Minutes of October 3, 2011

The October monthly meeting of the Haverhill Library Association was held at the library and called to order by Board of Trustees Chairman John Landrigan at 7:30 P.M. on October 3, 2011. Present were Trustees John Landrigan, Vesta Smith, Ken Frank, Jane Darby & Mike Marshall and Librarians Nanci Myers and Anne Ballam.

Minutes of the August 29, 2011 meeting were approved.

Building: Ken provided an update on building repairs. Russ Wilcox has worked on the east gable end of the building and is now working on re-pointing bricks on other parts of the building. Ken will check on when work on the west gable end will be done. Hayward Slate has neither signed a contract with the library nor taken any steps to begin work; Ken will seek another slate roof contractor. John told the board he learned that the North Haverhill Library has some slate left over from recent repairs that we may be able to obtain. John reports he is still pursuing the challenge in fund raising by the Byrne Foundation and will be sending out letters soon.

Financial Report: John provided financial statements for the end of September, noting that our fund raising is falling behind projections. He will look into the possibility of saving some money through a pre-buy of gas. A review of the 2012 budget will be held at the next monthly meeting.

Librarian’s Report: Nanci reported she had been extremely busy and that library use has increased over the last several months. She has found an Information Technology person who will look into problems with the library’s routers. Ken Frank will donate a refrigerator for use at the library; Mike will look into obtaining cups & lids for use with the new Keurig coffee machine. Nanci reports she knows someone who may be able to get author Chris Bohjalian to present a program at our library

Fundraising / Programming: The Fall Book Sale has earned almost $600, but that is still less than projected. Many books are left over; Mike will bring worthless books to the recycling center in Newbury and books in good condition (but which are not considered to have any value to our sale) to a book picker. The plight of the West Hartford, VT library suffering great losses in the recent floods was discussed and it was decided the Anne would look through our children’s books to see if there are any we might donate. The next book discussion will be on October 10 for Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. John still plans to start an essay writing workshop on October 11. The next installment of the Book Club for Writers will be held on October 27. Ken volunteered to donate two turkeys to be raffled; no action was taken on that for the present time. The possibility of the library sponsoring the Fall Festival next year was discussed and will be considered further. Although our fund raising efforts have not reached our goals for this year, it was agreed that there was not anything we could do this years

New Business: The board decided not to respond to a manuscript concerning the town’s libraries by Robert Fillion. Alumni Hall Director Keisha Luce approached the library with a proposal that Alumni Hall, the Haverhill Library Association and Haverhill Historical Society have a joint community program at Christmas. Vesta suggested the library could serve tea at Alumni Hall during some event and Jane suggested a guided historical walking tour of the neighborhood; no action was taken on these ideas. The board voted to send a letter to the State of NH in support of maintaining the State Library Van and Inter-Library Loan Program. Nanci reported she has obtained about 25 signatures on a petition to the State and some patrons have indicated to her that they will send personal letters.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 P.M. The next meeting will be held at the library at 7:30P.M. on November 7, 2011.

Respectfully submitted,
Michael Marshall