okay uh welcome to today's meeting of the Jones Library Board of Trustees i'm going to ask you to signify your presence uh Tammy present lee here nat here bur here
Eugene here and Austin is here i know of no changes or additions to the agenda so we now have minutes to approve from the 24th of April is that right
24th of April is there a motion to approve the minutes so moved is there a second second okay any changes to the minutes b uh just one small thing tammy called the
meeting to order i would have emailed I just saw I just looked at it a few minutes ago i was going to bring that up so I've already made that correction um that I so I could send that i thought you would have yeah it's I'm looking at that it's like hey um
it it also says 328 it was Is it the right set of minutes it was 3:28 yeah it was 3:28 was it oh so my agenda's wrong i have 424 i
apparent Sorry oh my gosh that's tomorrow sorry okay we're ready i'm ready to approve the minutes in whatever for whatever day they are
okay let's move by unanimous consent does anybody object to the approval of the minutes no okay the minutes are approved thank you for that public comment uh I don't see anybody in the public so
that's so weird no public comment okay so um the president's report is uh uh really I'm going to just fold it into the building
committee uh very pleased that nine counselors endorsed moving forward with the project i thought that was very important i thought it very important that we had the endorsement of people who let's say were not as enthusiastic
about the project as other people and um the the idea that the information that was provided was persuasive to them it was very important that that was said in public
uh that this information resolved their doubts and that we need to be clear when we talk about the vote in saying that that what was acknowledged was that the information
provided was enough to convince two of the three people who called the meeting uh to vote against the motion that they had proposed i think that's really important and I think we should encourage our colleagues
on the town council in their communications to make that clear um next um uh the town has been notified that a town resident has filed a bid protest on
our project the protest centers on the preservation of historic woodwork that is part of the 106 review process the town has had a lot of experience with bid protests bid protests are not
unusual in large construction projects there were three bid protests for the elementary school project that were all resolved in the town's favor the town is working with the lawyer for the town the town
attorney who is reviewing the substance of the bid protest and working with town officials to respond to the attorney general's bid protest unit by early next week uh so that's where we are on the
bid on the bid protest um as soon as the town co town manager signs the contract with the general contractor whenever that is I think we will then be in a position to
reconstitute not really reconstitute but reconvene the Jones Library Building Committee uh and begin to think forward as to um what the work is that needs to be um that needs to be done
um the 106 process resulted again something I think was very good which was the Massachusetts Historic Commission signed off on the memorandum of um
agreement as I understood it that means they have agreed that what we are proposing to do satisfies the Massachusetts Historic Commission and whatever guidelines they are bringing to bear and again I think that's important for
us to remember that they um they looked at what we're going to do and they've said we agree this is uh what needs to be done and for purpose of the 106 process uh that's what enabled us
to successfully complete this memorandum of agreement uh Sharon do you want to say anything about interim space uh all all I should say is that um Bob
Parent is working on that process great and do we have a sense of when that might be resolved or still not known still not known okay uh any questions about any of that
yeah far so is is uh Paul going to be able to sign the contract by the 30th or does it all depend about this bit uh depend on what goes on with this bid pro uh protest
i think um we are we we we are waiting to hear based on his conversations with the town um attorneys uh he is very much aware of deadlines they're big part of his uh thinking
okay okay anything else about the building committee or the bid protest okay um how about we move to buildings and facilities uh we met yesterday it was the shortest
bu meeting we have ever heard had uh the only thing that came up was the new leaks in the atrium but we all already know about that uh about 22 books were discarded there's a lot of mold
um that was all we discussed but as Sharon said this is probably like it's not something we have to really worry about hopefully at this point can you say more about the mold problem
sharon yeah so this new leak um is in the northern northeast corner of the atrium
and and and so it's the drains getting clogged and and leaking and and so the water is going now all the way down to the basement and um so it's the ceiling tiles on both floors both the main floor
and in the basement it's the the paint you know um and the books that the water is leaking on um yeah it's very bad it's very bad uh the atrium needs to be dealt with um
this summer regardless of anything dealt with dealt with it needs to be ripped out redesigned and rebuilt so there's no repair that would be adequate to deal with this problem
exactly it is not repairable and the dealing with the problem would have to deal with the atrium as well as the mold issues that are in Yeah so I don't know what's in the carpet you know we haven't had it analyzed i do know uh anybody with
allergies even with the slightest bit of allergies if you go downstairs even without the leaks your allergies get flared up very badly i can only imagine what this added
water damage is doing to the carpeting are there remediation things that can be done in the interim uh other than you know we've taken it all away we've we've discarded all of the books that were damaged the ceiling
tiles and and all of that um uh you know ripping up the carpet we've we've talked about that in the basement ripping it up um and we have avoided doing that but certainly I think that would help so if something should happen
where uh where a contract doesn't get signed by the 30th ripping up the carpet is something that our team can do um is there any kind of air purification that can be done you know we we have we from COVID we still have those and
they're always running so we're we're on it yeah and the carpets were cleaned last in the fall or in the winter right i I want to say over the winter was it in January um so I have a just a question which I I'm
just going to ask it doesn't need to be answered uh and hopefully we don't need to do this but we do need to be prepared with a plan B strategy and I remember that we were working on we we're working on that um
it looks like we won't need it but we really do need to be prepared with it so I hope we can just keep that keep that process moving okay any other questions for buildings and facilities
okay uh next is the development committee development committ yeah can I ask a quick question so when you're saying plan B Austin I think we had discussed in our meeting yesterday that we didn't have to focus on that but
are you saying in case between now and the 30th something no I was simply just reminding myself okay that uh if for some reason we were not able to go forward we need to yeah
