Recording in progress >> into the mic. >> Hello everyone. I'm calling to order the April 13th order trustees meeting. Do we have anyone online? Oh, hey Karen. Mute.
No comments, just a visitor. >> Uh, first item or next item on the agenda is the ACE committee report. Does this one work as well? Hello everyone. My name is Taylor Gregory and I'm the chair of the ACE committee and I'm serving as the board library trustees designate. Um so I'm
just here because it's been about a year since I've given an update. So I just wanted to let you know where we were at. Um so we're pleased to report an update on the progress that we've made. Um we've continued to meet with members of the public and tell them about our work and how that relates to them personally.
So, we've been making plans for programs in town that we can share with you tonight. And the committee was extended by for another year by the select board. So, we will conclude in January 2027. During that time, we will roll out programming, gather additional input, um
public input that ensures a truly communityled effort, and wrap up our work with sustaining activities set up to meet the committee's mission. So for public events in our first year, we met with um so we interacted with the public
at different events including friends and family day, um the Juneenth celebration, the fall street fair, connected reading here at the ribbury, and the MLK day event at the high school. Um we this has given us a good opportunity to look uh to let the public
know about our work and how we've had really good conversations with with residents in town. People have shared personal stories about the issues about how the issues of addressing Bill Russell's experience in town and turning that into an opportunity to raise awareness about the inspiring leadership
qualities Mr. Russell stood for really resonates with them and their ideas for how we can meet our mission uh in a way that will serve and inspire the public. Um so far we've held two sessions of our game changers series where we've um the first session focused on uh the Bill
Russell's first book Gul for glory was pretty successful. We had about 30 people attend and then we held our second session in March which was the um we featured the documentary My Life My Way which he produced with his daughter Karen Russell um that was also similar
attended with about 30 40 people and then we have um a third session planned for this coming May and then we're going to take a break for the summer to review what other materials we want to discuss and then we'll come back in the fall with more sessions. Um,
so we've also discussed uh the potential of an award that would recognize an individual in our community that has made a significant impact and exemplifies the six pillars of Mr. Russell's leadership, which would include social justice, activism, education, leadership, community
building, and mentorship. We plan to again table at Junth this year. Um, and we're also working into some smaller subgroups as we start to flush out some more of um, our recommendations and get into more details of how we're going to
turn this over to the select board and see where this will go afterwards. Um, we've reviewed several me mechanisms to fund each u of the suggestions that we're looking at and how those responsibilities will be handled after the committee sunsets. So, it's not just dumped on Albert's
lap. at least he'll have a roadmap and at least have a way to continue the work even after the committee sunsets. And then we've also had contact with the Russell family with Albert acting as the main point of contact. Um he's had some encouraging responses from the family
and that who have appreciated us reaching out and they want the opportunity to have some input with the community with the committee um for the plans that the town is developing. It's just that uh the family member is juggling a lot at the time. as um we're going to get more
we might be able to have some more time there soon. Um yeah, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. Um it will be based on Bill Russell's book Red and Me. So it'll focus on the relationship that he had with Brett Hourback as his coach and the owner of
the Boston Celtics. It's very interesting dynamic being a like six foot plus black man with a six foot Jewish man from New York. Very different personalities, but the two of them were very very good friends. >> Any other questions?
>> Not. >> Thank you very much. Wonderful update. >> Thank you. Next item on the agenda for the evening is the OESJ annual update. I have a few PowerPoint slides for you guys. Um,
as um Amy's pulling up the PowerPoint, uh, I want to just give a big thank you to you guys, the trustees, um, for supporting this work. We're going on three plus years, I think, of the office being here in the library. Two and a
half years for me, a year for my predecessor. That part, Is that math right, Amy? We can round it up. Round it down. Right. Um, and so I meet regularly with my colleagues across the state a couple times a month and we um I'm the only one
in the library which I um I tell a lot of the great library stories which I think are special. Um, and you know, I say this with all seriousness though, it's really um this is a special library, not just because of I think the the quality of work that comes out of here, but because I think that um we
think about supporting this kind of work, which is um work I think really when I sit and you'll see my update in a moment around just it centers on everybody, it sometime doesn't get projected that way, you know. So, I want to always be clear when I'm doing my
updates to you to that it's always going to be reading first. We're always focused on data. You got a public health guy here. 22 years of public health. I'm always going to be focused on data um and particularly reading data. So, I'll jump into it. Um so, you can go to the next slide.
