairness to other speakers, but not to, we don't, the goal is not to keep the public from being able to comment or to shut down dissenting opinions or anything like that. The goal is to create an environment in which people can speak for themselves, but also be respectful of if we have 50 people who need to comment, we can't give everybody 10 minutes to worry. That would keep us up all night. We also included that if public comment becomes unproductive, disrespectful, or threatening, the chair has the right to call for a brief recess. Just because we have all been in meetings where that has been an issue. Under section two, special meetings, We clarified that special meetings may be called by the chair or at the chair's request another trustee or at the request of four members of the board for the purpose of transaction of business as stated in the call for the meeting. In green you'll see that only 24 hours notice is required excluding Sundays and legal holidays. That comes directly from the statute. Under Section 3, we clarified that the regular meeting will be called immediately following town elections after the oath of office has been taken for newly elected trustees and that the purpose of that meeting is to elect board officers. Under Section 5, we added a thing on remote participation. And we built this around the RSAs regarding the public's right to know under 91A. And this language was taken straight from the statute and from conversations with the town manager or emails with the town manager. So just so the public is fully aware, these documents are all available publicly, but I'll read it out loud because, you know, there's no harm in that. The board may vote to under 91A colon 2 to authorize a trustee to appear remotely for a public meeting, providing that the following conditions are met under the statute. The first is that a member of the public body may participate in a meeting other than by attendance in person at the location of the meeting only when such attendance is not reasonably practical. Any reason that such attendance is not reasonably practical shall be stated in the minutes of the meeting. So if somebody wants to appear remotely, they need to explain why. um except in an emergency a quorum of the public body shall be physically present at the location specified in the meeting notice um and for this the purposes of this an emergency means that immediate action is imperative and the physical presence of a quorum is not reasonably practical within the period of time requiring action we think like covet for example would be a period of time when that might not have been practical or plausible The determination that an emergency exists shall be made by the chair or presiding officer of the public body. And the facts upon which that determination is based shall be included in the minutes of the meeting. So again, it has to be very clearly stated for the public why things are being done the way they're being done. And that is all about making it transparent for the public body. or for the public members of the public. Each part of a meeting required to be open to the public shall be audible or otherwise discernible to the public at the location specified in the meeting notice as the location of the meeting. Each member participating electronically or otherwise must be able to simultaneously hear each other and speak to each other during the meeting and shall be audible or otherwise discernible to the public in attendance at the meeting's location. So we have to be able to hear them. They have to be able to hear us. The public and anyone streaming this needs to be able to hear that member as well. Any member participating in such fashion shall identify the persons present in the location from which the member is participating. And this does not permit email or any form of communication that does not permit the public to hear, read, or otherwise discern meeting discussion contemporaneously. So it has to be video call or live phone call. It cannot be done through email or text messaging or something like that. Any of that would be non-compliant with 91A. Any meeting held pursuant to the terms of this paragraph shall comply. This is all again from the statute. Any meeting held pursuant to the terms of this paragraph shall comply with all of the requirements of this chapter relating to public meetings and shall not circumvent the spirit and purpose of this chapter as expressed in RSA 91A-1. And a member who is participating remotely is permitted to participate in non-public sessions as well under these same conditions. But they are deemed to be present at the meeting for purposes of voting. And all votes taken during such meetings shall be by roll call vote. So we can't just do consensus. We can't do all vote, you know, all in favor, all opposed. It has to be specific individuals. Can I say something? Absolutely.

So according to the attorneys up at the New Hampshire Municipal Association, the language around an individual attending remotely to a non-public is still very, very vague. So if it were clearer, we would have put it in here for you. But the legislature and the courts have yet to really figure out how to appropriately put together the language for an individual attending a meeting remotely, either by calling in on a Zoom call or calling in on a phone. So, again, these are living documents, right? So if that language comes out next week, we will have it for you. Thank you, Erica.

Welcome. We also included in there under 5.2 that a trustee wishing to appear remotely at a meeting must contact the chair with their request in a timely manner, and the purpose of that is to ensure that the chair and the IT department can coordinate to set up anything that is needed to ensure that all of these conditions can be met. But then under 5.3, we also noted if any of the statutory conditions permitting remote participation cannot be met, then the trustee cannot participate remotely in the meeting and will be marked absent. just to be very clear about that. Under Article IV, General, under 1.2, we clarified the language around Robert's Rules of Order and what an abstention means, because that was a big point of contention last time, and the language that was voted in was not an accurate reflection of what Robert's Rules of Order says. Um, so just to be very clear, board members have the right to abstain from a vote and abstention removes the trustees vote from the final vote count, but does not change the number of votes required for the motion and question to pass based on the number of trustees present. So what that means is somebody can abstain from a vote. If they're there, they have every right to do that. That is something that is protected procedurally. If we have the full board here and we have seven people and two abstain, we still need four people to vote. It would just be that the total vote count would be five instead of seven. So I hope that clarifies to the public what an abstention is and is not. It does not count as a no vote. It is a non-vote. We also affirmed that bylaws may be amended by majority vote of all members of the board present and voting whenever possible written notice of the amendment that has not changed. Under dues and resources we added or we modified the language stating that newly elected trustees will be shown where the trustee file is located in the library as well as the location of the trustee folders. There was a more complicated process for that. We have just cleaned that up. Under Article 6, legal services, the original document was very specific with names of who to contact and what a procedure should look like, et cetera, and funding. Since this is a document that is supposed to be able to carry from board to board and supposed to be able to outlast or be functional even if an attorney leaves or our attorney custody changes hands, We revised it to say at times the Board of Trustees may find it necessary to seek legal counsel. In such instances, the Board of Trustees shall coordinate with the town manager to determine the scope of such services and the appropriate budget source for said services. And then under Section 1, cooperation with other libraries, I'm sorry, under Article 7, Section 1, just affirming that it is a stated goal of the board to build collaborative relationships with the town school libraries and other local libraries as appropriate. So now that you've heard me talk endlessly. That was it. We presented that.