yeah you know shift in and thinking about what we just heard about the atrium no no no no no you know it have to be before the 30th no okay we don't like negative talk here okay talking about no negative let's hear from the Congress
yes here I am polyiana Edwards um well I mean for us obviously the big news is we're very happy about about the vote and just want to endorse what Austin said um we're very happy about the vote
um and we're very happy about the conversion of two people who had been on the side of um halting the the progress of the renovation and expansion project to
being in favor of proceeding with it um okay uh and in fact I will be meeting later this afternoon with uh with Kent and Jenny and we'll be figuring out what what the next steps
are uh I anticipate that the fall and winter will be very busy but uh I have some it's unofficial you know interesting news uh just this morning got an email that someone made a $5,000
pledge you using the uh portal using the donor portal which is very good and I was at another meeting i go to way too many meetings Austin uh and I was sitting at that meeting when another member of the committee
handed me a note uh indicating um an additional pledge of more than $40,000 to the capital campaign that happened just this week and so it doesn't show up in the in our usual uh announcement of what's on the capital campaign but it
does suggest the truth of what we've been saying is that as people have confidence that the project is going to go forward they will indeed not only fulfill but in many instances exceed the pledges that they have already made and that I think is really all I had i tend
to confuse the budget and investment committee and the development committee but so I'm making an effort not to do that this is all I have for the development committee and then I'll wait and I'll come back again for the budget committee unless there are questions
are there questions for the development committee so Lee could you remind us of what progress we've made in the annual fund oh sure but that okay yeah I thought of that as the budget uh the annual fund as
of again I only do it once a month so this is really as of the end of March the annual fund uh has secured $116,185 from 413 donors and that's compared with a little under 100,000
from a slightly smaller number of donors uh a year prior to this and of that 413 119 of those uh also gave to the capital campaign so we're doing we're doing well
and I I also just want to just underscore the fact that the annual fund is what's subject to the famous 8020 split the friends have earned more
money that's not inside that contract and but that's still available to the library through the friends so uh yeah and I won't say the word pickle ball again no please don't but
um is there something that the capital campaign committee can do or is planning to do assuming the contract is signed is there going to be some event is there going to be Well this is what we we will
certainly be we we've talked about this before and it's a little hard to plan when you don't have any fixed dates but uh it might be possible anyway yes we're going to we're going to talk about it today and there definitely
will be some kind of festive moment in relationship to um breaking ground and and again it's likely that I mean it's it's certain
there will be some large public events in the fall the summer's not a great time to have fundraising events but there will definitely be something around groundbreaking and I just so you feel sorry for me my darling granddaughter is graduating from high school in North Carolina in the middle
of June and I am waiting to get my tickets to go to North Carolina in the hopes that I can arrange it so I can be here for the groundbreaking so that's Masletoough on the on the graduation
and we love you but we can simoc cast the I I understand i'm not going to My question was not about the groundbreaking which is actually a couple months away my question was about the contract signing oh okay well I'm sure that Jenny has in
I can't speak for Jenny but I I'm I'm sure that she's got press releases and I'm sure she's thinking along these lines and I'm sure that that will come up in our meeting at 5:00 today right and I want to reiterate uh what I said
in the town council meeting uh which is how remarkable the work that you and Kent and Jinny and your colleagues um it's just it's remarkable and uh the
millions that you've raised and the meetings that you've gone to and the lunches that you've had and it's just um it's just remarkable i also think um that we were well served and have
been well served by the clarity calmness of the town manager so um uh you know he's doing his job and I thought he's done it um very well and
his being well organized clear in what he's asking people to do calm in his presentation resolute in his um you know this is this is what I think um I thought that was really quite important
um for us and I do think it's important for us going forward to be clear in our communications we've got to find a way to describe what we're doing as opposed
to the library project because the library project is easily elided into the libraries project and I think finding a way to talk about it which doesn't suggest
it's just these group of people in the library who are pushing for it uh may be important as we go as we go forward okay uh thank you Lee next Tammy Elie how are you Tammy
i'm fine i'm about to drive to Washington DC tomorrow fabulous yeah um why are you driving and not flying uh okay
yeah we're driving in two days we're going to take it leisurely um we met on the 4th I mean on April 8th and in the packet is Sharon's check-in on her goals
a midyear check-in and I don't think this has to be approved it's really just for information purposes um but if you have any questions or concerns I'm sure Sharon would be willing to respond
um if you've had a chance to look at it it's really just something she does halfway through and then she does a full evaluation of her goals in preparation to the um annual evaluation yeah Tammy let's just pause a second are
there any questions about this uh this in in information so goal number five it says the Jedi committee is very active we've released we've updated the action plan we've reconnected we've held staff meetings to
learn about existing practices again my question is an obvious one is there anything that um the library is doing or ought to be doing the Jedi committee is doing or ought to be doing
um in light of the present climate around um DEI um I will ask Farah to respond to that as the chair of the Jedi uh subcommittee
farra should I go into my report from our meeting sure you might as well because it's combine Austin's question with your report well a couple uh not this past last week but a couple of months ago we
met with Pamela Nolan Young and Phillip um from the Dtown uh DEI department and they were I mean I talked about this at our last meeting but they filled us in on what they were doing and Pamela
seemed kind of she's she's really worried about what's going on and wants us she's Paul seems to be sticking to the message that this is important we're going to support it but you know we don't know what's coming in the next few
months so to that end we did discuss it in our de in our Jedi meeting last uh week i mean even when P with the meeting before but we have been talking more and more
about programming and seeing how we can get the community more engaged figure out what's going on what they want and to that end um one of our our focus last last week was on we
