Minutes

Fair Haven Free Library
Monthly Board Meeting
Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Present: Thomas Bruso, Christine Sheldon, Ronald Stack, Cecelia Hunt and Carol Scott,
Librarian
In the absence of our chair, Cecelia Hunt conducted the meeting. The meeting was called to
order at 7:00PM.
The minutes of the April 19th meeting were distributed and reviewed. Chris moved to approve
the minutes of the April 19,2023 board meeting as written. Tho seconded the motion.
Motion carried unanimously.
Chris presented the Treasurer’s Report. The end of the fiscal year is fast approaching and the
Board reviewed spending in the various categories of the budget. The Board discussed the
importance of enough carryover in the budget to meet the expenses until the next check from the
town arrives. The budget summary for fiscal year 2023 to date, April 30,2023, includes the
following:
Total town funding received: $68,641.50
Interest on CD: $132.73
Grants: $71.35
Total expenditures for the year: $72,986.11
Ron moved to accept the Treasurer’s Report as written. Thom seconded. Motion carried
unanimously.
The Librarian’s Report was given by Carol.
 Ten Book Club members met to discuss It All Comes Back to You on April 10th over Zoom.
This was the last Zoom meeting and the club is now meeting in person on the first Monday of the
month in the meeting room at the library.
 Automation project continues. Our totals at the end of April were 1294 patrons and 16,971
books entered in the system. In April we added 8 patrons. We also added 54 items to the system
and discarded 28.
 The Take and Make for April was a spring gnome disc. We distributed 48 of them. They were
very popular and the demand was higher than our supply.
 The minutes are now being displayed on our library webpage at fairhavenfree.org. since the
Town of Fair Haven no longer hosts them on their site.
 The Friends held a book sale is Saturday April 29th. That sale made $114 downstairs and $2
upstairs. The Friends have been weeding out books that are unusable and discarding them. The
area has been redesigned and looks very organized.
 The Friends have set book sales through the summer. We have handouts and posters with the
dates and times. The schedule is also posted on the web page. There will be no sales in July. The
Friends are currently accepting book donations through May 19th
. Donations have been steady.
We try to discourage donations being put in front of the door and left out in the weather or being
put in the book drop.
 We have received the report from J &R Sprinkler. We need to contact them to set up a work
schedule to do the upgrades. It would be best not to schedule work in July because of youth
programming. Carol asked that Ron and Thom take the lead on the repairs needed to bring us
into compliance. Chris moved to have Ron and Thom oversee the sprinkler project and
work. Ron seconded. Motion carried unanimously. Chris moved to encumber any leftover
money from the fiscal year 22-23 for the updating of the sprinkler system and to replace
any pieces of the system as warranted. Thom seconded. Motion carried unanimously.
 Mary Kay is working on summer programming. We are joining other libraries in partnering
with Seven Days this summer on the Good Citizens Challenge. This is a bingo-like scorecard of
citizenship activities for kids. The summer theme is All Together Now which pairs nicely with
citizenship activities. We are planning on having guest readers for story times in July.
 We are in the process of signing our library up for the Palace app which will allow our
patrons increased access to a wider selection e-books and audios.
 We are ordering a selection of Vox books and Wonderbooks for our library. These books are
read-a-longs for preschool through school age.
The next meeting is Wednesday, June 20, 2023.
Chris moved to adjourn at 7:23PM. Ron seconded.
Respectfully submitted,
Cecelia Hun