International Falls Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes November 13, 2019

Present: Diane Adams, Library Director, Dick Peterson, Ted Saxton, John Dalton, Darcy Sullivan

Call to Order: Peterson called the meeting to order at 4:30 pm

Motion was made by Dalton, seconded by Saxton to approve the October minutes. Approved.

Financial Report and Bills: Motion by Saxton, with second by Sullivan to pay the bills. Approved. Dalton signed the bills.

Director’s Report – October circulation was quite a bit better than September but still down about 4% compared to October 2018. Circulation to day for the year remains down 3%. Storytime attendance has been varying wildly between 8 – 25 participants. Libratory, the afterschool programming on Wednesday afternoon had about 8 – 12 regular attendees until November 6th when we had none. The comic character creation workshop had 6 and the leather bracelet workshop had 9. Some additional numbers, this last month we had 10 new patrons sign up for Hoopla and are seeing a slow uptick in the number of items being borrowed. Unique Management, our collection agency sent a recovery report and we are seeing a ROI of 7:1 (materials returned or paid for and fines collected).

The scanner has arrived. We are tentatively scheduling training for January. I have created a job description for the new position and will have it ready for approval at the meeting.

I will be out of town (state) from November 22 – December 9th. I will create board packets for the December meeting before I leave. I am not expecting too much on the agenda, but we might need to add something under new business, if something comes up between when I create the agenda next week and the meeting three weeks later.

Upcoming programs: Storytime Thursday mornings at 10:30 until December 19th, Libratory Wednesday afternoons 3 – 4:30 through November 20th. Limited programming until the new year, just stealth programming out and about in the building.

KTI – Next round of grants now taking applications. Still working on first round, so not planning on applying. Adams has had several conversations with James Yount about options and ideas.

Donations: Saxon moved and Sullivan seconded to accept donations in memory of Bob Anderson – $10 from Darrell Schmidt

in memory of Gene McLinn – $35 from Bill & Helen Smericka, $30, from Sandy Roth, $25 from Mary Berger, $30 from Eugene & Patricia Kjellgren, $25 from Scott & Cathy Readman

New Business: Director shared the new position description for the part-time scanner. Dick recommended adding physical qualifications to the position announcement. Job will be posted from November 18 – December 9th, interviews the week of Dec 16 with a projected start date of January 6.

Three board openings in January and both Kostiuk and Sullivan are interested in serving again. Dalton will consider and let library know.

Next Friends of the Library sale – Saturday, November 16th 11am – 1pm

What are you reading? – John is excited to be reading America: the last best hope volume 1 by William J. Bennett, Dick is enjoying Dragonfly by Leala Meecham, Ted is excited to be reading How to Beat Your Dad at Chess by Murray Chandler with his son, Darcy had to read another Louise Erdrich and selected Round House and Diane finally got her hands on the new Lorna Landvik Chronicles of a Radical Hag.

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, December 11th at 4:30 pm.

Meeting adjourned at 5:05 pm.

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