need we have been wanting to get a youth member in as part of our committee we did have one last year uh Walter but he graduated and um one of our me members Raphael has been in talks with the high
school uh with some of the teachers there so we're getting a little closer to that we were talking a lot about whether we get a student to do it for credit to get reimbursed so Sharon had
actually talked about the fact that she would want to pay a student member of the committee i'm not sure where the funds are coming from but I'm going to let Sharon speak to that but right now we're still just you know trying to
figure out how how we can help especially if if we move forward with the project then it's about programming and how we can help make sure programming represents the
community and gives the community what it wants so we've talked about a lot of little things sharon also talked about the ESL program being cut funding being cut and what Lynn was planning to do so there's lots of conversations going on i
am aware of the fact that we don't know where we will be in a few months or down the road but we're still trying to talk about all this stuff and see how we can help the library and the community does that answer your question Austin yeah I I
guess um I want to make sure that I we understand what if anything is at stake in the way of support funding or anything else if something were asked of the US uh
about DEI Sharon is there anything you know I would go back to what Paul has said and he he says it very very solidly the town of Ammerst
has set its priorities this is who we are this is who the town of Ammerst is and we're not going back on that now it's easy to say that when there's no risk of losing funding and so you know maybe uh maybe funding
will be jeopardized and then the town council and the town manager will have to make a more solid decision but um but right now I'm proud to say that I work in a town
um that defends its beliefs uh so I would like to think and I continue to think that our Jedi program is not going anywhere and our DEI efforts both along with Jedi and what the staff is doing
that that's not going to stop um yeah so I I just think it would be good to be as concrete as we can be either directly through with the town or to us uh are there contracts that could be
terminated are there this that or the next thing lee are this is on a slightly different t track but it's about Jedi well let's just hold this for one sec okay so maybe the answer is none there is there is nothing but I do think we
you want to keep a little bit ahead of the game so that if necessary contingency planning can occur not just at the town level but at the library level yeah no the Jedi committee I really appreciated and they actually came to me and immediately said what can
we do to help and um so so they are on it staff are on it were ready at a moment's notice right now the ESL program is the only thing um that has been cut
um it's what I said to Jedi was so it's a it's a there's a bigger picture going on because of the school you know so we've got the annual budget going on and and the school's appropriation from the town and how the town's appropriation to
the town and the town's appropriation to the library how all of that is going to play out um I have not been told that I should budget for anything less than 4% for
FY26 um so I I'm happy about that i'm I'm nervous sad for the town manager and what it would mean if when if he has to take that entire cut over at town hall
um so that's a long way of saying our needs are bigger than just this one ESL program um and and so I have to look at it look at the big picture regarding
what our needs are um and if people like the like the Jedi committee or the friends or the capital campaign committee or anybody if they're going to do fundraising uh for us at this point I would appreciate it
if it were more broad as opposed to just one particular program over another because that makes it easier to manage the entire library operating budget um so so we absolutely are thinking about it a lot every day and
and stay tuned thank you if sorry can I quickly say something um I did want to point out to uh point out one thing was I know that the global village festival on the 5th had a huge turnout it was pouring but
people went to the middle school and I think they were all like revved up after the RA rally in town so they did do that and the other thing I've been thinking ever since our Jedi meeting in terms of what Lynn needs for the ESL program I think we could do some outreach to get
volunteers to help her because why should she just have to do you know carry the load i mean I'd love to volunteer for that program anyways so anyways I think that's something we can talk about at Jedi as well sorry Lee lee
yeah this is uh on Monday's meeting there was one speaker who spoke up as a representative of the BIPO community and I realize that that is um not necessarily the case but anyway
who made the case that you know that the library is not in fact welcoming etc um I my my question is I mean I I think I think what what's what the Jedi
committee is doing and what Sharon is doing uh is is terrific and I just am wondering if there's some way to make it better known we you know I know about it we know about it because we come and we
hear the report you all know about it because you go to the meetings but does the larger Ammeris community that needs to hear this know about it and maybe that's you know maybe the answer is just absolutely yes and it's just me who
doesn't know that well I feel like we had one one meeting we had a member of the community come and talk about helping during Black History Month but in general nobody shows up and I think it's because people
don't come to meetings where they don't have you know they don't have an opposing point of view and they just don't want like they seem to show up at all the meetings where they can make public comment i don't know people just don't seem to want to show up but one thing we
could do is ask Pamela and Philip to to put our meetings in their uh newsletter maybe that would be helpful well that's just one thank you for Yeah and maybe you know maybe you could go on the fabulous 413 which I think is a you know
a way of reaching lots of people in the community and anyway if I have other ideas of it's really about publicizing y the fact that the library is a welcoming place and that we're aware of the need to be a welcoming place and we're and we
welcome input from the community thanks okay thank you but I just as they say in the verb business nuance that just a little bit i I agree with it but I don't know that we want to say we are a welcoming
place i think we want to say we aspire to it and we're looking for ways to be even more um uh than we than we are and I agree with you i don't think it's about getting people to come to meetings i think it's about letting people know in
the community that this is a priority for the library that we're not walking away from it um now I just have a question for you and Sharon so um would it make sense for the
trustees to vote on a motion reaffirming the library's commitment to um the work of the Jedi committee would it make sense for Sharon to reach out
to other libraries i wonder what's going on in the library world in Massachusetts um to you know bring people together in support of these kinds of initiatives but I think this is a
particularly important moment for the library to be as that's why I think Lee is right as public as it can be about um the continuing commitment to uh the work of diversity