And thank you very much for doing that, Erica. So this was an ongoing conversation. We've had multiple conversations, as I said at the beginning of this, multiple conversations with the town manager. Actually, I've also consulted once or twice with our attorney to make sure that we were, you know, correct in our language. And we've also consulted with attorneys from the New Hampshire Municipal Association with respect to which RSAs pertain to what. So we are open to questions and comments by the board.

I have a rate.

I'm on page 3 when it talks in section, one about the meetings. It says that all regular subcommittee meeting should be open to the public on the audio and video part I don't believe is regulated by RSA I think it's as of it available.

It what we looked at was it it is required. Because we. Sorry, can you tell me exactly where on page three you're looking at? I got it right here.

The part where it says that the video and audio is required. I think it's not always available.

There's libraries that don't.

Yeah.

So when I looked at the RSA, it specifically called that out, that they needed to be.

You know what? We're not voting on this tonight. Yeah, but I can clarify that. We can revisit that. I was actually thinking. No, no, I wasn't saying anything I was also thinking should we put in some language there about you know that our subcommittee meetings should also be posted What else is on your mind

the only other part that I was wondering about was the legal services on page six aren't we putting a line item in our budget for legal services we are so it would be not necessarily up to the town manager because we would be tracking where we are in the services like our spending good point

Would it be appropriate to say consultation or just?

page six well it says under there the coordinate with the town manager to determine the scope of such services and the appropriate budget source for said services I think the intention of that was that it could come from our budget or depending on what's going on it might be something that is we're in such we've been in such a weird super weird yes you could put may instead of shell is that yeah it's okay yeah

We've got that.

What else? Yeah. That's all I have. That's all you have. Moira, take it away. I just got to finish taking a note, but yes. Under subsection, under Article 1, Section 3, 3.1, and I just echo what Beth said. It's not required to do audio or video because some places do meeting minutes. So I just take out that part as it being under 91A because you can do it, but it's not prescribed by 91A. Under Article 1, Section 3.1, where it says this board election will occur at a special trustee meeting.

I'm sorry, so Article 1, Section 3.1? Yep.

Okay. It should be a regular trustee meeting because there's rules around special meetings and they're supposed to be for specific purposes and an election would not be one of those purposes. Okay. And under 3.2, this is kind of a weird thing because you have a clause in here which says that the chairperson is equal and cannot you know oversee or unilaterally make decisions mm-hmm but then you state in this 3.2 that they will establish subcommittees etc and all of these things should be with board approval so if it's going to be that someone's appointed to speak it should be with board approval so otherwise it negates your unilateral clause in the later section Same for 3.5. All these things should be with Board approval. Under 3.6, the report for the Attorney General's Office is actually due in, like, February-March time frame because it's...

I'm sorry. Hang on just a moment. I just want to make sure my... I'm moving the document here. I'm trying to take notes at the same time, so just make... Let me know when you're ready.

Mm-hmm.

All right. Thank you. And under what was the next one you wanted me to look at?

So under 3.6, the report for the Attorney General's office is usually due February-March time frame because we do that report or we do the substance for it for the town meeting. But it's probably flexible. So I don't know that you necessarily want to designate a time because it's usually earlier in the year than the year end. UNDER ARTICLE 1.2, I would change the wording in this. And the reason why is the way you've written this, under 1.2, it says we must attend all meetings, which means that any meeting that Nancy said we would have to attend. So if Nancy said a subcommittee meeting, we'd have to attend. If Nancy said a meeting with the town manager, we'd have to attend. So I think it has to be rephrased to say something more to the effect of trustees are expected to make reasonable efforts to attend regular board meetings and meetings of committees in which they serve. Trustees shall notify the chair in a timely manner when they are able to attend, if practicable. So in other words, if I get hit by a car on the way to this meeting, I'm not calling her. Well, no.

And we did, in fact, consider an emergency situation to be different than, oh, you know, I'm not feeling well, or hey, I've got a conflict on the schedule, or something like that.

Correct, but it's not in here. And if it's not in here, it's... Okay. So trustee shall notify the chair in a timely manner when they're unable to attend if practicable. And then it says something about getting agendas within a certain period of time somewhere in here. By reviewing all documents and materials set for the meeting's agenda. MS. Mm-hmm. There is some other part in here where it says something about when agendas are being set out.

MS.