So, um there's a few things I just want to talk about and I have 20 minutes today, so I'm going to try to speed talk a little bit. One is share with you um our employee engagement work that we've been doing. something really near and dear to me. We called them, it birthed out of some listening sessions we did with our colleagues across the across
the town and really kind of dovetailed into thing we call these lunch and learns which ways for employees across the um all the different departments to get to know one another. We talk a little bit about our strategic plan that's been again really near dear to me. um it really on the heels of some
great data we collected back in 2023 from our workforce and our community around this work and really for me just because I'm a public health guy I want to turn that right into a strategic plan because I think there's no if you don't have a plan um there's no way it can be operationalized and then just some newer
work for me since the last time I think I talked to you guys I'm the now the ADA coordinator for the town already um that did not come with a pay increase I just want to be clear about that so it's a it's a very I did raise my hand though And I loved it though and I and I love this work. You guys got to have some humor here. I'm gonna I'm gonna get you
get you laughing. Who doesn't laugh in a room to get you laughing? Um and also we're excited about the the commission on disability which I also got birthed around the same time. Um and then just talk about some of the community events. Taylor showed one of them about Junth by sharing with you some of the work that
we've been doing probably over the last six day months community. Right. So next um next slide. This is a obviously very techy slide but I just want to share one thing. I know you guys have seen this before, but I just want to remind you about what our mission is. Um, and again, I want to always try to clarify
what we do because sometimes it's put out there that, you know, in the public domain sometime what we what we may be doing. I want you to be clear as a trustees what we are about. And our mission is really focused on kind of it's a shared service providing education, support, and resources aimed
at making ready, inclusive, diverse, and um, accessible town for all. So I just want to remind you what you're supporting this work is supporting all our residents and I mean all and really we're doing it in a way that is about kind of collaborating sharing with folks you know our work again text heavy slide
and I guess you guys will get this some point in your inbox so you can kind of um bedside reading for the other parts. Okay so um just want to share with you next slide our approach again really this approach focus on a few things. one advising as I said earlier not enforcing so we're not about enforcing but we're
encouraging awareness which I think is a key to the work I do about raising awareness um around education particularly around diversity equity inclusion and access the DEIA um supporting other departments are really really near to dear to me this work again why I really love it in a
municipality like reading really allows us to work with all our different departments and so we have a a nice big playground we all can play in and really enjoy one another and get to know one other and also just really that final piece around engaging our community really I think the special thing about this role it's inward and outward facing right so I get to work with my
colleagues across the town but also I get to engage with the residents out there which I really enjoy doing that over the last year or so so really excited about that piece next slide again want to turn right into some of the things you really been doing around these listening sessions you can turn to the next slide after that so back in
2023 collected a bunch of data from our workforce and our community around this work and really um for me What was missing in that is a strategic plan. And so, um, but also what was missing in that is really, I think, a way for us to truly fully understand because people check the box off, wrote some things
into a survey, but what does that really mean? And really into I really wanted to dig a little deep into that. So, we did something which I I did on the on the community side was to collaborate with the um the um coalition prevention and the reading public schools on these listening sessions with students. I
said, why can't we do that with the town, right? Be great. So, I brought this great idea to Amy, which um I want to say Amy, I bring like a lot of ideas to Amy, and um she uh listens to them all, shakes her head, um and then I walk out of there maybe with one or two of them, um which I'm happy about. Now, she
really supports everything I do, but some things I just can't do it all. Right. So, this was these listening sessions that we really wanted to make sure we were trying to understand from our colleagues. We heard you say some things in the survey. Is that really what you said? And dig a little bit deeper in that. So, next slide. So the
the main objective of these listening sessions um were to really create a sense of understanding a sense of belonging from our our town. This was again for the entire employees. And so again we collected this data back in 2023. What did it really mean? So we kind of focused on again this one central question. How can we create a
sense of belonging among our 278 colleagues across the town? And so that's really what we began. Next slide. So we did um really and I didn't really think anyone would show up. So I want to be very clear but we had a lot of folks show up. Um and we had a really diverse
group of 98 of our colleagues showed up over 14 sess 12 sessions two with our department heads and 12 with the um rank and file the folks and really these were just a couple of pictures you can see here. Um just really and again I was a really big on taking the pictures because I really wanted to make sure
again we reflected who was in these sessions right and this I sent these out to every colle all our colleagues right after each session again. And so these are just uh you know again I remember all these sessions because I was in all of them and it really great to be there. So we collect we did this um process of
um you can turn to the next slide of hearing from our workforce you know again um what it meant to be a sense of belonging our guiding questions again as you see them right here is it you know kind of what has been your experience in terms of belonging in town of reading what is getting in the way of you feeling connected and then what could
the town of reading and reading community do to cultivate a sense of belonging okay so again some of these questions we were asking on the school side again really thought it'd be a great way for us to to do on our department side because all our departments for the most part have an interface with our community as well. So
how can we sense of belonging? Next slide please. This is the visual. Again, we were very um intentional about sharing out with our colleagues about this journey, right? So, we started a journey back in April 1st uh and of last year and we
collected that jour found a journey on on June June 10th, June 12th, I'm sorry, our last session. So, again, we wanted to let people know that we were on a journey, right? And we want to be all in together and we are now moving to phase two. So, this was phase one. I shared with you phase two, which was really uh
again, you can go to the next slide. So again we were very intentional about that this team again very important this was not about me it's about really this team of folks we call them the implementation team that's a term that was carry over from the the um the work that was doing with our consultant and
this team of folks which is really diverse demon you see on there so we have our community resource officer um we have our our community our community service director our public health nurse um we have our community development director and we have our um what's cash role here at the library. Senior
librarian. Right. So, that's our team. We're missing two. We're missing our um our sergeant Pat Silva and we just have a new member who are who is our communications communications team on the town side, Josh. So, that's our team. Again, just wanted to next slide.
Tech heavy, but I again, we wanted to make sure that, you know, we heard so they said a lot. I was in every session. Staff said a lot of things to us. And some of the things that we really wanted to make sure staff were telling us that they really wanted to, you know, get a sense of being connected, right? But they a lot of folks felt unvalued um
undervalued um really wanted to make sure they heard town leadership heard that they um had a lot to offer and a sense of appreciation. So one of them again was a big bucket around appreciation, support. Next but next uh slide. Next one was workplace culture. staff
wanted to really feel like they um had a environment that um that was supportive to them, you know, and really, you know, staff put out a lot. You know, I think everyone was very clear that we are service employees. We are at the at the um you know, at the call of the
residents and but a lot of folks feel like and these were their terms get beat up in the in the community, right? So we wanted to make sure that they recognized that, you know, a lot of work was being put out and we wanted to make sure when they were on the workforce side that they felt supported with that. So that culture of feeling support um and and
feeling like they um that that staff had their back, you know, and and really being able to to to hear them um when they when they had their concerns. Um yeah. So again, next slide. So again these were three big buckets that we
identified and I share with you more about the last bucket the moment appreciation support workplace culture and the final one was inter interdep departmental connectivity again it surprised me a lot I was in every session um that a lot of folks didn't even know one another right and then they knew each other but they didn't
know really what they did so again I just reminded me of the credit of opportunity where you have people sitting meetings all the time and doesn't really know what does the person community development really do right what does that resource officer what is he or she really doing in the community
so these were just ways of just can connect right so we just said it's important for us to kind of hear that and what is that what does that mean for us right and so again people felt like they were in silos even small department I remember there was one session where there were five people in in in the
session and um and three of them didn't even know one another right and again we just use this opportunity to have connections but one of the biggest and I'll share with these was just suggestions that came from the department of connectivity, lunch and learns, opportunity to connect other departments, newsletters internally um
and ways that we can just do fun things together and just by way these things were all shared with our town leadership, right? So um and we are moving we felt I felt that team have felt has felt always supported by our team by our town leadership in terms of um being able to move on some of these
things. But I'll just share with that first um um bullet point under suggestions offered is that lunch and learns and this was like a lowhanging fruit. So we started these and and we put out a survey to all our workforce asking them to rank all our departments
that they want to hear more about. So the four that basically uh rose to the top were police, community development, community services and public health. And so we did our first lunch and learn at the police department last month. We had, you know, well, we had the cap of
30. We had about 30 who attended and basically we learned about the the police department and making they didn't make any assumptions because that we knew everything and they share with us some of their nice little toys they had there. Um, and so we have our next lunch and learn coming up. This is drum roll and you're hearing this for the first
time too. Um on uh the 29th, Community Development's doing their session at there's a new site in Reading called um prefer per it's it's a community gathering space. Um thank you. Right. They
Exactly. Oh, exactly. So they're holding it there. Um and and we're excited about that. Again, they they just we just finalized a flyer today. It's going to go out in the workforce on Wednesday. You got to pretend you didn't hear this, Amy. You'd be surprised when you see everything to act surprise when you see the the announcement. But again, we're
excited about sharing that human development. And then our deck after that in May is going to be community services. And so basically the the lunch and learns are twofold. One is that we go and we eat, okay, like you do any lunch and learn, but also we're learning. So kind of three-fold. One, you're learning about that department,
not making assumptions about what they do. And the third thing is you're getting to know the person next to you, right? So that intentionality around connecting with someone I connected with the building commissioner I didn't even know he had started and so we able to have great conversation about our work which overlaps with ADA. So excited about that. So more to come
um next slide next one after that. So Shik plan so this again was very important to me because without a plan none of this stuff's going to happen. So back to that assessment again back in 2023 really um that at that that set off really just important for me to
have the strategic plan. So connected with a local resident here who had her own consultant business and basically the process is called resultsbased accountability and what that basically means is traditional re traditional string plans basically have you set a mark say three or five years and they're
really great too. We have one here at the library. We say in three years we're going to be doing these things, right? I thought this results based accountability could be better for what we do because it's basically kind of turning the curve. Instead of us saying in three years we want to have X this
XYZ done. What we're saying with this work is that we want to say that we are making movement and progress. Right? So where we turning the curve you'll see on the next slide some of the departments and what they chose as the equity priority areas. But where are we turning the curve at in some of this work?
Because particularly the work I do is so predicated on so many other things, right? So something could get in the way funding or like that. So it just kind of puts things in and at a halt versus like have we identified a new partner? Have we done AB and C? That's really where
this stuff is so important. So again, a lot of this again it's a little bit side reading, but really the the key thing here too is that we landed on six departments. Um we reached out to all our departments. So six departments and you can turn to the next slide I think was um and this slide is a little I
apologize for being small print but if you look at top of the top um of that those were the different um uh thanks for making it a little bigger. Those were the different um um outcomes that came from that survey in terms of things
that really will be important for us to address um either on the community side or the workforce side. Um on the right side, left side I'm sorry, you have those are departments that all raised their hand and said we're going to identify an equity priority area. So if you look across there, you can just zoom
right down to library because that's us, right? We identified really looking at accessibility and programming physical spaces. Okay, which I think the library has done a great job of already moving on a lot of that work. So the way this kind of started with myself and my consultant was sit down with the department heads and as well as their other staff to have them brace
brainstorm what would be an equity priority area. they identified these and again this is going to allow me on an ongoing basis to have touch points with every department right so going forward that's kind of where we are so look for example health want diversify their board they want to be more intentional
about cross crossgenerational programming DPW wanted accessibility of pavements fire department wanted to be more culturally competent particularly with the mosque the mosque here in reading in terms of really engage them because they are first responders as well um our plan department wanted to be
more intention about really um not just centering on um um owners but really think about how to engage our renters as well in um in the process because a lot of times renters in communities like this and I live in one they don't oftentimes feel they can come to the table and really be a part of planning
because you know for different reasons so that's um and community services wants to really be more intentional about um inclusive programming okay fast forward next slide almost done. Um ADA, again, this is a new piece that came on. So again, I
won't read this text heavy, but I'll read two things about this. One, we're incredibly excited about having our disabilities commission um form. This is a a group of eight individuals who raised their hand and got elected um got appointed. Five of them are voting members, three of them are alternates.
Um and and basically a lot of other towns like Reading has a commission on disability. Any folks know other commissions around some of your friends, other towns? No. Okay. It's a way to um you know, obviously get residents involved in disability work. As we know,
disability is one of those things where it's it's it impacts us in so many different ways, right? Physical is is um is is non-physical disabilities. And so really just being able to be intentional about having members across the town resing to be a part of this. We have our
first meeting coming up on the 23rd. Um and yeah, it's excit exciting time. So more to come around that. Again, I serve in this role as the staff liaison to this particular board. Um yeah, so we move on for that.
More slides. You can go to the next slide. And then finally, our last uh couple slides about our community work. again excited u partners and allies for inclusive reading pair um was a uh a project that was birthed before I got here. I
remember Amy asking me probably day two when I started, did I want to still hold on to pair? You know, because again, when things not birthed under you, how do you, you know, do you want to keep them going? And I kind of sat on there for a while and I realized, you know what, I really love the idea of having an initiative that touches both the
community and the workforce together. Think about an inclusive reading. Right? So, we kept it going, but we've been working for the last six, eight months on revi on on on doing some um say renovating, right? That's not a word I want to use, right? We're doing some just um just uh looking at revisiting
some things about it. So, we're going to relaunch that in June. Uh but again, it centers on really bringing our stakeholders together on the community and the workforce side to think about how can we be intentional about those residents that may be missing and that may be on the margin. So, more to come
around that relaunch in June. Final slide is really again um with this work, you know, again, a lot of times people don't know about the behind the-scenes work, right? Because you just don't you wouldn't know unless you're on a board like this. So this is kind of the the public side of our work, right? So this
is what people when they say, "Oh, I would love to be a part of the work you're doing." They're thinking about this, right? Which is totally fine. Um and this is not performative. This is really intentional work. So, you know, we do we've done a many a few different events, but these probably the four or five that we're going to land on
consistently throughout the time. And I'll share one last thing about this when I finish this going through this. So, again, the MLK event, it's a pretty much a a townwide event. We engaged 200 plus people. It's at the high school. Really thoughtful about collaboration with that event. Taylor mentioned
earlier, really engaging um a lot of different um vendors to be a part of that event to share their work. Black History Trivia. We're in the second year of that, really intentional around that month, really collaborating with, you know, um, groups like KO and others. Um,
we did for the first time this year, something I really been thinking about for a couple years, uh, women's in leadership panel. So, in this room right here, we had six incredible leaders, women leaders who are who are doing some amazing work. We brought them together and we did collaborate event with the
women's league of writing around that. And then finally coming up in June is our um fourth annual uh Junth event, you know, which we hold right in the in the common. Um I'll say that, you know, we're really being thoughtful, intentional, particularly in this day and time about trying to get additional
funding for these events. It doesn't these events and I'll say this obviously you hold the purse strings with the with the work. Um they don't cost us a ton to run them, right? try try to keep it really low cost but we there are small grants out there to support this work.