equity and inclusion i like that idea lee well as as they say in the movie I'll have what he's having i mean I I'm whatever that motion is I I if you make it as a motion Austin then I will second it
well I think I'm going to make up sentences and Jean is going to make them into a motion okay uh in light of um in light of developing conditions at
the national level uh the Jones Library board of trustees of the Jones Library uh reaffirms its commitment to uh the work of
um the work of achieving DEI goals um and affirms the centrality of that work uh to the to the library's overall mission so that's the kind of thing I
think I would want to say it's got the part of we want to just say now we're raising the flag for DEI and that we recognize that raising the flag for DEI is uh essential to the
work that the library does but that that was that was like words in in search of a thought i second she seconds words in in search of a thought no I think it was
good i saw Farah writing it down and I'm sure Jean is writing it down i think it was good uh you want to say anything i mean this this level of responsiveness is really rewarding i so I just um uh since we have a Jedi
committee maybe instead of saying um you know DEI or something u refer specifically to the work of the justice diversity and inclusion yeah and and um and so and mention the the Jedi committee specifically because
that's that's our terminology for it yep great i also want to point out that Pamela Nolan Young has been very clear about saying diversity equity and inclusion she's not referring to it as DEI anymore
so we need to just put that in our language any other thoughts jean you want to tell us what we're what what we're voting on i haven't finished words smmithing it
um but I have motion seconded approved in light of the evolving conditions at the national level the board of trustees of the Jones Library reaffirms its commitment to achieving the justice equity diversity and inclusion committee's goals and confirms the
centrality of that work to the library's mission is what I have written perfect well well well well I have a Lee Edwards point nobody beyond 12 people are going to understand the Jedi
committee so I wonder whether it just makes sense to say we reaffirm our commitment to achieving justice diversity equity and inclusion uh rather than referring to a committee that people don't know about
i could take committee out so just say achieving justice equity and inclusion and confirms that how does that sound but I think we need to say the work that our subcommittee
has been do i mean refer to it because we're doing the work how about how about Yeah how about the following let's say let's say what we just said and then just add and its support for the Jedi
committee that way you get you're talking people if I mean no one's going to but people will know what you're talking about if you're reaffirming your commitment to the thing okay um and then your support for the committee is that is that okay
okay jean you want to give it another whirl see if I've got it and I could always also work with Barra outside of the meeting just to kind of fully tighten it up um in light of evolving conditions at the national level the board of trustees of the Jones Library
reaffirms its commitment to achieving justice equity diversity and inclusion goals it confirms the centrality of this work to the library's mission and the Jedi committee just sort of tack on after after goals you might say um and
the work of the Jedi committee and then Sharon we could post this on our website or we could send it out with the next um newsletter um we should communicate it to the town manager so that the town
manager is not taken by uh taken by surprise okay anything else so I do have a question i I don't know maybe this is a budget committee question so but I'm going to ask it to
the um so Sharon can you say more about the ESL issue on the note here it says um that ESL will not be able to program for
seniors on or about April 30th so wait a minute i'm sorry may I it says that there's been a loss of between 40 and $60,000 and my question
is rather than the ESL program having to stop could we take 40 to $60,000 from so they don't have to stop uh
so no um because this has so this is about her health insurance and and the costs related um so she we had to make a decision because this is it goes through the town and we all get paid in advance
and health insurance gets taken out of out in advance it's not something that we could go back and forth on so she is going to stop being full-time as of the last Friday in April that being said she is working with our local elected
officials uh to possibly get an earmark so that she can finish for the rest of this fiscal year so that would take her through June um so your your bigger question goes
back to the budget question i I am worried about the 4% for FY26 versus a possible three or 2 and a half% increase and I
would like to hold on to as much money as possible until unless I know what's going to go on for FY26 so I don't want to give money that we currently have to this project if it can possibly go
on through other means um she has said she is going to try and fit it into her 20our a week schedule she feels a very strong commitment to these um these 11 students um so I do think it's going to
continue uh even if it's on a volunteer basis on her part so so my recommendation is no we don't take that risk and tack on an additional $60,000 to this year's budget no I
wasn't thinking about tacking it on to this year's budget i was thinking about you have an endowment and what's an endowment for so is the I if you thought it would make a difference if you don't think it makes a
difference it doesn't make a difference so I wasn't thinking we're going to have to take it out of your your budget i was just wondering whether or not rather than see the program whatever but I take it you you're not you don't
think that's the way to go correct okay Lee this is just um probably I don't It's not speculation but I went to I think it was a town council a recent town council meeting not not this one
but the one before where the schools came and asked for more money or maybe it was a school committee meeting I don't know i go to way too many meetings but anyway it seemed to me pretty clear that the town i.e
paul and as far as I can tell other other town council members are pretty clear that whatever goes on with the schools the 4% for the library is is a lock that
that's not it's not threatened so I I know I you know I I can't guarantee that but I don't think you should be losing additional sleep worrying about the loss of uh how whether they're going to go more for the schools or not that's the
question and where are they going to find that money that's the question but they're not looking for the money to reduce you know to to reduce the library share that was my clear understanding
of the at least the sense of the meeting at that meeting I was at not that I can remember which meeting it was right paul has to give you know submit his budget uh May 1st and then our budget request presentation will be on May 6th uh we'll
certainly know after May 1st but even after that I I don't know what conversations will happen within the finance committee i anything can happen so I so I I share
you a little bit of your confidence um but I'm waiting You muted yourself Austin anything else for PPP all right thank you Tammy thank you um Par I I have one thing um we hope to
