C0RNWALL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

Minutes of the January 12, 2007 Meeting [as corrected]

Present: Louise Dunn, President, Carla Bigelow, Paul DeAngelis, John Green, Barton Jones, Pam Jones, Roxana Laughlin, Jim Sheffield, Ann Schillinger, and Jean Vitalis. Absent: Alec Frost, Dominique Lasseur, and Julie Schieffelin. Also present: Amy Cady, Library Director, and Tom Levine, President of the Friends of the Library.

Louise called the meeting to order at 3:00

Approval of Minutes: Upon motion by Paul DeAngelis, seconded by Carla Bigelow, the minutes of the December 8, 2006 meeting were accepted as presented.

Treasurer’s Report: John Green presented to the board a summary of actual expenses to date vs. the annual budget. Expenses are running about as expected, but electricity is ahead of budget while fuel use has run below budget to date. At present we have $10,800.00 in the bank and an additional $3,100.00. in annual appeal checks received this week, giving us a total of $13,900.00 on hand. This, together with the balance of the annual appeal money to be received, use of $16,000.00 of income from the endowment as budgeted, and carryover funds from events at the end of last year should enable us to operate through the end of the fiscal year. The annual appeal has generated approximately $42,000.00 to date compared to $40,000.00 at this time last year and a budgeted total of $53,000.00.

Upon motion by Jim Sheffield and seconded by Ann Schillinger, the Treasurer’s report was accepted.

Library Director’s Report: Amy Cady reviewed the written report she had previously circulated. She also passed out a written explanation of the weeding process we use and why it is so essential.

Committee and Task force Reports

Development Committee: Jean Vitalis reported that we will be sending out a second appeal letter by the end of February. We are having a Thank You party for our Donors who have been so generous on January 27. We also discussed our upcoming Spring event which will be a Children’s Book Festival. We need to decide on illustrators of children’s books and a possible story-teller. An evening event was also discussed-possibly at another time.

PR Committee: Paul DeAngelis circulated and reviewed a written report along with a copy of the Library survey and a summary of the task force questionnaire. There will be a general report on the survey within the next few months. We also discussed use of the Library Website. It was suggested that a counter would be useful to keep track of how many people actually use it.

Cornwall Authors Task Force: It was reported that the cataloging of the books was moving along, with 50 books finished so far. These books are not to be circulated.

Governance Committee: A new list of committee assignments was circulated. We also need to discuss having a member of the Friends as a permanent member of the Library Board.

Friends of the Library: Tom Levine reported that the upcoming sleep-over at the library will be on Feb. 28^th.This will be a fundraiser which the children can take part in and know they helped to raise money for a new bean bag chair and CD Player. We will have a reading by Laura Tyson on April 21^st.Other suggested events are a reading by David Kamp, a pruning clinic, and a poetry contest. Next fall we will offer a memoir writing class with Betty Krasne.

Other Business: How to respond to Law Enforcement Requests will be posted in the Library. All volunteers will go through a training session.

Announcements: We will receive a grant from The Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation for $2000.00 after attending a series of meetings on Board Training. The meetings will be attended by Amy Cady, Paul DeAngelis, John Green, and Pam Jones.

There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 4:10.

Respectfully submitted,

Pam Jones

Secretary

NEXT MEETING: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9 AT 3:00 PM