Director's Report June, 2024

­Report To The Board of Sherman Free Library

June, 2024
Prepared by Kris Jarrett, Director


Social Numbers Snapshot:

Facebook Reach, Last 28 days:
Post reach: 2,855
Post engagement: 529
New Page likes: 4
New Page Followers: 6

Instagram Followers to Date: 76

Events & Programming:

Eclipse Programming: We distributed somewhere around 800 pairs of eclipse glasses through the library, by sharing with other libraries and outlets such as the Lake Champlain Visitor’s Center and the Moriah Senior Center at the train station, and I brought the remainder to the town beach on the day of the eclipse.  

Lake Champlain Basin Program Exhibit: We installed our second traveling banner exhibit from CBP, this one being all about canal history, ecology, and future use of the system. The banners were up through the end of May. 

Open House: A friend-raiser event to thank the community for supporting our library on Thursday, May 23, from 5-7 pm. We hosted well over 30 guests and had a wonderful evening of chatting about library topics and making friends.
Rummage Sale: Saturday, June 15, 2024. Total Sales so far, 834.75.. Thank you to everyone who donated and volunteered!
Champ Day: First weekend in August? Table at the lake? Book sale, sign up for a library card on-site? Activity for kids? Contest? Open to ideas! Last year’s coloring sheets were rather popular and there was the idea of turning that into a contest with prizes.
Basket Raffle & Book Sale: First weekend in September to coincide with Labor Day festivities.
Chess Club will resume in the fall, though the boards are here and anyone is welcome to come in and play.
Evenings at the Library: Please direct interested speakers my way.

Finance: 

Our new relationship with Payroll Matters has been working well thus far and saving us a lot of money over doing it with a local CPA and QuickBooks. We have migrated successfully from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks online, also saving a little money and allowing Melissa to work from wherever she wishes. 

I have adjusted the proposed budget to reflect compensation increases which went into effect April 1st, and I believe the budget is ready for a vote at this time. Once that has been done we will complete the Community Report, including the budget. 

I have completed our IRS 990n form for 2023, and noted that this will be the last year, due to our increase in ‘receipts’, i.e., revenue, that we will need to provide a full 990ez for 2024. This is a much more in-depth form, so I have printed a copy to review with Mellissa as we set up QuickBooks and our new filing system. By knowing ahead what and how we need to report to the IRS I hope to make the new paperwork as easy as possible.

Staffing & Personnel: REDACTED

Miscellanea:
I will be looking for a vote to amend our bylaws to match a requirement from the State that we have a firm number of voting seats on the board, spelled out in our bylaws. What allows for the board number to fluctuate is that we can have ‘vacant’ seats while still maintaining that set number and not being out of compliance with our bylaws. This allows for our quorum to not chance as the actual number of people serving on the board does. I would also like us to review the rest of the new member section to see if it can be streamlined.