Regular meetings of the Springfield-Greene County Library District’s Board of Trustees will no longer be streamed over the internet.
The decision was announced during the board’s previous regular meeting, held on July 18 in Strafford, by new President Rachael Morrow.
Meetings had previously been streamed on Zoom, and were available for the public to view. With the easing of public safety measures from the COVID-19 pandemic, however, Morrow said the decision was made in order to bring all nine trustees together for every meeting.
“While necessary for that specific time, it did not provide the same level of engagement that in-person meetings create,” Morrow wrote in an emailed statement to the Hauxeda. “After weighing many considerations, it was decided to end this pandemic accommodation as the conditions that precipitated it are no longer present.”
Springfield-Greene County Library Board of Trustees meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month at rotating locations across the district.
Attendance, access
Morrow wrote in her statement that attendance at meetings has increased as the pandemic's safety recommendations have been lifted. The streamed meetings were attended primarily by other library staff members from across the district, as observed during the previous two board meetings.
While some library staff members are required to attend the meetings, many more staffers are interested in the board's actions and discussions, said Kathi Woodard, reference director for the Library Center.
Woodward makes it a point to go to as many meetings as she can, but getting to branches in Strafford and Ash Grove proves difficult. She said the streamed meetings address accessibility needs more than pandemic needs.
“I attend board meetings of my own volition, because I'm concerned about the library's system, and I want to know what's happening on a board level,” Woodward said. “We don't receive minutes of what happens until the following month, and we want to know sooner what is happening.”
Woodward also said that when meetings are streamed, they are also recorded. That means employees and other members of the public can watch them when they have the time.
While public access to the meetings is being scaled back, Morrow said the meetings and decisions made during them will still be available.
“Our business is always accessible,” Morrow wrote in her statement. “Our director does a great job of providing internal updates related to board decisions to staff, processes are in place for patrons to express concerns, and anyone who is interested may request meeting minutes to follow the actions of the board.”
UPDATE: Meeting rescheduled as Republic decision approaches
The decision has been implemented ahead of a meeting where trustees will discuss options for an expansion of the Republic branch. On Monday, the library announced that the meeting, originally set for Aug. 15 at The Library Center, has been rescheduled for 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24 at the Republic Branch Library, located at 921 N. Lindsay Ave. in Republic.
Trustees will start the process of deciding between three options:
- Adding two separate buildings — an auditorium and business center — on the southern side of the existing library.
- Constructing a new, larger building just north of the existing library.
- Building a new library on a different site, near both city- and school-owned land on the western side of the intersection between James River Freeway and U.S. Highway 60. An exact location has not yet been pinpointed.
While a deadline has not yet been set, Morrow said during the July meeting that the board should make a decision quickly in order to allow time for receiving federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grants that will be used for construction costs.
This report has been edited to include an announcement from the library about a rescheduled meeting.