I don't think so. MS. We did have something in here about when documents should be sent out for people to review to give them enough time. So I think that should also be added, because if you give somebody something the day of the meeting, that's not really giving them enough time to review. Under 1.3, I would keep the 10-day notice for changes. You have it in the back end, but you don't have it in here, and I would keep that 10-day notice. Under 1.4, so I know you said that you were... Messing around with the meaning of this word and what is your understanding of the meaning of this word in consort with?

So what we confirmed is that in consort with is the formal terminology for a collaborative relationship between the two parties named.

MS. Okay. Well, the one concern I have about this is, and I realize that it's not the practical reality, but under the 202s, it says the board is responsible for preparing the budget. And I do believe if we said in consultation with the director, it's fine if you want to leave it like this. But I think the way it's stated here, the library director shall prepare the annual budget, it kind of negates the 202s, which say the board is responsible. The board ultimately has the final responsibility.

Given how that has gone in the past, we felt that it was incredibly important to emphasize the reality of how the library functions and the in-depth and incredibly detailed and historic and professional knowledge that the library staff has of the way their budget works and is implemented and how very deeply they are ingrained in the process. We could not set an accurate budget without the very

detailed thorough and committed input of the library staff and director could i make one small suggestion um the actor in this sentence makes it the library director and since this is the bylaws we want to attribute the actionable stuff to the board so we could say the board shall prepare in concert with the with the library yeah shall purport annual budget with the library director

Anything else, Mara?

Yeah, under 1.5, I do know that we traditionally have put the funds for lost or damaged books and circulated materials into the book fund. But did you guys check to see if we have to put that in a separate fund? Because that has come up in the past.

Yeah, there's no separate fund.

Yeah, we checked. Who did you check with?

Donna.

The New Hampshire Charitable Trust Union answered that question for us.

Yes. And we reported on that. Yep. So that one we consider settled.

OK. And then under 1.8. I think if you well first of all under 202 a 17 it says that the board is responsible for hiring and firing I Also think that this doesn't belong in The bylaws that if you want to put something related to this it really does belong to the personnel policy And why is that Because this is supposed to be how the board functions and this is a duty you're attributing to the library director which also is in contradiction with the citation.

Well, then in that case, what we could do, we could remove much of the verbiage from 1.6 and just say the trustee shall appoint a library director and just cite RSA 202-A colon 11B and then delete 1.8 entirely.

Or you could keep part of 1.8 and say the board, wait, where is it? Sorry.

never mind you're right so i think i'm going to my input to that moira is you're right however i also want our director to be empowered that if if we have someone that shows up that is putting staff in an unsafe manner that he or she has immediate authority from the board to remove that individual And, you know, I don't need whoever is our director to come and say, you know, this individual showed up and they were wielding a weapon and they were, you know, drunk or whatever. He or she, from my view, should be empowered by this board to remove that individual from employment.

I don't think she's arguing that. I think she just says, is stating, correct me if I'm wrong, that... clause should be in the personnel policy because this document is only referring to the board's duties okay so not i don't think she's arguing that that would be the role of the director is that your case is that your argument i do think it belongs in a personnel policy if you want to address that specific situation

or in the library director job description one or the other or both so it seems then like the the sensible thing unless i think the only thing the only argument for keeping the the part under 1.6 regarding the director's responsibility and that any of 1.8 would be to clarify that it is not the trustee's job to do certain things

You couldn't make it boring.

May I jump in on this one? Just to make it board centric we could say the board will support the library directors discharge of blah blah blah blah.

Yeah So I just wanted to state that I didn't I looked up the RSA that's cited here and it is incorrect. The beginning of that citation, the 202-A colon 17, specifically says no employee of a public library shall be discharged or removed from office except by the library trustees. So the library director cannot remove a staff member. Any circumstances?

No. Even if they're a danger to the public?

I think that they could tell them to go home. They couldn't tell them You're fired that you're fired, yeah.

Alright, so then we will need to retool that. Alright, we will clarify that then.

Yep. Yep under 1.9. I see that you had here maintain awareness and I just wanted to know what your definition of that is That's three yeah, you just passed it up higher More

Keep going. There. So the purposes of that was this section originally made it very trustee centric on the preparation of financial reports and their care and control. We wanted to update the language to reflect the way that this relationship has historically worked and that we would like to keep it working, which is much more collaborative with the library staff. between being briefed at meetings and being uh you know forming a subcommittee having a treasurer you know being on top of this paperwork that we we to reflect the fact that we're not the ones who are preparing these reports but we are responsible for their oversight because ultimately under the law we have to be prepared to answer for them so reflecting the reality of that dynamic as it plays out in our library

Yeah, I'd like to speak to that. I can't tell you how many times I was horrified as a board member and as somebody in the audience not yet elected where members of the board did not know very, very basic things like how do we receive our revenue?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

So that is really critical. People that have been on the board for more than a year, not newbies, some several years and were reelected, did not know the source of our revenue. So that's super important.

I agree.

OK, so I like the explanation that you gave. If you can incorporate it in that, I think that would make it have some more depth.

Sure.

I think we've already talked about 1.1. One of the things I did want to say about 1.4 is I know the town council and other bodies have first, second, and third reading, so does the school board. It might be beneficial for us to look into a process like that so we're not making snap decisions that we have something in one meeting and then maybe we vote on it in the next or something of that nature where it's not always, you know. So there's sort of a process to make sure that everything is reviewed thoroughly. under, let's see, section two, 2.1. I think it would be beneficial if we just added something about asking about availability of other members and setting meetings. Under Section 3, under 3.1, you had here a regular meeting will be called immediately following town elections. And it was a special meeting earlier in the document.

