Haverhill Public Library
Board of Trustees
Minutes of August 19, 2021
The regular monthly meeting of the Trustees of the Haverhill Public Library was called to order at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 19, 2021 via Zoom or in the auditorium. In attendance were Trustees Bresnahan, Coletti, Rurak, Sheehan and Veasey-Sirois. Also in attendance was Director, Sarah Moser and Assistant Director, Jonathan Nichols.
Secretary’s Report
The trustees were given copies of the minutes dated July 15, 2021. After perusing the minutes, a motion was made and seconded to accept the minutes. The minutes were approved.
TD Bank Presentation, Joe Marini
The first order of business was a presentation by Joe Marini summarizing the past year’s market data. He also discussed the library’s investments and forecasts. He stated that overall the library’s portfolio is continuing to do well with a solid performance shown by an increase in the endowment.
Treasurer’s Report
Business manager, Josh McDonald, presented the financial statements for July. He stated that gift income was slow but typical for July and the library generated funds are behind budget by 65% of where we should be, which is a big improvement, and shows that we are catching up fast to where we were before. Trustee Coletti mentioned that there are a lot of capital improvements that need to be done and we need a capital budget. There was a discussion of setting up the structure of creating one.
A motion was made and seconded to accept the financial statements. The statements were approved.
Director’s Report
Sarah discussed the highlights of the director’s report:
- The new Head of Reference is settling in well
- The awning will be installed soon
- The summer reading program was successful
Old Business
Staffing Update: Sarah is trying to determine if the Page staff member will return as she would like to utilize that position
Strategic Plan Update: The trustees gave their comments to Sarah regarding the plan and thought there was still room for improvement in the plan. They discussed that more high-level goals are needed and that some aspects of it need to be geared more toward the future and need to be more challenging. The board would need to work together to edit it. A motion was made and seconded to accept the plan as it is with the understanding that there should be further meetings with and action plan for specific goals. All were in favor.
Merrimack Valley Halloween Festival update: The hosts of the festival requested that masks be worn for the whole festival on Oct. 9. The trustees voted unanimously to adopt a mask mandate for that day, if one is not already in place.
Senter Project Update: Dana spoke to the trustees about how far along the project is and how much longer they can expect it to take. She will provide the trustees with an outline of the phases and costs. Getting an intern was discussed also.
New Business
The trustees reviewed the 2022 holiday schedule. A motion was made and seconded to accept the schedule with the recommendation that Juneteenth be included. All were in favor.
The trustees voted unanimously to accept the FY2022 meeting dates.
Sarah discussed the Mayor’s mask mandate in all city buildings and the possibility of a vaccine mandate for city employees. Sarah asked how the trustees feel about indoor programming. All were in favor of a mask requirement for all indoor programming.
ARIS Repot highlights include a drop in walk-in and program attendance, ILLs and computer use due to Covid but electronic resource use has gone up and the number of cardholders (49k out of 65k population) is extremely high.
There being no further business to discuss, a motion was made and seconded to adjourn. The meeting ended at 11:05 a.m.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Bresnahan