bring to the uh meeting in May the the evaluation forms right if if we are in you know moving and everything it's going to be challenging this year but we'll take it one day one week one month
at a time so hopefully we can um manage to get some good feedback okay that's all thank you thank you okay next is the wonderfully named
budget and investment committee okay just about everything I have to say is in the minutes which are in your packet so I don't know if you want me to go through them but uh you know so far the FY the current budget seems to be on track we've had conversations with
Sharon about what we just talked about in relationship to the ESL program um and by the way there was somebody uh who spoke up on at Monday's meeting in particular support of the ESL program
Sharon so you and I might have a conversation about possibly getting back to that person if you think again that that's something that you want to do um as of the end of March the endowment was
a little under well $8,799,29 uh and you know we noted at the meeting what we had noted here that [Music] um as has been indicated by multiple
votes by the board of trustees and MOAs signed by the library and the town these funds are available to support the expansion and renovation of the building a I should say as needed and certainly by the time that the project successfully
concludes um and then uh we noted that with gratitude to NAT that the internal allocations to shifts to protect the endowments funds were arranged with Vanguard Mercer and occurred before
April 1st thus avoiding losses uh attend the current whatever is going on in Washington DC and as of March 31st the Woodbury fund was at
777,960 of which 500,000 remains pledged to the town of Ammeris plan to renovate and expand the Jones Library um the capital campaign
was was was um de facto paused but as I said we in the last week we took in $45,000 um and then the annual fund I already told you about it still has
$116,185 as of the end of March that's it for budget and investment oh and the the last um item and this just we got or Nat and
um Darren and I got a recent note which will I guess take up the next budget and investment committee but I might as well since it came let you know from Dan Voss who is our person at Vanguard Mercer that they're uh that our the
interim contract will end and will shift to being Mercer with some access to Vanguard whatever but so there are some shifts but they seem to be to me to be mostly what I would think of as kind of
housekeeping um you know signatures have to change and I'm sure passwords and all that kind of stuff is going to have to change it' be very annoying but what will remain consistent I will just read this to you because you will like it you will continue working with the same trusted professionals who understand
your goals your investments will remain consistent with your objectives and most important Austin there will be no changes to your Mercer OCIO fee structure resulting from the portal and performance upgrades they come at no
additional cost uh if you do not change the service and portfolio approach Mercer is providing to you now your key some things will not change so we'll talk about it if if
particularly if NAD has concerns well I'll we'll talk about it and then we'll come back otherwise I I would anticipate we might just say we're going to keep on keeping on but so this is so you have you you now have a whole month to think
about this if you want to yeah the one one thing I will just say to add to that is that I agree it's it's nothing really substantive changes um with this but um the one thing that um will change is that in the past they've
always deducted the fee from the funds directly so the library has never you know cut a check uh to pay the fee and so now because they're more separate from Vanguard even though the underlying investments are all Vanguard funds um
they actually will send an invoice and those fees will be you know paid and they will offer to you know take money from the funds and put it into our bank account uh before we pay but um but just it's a reminder that that 30,000 a year
I think um has been kind of invisible um in the past but it becomes more visible when you actually have to write a check to pay it matt can you
um just remind us of the change that was made in the end funds moving into money market number A number B remind us of the amount that was moved and uh remind us
of the consequence over the long term of moving from this to that i think probably in the immediate term it's great that it's out of the market but uh how should we be thinking about that moving forward right so uh just to recap
uh briefly um about half the funds that we had invested in the kind of equity and bond u mutual funds um was sold so that they could be invested just in a money market fund uh that doesn't have the same kind of um you know market risk
So that is about 4.5 million let's say uh so those funds uh would be um the first funds we would use to support the building project um assuming that there's a need to bridge the um time
between the the money is needed and when the donations come in uh so we'll be able to draw on those funds in the money market uh and then um and we haven't discussed um but but aside from that the funds
that are not in that money market they will continue to be invested in the same way that we have in the past um you know equity and bond funds uh in the same proportions so think of it as at this point kind of two separate uh buckets there's the long-term bucket that has
the uh same type of asset allocation as in the past and then we have the uh shorter term bucket uh funds that we might need to use for the building project so what we haven't talked about in detail is you know longer term so
once we use those funds however much we might need um and then uh you know years down the road when the funds come into the capital campaign you know how those go back into the um into the endowment
and what sort of timing and what kind of investments uh decisions are made at that point um but that is years down the road so at this point we have that 4.5 million or so that can be used to um
support the building project what kind of interest rate is it getting in the money market fund today yep good question it's it's about um 4% and the withdrawal happened before the crash uh yes so that was coincidental um
no one had the crystal ball uh no one knew it was happening but but um we had voted uh at the very end of March and um it took a couple days for Vanguard or for Mercer to kind of do the paperwork and have us sign it and but it turned
out that um those transactions were made on April 1st and it was on April 2nd that the tariff um news um kind of hit the fan and so uh we avoided
um a lot of that uh with respect to that you know four and a half million that we moved into the um money market right and and that put all of his money into the market just before Donald Trump
announced the You know what you're doing there Nat um Lee yeah this is just something I I forgot to say that happened at the budget committee meeting there were several members of the public there one of
whom raised a question and I might have misunderstood the question but asked a question wanting to know what the value of the endowment was and saying that we were underhandedly hiding the value of
the endowment and never kind of never reported it and I you know I said I reported it then I reported at the end of the meeting and I said I reported every month at the trustees meeting and