You're right.

Yes. And I just wanted clarification on which one you're going with.

That is completely reasonable. Nancy, do you have a preference?

I think we would probably have to be a special meeting, wouldn't it?

Mm-hmm. Then we need to clarify the RSA on that.

Yep.

All right. Gotcha.

Continue. Thank you.

Okay. And then under five, the remote participation, I don't know that I would specify something like an IT department because we don't really have something like that, but I understand what your intention was. I would just maybe change that verbiage. Sure. And then under Article 6, I think we discussed some of that already, but we do have a legal line, and I think... We're responsible for that legal line. The way I thought you might be able to distinguish it was we're responsible for our legal line, and if we need to use, like, the town primex or something, then maybe we'd have to have a separate process.

Mm-hmm.

um because that is under the umbrella of the town so clarifying that um that legal issue that legal uh that the um budgeting for and paying for seeking and paying for legal counsel may come out of our budget or the town's budget depending on the nature of the request and just clarifying that in there yep makes sense and that's pretty much it thank you

Okay. Anybody else? Ms. Azra. Erica, anything that you want to add? No, I think we've gotten some good feedback to implement here. Okay. Very good.

Madam Chair, are you accepting any feedback from staff tonight? Well, I don't know. Of course I am.

I love that. Yes.

I wanted to bring forth a question that I've received from several staff members regarding meeting attendance requirements and whether there's really any consequence to not attending meetings. So I just wanted to bring that to your attention.

So that was actually something that we did speak with an attorney at the New Hampshire Municipal Association about. And we as a board, a body, cannot penalize anybody for not attending meetings. They're all elected officials. Certainly, we could have private conversations with them and encourage people to come to meetings. But we as a board cannot remove someone from office. We certainly encourage people, as does this document, to communicate with the chair to let the chair know whether an individual can be there or not. I can tell you that since I've been in this role multiple times, we've had trustees absent from meetings and no one has, up until recently, contacted me which is unfortunate because I think that that speaks to their level of commitment to the board their colleagues and the library and certainly to the people that have elected them but in in order for us to remove someone from their office that's a physical logistical impossibility and I'm sorry to say that to you because there are times that people just you know don't show up for a variety of reasons and and you know we can't do anything and I'm sorry okay I appreciate you speaking to that

there was one point of clarification that if that person holds an office on the board so for example treasurer or chair or something like that they can be removed from that office but they would still be a trustee they we would appoint a new treasurer or a new secretary like if i stop showing up you can appoint a new secretary you can remove me as secretary but i still technically hold the role of trustee because i'm an elected official

OK. Does that process need to be in your bylaws?

That is in the bylaws. Oh, it is? OK. Yeah. Thank you. It is under. I will scroll up to find it. Or at least it was in there. It's in there. Yep. It's Article 1, Section 3.7, which will be at the mid sort of partway down page 2. In the event that an officer shows gross negligence or constitutes failure or refusal to perform his or her duties or misses three consecutive meetings, an officer may be released from their position of an officer of the board upon two-thirds vote of the board. Notice that such a vote is to take place shall be made at the public meeting preceding the meeting at which the vote is to take place. We might retool that language to be very clear that we're going to give the public notice if we intend to do that.

Okay.

Thank you. Yeah. So the RSAs, there are very specific conditions under which an elected official can be removed from office, but those are very, very, very specific and very, very narrow and usually involve pretty substantial criminal charges. So not under our authority, unfortunately. Right.

Okay. I did have a couple other things. Article 1, Section 3, 3.5. The second line notes that the treasurer establishes and maintains separate accounts for books and fines. I think that Language says to me that there's going to be an account for finds, an account for books. Okay. Whereas in reality, it's actually the same account right now.

If I were to... How it maintains a separate account.

Maintain a separate account for books and finds. There you go.

Okay, there we go. Yep, got it.

Mm-hmm.

I also wanted to ask about Article 3, Section 1.3. This speaks to you using an abridged version of Robert's Rules. I think this statement is tough because it doesn't say specifics about what you're including from Robert's Rules, what you're not including from Robert's Rules.

We just want to say that shall be governed by Robert's Rules of Order. Right.

Unless there's something specific under Robert's Rules that you don't want to follow, which

so yeah go ahead i also had a clarification for that um there is a simplified robert's rules and you wanted to do something under that vein and yeah but there is not an abridged version technically in existence and let's so let's say simplified because i know that's in the yeah we could cite a source because it's a text otherwise most of us probably aren't i i have my big old copy yeah i have a couple of them yeah yeah

And then I had two other questions that are not related to what's actually in here, but questions about whether you considered adding these, whether you considered adding any expectation to check town provided email. Mm hmm. and also any expectations surrounding social media, representing the board on social media.

Since there was just a training that went out for municipal employees and elected officials regarding that, that would actually be very good to include in there. We could put that... Thank you for bringing those up, because those are very good points. We could... Put the checking town email under Article 2, Section 1.2 under the expectations of the trustees. And then the social media we should probably have as a separate point on here based on that training.

And is the training specifically for staff, though?

No, I believe it did also involve elected officials.

Yes. Yes, I was at the training. So I can speak to that. There were elected officials present. And it was an attorney through the municipal association, or former attorney. That is his position, and he is very, very smart. I did the presentation, and I believe they said it was going to be recorded, and there would be slides available. So you may be, I don't. They share the slides. They share the slides. Perfect. So one over, and it was very informative and really covered a lot of right to know, which is kind of. a little bit more eye opening when you think of it in those broader aspects. Yeah.

The gist of it that I took from it was don't use your personal social media for anything relating to what you do as an official. And if you have an official page, be very, very diligent about what you do with comments and engagement. But yes, I think those are very helpful things to add.

Anything else and said anything else I had one clarifying statement to. I flipped through too many times here with the moment. In section article one section 3. The 3.6 when it's referring to the close of the fiscal year or fiscal year closes on July 30th. So I just wanted to say it's not the calendar, it's the fiscal year. Sorry, can you tell me where that is again real quick? It is 3.6 of the article 1. Okay, thank you. There we go. It does say fiscal year in here. We were talking, there was discussion earlier. I just wanted to clarify that it does say fiscal year, and our fiscal year closes on July 30th.

Okay, do we want to be specific about that then and say library closes out its fiscal year July 30th? I was just sharing information. OK. I'll make a note in the minutes, and we can discuss that more in a meeting.

all right gotcha thank you and that was all very good thank you donna that was it for me else okay any other comments or questions modifications okay thank you everybody yes thank you very much i was i was looking forward to a productive conversation and this has been productive thank you so then the question becomes do we want to meet again to put it all together and then we'll bring it back

I could yeah I can I can I'd be happy to meet with you too yeah I can put in like the little details you know that we you know we've gone over and then we can look at that and modify anything further perfect because um will the board be prepared to vote on these on September the 3rd with modifications the modifications that we've discussed

Mm-hmm. OK, very good.

And we would send that in advance for everyone to review again.

So Eric and I will meet. We'll let you know when we're meeting. Thursdays or Wednesdays are still good for you. Do you want to try to get one in next week? I believe so. That would be the 26th.

Check my calendar, but that should be fine for me. Six.

as far as i know i'm fine okay so your bylaws subcommittee will meet again on august wednesday august the 26th at six o'clock we'll make sure that we get that posted could you find a room for us please sunny crest is available okay perfect then we will be meeting at six o'clock in sunny crest we will put all of these modifications together we will bring back um the finished document for you on September the third and I will put it under deliberations and vote so hopefully the board will be able to vote and we will finally have some bylaws so thank you everybody for that input that was very very informative and very productive okay very good moving on to the library director posting I already did that oh sorry that was done earlier So we moved that one up and I didn't know it. Yep. We did under on committees. OK. Sorry. So we don't need any more on that. Perfect. OK. Deliberations and vote. Outreach at Londonderry Pride.

Yes, so we have been invited to be, well, a vendor, I suppose, but we wouldn't actually be selling anything to do some outreach, basically just to be there to be doing some outreach with a table like we would at Old Home Days. And this is the first year that there's been a Londonderry Pride, and it's being held on September the 12th. I did want to note that the majority of the time would actually be outside of operating hours, but that we would probably send two staff members and we would adjust their schedule to make it work if the board were okay with us being there.

Very good. Any questions, comments, or discussion? If not, could I have a motion, please?

I make a motion to approve the library having an outreach booth at on September 12th.

That's a motion by Erica. Is there a second?

I second.

Second by Azra. Any other discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? That motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Very good. OK. Tentative reopening process. Do we want to continue to go down this road? We've had so much discussion on this.

Yeah, I basically am looking for two votes from the board. You can add the... language that this is only if our retest results come back clear that we would move forward with these plans. Otherwise, we would obviously postpone until we can reopen safely. So the two votes that I'm looking for are to close library operations in the Londonderry Police Department community room on Wednesday, September 2nd. And then the second one is to redistribute staff hours on Saturday, September 5th, to work instead the Monday through Friday that week. So essentially the library wouldn't have any staff here on that day.

Okay. These are ambitious goals. I know.

Yes.

Let it roll, Erica.

I believe in us. All right. I would like to make a motion that pending appropriate mold retest results, we close the library operations at the Londonderry Police Department Community Room on Wednesday, September 2nd.

Very good. That is a motion by Erica. Is there a second? Second. Second by Beth. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Any abstentions? That's a 5-0 vote. Okay. Vote number two. Let it roll, Erica.

All right. I make a motion that pending appropriate mold retest results, we redistribute the staff hours on Saturday, September 5th, to Monday through Friday that week.

That's a motion by Erica. Is there a second? Second. Second by Beth. Any discussion, questions, comments? All those in favor, please say aye. Madam Chair. I'm sorry.

So I just have one question. If you guys are going to close and have the hours Monday through Friday, that's going to be for one week? Correct. And it's going to be the 7th through the 12th?

So I don't want to share publicly the tentative reopening date because we just aren't 100% positive yet. I did email it out, if that's what you're asking for, like the range of when we would be closed.

I'm just trying to get an idea. And I also want to ask, I'm sure you've got a plan as far as like notifying people that there's going to be a transition and that's going to be closed, the PD room. So I just want to make sure members of the public can get access to that information. And it's going to be roughly one week, right?

It will be roughly one week.

Yes so yeah if you check your email there was a D that she suggested would be their reopening date.

And so we're saying tentatively depending on what we do we open September 5th would be the day that you would. You wouldn't have anyone. at the PD room, the hours would be redistributed.

Right, because that would be within the range of being closed to the public. So it would make more sense to have more staff here, hands on deck, one day through Friday. It also has the benefit of giving staff the longer weekend to have a little breather and then come back and get right back into it.

Would the date be dependent on it? That was in the language

I was in the motion.

OK. Very good. So that was a motion by Erica with a second by Beth. Is there any other discussion or questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Very good. And that's a 5-0 vote. OK. Thank you. Since I'm thinking about this, our next meeting is September the 3rd. Is that right?

Yes.

We're coming down to the wire. So I would like to think that I'm not the only one on this board that would like to publicly thank our police chief for sharing his house. I'm sure I'm not the only person on this board that wants to publicly thank our town manager for sharing his house. So would it be possible to have... THESE INDIVIDUALS PLUS ANYONE ELSE YOU THINK THAT WE SHOULD PUBLICLY SHARE FOR ACCOMMODATING US IN THESE LAST WHATEVER IT'S BEEN, SEVEN OR EIGHT MONTHS, I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE THEM HERE AT OUR NEXT MEETING. IF YOU COULD WAVE YOUR MAGIC WAND AND MAKE THAT HAPPEN, PLEASE.

SO I DID ASK THE CHIEF FOR HIS AVAILABILITY ALREADY AND HE CAN BE AT THAT THIRD MEETING ON THE 3rd. I CAN ALSO ASK THE TOWN MANAGER. VERY GOOD. AND ANYBODY ELSE THAT YOU THINK THAT WE SHOULD THANK PUBLICLY?

PROBABLY BOB SLATER.

ABSOLUTELY.

Can I just ask, would it be more respectful of their time if we went to the town council meeting because they're already there rather than having them. I wasn't a whole council, but you know, but just going and using public comment to thank them. That way we're not dragging them out another night.

It might be there one night to not be at a meeting if you'd like to. But I would like to publicly thank them in our forum. Okay. So but if they're if they're not available, then they're not available. Okay.

I guess we could ask first what would make the most sense to the police department. Do you agree being aware of their time?

Okay. If you could check and see if they're available, that would be lovely.

I checked with the police chief Bernard already, and he was available to come to the meeting on the 3rd. Okay. As well as Deputy Chief Breen.

Okay. Cool.

I just don't want to call people back for a formality if we're thinking them and their home eating dinner and want to make them come back and see him come back for a for a thank you like our meeting times are at night and if it's there are always saying that it doesn't feel like a big thank you for like come on over like just we can say thank you I don't know like we haven't much of an audience you know well.

I did. I just wanted to.

They're lovely. But they were, you know, I just. They all came back.

I did want to share, too, that in the process of asking their availability, I asked if there was anything gift-wise that would benefit the whole staff. Right. Thank you.

That's going to be my next question.

And they said that they were happy to help us, and they really weren't expecting any gift. So I was hoping to give them something they actually needed, but I did not get any ideas. So any dog toys? No.

So then another question, actually, that's something that might address both the desire to thank them and be very public and specific about it and maybe be a little bit more respectful of timing, et cetera. Would it be possible or would it make sense to do it as part of the reopening? we can do it there too i don't think that we could would that be something that the committee would be willing to consider yeah because then we're going to have a whole big crowd here and we can make it very clear these are some of the people who worked so very hard to make this happen

We were going to reach out and ask if Nancy wanted to say anything anyway.

I hear someone's trying to get your attention.

As part of just, you know... Sure, I'd be happy to make some comments.

It doesn't have to be very long and just as part of the whole grand reopening. Of course, of course.

That was going to be to share the next meeting that's fine, but it's something we can consider I'm happy to make some comment comments, but you know I'm just saying these individuals have been so gracious and so helpful.

I don't know that we can thank them enough, but Maybe we could get creative and create like a dedicated like something in the children's room or somewhere that you know has like a stuffy of their

you know service dog or like just create like a little nook of some things that would connect with the kids in the community and i love that yeah like something meaningful i mean we could even do like if the board wanted to give a certain amount of money for us to get collection materials we could do like a plate in them for somebody's dedicated yeah service or like the whole police departments and it can be like a something themed for

you know police service or I think that's all very appropriate I mean the police department has given up their community room for February March April May June July August you know seven months they haven't had any space of their own to meet with people from the community or have meetings you whatever they've used that room for it I mean they have been so accommodating to us so I think that putting together something like that Donna would be wonderful I

And would you prefer if you come up with a number in terms of amount of money that you think you'd want to spend and we approve it?

Yeah, I'd say we could come with a proposal, a funding request essentially. At the next meeting?

I think that we should talk about it 100%. Great. Okay. I'll get us back on track here. All right. Thank you very much for that, board and Megan and Donna. Closed library. We already did that. Redistributed that. Okay. Funding request. Is that where we are now? Go right ahead.