So really being thoughtful intentional Amy and I have been talking about this a lot around just trying to get some grant funding to cover some of these events. So just letting you know that really being thoughtful intentional about about that. So last thank you and I get I have like a minute questions that you guys I'm sorry. Well I'm passing it to our
chair but um I'm just doing your job. Sorry. >> Thank you very much. Uh anybody have any questions? Great work. Uh, very thorough. Um, the women's leadership I heard excellent things about. By the way, my my wife came home and said everything was about
it. She liked how it started with poet and then from there on she thought it was very engaging. Um, the that expansion with potentially pair I'm wondering if if that's what you're seeing part of the strategic plan where
you've spent so much time in the community with the town workers and getting that dialogue and obviously the idea is you create that system >> and it keeps going and organically you know these you get that feedback and then looking to expand that a little bit
more to the community. >> Exactly. >> I mean we do have a town where I think a great deal of the town workers are not living in the town. >> Absolutely. >> Yep. So um but is that part of the goal to kind of you know >> absolutely absolutely and let you know
we applied for a grant through the MAPC my sus area planning council we'll know in June cross your fingers it's a technical assistance grant so it's allow us to actually to expand pair to the work that I'm doing kind of behind the scenes a little bit hopefully we'll get some funding through this technical assistance grant to do that but again I
think that pair is a secret sauce I think if we did that right and I think we will get it right I think it is going to allow us to really bring together all those stakeholders and everyone I think really is doing great work. I just think put them in the same space to really be
able to have those some difficult conversations but really need it. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Thanks again for your support. Any questions you have, I know Amy can you guys can reach me. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Thanks, Albert. I know. I was I was gonna say the same
thing. >> Sorry for the feedback. Uh, next item on the agenda, a review of the history room history room use policy. Is it feedback? Um, thank you for that and uh hopefully the feedback's done. So, the local
history room use policy is something we implemented just a few years ago since we have now have a a history room and that was the just history for those who don't know. Um, back in uh 2019, we did
a um we had a grant to assess cultural resources here in the town uh for preservation purposes. So, uh we had someone from the NECCC come out and evaluate Parker Tavern, the town clerk's resources, and then our resources. And then they developed a
report for each of those groups to help um with preservation. So, one of the one of the recommendations at that point was to have the room locked instead of just being open and have some guidelines as to who who and how or how people can use the room. So, this is a fairly new
policy. It was established in 19 I'm sorry, in 2021. And if you look at your units, the first it looks like a lot of red and there there there is a lot of red um uh meaning changes. They're not
wholly substantive substantive changes. They're mostly um clarifying changes and some editorial changes, small things like taking out the passive voice, etc. Rearranging the order so that looks a little bit different. Um and if you look
at the final product and the and the um edited product, uh we did shorten it quite a bit and try to make it more succinct. Um, this is the time when you can look this over. We'll revisit this on May 11th and probably vote on it, but I'm
happy to take any questions about >> um, one question about um, the rem or did you actually add this non-irculate? I couldn't tell if that was Oh, it's added. Sorry, I thought that was removed. >> No, there it does. Yeah. So we and we we had a discussion on I'll just prep you
that we um we really debated about putting some information about more information about policy about the collection in this document but we have decided instead to flush out our collection development policy and have a really specific section in the collection development policy about what
goes in and what gets the assession from the local history collection. Um, we do have a lot of very avid um, his historians, amateur historians in town who love to give us big boxes of things that they found in their attic.
