The next meeting will be Monday, 9/19/05 at 4 p.m.

Cornwall Free Library

Minutes of the August 15, 2005 Meeting

Of the Board of Directors

Present: Janet Gold, President; John Green, Treasurer; Roxana Laughlin, Paul De Angelis, Ann Schillinger, Jean Vitalis, Norma Lake and Amy Worthington-Cady, Library Director. Absent: Pam Jones, Dominique Lasseur, Julie Schieffelin, and Alec Frost.

Janet called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. and passed out copies of the Friends of the Library’s proposed program of events written by Tom Levine and a separate notice concerning the reading by Roxana Robinson from her latest work on October 1^st.

Upon motion by Ann, seconded by Roxana the minutes were approved with the following changes:

Under Old Business, third paragraph, sentence should read “Paul De Angelis reported on his progress in planning a 2006 exhibition at the Library of works by cartoonists…..”

Treasurer’s Report: John reported that the $22,000 from the Town of Cornwall has been received and that we have repaid ourselves the $3,500 that we borrowed. There is $7,500 in the operating account, which will last until early September. The annual appeal is slated to go in September. Roxana asked if there had been any appeal to the summer families who use the Library. Amy said no but we can put a separate letter from them into the appeal letter as we have done in the past. Jean took note of that and asked for any other suggestions. Paul mentioned strategic planning and Roxana suggested targeting some of the interesting things we do with the donations. Upon motion by Paul, seconded by Jean the treasurer’s report was approved a copy of which is attached to these minutes.

Library Director’s Report: Amy reported that some of the Library’s events for children had been lightly attended this summer because of conflicts with the Park and Rec. schedule. Norma said that it is time to get all the providers of children’s activities (CCS, Park and Rec., Child Center, and Library) together again to try and sort schedules out. Margie Pettersen has been a great employee this summer. She will be leaving soon but might volunteer on Saturdays during the school year. Amy went on to announce a 9/21 meeting for the volunteers.

There was a great deal of discussion concerning Hendon Chubb’s call questioning how we communicate the amount that can be deducted from various kinds of contributions. John agreed that we should first get in touch with our accountant and if that doesn’t clarify the matter, get in touch with our lawyer. We then expressed great thanks to Jean and the Outagamie Foundation for the generous check which has been received. Amy’s report and the circulation figures are attached and are a part of these minutes.

Personnel Committee: Roxana distributed copies of revisions to the Personnel Manual. The revisions are found in the following sections and the changes are in italics.

II. Employment Procedures

C. Hours of Employment

2. The LD (Library Director) must pre-approve compensatory time and it must be used within a pay period.

III. Employee Benefits

A. A. Vacations and Holidays (for full-time employees)

2. 2. Holidays: The Cornwall Free Library is closed on Sundays and Mondays. It normally observes the following holidays: New Year’s day, MLK Day, Presidents’ Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans’ Day, Thanksgiving Day, the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve (evening only). The Library will close at 5 p.m. on the day before Thanksgiving. Employees will not be paid for holidays which fall on Sunday and Monday. Employees will be paid for holidays which fall on their regular scheduled work days. The LD will see that the schedule for holiday time is equally distributed.

Upon motion by Ann, seconded by Jean the revisions were approved unanimously.

Report from Friends: Janet elaborated on the Friends’ timetable handed out at the beginning of the meeting and told how well the photography workshop is going. The Town Players plan to have a fundraiser for the Library on the Village Green next June. The Library received a donation of a new DVD projector “via” the Friends. There was discussion about the Friday after Thanksgiving fundraiser.

Strategic Planning: The two groups charged with revising the first two Strategic Initiatives reported. Paul handed out copies of the revised #2 Public Relations Strategic Initiative. There are now five Action Steps. Action Step #3 establishes a Task Force, which will consist of Nora Horan, Carol Schneider, and Seth Dolinsky. Gina Maolucci and Elizabeth England will also be asked to join it. Beth and Gary Halby’s name were suggested to help with some aspect of this initiative.

Amy gave out copies of the revised #1 Strategic Initiative to Develop a Long-Range Financial Plan. She gave some background on some of the people on the Task Force that has been established. Paul was asked to integrate the two initiatives. He also will get an article into the October Chronicle on the Library’s strategic planning. Janet said we should work on these two before we take on the rest.

Old Business: John is still trying to find a cheap credit card for the Library. Paul has a meeting in September with the cartoonist. Will make certain that Dominique and someone from the Friends are there.

New Business: John reminded us that the next meeting is the annual meeting and wondered whose terms might be up. No one knew. Janet appointed Roxana, Amy Cady and Juliette Hubbard to the nominating committee. There was discussion on when to have our meetings, but it was agreed that we needed more people at the meeting before we properly discuss that issue.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:55 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Norma Lake for Julie Schieffelin