and it's recorded in the minutes so I'm not quite sure what what the problem was and said this person could get back to me and I had not heard but it was just strange that's all yep uh Jean
uh just had a question have we decided for any funds from the endowment that we might use for the renovation and expansion project if we would actually do a a direct withdrawal from the endowment or if we were thinking of
leveraging that as collateral for for a loan i don't know i don't recall where we landed on that or if we made any kind of decision like that yet could you state it again there there were some discussions
in the past about options around how we would leverage the endowment for the renovation and expansion project if we needed to do so and one of the options on the table was um obtaining a line of credit with the endowment as collateral i was wondering is that still
in play yeah Lee well my understanding although maybe Austin you're the one to speak my understanding is that at the moment we're anticipate the reason we switch the money was so that it would be available to be used although I suppose
you would titrate the interest that you would have to pay against what you anticipated losing but it you know that if you take it from the endowment you don't have you know we don't have to pay it back on any particular schedule so it
seems like that's the way we're thinking about going should the capital campaign committee not succeed in raising the total of what is owed but we're a long way from being able to say that and I hope we never have to say that okay
Tammy um I thought we had a motion on the floor that we haven't voted on or did I miss something we haven't we haven't voted on it because I started something else okay good point Tammy so thank you Tammy for
reminding us of the business to do so I'm going to come back to this n can you just hold off one sec because let's vote on this motion before we you know go off and not vote so remember the motion was to reaffirm our commitment to you
remember all that okay so I'm going to ask for unanimous consent is there any objection okay the motion is adopted by unanimous consent with special thanks to Tammy Elie who was waiting strategically to
remind us of that so we we saw you Tammy we know what you were doing no it just dawned on me no no no we're grateful we're totally um Natt oh yeah just on the um idea of uh borrowing funds um as I said earlier
since we're earning about 4% um right now it it's hard for me to imagine that we would be able to raise funding um that is lower than that i will note this i don't really have any current
indication from the um uh the you know state I can't remember the name of it but the state financing authority that that um Massachusetts development authority development authority yes and since they are able to issue um tax-free municipal
bonds so typically at a lower rate than a lot of other you know taxable entities um but so I don't have any indications from them but just looking at just a basic website on Massachusetts municipal bonds you know
um going out like you know maturity of 20 38 or something um they're well over 4% and so if you you know with fees and everything else it's hard for me to imagine that we would have any funding that would be more attractive than using the um funds
we already have there are other possibilities we've talked about which is trying to get a mortgage on the building i mean there there are other ways if we needed to borrow money but I think we need to be clear about something that maybe I'm not clear about the $4 million that's in money
market is part of our endowment so the value of our endowment is not no less it's just distributed differently in terms of different kinds of investments the question I have and this is for you and Sharon is is the remainder of the
endowment um tied up with various restrictions uh you know some funds are restricted and some of this are there significant restrictions on that other part of the funds that are going to impede anything we might want to take from the other
part as Austin often says I'm making this up I let's say that about a million of it has certain restrictions but again I'm making that up i would have to go back and so it's something for the
budget investment committee to to note um if there are restrictions how much how much is restricted uh you know we're entering a down I don't know what's going to happen but things are down and our needs aren't
going down so just knowing that other little piece of the puzzle uh I think it's just important to know okay anything else for budget and investment so many endowments we think
of Harvard as having a $50 billion endowment lots of that fund lots of those funds are not available for general use you know somebody gave five five million5 billion dollars for
the Larry Summers chair in whatever and if you want to use it to keep alive the Middle East Studies Center you can't because it's restricted so we just need to know whether we are going to face any of that okay all right so
now Friends of the Jones Library System good afternoon um the annual uh public friends meeting uh is going to be June 8th Sunday June 8th at 300 p.m at the
Mson there's going to be a program that uh is believed to be of interest to the public uh I'm a little unclear about the interviewee m a person named I believe Martha Aman um who uh someone is going to have
to mention her who she is because I I'm not clear about that but anyway it's open to the public from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m on Sunday June 8th um pickle ball scheduled for November 9th is
moving ahead that's all I can say about that i was at a funeral um for the last Friends meeting so I missed uh I missed out on the meeting but um I got did get to review the minutes copiously assembled by Secretary Elaine
Donahghue and um I would make the observation that the friends continues to keep careful uh eye on the money that it has distraction discretion over so um we are keeping close track of our money
and and doing our best to spend it wisely thank you Lee yeah the person who will be uh at the annual meeting is Martha Aman who has written a sort of biography
of Emily Dickinson and uh biography of uh women softball players and she has a she's completed and I don't it's going to be published very soon a biography of Dolly Parton and this is what she's going to be interviewing i think Kathy
Lonza is going to be the in conversation partner and I think it should be of great interest to lots of people and she I mean Martha the the you can look her up on you know Google or whatever her books are widely and uh favorably
reviewed and she's yet another local author treasure great thank you thank you Rich give our give our thanks to the friends okay library director so staff right now are thrilled about
the town council vote Monday night uh and so right now they are starting to think about a big move uh into an interim space and a lot and at the same
time also plan the summer read program so they're very very busy and April vacation week which is next week um I wanted to say we've had uh Mr steven Miller architecture and design
photography so um he has been here all day uh he's outside taking very nice high-quality photos of the building and this is as part of our MOA between the library the town and the state um
through the the 106 process so that's going on um we the capital campaign committee is um contracting with Jenny Adams uh who has retired from PLA but now is a a contractor on her own and
she's going to be writing the narrative about the history of the library it just so happens she's very much an expert at this point and and then um Fineold Alexander a couple of years ago um completed a
Matterport scan of the building uh that was fun to watch and the result is wicked cool uh I think I think you all have access to the link if not stay tuned u the library is going to pay
annually to have that link hosted um so that people can can uh view it and it's a it's a very cool 3D model it's like you can act like you're a patron and you're walking into the building and you can you know spin around and look at uh
look at the building the way it exists today um so those those three items are through the MOA process and I also wanted to tell you that we met on I want to say
Tuesday with the Emerst Commission for Persons with Disabilities uh because we are applying for a variance from the state of Massachusetts so that we do not have to change our historic staircase um there
are rules about making stairs uh bringing them up to code about um the length of the the railing and the size of the spindles and the height of the railings and and all sorts of things like that and so we're asking again as
part of the MOA we're saying that we are leaving the historic staircase alone um that it's you know historic and ornamental for the most part uh because we have other you know major staircases and and an elevator for people to use so
um anyways uh we went to this commission uh to ask them for a letter of support and they unanimously approved it um they're a really wonderful hardworking smart group of people uh so they submitted that letter on our
behalf and that's all my updates question for the library director so I have a couple of questions uh Sharon where where is the money for this photographer coming from it'll come out of our special
collections money market there's a large chunk of money in in that in that account so it's not being charged to the building project correct yeah this will be an ongoing these are like we're treating this as operating
uh fund expenses um I wanted to uh talk with you about uh something that was raised with Sharon sharon was approached by a group i'm not going to name the group i think that is not um
necessary and asked to sign on to uh I believe it was a lawsuit that this group is filing and Sharon reached out to me and um you know just wanted to chat with me
about what it was and what should be done i advised Sharon that before she could or should sign on to a lawsuit as a representative of the Jones Library that she should consult with the
board of trustees uh as well as the town manager what I said was as an individual she's free for free to do whatever she wants but as a representative of the Jones Library I
don't think the library director should get us involved in any litigation or any legal action however noble its purpose without the endorsement of the board of trustees so I I just wanted to ask you whether or
not you think that's right whether we want to have a board policy um I was operating on the um premise of the bylaws that no one speaks for us until they speak to us but of course that's not the library
director that's us so I wanted to raise it and get people's thoughts uh because a library director may be approached by other groups wanting an endorsement here or
sign a litigation there uh what is the lawsuit so I don't want to talk about the lawsuit um the the question is if and when the library director is approached
to sign on to a lawsuit um in noble purposes uh whether or not we should have a procedure uh as opposed to the library director just signs on to this lawsuit and we don't have any idea what
the lawsuit is or what exposure we might have uh so I want to talk if we could not about the particulars of the lawsuit but about the general issue can I just say one more thing you can
I'm a liberal i have no standards well to me it would depend on what the lawsuit was like I this is could be a lawsuit about someone slipping in front of the library i I mean I don't know what it is i would need more information before I could
even have an opinion so again my view is that before the library director gets involved in any legal action for any reason that she's not doing it on her
own that she has the support of the board of trustees but you're right there may be things that come up that are perfectly routine um and there was just there's just a kind of gap in our policies which I want to
try to fill if people want to fill it tammy and then Lee um if for instance she was asked to sign on to the attorney general's lawsuit against the uh cancellation of the
Institute of Museum and Library Services no then for me that's a core um issue for for a library and that to me would be fine but I I agree
with Far that it depends i mean if a lawsuit would uh cause repercussions to the board of trustees um then I'm not sure so I'm I'm kind of if it was something so core as
supporting you know a suit against the um government for the IMLS cancellation I'd probably be on board with that but I don't know without knowing what a particular lawsuit is I don't really know how to
respond you know to say go ahead or don't go ahead so we are in heated agreement that's the point the point is that before Sharon would assign on to any lawsuit it would be discussed with the board and we would endorse it or not endorse it this is not my idea is not to
prohibit it but just to say as good governance um at the end of the day we are we have a kind of fiduciary role and I I'm not saying she shouldn't sign on or she should sign on or we would stand in the
way just that as a matter of policy the director of the library should consult with the trustees about I don't know participation in any kind of legal matter as a representative of the library that
yeah I I um agree that that if there is something that the library should be a party to it should come to the trustees to vote on it and in my view it's kind of the same as
um as you know whether you know signing a any legal document i'm not sure that that Sharon has the ability to bind the um the organization uh with her signature when it comes to
you know financial contracts and and other things and I certainly don't think that that um uh for a lawsuit if the Jones Library were to be either initiating or adding their name as a plaintiff um that it would be the
library director who would make that decision and sign i would think it would be the um president of the of the board of trustees no it won't be him but um the the
the question isn't just about who signs because it could be library directors all doing something the question is what if any authorization does Sharon need sorry Lee
that no your hand is raised i was right yeah okay um I I am in in general agreement with you know everything that's been said and the question is where's the comma between
the main part of the sentence and as a library director i mean I think if if and I would trust Sharon to understand this if the reason that she's being approached to sign is because of her position as the director of the Jones
Library in Ammeris then definitely she should come to the trustees and we should approve it or not approve it we should just whatever but it it you know and and but that's it if she's approached to sign on for something that she's a citizen it has nothing to do
with her position as a library trustee she's on her own and she doesn't need to come to us to figure out how she should act as a public citizen and I think the distinction and if if there's any ambiguity then maybe she should come to the trustees but it's usually pretty
