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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-20-2023 Fairhope Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting MinutesFairhope Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Tuesday, June 20, 2023 Attendance: Anne Johnson, Tamara Dean, Debra Langham, Andy Parvin, Randal Wright, Dan Stankoski Absent : City Council Liaison Jimmy Conyers Also present: Nan Denson, Treasurer, Friends of the Fairhope, Treasurer for the Capital Campaign Called to order at 4:00pm . Ms. Nan Denson reported on the status of the Capital Campaign. Donations from patrons have helped us move closer to our goal of $1,010,000 for the upstairs renovation. Ms. Denson reported that we are only $118,000 away from reaching the goal. Randal reported that a local contractor had been hired to use the renovation plans from Mott McDonald to evaluate current costs for the renovation to ensure our goal was still accurate. We will have that information by the end of the week. The current plan is to ask the city and the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation to each donate $50,000 more to the Capital Campaign and the Friends will make up the difference. We hope to make our financial goal by the middle of July . FoFL have also submitted a grant request to IMPACT 100 and will have a site visit on July 11. Minutes of the 4/17/2023 meeting were reviewed and unanimously approved . New Business: Dan needed to leave the meeting early and Tamara requested that we discuss a current issue while he was present, so Anne moved New Business to the top of our agenda . Tamara started by reporting that a Pride Day display in the Teen and Youth areas that included LGBTQ posters and books had caused some concern from a few patrons who were against having the displays so prominently open to all the young people who frequent the Youth Department in the Library. The posters in the Youth area were removed. The book displays remained. Tamara has talked with the Head of the Youth Department, about the use and display of posters within the library. On Tuesday, June 20, 2023, Tamara received a phone call from Erica Thomas, a reporter with the online news service, 1819 News, asking what she knew about LGBTQ books in the teen section of the library. Erica reported that she had received a photo of a stack of books that a father said he had checked out of the Fairhope Library Teen area to prevent teens from reading these books that he called pornography and stated that these books were grooming these young people. Tamara knew nothing of this event . She responded by reminding Ms. Thomas that our public library provides free access to information for every patron and that the library believes in the freedom to read and fol l ows the American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights. Parents have the right and responsibility to restrict their own child's reading material, but only their child 's. The Board of Trustees are in full support of Tamara's response, the Freedom to Read and the Library Bill of Rights. It was felt that no further response was required at this time. Monthly Statistical Report: The Holiday request for 2024 was presented, reviewed , motion made, seconded, and passed unanimous ly. Financial Report: Tamara has submitted the Library budget to the city for 2024 with a 5% increase in the overall budget. There being no further discussion , a motion was made to accept all three reports, seconded and passed unanimously. Old Business: No old business Comments: Anne thanked Trustees for attending l ibrary activities Anne will not be at the October meeting It was noted that our City Council Liaison, Jimmy Conyers , has not attended a Board meeting since last June Tamara shared a couple of very positive remarks and notes from patrons Meeting adjourned: 5:04 pm Respectfully Submitted :