2016-10-05 Board of Library Trustees Minutes

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F O i Town of Reading Meeting Minutes o � ie'g•' C *o f Board - Committee - Commission - Council: Board of Library Trustees Date: 2016-10-05 Building: Reading Public Library Address: 80 General Way Purpose: Attendees: Members - Present: Time: 7:00 PM RECEIVED ' TowN, CI—ERK ;,.DING. MASS. ZOIb DEC — l A 10' 18 1 Location: Conference Room Session: John Brzezenski, Chair; Cherrie Dubois, Vice Chair; Alice Collins; Andrew Grimes; David Hutchinson; Vicki Yablonsky Members - Not Present: Others Present: Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Alice Collins Topics of Discussion: Meeting Called to Order — 7:08 pm It was noted that Judi Perkins, Director of Human Resources, had cautioned the Board to be careful not to ask any questions that would violate employment law, and to retain all notes from this interviewing process. She will collect them at the end of the deliberations, and keep them on file for one year before shredding them. Alice Collins also noted that, according to the Attorney General's office, all interviews and deliberations in this Director selection process will be in open session. Alice Collins and Cherrie Dubois presented the results of the Library Director Search Committee. The Search Committee interviewed 6 of the 22 candidates who applied for this position. The Committee is recommending three finalists to the Board of Trustees, for their consideration. They are: Amy Lannon, currently Interim Director of the Reading Public Library, Sarah Moser, Director of the Haverhill Public Library, and Nancy Siegel, Assistant Director of the West Springfield Public Library. Cover letters, applications, and resumes of the three finalists were shared with Board members. Discussion followed on the process the committee used to formulate questions for the applicants. That final list of questions was shared with the Trustees. Chair John Brzezenski suggested each Trustee select a topic of importance to the Trustees and create three questions on that topic. Trustees also considered setting a task for the applicants, asking them to prepare a brief 10 to 15 -minute presentation on an issue to be determined by the Board. It was noted that the topic should not be a Reading Public Library -specific issue, since that would give our internal candidate an unfair advantage. Vicki Yablonsky spoke to the value of asking the applicants to submit a writing sample for our consideration. Again, a topic would need to be selected which is a timely library issue, but not one specific to the Reading Public Library. Chair Brzezenski will email Trustees a Doodle to reveal dates when all Trustees are available for meetings in the next few weeks. References will be checked only after a candidate Is selected for this position. Page I 1