clear if you're being asked to sign on because of your position and that yeah that we should we should discuss baron are you comfortable with this uh it's so funny i would love it to be I
would love for you to approve Austin's motion because I think a motion is coming uh yeah I think the library director should have to come to you all regarding legal matters um and then you know we can we can pick and choose
and I'm happy to tell you about this particular issue um because it almost could fall under topics not anticipated if you if you want to so what I would hope to do is we could discuss this separate from the thing as
I understood it from Sharon that thing has already sailed is that right no during this meeting I've gotten another note so we can talk about that specific after you vote well the reason I asked
this Sharon is um I think these matters happen to be a little bit carefully prepared u so what was shared with me before I have no idea what the litigation would be i would want to see what it was and
um my my intention if people are in agreement with this is to say this matter should be discussed by the PPP as an amendment to our policies and procedures and the motion should come back to us from the PPP
um as an amendment to our policies and procedures i wasn't going to propose an amendment I mean a motion yeah are we all good i I just have one question about if this is something that needs to be done or addressed if you if you go to PPP and
then the trustees does that prohibit her with a time lag from um getting a a quick response yeah it it would take too long for this particular action and I but I still
agree so this organization who has come to me you know they said "Okay I need you to sign on right now but I agree wholeheartedly with what Austin said some research has to be done i I don't know what I'm signing here and and even
once I read the documentation I still have to bring it to you guys and you guys need to read it so you guys know what you're signing." And so them saying "Oh okay we've extended the deadline another 24 hours." It's still it's not enough time
i think it's important to get clear about this because every 20 minutes I I am getting things to sign on to and I don't know what's going to come next to Sharon and whatever and I think we should have
a policy and procedure are we good so refer to the PPP ppp can discuss it and then Okay and then come back and again I want to be clear i'm not proposing this as a barrier to Sharon signing on
i'm proposing it as a protection for Sharon as doing our you know we're Yeah so it's not a barrier okay apart so what if it's something that I understand what you're saying
about it going to PPP and then coming back here but I'm seeing that going around for another month or so so what if it is something that comes up and Sharon feels she wants to sign on to it and she she's prohibited from doing that because we have not had a we have not
had a motion or we've not had made a decision well if it makes you feel any better you know we're going to go to PPP with this particular motion but it once it's approved in going forward I feel very comfortable reaching out to all of
you and saying "Hey can you guys meet in two days time and then we can talk about it?" And so then you would have two days to research and understand before a vote if that makes sense bar what what is Let's kind of I just
feel like there's clouds here and I want to try to clear out the clouds so um are you worried that this is going to interfere with the capacity of the library director and the Jones library to get engaged in litigation or lawsuits
um that we might want to support yes because I feel like often committees or boards or whatever they come and then they move it down to another committee and that committee moves it down somewhere else and it gets kicked around and time is wasted and I
feel like we're all sitting here right now and why wouldn't we just Okay okay so here's here's an alternative the alternative is we'll make a motion and we'll instruct
Sharon um my thought was that we wanted to do it as part of kind of looking at policies and procedures but if there's a sense of it would be good to do this now we can do it it doesn't change anything because if we do it now and
Sharon gets a request for joining litigation on Friday she's still going to have to come back to the to the to the board right so I don't know that it changes a whole lot another alternative is in the
interim before the policy is adopted the board could vote to authorize the president of the board to give the temporary authorization but again I don't I don't I don't know that in the next 30 days
you know something's going going to happen but if the board wants to adopt the motion now somebody could make the motion now and we could vote on it and then you don't have to go back to the PPP i'm happy either way i just thought you got
a committee looking at policies but N would you like to do uh so I like the idea of having the PPP look at this and one question that I have and I hope the PPP committee um will look into it too um as a town
employee uh and you know head of the library you know what sort of um rules or expectations are there uh in the town so I think we need to be aware of that as well yeah I asked Sharon I
said you should be consulting with the board of trustes and consulting with Paul Bachelman okay Tammy um I have no problem with it coming to PPC PPPC but if PPP if there's something that Sharon um feels really
strongly about and there is a a time limit I would have no um reservations about her conferring with you especially as you're a lawyer um that would would
uh you know give her solid advice if there's something that had to be done right away decided right away um so I'm of two minds fine coming to PPP but if there was something that had a very strong time limit and she felt strongly
about it then I think an alternative would be for her to confer with you and if you're willing to make the decision on behalf of the board here's what I'd like to propose because I I
just have this sense that we're really kind of in agreement on something but we're we're just not able to articulate it i believe that the appropriate thing to do would be to have this discussed in the PPP nat's given us yet another reason to do it in the
interim if something comes up where Sharon feels the need to do this thing Sharon can always convene a meeting of the board we can talk about it
and that way everybody is fully everybody is fully informed we can do that while the policy is in germination but Farah my view is that we this should not go into we've got to send it to yet another committee
or another committee ppp comes back frames the motion and we vote and and we vote on it i would hope sharon are you comfortable with this okay are we all comfortable with this well thank you and I'm sorry to No it's good but I I wanted you all to know
about it because I just saw there was a gap and we needed to fill the gap okay anything else that needs to be said well for those of you that celebrate I hope you have a Oh I'm sorry nat are you back oh so just a footnote to the earlier discussion i just looked
at um the form 990 not maybe not the most recent one but that has the um uh restricted uh funds and it was 1.1 million um that are gifts with donor restrictions okay
so um Tammy are you is your hand fresh or is that just a remainder okay so I was just going to say for those of you that celebrate I hope you have a wonderful wonderful Easter uh and I will look forward to seeing you
again soon thank you all thank you Austin thank you bye thank you very much bye take care everyone