Manchester Public Library Board

Minutes of the October 20, 2008 Meeting

Members Present: J.D. LaBelle, Gail Dunrowicz, Michele O'Neil, Barbara Higley, David

Carlson, Donnamarie Nakos, Karen Ross.

Also Present: Dede Moore, Douglas McDonough, Pam Cowan, Julian Freund, and Ryan

Gardner from Fiduciary Investment Advisors, LLC

Members Absent: Alan Krupp, Pat Ladd

The meeting was called to order at 6:09 p.m.

Adoption of Minutes: Minutes from the meeting of September 8, 2008 were adopted. In

addition to being filed in the Library's Business Office, monthly Minutes are available for

viewing on the library website, as required by a new state law.

Review of Investments: Ryan Gardner of Fiduciary Investment Services, LLC gave a long-term

perspective on the recent significant market downturns. During his review of the executive

summaries of the library's quarterly mutual fund performances, he recommended that the

endowment funds remain fully invested and that the Lord Abbett Mid Cap Fund and iShares

Russell Mid-Cap Funds be sold from each of the three Trust Funds (Whiton, Taggart, Jarvis) and

those mutual funds be invested either in an index fund or else in Janus Midcap Value. Expense

ratios this quarter were .65% for the Whiton and Jarvis Funds and .63% for Taggart. Fees for

trading the funds were discussed.

J.D. LaBelle made a motion to "sell the Lord Abbett and iShares mutual funds and invest the

proceeds with the Vanguard Mid-cap Index Fund," which Gail Dunrowicz seconded. After

discussion, all members present then voted in favor of the motion, which was passed.

Public Comment: none

Librarian's Report: Doug McDonough reported that the Board of Directors has passed an

ordinance prohibiting smoking within 30 feet of the front door of the Mary Cheney building

which goes into effect on October 31. This ordinance is now legal to implement due to a change

in the state law. He reported that this September has been the busiest in the library's history,

with circulation up 16% from last September (up 7% for the fiscal year to date). Pam Cowan

reported on a successful Summer Reading Program, with participating children reading a total of

27, 120 books, 1,845 more books than last year.

Gail distributed a copy of the latest Friends of the Library newsletter, and reminded everyone

that the fall book sale will be held on November 8th, from 9am until 1 pm.

Old Business: none

New Business: Doug informed the Library Board that the town was considering landscape

changes to the front of the Mary Cheney building, to discourage loitering and passed out copies

of the proposed plan. He mentioned that one of the members of the Board of Directors had

spoken at that Board's meeting to suggest that the Friends of the Library group might pay for the

project. Gail responded that the Friends treasury wasn't large enough to pay for all of it but she

would bring up that topic at the next Friends meeting. Other comments about the draft plan

included not placing the bicycle rack in the proposed location, a suggestion that perhaps Cheney

Tech could be involved in the project, and a suggestion of contacting the University of

Connecticut's School of Agriculture to see if they might be interested in assisting with the

landscaping. Gail offered to contact UConn.

Karen Ross proposed adjourning the meeting and that was seconded by Gail Dunnrowicz. All

were in favor and the meeting was adjourned by 7:27pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Pam Cowan