 say they're present so we can okay um I'd like everyone to uh say they're present make sure we can hear and see everybody Eugene present Bob here Farah here okay and we hopefully will come in shortly I don't know that there are any changes or additions to the agenda there's none that I know of is there anything Sharon no okay um the uh I need a motion to approve the minutes I move to approve the minutes second second thank you um are there any changes or additions to the minutes yeah um we need to add Jedi from the list of committees okay where should we add that but that's a subcommittee of the PPP right that was my yeah so um so would you like a 5.1.4.1 Jedi Eugene um I'm I'm doing the same formatting as you did last time so it's the one dot a dot Roman numeral does that make any sense to you I'm looking at the minutes from January 4th yes oh I'm sorry I misunderstood you want to add something to the prior minutes okay yeah and so does it make sense that I go 5.1.4.1 and then add Jedi yeah you should just be able to hit hopefully return and the formatting should automatically add the sub bullet oh yeah no I'm not I'm sorry I'm not asking you how to use word I got that so I want I want to make sure you're okay with that format absolutely absolutely thank you okay okay any other suggestions or additions okay um uh proving the minutes um Eugene Eugene yes to prove your minutes from January Bob I'm approved yes Farah yes and Lee yes I thought they were splendid thank you okay they meeting minutes approved okay the next thing on the agenda um Lee Austin is unable to come so that's why I'm running the meeting I was inferring that but I'm always happy to see you Tammy oh thank you Lee I'm happy to see you too okay um public comment Sharon can you see so anyone who yeah so we have two attendees and if either one of you would like to raise your virtual hand you can do that and I'll let you into the room and you can give public comment nothing okay thank you um under the president's report Austin had the trustee meeting schedule which Sharon had sent out um and I assume everyone got back to her do you do we want to give the dates sure so it's 9 a.m for all these dates we have February 12th March 25th April 8th May 13th and June 10th okay great thank you um the bylaws now apparently Bob you wanted this put on the agenda do you have comments about the bylaws yes I thought that they were for a number of places where either I was confused or it was out of date for example on page one's article three section two it says the board of trustees is authorized to fill by election until the close of the next annual meeting a vacancy in any of the offices except that of president provided for in this article and I was wondering I don't understand why we would not be able to fill the presidency unless there's an automatic vice president becomes the president oh well why don't we uh I would I would need time to look at it why don't we send this to PPP along with any other questions you have that would be fine okay um page two article four section six third line the word town of Amherst the word town should have a cap article of section seven of the same article second line no s on employment condition of employment these are not major issues I just thought we should clean them up if you okay I'm looking to see whether there was anything else and I don't think so okay so we will um take your comments and suggestions and discuss them in PPP and bring them back to the board for consideration okay thank you um committee reports uh library building committee uh Sharon do you want to give that report yeah sure um and I'm happy to answer questions uh so we will be appearing in the central register this week inviting people to general contractors and and sub bidders to bid on our project really really exciting um and as far as the schedule goes we will we will have a walk through scheduled for potential bidders either on on February 1st or February 6th um and it will not be required but highly recommended uh sub bids are going to be due February 21st general contractor bids will be due March 6th uh and then we would an award we would award a contract with a general contractor after that and then you know there's there's time in between and lawyers are involved and and all of that before a contract is executed and then and then they're given a notice to proceed um we are in discussions with uh interim locations and that's all I can say right now um but we hope to have exciting news within the next couple of weeks um and we are also having discussions with the butters over easements and so I also hope to have exciting news in the next couple of weeks I'll I'll let you know when we can um the the building committee itself the the makeup of it the membership is is being updated because of the trustee and the town council elections there will be some members changing um so that'll happen in the next couple of weeks um and what else can I say I think that's pretty much my update you guys have questions may I ask if you're pleased with the options for interim spaces yes I'm just going to leave it at that okay well I'm happy to hear that any other comments for questions for Sharon who's substituting for the building committee report okay I see none um we'll move to the building and facility committee farah bob's got a question okay um oh bob sorry sorry going back to what I had started with which was the bylaws there was in addition to that a board of trustees officers boards and committees list which is not part of the bylaws but I couldn't find any way to to talk about it last time we met so um there were a couple of corrections that I would do to that if I could okay okay under uh well page two town boards and committees number three budget coordinating group at the bottom of the page there is an nb note uh it would excuse me I'm not sure you're on page two of the board of trustees of the bylaws you don't have it in front of you right now it wasn't included in this packet I see okay okay well I'll just be pretty quick about it on page two of that listing there is a reference to the following fiscal year's budget during the autumn and in fact the fiscal year