And um, so we have to say no sometimes. And so having some guidelines as to what we actually collect. We have a very limited space. It's one that one room. We don't have a lot of extra space. Um, so that will be coming up on our next collection development revision. So,
this is really only about how you get into the room, what you can do once you're in the room, and then a little bit um a little bit about copyrightiting and copyright on that s sort of stuff. Some of it is very basic. Um
no food or drink or chewing gum, that kind of thing. So, that mostly hasn't changed. It's really just been tried to try and streamline it. I'm happy to take any questions now. You can send me an email with questions and I can address it at the next meeting and we can just add it to the next meeting
for further discussion and a vote. >> Um Amy, a couple things. >> Yep. >> So when I first started reading it, it gave me the impression that if the history room is open for you that someone's sitting with
you while you're in there. >> Okay. Okay. And I don't know why I got that impression. >> Um, so I don't know if we make that clear that that is or is not the case. So when I got to the part that says patrons who engage in behavior that could cause damage to materials may be denied access. Yeah.
>> I was like, well, how's that going to happen if somebody's sitting right next to them? So I just was about that. >> I'll reread I'll have someone reread it with that lens on it. >> Yeah. >> There's no liquid in there. >> The other one is under the section with all materials in the history. Well, what
it used to say is All materials in the history must be handled with care. Now that's being condensed and it's got all the bullets under it. >> Yeah. >> So bullet five, I just think it needs to be rewarded. It says items from secure storage a minimum of 45 minutes like a verb. >> Yeah. Yeah. It says request item. It
should say request, >> but it's crossed out. >> Yeah. >> The red line is >> Yeah. So if you look at the bottom, it does say request items from secure storage a minimum of 45. But there's there's definitely typos in here. So we'll go through that. >> Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. Sorry, I was losing.
>> No worries. No worries. But I I think that's we do want to be clear. This is about independent research and we're basically giving you the keys to the kingdom to sit in this room unsupervised. Um and one other question I had is um so it talks about um all
users must present a noble library card or a valid state or federal photo ID at the desk to make an appointment and sign in. Couldn't the process be someone calls ahead and says, "I want to access the history room for this. Can I make an
appointment?" Then you have to show up. Show your ID. Like, I'm really who I say I am. Here's my ID. I made this appointment. >> Because I'm just thinking, >> I don't think that many people are going to stumble in here to go to the history room. They're going to be wanting to go for a purpose. And so, they probably would be an out of towner, too. They
might >> they might be an out of town. >> And I think that's what the actual the practical process is actually. And I'm sure what happens is someone emails or calls and then a librarian says, "Oh, yeah, sure. You know, Jo will see you at 2 o'clock. Just don't forget to bring an ID." Right.
>> And so I think that that's a great clarification. We'll make sure that gets in there. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Out of curiosity, like who's the average user of the history room? I've always wondered who like >> Yeah, it's really interesting. And we do have both folks in from in town as well as out of town. Um, local
genealogologists and historians. Um, Jocelyn's been very busy. She just had a group of um, archive students from Simmons come in and she taught a class for them. She also worked for the AP history class. Um, and they did this whole women's tour. Um, I'll send you
all the link. Um, but it's they each it was they they did a session on primary resources and using primary resources in the local history room. So, um, you know, it's it's actually a wide range of very targeted and then those who are just coming to, you know, the people
that come to look at the history of their house can be anywhere from the the new younger house owner to someone who's just like, I've lived in this house for 75 years. Is my house is my house on the inventory? So, we get a really wide range. I So, I don't know if I could
pick out I think it's a really nice mix actually. I mean, short of young children. Um, which is part of the reason we have this because the teens used to go in there in the afternoon when it was unlocked and they would just play games on the not not to blame the teens, but um that you know that's partly why we have it locked now so that
they're it's used by researchers only. >> Feel like I was allowed to work in there a couple years ago. >> Yes. Yeah. You can just you can just come and work in there, but we do ask that you know that you're that you show some responsibility there. And a lot of people get turned off because there's no you can't eat or drink in there because
everywhere else in the library you can eat or drink. So there are some people that no I really want my coffee. I'm going to go sit in the sit in the silent study area. But absolutely it can be just used for work. I don't know if you'd stop allowing such a thing. >> Yeah. >> Excellent. Thank you. Any questions
other than ones that have been raised? Wonderful. If not, we can move on to Amy's famous financial director report. >> Okay. So, because we had extra reports today, we're not going to I mean, obviously we didn't get done by 7:30, but I'll try to make this quick so we
can get out before 8. Um, so, uh, we had our FINCOM presentation, budget presentation on March 4th. Everything went very smoothly. Um, we actually killed it in one night, which was great. Um, we did all we went a little late, but we got it all done in one night,
which was fantastic. And, um, uh, the budget, which does rely on, I think about $6.7 million from free cash. It's not a small amount. Um, was approved by the FINCOM. Now, we just have to go to town meeting. It begins on April 7th and I believe 27th and I believe the budget
is usually the second night, which is that Thursday, which is probably April 30th. So, we'll all the department heads and whatnot will be there to um to talk about the FY27 budget. Um it's not town meetings call or our call, it's the
select board call, but um there will probably be either budget cuts or a request for an override for FY28. Just so you know, we're already starting that process. We already have salary. It's not even It's not even fiscal year 27 and we're already working with fiscal
year 28 staffing staffing projections and expense projections. So, we're we're all over that and coming up with several different um uh budget models um for different um scenarios. So, um it's a long process, but um we're getting
started early. Um we had some great gifts in uh March. Um we had a bunch of donors um in memory of Adelard Everton who was a long longtime resident of Reading and Adelard and his doctor
Everton and his wife Princess moved up to Peody I think it's in um one of the the assisted living communities up there. I can't remember what it's called. Brooksby. Yeah, Brooksby I think it might be. Anyway, so um Dr. Everton had passed away. So, we got some very
nice um donations. Also, I don't know if you remember from I think it was like 2024, we had a request from an estate and um it always takes a little while. We got the first distribution and this is the final distribution which is after all the lawyers fees etc. So, we had a
little input from that. So, we had some nice nice gifts in March. Um everything else of FY26 budget is on on target. As you know, I've keep reporting we're a little under budget on staff, mostly due to our transitions. We are,
knock on wood, fully staffed. Um so we're very excited to have um a full staffing. We will be looking for some more substitutes for Saturdays and Sundays. um we hire some of our substitutes to become regular employees. So now they they can't substitute, but
that's more of a later summer uh late spring and early summer task. Any other questions about the financial picture? Um thank you if you have signed the warrant and if you haven't, please sign it before you go. Um,
oh, I just want to give a shout out to accounting who has had to deal with me since February. And I I mean, I remember doing all of this during COVID, although we didn't have any cash drops and whatnot, but dealing with the warrants and and
Michelle's doing the payroll. So, Michelle's who um couldn't join us tonight. Um, we're doing a great, you know, both working really, really hard and, um, accounting, our accounting department is amazing and they're, they actually are short staff. They just had a a staffing transition and I get these
very lovely emails saying, you know, the next time you submit a warrant, it would be really nice if you did X, Y, and Z. So, I'm hoping someday to have a perfect warrant. Maybe it'll be this time. Um, but the accounting department is have been so supportive and not having an
admin. Our budget is very small for expenses, but we have probably more invoices. I mean, not including the schools than any other town department because we get so many, you know, they're for small amounts, but they all have to be processed individually. So, they're they're just an amazing support
during this time with Megan out. Okay. Director's report. Um, statistics looks really good. Um, we had >> was the Sorry to interrupt. Were the lockers down last March or we just up that much more? Looks like we're using
lockers. >> Lockers locker use. Yes. No, no, we're they're just being used a lot more. February was actually a killer month in considering how short it was, but I think it was because there was a lot of snow. People didn't know when they could get to the library. Um the locker use is
significantly up and we're finding that you know over 50% of them are used at any given time which is fantastic. Um it's you know there's still things we wish that were were better about it but it at this point it's turning out to be something that people really appreciate.
They can come anytime 247 scan their card the thing pops open they take their things and boom it's gone. So um we had um 16 556 visitors in in March. Um which again
I think that's because the weather wasn't that great. So we had a lot more a lot more people visiting. Um and um we also had some really great programs as well. Um went back up to having 79 programs. I'd finally gotten them down to about 60.
But um very very ambitious um our program planners. So um that's been great. um services, programs, and collections. Um Albert already mentioned some of his um
great programs that he had. Um we're dealing with maong as you know, Maang is very very very popular and in addition to having a class every once in a while, we have a lot of people that want to come and do a maong meetup. So we're trying to accommodate that as best
as we can and helping people meet each other that have like um like interest in ma very excited to have the mand introduction to Mandarin for adults which was great and it was a young um everything ranged from I think there was a teenager a young person in there as
all the way up to 60 plus and um uh we had a retired teacher who was also a reading resident who came in to teach those classes for free and I think we definitely want to ask them definitely want to ask them back. I believe so. Yeah.
Yeah. I know. And on the on the flip side of that is we also have our first um in the middle of our first session for English learning English. So, um it's really it's really it's really great. Yeah. The the amount of multilingual programming that we're doing is a really um and I put that down
to some of our new hires. Ashley Cristiano, who was a substitute and now full-time librarian, has taken a lot of that on. Um, let's see here. Oh, and the library card contest has kicked off that Michelle presented to you last time. It's We're very excited. We've gotten a lot of
inquiries about it. We hope to have our September card selected uh by you all in May. I had um excuse me, two adult children home this past weekend for the weekend. I was in the car at separate times with each of them going through the town center and they're like, "Mom,
did you submit your entry for that library card?" >> Four children. >> Well, we could we could age. >> We could see about offering it a different age, a different age next year. We'll see how it goes. So, um, standouts. Um, I do the April I do the
anniversaries. I try to do them in order of the number of years people have been here. I don't know if you guys know Lisa. Lisa Ang. Uh she's one of our adult she's our adult page library technician. She's been with us for 22 years which is absolutely amazing. Um
and some of our newest folks have been here uh for three years. So we had a lot of anniversaries in April. We must have a lot of people leaving in December and January so that we're hiring a lot of people for April. Um some Oh, one thing I didn't put on
here actually is that It was it in March? It might have actually it might have been April. Um, but Luna Jverson, not gonna I'm not going to say it correctly. It also has D Z
W I T I N. Um, Luna has started as our newest uh borrower services uh library associate and has worked out really well and it's it's been great. So, it's really nice to be fully staffed. Um, I had one other thing to add to the
um to the director's report, which did not make it into my director's report, which I submitted on Thursday. Um, oh, because I had already submitted at Thursday evening at 4:50. I got a phone call from one of the desks saying back pipes. And
I said, what? They said people are playing back pipes in the library. >> In the library. So down in the main floor, I think it's like a Tik Tok thing, bag pipes and libraries. So it's sort of just a like a prank. So there were four talented bag pipers in kilts
in black shirts and kilts, multi-racial. They all look like young men about maybe 20 something maybe. Um they brought an amp with them and they were playing and you know we politely asked them to leave. I did and they they kind of
ignored that. Um the first thing that happened is everyone called Cheyenne and said, "Did some group book the room for like backpipe playing?" And I know nothing about this. So poor Cheyenne had to deal with that. But it was, you know, there first amendment auditors. There's people who come in challenges. There's a
lot of people who could come in and refuse to leave. So as challenges as as issues go, it was actually quite a quite a fun one to have. But we ended did end up calling public safety because they they kept ignoring the request to leave and then they did eventually and I think they went right over to Wuburn either
that same day or another day. So I think they've been to another local library. Um and then I >> did they have somebody like filming them? >> Yes, they did have they did have somebody filming them and I think they kind of left because we were not very interesting. We were like well done nicely played. Could you please go
outside? So, it was I just wanted to tell you first of all, if we make it into the police blotter, that's why um they did send they did send an officer over here who I explained everything to and we had a good chuckle about it. So, um but um it's actually kind of a fun thing to
have to report to that we were selected to be ranked by a bunch of young bag pipers. Um and that's all I have for my director's report. Really? >> That's cap. >> I know. Oh, I was like I was saving that
one up. >> Well, I would like to congratulations to connect for another three years. >> Oh, yeah. >> Guess I have to self. >> So, yeah, both of you, congrats to you, Kevin. I assume I'm sorry I didn't check. I'm assuming you both got sworn in today. We did. Yay. Thank you.
>> Because Laura said she was going to come here and swear soon. >> We didn't She didn't certify in time. >> Uh, wonderful. Thank you very much, Amy. And I'm still feeding back, so I'll be back here. Uh, next thing on the agenda is the approval of the February 9th,
2026 meeting minutes. We have any questions, changes, dates? >> Thank you to Cheyenne. That was her first set of minutes, and it I think they came out great. >> Nicely done. I move that we accept the meeting
minutes. for March 9th 26 as recorded. >> Yes. And I actually accidentally wrote February 9th in the the agenda, but it should be March 9th. Thank >> the minutes themselves say March 9th. >> Yes, that is correct. That the agenda is
incorrect. You are correct. >> All in favor? Oh, we're all here. Motion carry 6. Next item, our future agenda items include we'll have to in May the discussion about vote for the history room policy which we discussed
and Amy would you like to cover the others or would you like me to just go over them? >> I'll just go over them really quickly. June is just always the June is always the big meeting. Um you'll get a summer programming update. We set the we do a reorganization of officers as needed or
required. Um, and that's something that I that the chair manages that process. And we set the trustee FY27 trustee meeting dates. We also vote on the um calendar year 27 holiday schedule.
There's the there are the 12 I think that are offered by the town, but then we add some additional closings. It's not just holidays, it's library closings and etc. And then um there are two policies that I haven't gotten any feedback yet um
that we might possibly discuss in July. I don't think there'll be any changes to those. And then we usually just do an update uh in July on the um print copy scan facts just to let you know how those are proceeding. Um and that's it.
So hopefully it be a quiet summer. >> That sounds good. Any other questions? Get a motion. >> Second that motion. >> All in favor carries. 60.
>> Uh journ. Recording stopped.