Right. So we have the furniture replacement request with the numbers. Did you get the new number? Yes. OK. get an additional number back. We're still waiting for the final quote to come in on so the shipping was just slightly higher than originally projected but it's still within this time frame so I created, I don't know if you wanted me to read the whole thing unless you had a chance to read through the furniture plan. You don't need to read through the whole thing. So this is just what the chairs would look like, not the colors.

She's got a scheme.

It's going to be more of like an orangey tones to kind of be complimentary to the blue carpet. Donna and I have agreed on very pretty colors. So this is just kind of what they're going to look like. We actually already have something in the soft seating line. The teen furniture has started to arrive. So we already know what it feels like. It's going to be Much easier to maintain because it does not need to be upholstery cleaned. It just can be like a wipe clean and it's very durable. And then, so this is what the furniture looks like. So the total request would be...

I have updated one. The new total request, which now includes a final shipping number, is $4,416.40. Of that request, we would expect that insurance will cover $3,885.67. So there's a remaining $530.73 that we are recommending be covered from the donation that you just accepted. on July 22nd.

Makes sense to me.

All right, is there a motion?

Sure. I make a motion to approve the expenditure, the total expenditure of $4,375.16. No, the updated number. $4,416.40. Sorry, can you say that one more time, please? My brain did not catch up. Yep. $4,416.40.

$4,416.40.

all right thank you sorry so then let me let me start that over i make a motion to approve the total expenditure of four thousand four hundred and sixteen dollars and forty cents for the purchasing of furniture replacement of replacement furniture um including the expenditure of the overage from um the insurance reimbursement from the earmark donation from uh that we accepted on july 22nd does that sound good sure that was a motion by erica is there a second

second I was a second by Azra is there any discussion questions comments all those in favor please say aye aye all those opposed that's a 5-0 vote thank you exciting it is exciting okay Grand reopening celebration. You need money. Yeah, go ahead. Okay. I was going to speak to this.

The memo is technically from me, but I know if you wanted to speak to it, Megan, you can. I was going to say, Megan looks like she's ready to jump out of her seat over there.

I'm very excited about this. So, again, the reopening committee met on Thursday, August 13th. And with the members of the Friends, and they actually met on Monday and have decided to donate $500 towards the grand reopening celebration, and that we as the committee respectfully request that the Board of Trustees make a matching donation of $500 towards the reopening to be used for refreshments, decorations, giveaways, and other supplies for reopening. The Friends are also... donating a gift basket for a free raffle for anybody who visits the library as part of that gift basket will be a hundred dollar gift card um to gibson's they've chosen gibson's yes to gibson's they're actually one of our suppliers that we use and they're a fabulous bookstore in concord if anybody wants to go um the committee also respects fully requests that the board of trustees considers contributing another gift basket of equal value

I think those are reasonable requests.

My suggestion, if you wanted to do another gift card more like adult-oriented or any age-oriented, I suppose, would be maybe like a grocery store gift card. We've also received in the past a lot of great... donations and support from Hannaford. So they possibly could help with other items in the basket if we bought a gift card to Hannaford, for example.

Yep. Perfect. Okay. Could we have a motion, please? Actually, I think this is going to be done in two, right? Two motions.

All right. Did I do it? No. OK. My brain's not working. That's OK.

I'm jet lagged, but we got this. I would like to make a motion that the Board of Trustees donates $500 towards the reopening celebration and makes a donation. Sorry.

Separate motions.

Yep. That's a motion.

There you go. That's a motion by Erica. Is there a second?

I second.

Second by Azra. Is there any discussion? Yeah, could you just repeat the motion? Sure.

I make a motion that the board donates $500 towards the reopening celebration.

From what funding source? I'm sorry, I missed that.

It would be from the trustee account, yeah.

So that was a motion by Erica with a second by Azra. Anything else, Maura?

No.

Okay. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? That's a 5-0 vote.

Did you vote, Maura? No, I'm debating. I'm still debating on it, but I'd actually put me down as an abstention. Oh, OK.

So that's a 4-0-1. 4-0-1. Yep. OK, very good. And then the next motion, please.

I make a motion that the board donate $100 for a gift card. for the grand reopening.

Very good. Out of the trustee account.

Out of the trustee account.

Thank you. That's a motion by Erica. Is there a second? Second. Second by Beth. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Very good. That's a 5-0 vote.

May I just ask a follow-up question? Would any of the trustees be willing to be responsible for the overall gift basket with the gift card? Or would you? Preparing it? I'm sorry?

Like preparing it?

Yes.

Yeah, I can do that. I was like, oh my god, this is a creative thing. That's not me. OK, sure. Beth, thank you very much for volunteering to do that. Yep. OK. Tuition reimbursement additional funding. Go ahead.