budget is done during the winter rather than during the autumn um um on page three under personnel board under purposes which is the next to last paragraph there's a reference to recommendations to the select board and I hope that we are not still making recommendations to the select board but we don't have that piece of paper I assume Sharon you have it I don't have it in front of me I'm taking notes and I'll bring it to PPP okay um and then in page four um there's a description of of the Amherst historical commission um which is all about um we make presentations about requested library preservation projects um probably we need to have some more discussion of things that we do that there which requires their agreement and the last line of that and of the CPA committee has to do with the prioritization of our requests and I'm not sure that's the right wording for that so nobody on the board right now has a copy of what you're referring to so I would like to suggest that you you annotate your copy and forward it to Sharon yeah I'll do that the PPP can consider it thank you because I mean we're not looking at what you're looking at so it's kind of hard for us to understand the the suggestions you're making that's fine okay thank you okay um okay any other comments um on the bylaws or anything related to them okay the PPP will take it up at their um uh we'll move to Afara building and facilities please we we didn't meet this month we're meeting and on in February because there was nothing to meet about and um so there's nothing to report okay thank you I would ask one question yes and that is um was there anything done at the library with respect to Martin Luther King birthday uh I don't know I'll have to ask the staff okay um Lee would you be willing to make a report on the annual fund and the capital campaign that I was not willing to no of course I'm willing all right so for the annual fund as of January 1st because we are still in January the annual fund had taken in 79 540 70 yeah 79 541 dollars and 55 cents uh from 438 gifts and the capital campaign had taken in hang on had taken in uh 239 868 dollars for the month that's my report and regarding the uh capital campaign we are on the way towards transferring 300 000 dollars from you know prior van steenberg and estates and things like that so 248 968 dollars and 37 cents is now in the town's accounts that that was transferred electronically technology is awesome and then we're still waiting for another chunk of money that will be that'll go from vanguard directly to the town and that amount is 51 131 dollars and 63 cents right and that will total the 300 000 yes and and there will be obviously additional monies from the funds that did not go through the library that came through the friends I don't have that number in front of me but it's it's over 300 000 that's anyway if I didn't realize I did not have that prepared for today but you'll know it by next month because we will have transferred it wonderful thank you yep okay now um we've got to change hats personnel planning and policy um we have a draft of the um library director annual goals for fy 24 which ppp approved at its january meeting so I don't know do we need a motion to accept I mean as a committee chair I move that the board accept these goals second oh second thank you Lee all right um um Sharon worked at these we we went over them and changed a few things um at our ppp meeting so um are there any comments suggestions on her goals okay no no comment suggestions okay so can we vote to approve the library directors goals um you gene approve bob yes farah yes Lee yes and I approve thank you very much okay the next report is the budget report bob we did meet but I do not have a report for it um we are basically uh continuing to receive money and spend money I had asked some questions which I guess I will get answers for at some point but I don't have them yet okay so there's nothing on the fy 25 budget request is that in process it will be it's not okay okay thank you okay bob investment change hats okay um we are having a virtual meeting with Dan Vossa vanguard um in a couple of days on the 25th because vanguard has sold the the advisory group which with which we work and which Dan Voss is a member of to Mercer apparently because Mercer has a large operation for for-profit organizations but did not have a strong operation for non-profits vanguard did have such an operation and so the entire vanguard institutional advisory service um will become a part of Mercer in the middle of February so we have to make a decision as to whether or not we will continue with them as they now become part of Mercer the staffing will continue the same um I don't know at this moment what the impact will be with respect to fees um with respect to access to the same services that we've had in the past what my understanding is that Mercer is going to spend most of this coming year kind of figuring out what they want to do that will be different um the if the fees remain then it is probably more effective for us to stay with the this organizational group at least in the immediate future although exactly what what level of research we will get what levels of information we will get is likely to change over this period of time so all I can say is that we will be meeting with Dan Voss and asking him all of these questions I have posed them to him in written form and we will see what his answers are the major point of all of this is that sometime between now and February 15th on they have sent us documents which we will either sign saying yes we will continue with them or uh we will not sign in which case we will need to find somebody else to help us with our investments wow big change thank you thank you for helping um navigate this sounds a bit complicated but thank you um do we have a friends of the jones library report either elaine or lewis yeah so i'm going to bring elaine into the room okay elaine elaine can you hear me she's coming okay i'm there right yes perfect hello elaine hi welcome thank you i'm filling in for austin that's okay social last name yeah so thank you welcome thank you um yeah so i think lewis has not been coming