Library Board votes to support creation of fundraising foundation

With plans for a new Kingston Springs library accelerating, the Cheatham Country Library Board at its Sept. 17 meeting approved a resolution stating that it "supports the formation of a non-profit foundation for the purpose of raising funds to support County library capital projects and library programming."

Proposed by Bob Perry, chair of the Board's Building and Grounds Committee, the foundation as he described it will be a “non-governmental private not-for-profit enterprise and will not be a part of the Board of Trustees.”

Also at the meeting, chaired by Marsha Hunt, Clare Silliman was elected Board secretary and Judy Bell as treasurer. Hunt noted that Bell is new to the Board and that two other new Board members — Spencer Hamlin and Angela Sutton — were not present. One more Board member from north of the county still needs to be named, she said, and added, “fingers crossed we'll have a full board of nine members by October.” The Board previously only had seven members, and voted to add two more this year.

Cecilie Maynor, Red River Regional Library Director, the state official who oversees the operations of 14 libraries in eight counties, including Cheatham, addressed the trustees on several topics. Among these were a need for a social media policy for staffers working online, annual performance reviews of personnel, having a long range plan for the library and reviewing it on a regular basis and the desirability of seeking local funds for library materials. “A lot of libraries lean on state and federal funds,” she observed.

Conceding that “it's really hard for librarians to get rid of books,” Maynor said that nonetheless a library's collection development required the “weeding out” of at least five percent of its books annually to make way for new material. She also stressed the need for continuing library science education for librarians and commended the Board for its “transparency” for posting its minutes online.

Although the meeting was open to the public only a half dozen or so non-members attended.

At the start, Hunt told the visitors, “We have a form. So if you do want to speak today, take a moment to complete the form.” It might have taken more than a moment, however, given that the “Request to Address the Board During Public Comment Period” asked not only for date, name, address, phone number and email, but also citing the specific Board's agenda item one wanted to speak on, which presumes one had access to the agenda in advance. The Board posts the agenda two weeks in advance of each meeting to www.ccpl.omeka.net.

Appended to the form was a page titled “Procedure for Speaking Before the Board” that specifies time limits and other prohibitions. This form can also be accessed on the Board's website.

The County Library Board meets for official business on the third Tuesday of every other month at 3 p.m. They recently enacted "workshops" for the third Tuesday at 3 p.m. during the in between months, where they will discuss topics to be voted on at the following official meeting. The locations for the meetings rotate between the two county locations: Kingston Springs and Ashland City.