OK. So I'm bringing this back from the last meeting where I asked the board if you'd consider overexpending the tuition reimbursement line this year to allow enough funds to cover MY SUGGESTION WAS EITHER ONE AND A HALF CLASSES EACH OR TWO CLASSES EACH FOR THE TWO STAFF MEMBERS WHO ARE CURRENTLY TAKING CLASSES. BUT I WANTED TO ADD THAT WHAT I WOULD DO AHEAD OF APPROVING ADDITIONAL MONIES IS ACTUALLY CHECK, GIVE THE REST OF THE STAFF A DEADLINE TO LET ME KNOW IF ANYONE ELSE IS GOING TO BE WANTING ANY FUNDS THIS YEAR SO THAT IT'S FAIR BEFORE APPROVING ANY ADDITIONAL FUNDS. BUT I KNOW THE QUESTION WAS RELATED TO THE STATUS QUO ENVIRONMENT AT THE TIME. SO IF YOU WANTED TO SPEAK TO THAT. I BEG YOUR PARDON. If you wanted to speak to what you found out about that.

Sure. So our concern was that, you know, we are currently, as you know, in negotiations. And I just wanted to make sure that there was no conflict with this and what we're negotiating. And we were told that we can move ahead with this. Okay. So without disclosing any. Okay.

And I'll just repeat from last meeting that I do believe that there's extra funds within the salary lines because we have positions left unfilled. So that's where I would expect to make up for these overexpended monies.

Very good. All right. We need a motion.

We need to decide which one we're... So just to be clear, you're recommending that we set a deadline for reimbursement requests?

No, I would take care of that. Oh, okay. So all your motion would need to be is that you're allowing overexpending the line up to one of those amounts or another amount.

So we need to decide which amount we're going to spend up to. Do we have the $2,250?

In salaries, I believe we do. Okay.

And I would say we go with option number two. As long as we're not going to be over budget anywhere.

I mean, I can't guarantee because we're early on in the year. But where we're in August and we're down three positions, there's money in there.

Okay, perfect.

All right. So then would you want to go for the higher number? Yes. All right. Then I will make a motion to approve the expenditure of an additional $2,250 for tuition reimbursement to be spent initially from the tuition reimbursement line of the budget and any overage from that to be taken from the salary line of the budget.

Very good.

So the line will just be overexpended. And we just know that bottom line-wise, we have money and salary. Right.

I guess just to be clear for the public about how we're doing that.

Right. But the way that motion sounds to me is that I'm going to actually submit expenses to salary line for anything extra.

Then in that case, Madam Chair, may I revise my motion? You may. All right. I would like to amend my motion. I make a motion to approve the expenditure of an additional $2,250 on tuition reimbursement.

Thank you. Very good. That's a motion by Erica. Is there a second? Second. Second by Beth. Is there a discussion? Just a question.

I know in the past when we've talked about paying stuff out of the salary line, it's come up that you can only be used for certain things. Because this is a benefit, did you ask when you were getting your opinion if using money from salaries is OK?

There's nothing to prevent us from doing that. It's a bottom-line budget.

It's a bottom-line budget, but there are restrictions on certain things, like the salary line.

Off the top of your head, do you know what they are?

Off the top of my head, I don't. But I know we've had discussions around them a couple of times.

OK. So I'm going to say, without lack of information, I think we can move forward with this. And if for some reason you find out that we can't do this, then come back.

legal counsel didn't determine that there was an issue with that and it's a bottom line budget um the legal salary is there to give us guidance on making sure that we are providing for the staff um and the contracts that we're offering them but it's a bottom line budget i think we're going to be okay with it i do agree with myra that it is good to check about that and you did your due diligence but i do agree with her okay

And we can look into still voting yes, no, yes, OK. That was a motion by Erica. Did you second it? Yes. OK, Beth. So any other discussion, Maura? No, that's it. OK, very good. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Very good. Was that a yes? I'm going to abstain. I'm not sure about that. OK, yep. So that was a 4-0-1 vote.

Thank you.

OK. Very good. All right. Acceptance of unanticipated funds under RSA 202-A colon 4-C.

So we just have the Friends donation of $500 towards the grand reopening celebration.

Love it.

OK. Should I move? Pardon me?

Do you want me to move? Yes, please. All right. I make a motion that we accept these unanticipated funds under RSA 202-A, colon 4-C.

That's a motion by Erica is there a second. Second second by Beth is there any discussion. All those in favor please say aye aye all those opposed. Very good.

We go to public comment and I just make a statement have some I just wanted to thank Donna and For presenting to the C. I. P. Megan and Jen was there because they did a really great job providing a lot of data on the 3 projected projects that we would like to to move forward to the C. I. P. Committee so they did a really great job and I appreciate But on top of everything else you got going on, you did a great job with that because that was heavy. It was a lot of information. That was a heavy lift.

But yeah, that was well done. Very, very well. Very, very well done.

Yes.

Thank you for saying that. OK. Any other comments from the board about anything before we move into public comment? Is there anyone here that would like to comment from the public? Seeing no one here to publicly comment, We need a motion to move into a non-public session.

I make a motion to move into non-public session under RSA 91A, 3, section 2A.

Correct. Very good. That's a motion by Erica. Is there a second? Second. Second by Beth. This is a roll call vote, please. Maura?

Aye.

You have to state your name for the record, please.

I'm Maura Ryan. Sorry.

That's right.

Aye, Beth Morocco.

Nancy Hendricks, yes.

Erica Lowy, yes. Azra Paylo, yes.

Very good. Okay. We are going into non-public.

Yes.

Can I have a motion to adjourn, please? I make a motion that we adjourn at 9.10 p.m. Very good. That was a motion by Erica.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Very good. All right. This meeting is adjourned.