so i said that um i told our group last at the last meeting that we should perhaps take turns coming to your meeting so that we would get to know you um it occurred to us that we don't know you and you don't know us for the most part so um anyway that was the idea of that um so i said i would i would start this month and we'll see how it goes we'll see if people are going to want to do that um so our latest um endeavor has been um i don't want to say selling but sort of selling edith byron's paintings um we uh knew that we needed to um move them all on before the library needed to be emptied and so um this past 10 days or so we had the remainders set up in the lobby and um as of noon today all but two had sold which is really amazing um and actually i i talked to someone in the at the cirque desk and asked her to take those two down because i don't think those two are gonna sell so i would declare ourselves finished with that project and um i think in total that will have made uh at least eight thousand five hundred dollars so that was you know something that came in that was unexpected and um turned into a fun event and i think um people enjoyed browsing those paintings and and buying them or donating for them so um anyway so that was good um presently we are setting up um setting trying to set up a brainstorming date for march so that uh we can meet and we were going to meet with lee and kent also um just talk about the future of the friends and what we're going to be doing and what our role is going to be and just sort of start talking about all that so that we're trying to decide on a month or on a date in march for that um presently we have nine members really um who come to meetings um and so we are looking for more uh board members and so we sort of a few people have feelers out and we're hoping that we can um get some more people and um are i'm not sure what's going to happen with that second grade reader project which is something we do every year if that's going to continue wherever the children's room moves to um i think uh maryon is talking to me about that to see how that's really going to work and where we're going to be able to keep supplies for that and things like that um we're going to um get together a few of us um i didn't tell you yet Sharon on wednesday afternoon to start looking at that uh friend's room on the third floor to see what in the world we're going to do with the stuff in there so um that'll be wednesday afternoon and i think that's all i need to say today well thank you elaine for joining us i have such fond memories of edith Byron yeah yeah and i think a lot of people did that's why they were anxious to buy them yeah i also want to say thank you elaine and i think it's a wonderful idea to have you or a rotating group from the friends as you say so we could all get to know each other better great yeah that's what we'd like me too thank you for joining us it's wonderful sure take care um okay we have Sharon's director's report here we go um i uh yeah i i don't have i don't have anything else to report on i'm happy to ask questions there's all sorts of things going on staff are very very busy uh making plans we we're going to be closed just on the 24th so we'll we'll be reopening on the 25th uh so that staff can uh look at their spaces and figure out really you know do we need to keep this tissue box uh you know for two years so happy to answer questions lots of decisions farah has a question sorry i should have probably asked this um i've asked you so many questions about the move Sharon it isn't about that but um just when we were talking about buildings and facilities is there any update on the North Amherst library have you wary fifth i just got confirmation like an hour ago um so it'll be it'll be a soft opening um it won't the the full building is is not ready yet uh but the library will be able to open on the fifth right and there there will be plans for a spring you know grand opening celebration um you know that paul and the donor will be will be planning right well thank you for asking will the bathrooms be available to yes yeah patrons yes even though there's no official opening yet yeah there's okay good that's good yeah okay um is there anything else not on the agenda anything else anyone wants to talk about we did have a jedi meeting last week and we discussed the survey and we were we've had results coming in but we want to keep the survey going a little bit longer a lot of the comments so far have been kind of positive but some of us like we were kind of you know wondering about the outliers things like people wanting more news from italy and sicily or people not happy with our lgbtq plus um not agenda saying that we are we are too liberal and closed-minded so a little i mean we were just discussing general stuff like that but we're thinking that we will try to push the survey a little longer even when the library moves and then um maybe even some i have the jedi members at the library like asking people to fill out surveys but basically we want to have it moving for a few more months and then for us to meet and sort of have a report out to the trustees and and then next steps but it was a very life-threatening discussion sorry what kami far how many respondents have you had so far uh it was about 64 me i did it like a quick it doesn't really um um speak to exactly what people said but mia did it there were about 64 responses so far and this can be done in the library as well as online online in the library qr codes so one of the members had um the idea just to see you know see what would happen if if we continue the survey through the interim locations because um they were thinking that people would be checking the website to see you know to see what's going on with the library and they might be more likely to respond to the survey so basically that's where we are okay thank you okay are there any is anything else anyone wants to discuss you know this is a short meeting but that's okay all right um i guess it's time to adjourn wow oh you can rely on me for that i move to adjourn second and okay thank you adjourn take care everyone bye bye keep warm all right take care bye