Guilford Free Library Trustees Meeting Minutes 1.27.25
Trustees In-Person and On-Line Meeting
Guilford, Vermont
Monday, January 27th, 2024 – 6:30 pm
Trustees Present: Josh Nelson, Jeannette Tokarz, John Shaw, Nika Fotopulos, Sandra Cortes, Laura Lawson Tucker, Judith Serkin.
Trustees Absent: none
Others present: Amber Hunt (Librarian), Davida Bagatella (Friend).
Meeting began at 6:32 pm
Trustees accepted December Meeting minutes.
ADA Building Committee report – Jeannette and Judith with guest Jon Saccoccio from Stevens Associates
Jon shared his proposal for the first stage of developing a building addition. He would place a strong focus on community engagement and meeting ADA standards. His proposal for architectural services included community outreach, public engagement, and soliciting and incorporating public feedback in the preliminary designs. He outlined 3 public meetings and how he would produce designs that were informed and directed by public input.
Judith and Jeannette also met with Cotton design. They will invite them to come give a talk to the trustees at a future monthly meeting.
We discussed a plan to distribute a survey at town meeting on each attendee’s seat. Laura will help with this.
Town Meeting Planning
Town Meeting will be Saturday March 1st.
John will put forward our slate of Trustee nominations: Nika Fotopulos and Jeannette Tokarz.
The Library will have an info table in the corridor. Amber will send out a volunteer sign up email.
Librarian’s Report – Amber
The rapid reviews event had a good turnout and books were available for check out. 3 young people were amazing in their review presentations.
Thanks to the John Henry Eldred JR Foundation grant, our library now has many more museum passes for patrons to check out; ice skating rink passes, Erik Carl picture museum, Dr. Seuss, Montshire museum. There are large replacement fees for some, to ensure returns.
Amber also used that grant money to purchase new backjacks and new cushions for the library.
Treasurer’s Report – John
We are doing very well. Annual appeal brought in over $10 000.
The subcommittee plans to meet with Friends on Friday, which will help clarify roles and responsibilities.
John and Amber gave their presentation at the Town budget meeting. The selectboard and finance advisory committee were supportive and gave positive feedback of what the Library is putting forward in this coming report.
New Business
Davida offered to speak with us about her experience with a successful library expansion project. Laura, Judith and Amber will figure out the scheduling of this at a future meeting.
Next month’s agenda items
– Annual trustee training discussion: we figured this out, we will all receive a training on community engagement for a building addition by Davida, see details above.
Meeting adjourned 7:43pm
***Next Monthly Trustees Meeting: Monday February 17, 2025 at 6:30pm – In person at the Library/OR ONLINE
Minutes by Secretary,
Nika Fotopulos
Meeting Recording: