October 27, 2025 | RCML BOT Meeting Minutes

Rodger Clark Memorial Library Board of Trustees Minutes for 10/27/2025 Meeting
Trustees in Attendance: Micheline Bissell, Cynthia Bryant, Katrina Hotchkiss and Dorien Morin via Zoom.
Call to Order: Micheline Bissell called the meeting to order at 4:35PM.  Cynthia Bryant seconded the motion.
October’s Agenda:  Micheline Bissell moved to add under new business discussing cabinet for easy reader books, new placement of puzzles and games and what to do with the blackboard.   Cynthia approved that agenda would be changed to include those items.  Micheline Bissell seconded the motion to add those items.
September’s Meeting Minutes:  Micheline Bissell accepted and approved the minutes.  Cynthia Bryant seconded the acceptance and approval.
September’s Librarian’s Report:  Micheline Bissell created the report.  The number of unique visitors was down for the month.  Cynthia Bryant approved and accepted the report.  Katrina Hotchkiss seconded the approval and acceptance.
OLD BUSINESS

1.  The Halloween Event at the library will be run by Cynthia Bryant on 10/31/2025 from 5:00 – 7:00 PM.  Cynthia is all set for the event and will set up on Wednesday 10/29/2025.
   
2. Open library sign for the side window was ordered by Cynthia Bryant and should arrive sometime next week (beginning of November).
   
3. DOJ requirements were tabled.  Board has until 4/26/2027 to be compliant.
   
4. VLCT training was looked at by Micheline Bissell.  Micheline found a few things worth looking into for 2025 (grants and workplace matters).  The schedule was only available until December 2025.  Micheline will encourage the new Librarian, Lisa, to look into the training come December.  Encouraging her, Lisa, to look at Librarian Certification courses along with other offering that would help enhance the Library.
   
5. Bookmarks, magnets and library cards will now be looked back into and see what former Librarian, Fern, had accomplished.  New hours and days will now be able to be added with the hiring of the new Librarian, Lisa.  Creating a calendar of events to be placed on the desk for patrons to take home was discussed and liked by all Trustees.
   

1. Discussing marketing strategies was tabled.  Dorien Morin will take this up with Lisa.
   
2. Brian, our IT guy, will do the Windows upgrades on 11/4/2025.  Not sure of the cost for the upgrades.
   
3. Dorien Morin has been playing phone tag with Brian(IT), about whether the library should have domain emails or stay with gmail.  Domain emails would provide more security.  Dorien Morin will continue to follow-up with Brian.
   
4. Friendsgiving at the Town Hall, tentatively scheduled for November, was voted down by Cynthia, Katrina and Micheline.  The Trustees will consider putting on an event in January 2026, after the 2025 holidays.
   
5. Whether the Library will continue to subscribe to Zoom was put on hold until the Trustees decide whether or not to subscribe to Google Work Space.  Google Meets comes free with Google Work Space therefore a Zoom subscription would no longer be needed.
   
6. Rick Winston’s film about Immigration has been set for Saturday 11/8/2025.  Lisa and Micheline Bissell will facilitate the event.  There will be an invoice given from VT Humanities and the mileage invoice will be received on the day of the event.
   
7. MT Anderson Children’s program is scheduled for Saturday 11/15/2025.  Invoice from Vt Humanities will come after the event and the mileage invoice for $88.20 will be processed by Cynthia and given to the Town Clerk.  Facilitators are still needed for this event to help Lisa.
   
8. October’s movie, Just Getting By, can be scheduled for anytime since we have paid for it and have the link.  The Board felt that 1Q2026 would be a good time with possibly a potluck before the movie.
   
9. The meeting with the Select Board for the Budget and CIP review is set for 11/11/2025 at 5:45PM.  Cynthia Bryant and Dorien Morin will attend the meeting.
   
10. Hoopla’s budget for the year will be about $1200.00.    A $400.00 deposit to our Hoopla account will be added in November.  Two non-residents  paid  for the service this year(2025-2026).  
    

NEW BUSINESS:

1. A discussion took place about the library hours over the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.  Lisa, our new Librarian, will be away for the holiday.  It was decided that it would be too long of a period for the library to be closed so Micheline and Dorien will work out a schedule for the library to be open on Saturday, 11/29/2025.  Dorien will post the changes on social media.
   
2. Creating a log/process for keeping track of new/current/residents/non-resident patrons that are using Hoopla is currently being worked on by Lisa. This will help with the invoicing  process in June..
   
3. The exterior sign for the library was delivered to Rutland on 10/24/2025 by Micheline.  The day and hours of operation for the library will be changed.  The sign should be ready for pickup the week of Nov. 3rd.  Micheline or Dorien will pick the sign up from Rutland.
   
4. Lisa will be asked to look into the new membership with Small and Rural town Association (https://www.arsl.org).  The membership costs $75.00 dollars a year.  Lisa will be encouraged to use this as a resource and attend one session a month.  
   
5. A discussion took place about overdue books.  There is a need to identify patrons and a need to create a process/policy for retrieving overdue books.  KOHA allows the librarian to place a comment in the patron’s record that flags OVERDUE books. Lisa will work on compiling a list of the patrons with overdue books.
   
6. A discussion took place about what to do with the easy reader books, puzzles and games and the blackboard.   Lots of great ideas where suggested and looked at but nothing was finalized.  As of now, the blackboard will remain as is since it is deemed to have historical value to the town.
   
7. Micheline Bissell submitted a grant application for the Inter Library Loan program on 10/302025.  If the grant is approved, the library will receive $683 to help cover the 10/1/2025 – 9/30/2026 timeframe.
   

The meeting was adjourned at 5:45 PM by Micheline Bissell and Katrina Hotchkiss seconded the motion.
The next board meeting of the Rodger Clark Memorial Library Trustees will be on Monday, November 17, 2025 at 4:30PM.
These minutes of the October 27, 2025 meeting are being respectfully submitted by Katrina Hotchkiss.

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