LFNAC Minutes June 7, 2008

The Library Facilities Needs Assessment Committee met at the Hatfield Public Library at 8:05 a.m.

Present: Martin Antonetti, Dodie Gaudet, Susan Gaughan, Harold Green, Milton Howard, Sheila McCormick, Lynn Omasta, and Mary Williams
Absent: Mike Paszek

Committee members had each developed questions to ask the architects. Other questions evolved during our discussion. Some of these questions need to be combined and/or refined

1. How do you effectively manage the project team and relay information to its consultants and personnel?
2. What is your ability to solve technical and design problems?
3. What do you do to pull the project back when it starts running over budget?
4. How will your firm’s size impact the time and attention given to this project compared to other larger/smaller firms?
5. What specific issues often develop when your firm has worked with small communities in the past? How do you fix them?
6. What two projects do you see as most typical of your firm’s work and how do they fit in Hatfield?
7. Elaborate on what you have done that is most suitable for Hatfield.
8. What does your PR/marketing campaign look like? What are your strategies for an effective campaign?
9. What percentage of your work is for Massachusetts public clients? (We want to know how familiar the firm is with state rules and regulations.)
10. What is your overall design philosophy?
11. Knowing what you know about Hatfield, do you prefer a new building or a renovation/addition?
12. What percentage of your design projects were built by you? Why? (If there are 2 different firms for design and building phase, we will pay for some of the work to be done twice.)
13. How do you plan to communicate with this committee?
14. What is your strategy for sticking to a timeline?
15. How often do we see the principal?
16. What exactly is the role of Design Director, Principal in Charge, Project Architect?
17. Explain roles and responsibilities of the Project Team and how often will we see each person?
18. What is your procedure for selecting equipment and systems?
19. What is the best way to handle the dichotomy of having a green building and also having simple maintenance?
20. Do you recommend LEED certification? How do you incorporate green aspects without certification?
21. How much help can you give us with securing grants? Green? Historical?

We also discussed the format of the interviews as well as length of interview and issues to be addressed.

Format:
Committee opening statement
Introduction of Committee members
Opening statement from the design firm: Why they are the best choice; general design principles; why they feel they are a good fit for Hatfield.
Questions from the Committee

Length:
Maximum 1 ½ hours
We’ll allow ½ hour for their presentation and ½ hour for our questions.

Issues:
The presentation/interview will likely be taped for broadcast at a later date.
These are open meetings, not public forums. Only Committee members ask questions.
Firms must bring their own audiovisual equipment.
We want the Project Team to be at the interviews. If not, why?
The final building must fit in with the Hatfield historic district.

Committee members should look at the website for the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. It has a lot of information on renewable energy and available grants. http://www.mtpc.org/

The next meeting will be Saturday, June 21, 8:00 a.m. at the Hatfield Public Library.

Meeting adjourned at 9:17 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Dodie Gaudet
Secretary