— Trustee Minutes – April 7, 2025

Fitzwilliam Town Library Board of Trustees

Minutes for April 7, 2025 Meeting

Members present: Chair Robin Marra, Richard Marshall, Carole Beckwith, Nan Fey-Yensan, Michelle Buonomano, Alternate Amanda Blicharz and Director Cindi Beede   

  1. Call to Order – 5:30 pm 
  1. Election of Board Members for Trustee positions 2025-26
  1. Chair – Robin Marra (nominated by Nan; seconded by Michelle; unanimous vote in affirmative)
  2. Treasurer – Richard Marshall (nominated by Carole; seconded by Nan; unanimous vote in affirmative)
  3. Secretary – Nan Fey-Yensan (nominated by Richard; seconded by Michelle; unanimous vote in affirmative)
  4. Vice Chair- Carole Beckwith (nominated by Richard; seconded by Michelle; unanimous vote in affirmative)
  1. Approval of minutes of the March 3, 2025 meeting – Motion to approve, Richard/Seconded Carole; unanimous approval by all present
  1. Approval of the manifest – Approved by all present
  1. Chair’s Report
  1. The Chair remined the trustees that the NHL Trustees were hosting their annual meeting the beginning of May; open for any of us to attend.
  1. Library Director’s Report
    1. March circulation was 1776, about the same as last year this time. 13 adult programs and 14 children’s programs were held with a total attendance of 389; space was provided for 10 meetings with 93 attendees, and patron attendance in the building for the month was 1,024.
    2. The Director would like to upgrade the accounting platform to Quickbooks to alleviate a compatibility problem with the town. Trustees made a motion for her to purchase Quickbooks as soon as possible (Motion by Richard; seconded by Nan; unanimous in the affirmative).
    3. Cindi has hired the assistant director for the Library after interviewing several candidates with Nan during March. She is Bettilieu “Boo” Hill who began work on April 1st (Boo came in to meet the Trustees this evening).
    4. Veronika has done an amazing job putting together the new Seed Library (located on the New Hampshire Room). All seeds have been donated and re-packaged for patron use.  They are carefully labeled and the presentation of the Seed Library is delightful and very professional.
    5. Changes in federal level funding are affecting some of our services and learning opportunities (e.g., NH Humanities is not booking any new programs, IMLS funding is impacted, ILL impacted).
    6. Much progress is being made on the Summer Reading Program which will be called “Level Up.”
    7. It is National Library Week!
    8. Cindi is looking a purchasing a projector and screen for upstairs (plan is to use Friends donations); Richard Mays is replacing the old chairs in the NH Room with similar style chairs. Thank you, Richard.
    9. Some damage has happened to a portion of the fence out front; not sure if it was vandalism or an unreported accident; Richard Mays is fixing.
  1. Old Business
    1. Building updates: Carpets have been cleaned but are rippling when wet. Keeping an eye on them; perhaps a future discussion of carpet replacement.
    2. Caleb Massin has completed the painting of the upstairs.
    3. Locke Collection: Cindi has been exploring framing options for the Hawaiian Map; Richard indicated there may be some funds available to support the mounting of the map so that it can be displayed in the main activity room wall case.
    4. A review of the 2021 Library Survey generated some discussion related to LRP; some suggestions to improve the survey, should we choose to collect more data, were made.  This will be revisited in our next meeting.
  2. New Business
    1. Code of Conduct Policy: Motion to approve as written, Nan; seconded by Richard; unanimous in the affirmative.
    2. There was consensus that the Board must have more directed discussions about fund-raising and the long-range plan; Ideas for goals for the coming year to support the Long Range Plan were discussed:
      1. Seek and apply for more external grants
      2. Review and possibly adjust hours the Library is open
  3. Ongoing Business (e.g., Friends of the Library; Buildings & Grounds) and/or announcements

See Director’s Report

  1. Date/time for next meeting will be May 5, 2025 @ 5:30 pm 
  1. Adjournment at 6:35 pm; Richard moved to adjourn/Carole seconded; Unanimously approved.

Respectfully submitted:

Nan Fey-Yensan, Secretary

April 23, 2025