MINUTES
MATHEWS MEMORIAL LIBRARY
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
March 10, 2015

CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order by the Chairperson, Carolyn Taylor, at 5 p.m.

ATTENDING: Doreen Folzenlogen, Charles Ingram, Mary Sampson, and Will Story. In addition, Bette Dillehay, Library Director, and Steve Whiteway, President of the Friends were present.

MINUTES: On motion of Will Story and seconded by Charles Ingram and Mary Sampson, the minutes of the February 10, 2015 meeting were unanimously approved.

REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR (Attached):

• Financial Report. Operational expenses for the period totaled $9,541.22. Current year-to-date expenses total $62,245.28. Unencumbered funds (not including salaries and related benefits) total $52,439.81 of which $35,804.81 are approved budget funds and $16,635.09 in Grants/Donations. Unexpended funds continue to exceed those of the previous fiscal year, which, as of March 2014 were $43,127.65. There was a charge of $1052.99 from Dell for a computer and software for the Smart Board and a charge of $3226.35 from OCLC for the annual cataloging fee.
• Through January 23, 2015 for the first seven months of the current fiscal year, salaries and related benefits totaled $130,222.06 or 50.96% of the budgeted amount for FY 2014-2015. The director is waiting for the County budget to be approved before hiring someone to fill the empty position.
• Patron Update. The current number is 10,942 with the total number of patrons and/or visitors to the library during the report period counted at 5,767. This is an increase of 44.57% over February 2014. This increase is believed to reflect use of the expanded facility and additional computers.
• Personnel Update. Mike Fisher has accepted an opportunity to pursue a career in music but will continue to work on weekends depending on his schedule. Samantha Franklin has assumed his hours with Amy Hudgins helping as necessary. Amy is doing well in her work toward professional certification.
• Programs. Only one of the planned programs could be held during the past month because of the weather conditions—former poet laureate of Virginia, Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda came on February 19. The rescheduled talk by Larry Chowning will be on April 23. On March 18 at 4 p.m. Frances Ellen Walsh will be talking about metaphysics. It is hoped to have an author come here each month. On April 28 there will be a bus trip to the VMFA for “The Art of the Flower.”
• Youth Programs. About a dozen participants have registered for the program of reading 1000 books to their children before they reach kindergarten. With the help of Karen Podd the library will celebrate Youth Art Month by having the students create artwork to be applied to the front windows of the teen area. The theme is “A Better World.” The Youth//Teen staff is pursuing additional ways to serve the young people in the community. Many ideas center on an emerging theme of libraries as places of creativity or “maker spaces.”
• Each month there will be a schedule printed of available computer classes. In March there will be two Tech Tuesdays and one class on Microsoft Office Publisher.

REPORT FROM THE FRIENDS. Steve Whiteway reported that the 2015 budget of the Friends has allocated $11,750 to the library for the summer program, author forums, dictionaries, etc. The Friends also have funds on hand for a special program that might come up that is not included in this amount. About $1200 has been budgeted for the gardens around the library—the new courtyard garden and the Jean Day garden. On Tuesday, April 21, at 10 a.m. there will be a general membership meeting for anyone interested in coming. The theme will be “the library is like a box of chocolates and you never know what you will find.” They plan a fun time in the beginning and then the library staff will be honored and given a small gift. There will be a spring newsletter out in early April. With another payment that is scheduled to be approved at their meeting tomorrow, they are down to $15,000 to pay off the cost of the building and they hope to pay this off by summer.

OLD BUSINESS: None.

NEW BUSINESS: The Director was asked whether it would be possible for the staff and volunteers to have name tags. The Director will take this under consideration.

PUBLIC COMMENT: None.

ADJOURNMENT: There being no other business, the meeting adjourned at 5:30.

The next regular meeting will be Tuesday, April 14, at 5 p.m.

Doreen Folzenlogen
Acting Secretary