Trustees schedule policy review, discuss trustee orientation and state open-meeting changes

The Board of Library Trustees scheduled a virtual policy-review meeting for 7 p.m. on Oct. 30 to consider a comprehensive update to library policies and to prepare materials for town-council legal review.

Trustees Krista and Chris asked that all trustees review the draft comprehensive policies in advance; the trustees plan to bring finalized policies to the town council for legal review after trustee edits. Trustees said the next phase would be new-policy drafting and a continuing review of existing policies after the current round completes.

Trustees also discussed trustee orientation and recommended using the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) webinar "So You Wanna Be a Library Trustee" and MBLC's updated new-trustee resources as background materials. They agreed to build a trustee "toolbox" of resources and to assign homework so the Oct. 30 session can be a working meeting rather than a read-through.

Finally, trustees reviewed recent changes to the Massachusetts open meeting law (June 2025) that extend remote/hybrid access provisions through mid-2027 and discussed town options for providing hybrid participation (including an Owl camera device and AI transcription options such as Otter or similar services). Trustees asked staff to follow up with the town clerk and administrator to clarify obligations (for example sign-in-sheet practices, retention of sign-in records, and whether hybrid access is required for in-person meetings) and to confirm whether a town-provided transcription or virtual-account service is available for trustee use.

Trustees set the next full trustees meeting for Nov. 6 and asked staff to circulate policy materials and a link to MBLC training resources in advance.