May 2024 Board Minutes

Seneca East Public Library Board of Trustees

May 8th, 2024

The May 8th, 2024 meeting of the Seneca East Library Board of Trustees was called to order by President Janet Ruffing at 7:26 P.M. Trustees in attendance were: Janet Ruffing, Jeff Beaston, Tina Shook, Michelle Zeiter, Michele Willman and Ellen Lynch. Library staff attending included Fiscal Officer Pamala Dunson and Library Director Shannon Featheringill.

Approval of Minutes: The minutes of the April 10th, 2024 meeting were reviewed and approved with a motion by Jeff Beaston, a 2nd by Vicki Eckenrod , and approval of all remaining board members by voting “aye”.

Fiscal Officer’s Report: The board reviewed the April 2024 bills as well as reviewing and initialing the April 2024 Bank Reconciliation and Management Reports as presented by the Fiscal Officer.

Resolution #600 - To increase appropriations according to the directions of Director Shannon Featheringill, for unencumbered donations received from the period of 4/6/24 5/3/24. The total amount of donations to be appropriated is $2873.41.

Itemization is as follows:

$885.00 Other-Purchased & Contracted Services (Programming)

$35.00 Other-Supplies (Programming)

$1682.17 Books & Pamphlets (Adult)

$13.07 Audiovisual Materials (Adult)

$47.15 Other-Supplies (Cataloging)

$211.02 General Administrative Supplies

A motion to approve Resolution #600 was made by Michelle Zeiter, a 2nd by Tina Shook and the motion passed with approval by all remaining board members voting “aye”. 2022 and 2023 Audit is complete. No exceptions were found. Reports were sent to the audit committee. Documents were signed as required. Sutton Bank’s Safety & Soundness Issue with FDIC was revisited. Director Featheringill, Fiscal Officer Dunson and President Ruffing met with Tony Gorrell, CEO of Sutton Bank, on May 1st and discussed the information received. A motion to continue banking services with Sutton Bank was made by Vicki Eckenrod, a 2nd by Michelle Zeiter and approval of all remaining board members by voting “aye”.

Director’s Reports:

Statistical Report:

  • Director Featheringill reported a total Patron Counts for April of 2997 with 25 days open.
  • The statistical report was reviewed.

Old Business:

  • No old business.

New Business:

  • VoIP Quote from Buckeye IT
    • Definition: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology that allows you to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a landline telephone.
    • Equipment: Our actual telephones have been on the list to replace. The current phones were purchased before 2008. They do not stay charged so if you are on hold you must have two phones to switch back and forth.
    • Current Plan: Our current plan through Frontier is 3 lines. An average bill is around $460. We have two voice lines and one fax. The fax line also serves as our elevator phone. When someone calls from the elevator it uses the fax line to call line 1. A self-powered line is required for the elevator phone, so VoIP is not an option for at least one line.
    • VoIP Option: Director Featheringill met with John Ritchie from Buckeye IT to get a quote to change our phone lines to VoIP. The quote includes 4 new telephones including one base with handset and two additional handsets for upstairs and one base with handset for the basement.
    • Fax Line: John said we can eliminate the line for the fax. Instead, he can install a device to make the fax work over the internet lines as well. The current fax line is extremely slow and unreliable. We generally send several faxes a day for patrons and around 1/3 or more take an egregiously long time so the patron has to come back later, and some never go through at all. There is a one-time charge for the device/install and then $7.50 per month. We would then switch our line 2 to the elevator line since line 2 doesn’t have a public phone number attached to it.
    • Savings: For one VoIP line and the fax charge he quoted a monthly bill of $51.40. It is estimated that even keeping one line from Frontier we will be saving around $195 per month or $2340 yearly. The savings for the remainder of the year would be $1172. The cost of the equipment in his quote is $998, leaving us $174 to the good.
    • FAQ:
      • We can keep both public phone numbers (main number 3835 and fax 3705).
      • We would have “unlimited” lines. Since the phones work over the internet, we could technically take as many calls as we have headsets all on the same main number. Currently we can only take two.
      • We would have, for the first time, an option to set up a voicemail to take messages for when we are closed, or out of our office.
      • We would have the ability to call the phone in the basement directly, which would be great for practical and safety reasons.
      • The equipment would be paid for from the Furniture and Equipment account, of which we have spent 1% of the $4,000 that was budgeted.

Legislative:

  • April PLF distribution is $28,156,584 (9.3% below July 2023 & 9.2% below December 2023 estimates). The OBM reports state tax receipts for March were 9.6% below estimates. 2024 is not off to a good start with the PLF coming in >$8 million below estimate so far in the first four months.

Building:

  • Roof: Jason Branham gave us a quote of $2,100 to repair the small roof above the historical society. He said it is more expensive than the stuff needed for the large part of the roof because it is asphalt instead of rubber. This would be paid for from the Maintenance and Repair of Facilities account, of which we have spent 14.5% of the $27,000 that was budgeted.
  • Building Next Door: No updates.
  • Back Room Project: Cabinet installation began on schedule on May 6th.

Historical Society:

  • Garage Sales are this May 16th, 17th and 18th. Maps are available at the library for pickup.
  • Rent for May and June is paid.

Foundation News:

  • Amy Ferres has joined the foundation, filling an unexpired term ending December 31st, 2025.
  • They will be holding a book sale May 11th-18th to coincide with both the village spring Blooms & Brunch event and the community garage sales. They will also sell bread at the former.
  • Reverse Raffle:
    • The Our Lady of Hope Social Hall is booked for September 21st.
    • They will have the option of drive-thru or dine-in for the meal & will bring back the live auction.
    • They will again raffle off an American Girl Doll as well.
  • The next Foundation meeting will be held June 10th, 2024.

Children’s Librarian Report:

Programming:

  • The spring session of storytime and music and movement will wrap up the week of May 13th. Storytime’s summer session will begin June 18th.
  • We held our last session of this school year’s Mini Makers on May 2nd. We made spring planters. We’ll be on break for the summer and will return in September.
  • Brick Builders Club will also be on break until September after our session on May 16th.

School/Outreach:

  • We conducted a robot program for the 5th graders on April 29th, May 1st and May 2nd. We also used this time to share Summer Reading Program information.
  • Visits with other classes for SRP promotion are scheduled as well and will conclude May 16th.

Adult Services Librarian Report:

Past Programming:

  • April programming included 7 programs with 49 attendees.
  • The Book Club met on April 11th and discussed The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley.
  • Sit and Sew met on April 10th and 24th.
  • Exercise was held on April 17th.
  • DIY Suncatchers was held on April 1st .
  • Gemma from Gem Yoga came and taught a beginner class on April 22nd.
  • Author Discussion with Kristin Harmel was held on April 30th at the Chandelier in Tiffin. The book club went to dinner at Madison Street as a group.

Current Programming:

  • May 1st and 15th Low-Impact Exercise
  • May 6th Instant Pot 101 was canceled due to lack of interest
  • May 8th and 28th Sit and Sew
  • May 9th Book Club will discuss Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See
  • May 20th DIY Pink Lemonade Sea Salt Scrub

Book Displays:

  • Currently displayed are Love Gone Wrong and Be Courageous.

Board Old Business:

  • No old business.

Board New Business:

  • No new business.

The next meeting of the Seneca East Library Board of Trustees will be June 12th, 2024 at 7:30 P.M.

There being no further business to conduct, Tina Shook made a motion to adjourn at 8:05 P.M.

 

_______________________                                                              _____________________

Janet Ruffing, President                                                                        Tina Shook, Secretary