Board of Trustees

The Library is governed by an eight-member board of trustees, elected by the residents of the Sag Harbor Union Free School District. Board candidates must be residents of the School District, 18 years of age or older, registered voters, and registered users of the library. Board members are elected for staggered three-year terms. If you are interested to join the Board, please click here for a nominating petition in English or in Spanish. Click here to learn more about the nominating and election process. The Board holds 12 monthly public meetings per year at 6:00 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month. Additional meetings are scheduled as required.

The next Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees will be held Wednesday, November 15th, at 6:00 pm This meeting will be held in person at the John Jermain Memorial Library and is available to view virtually through Zoom. The Board packet including the agenda and supplemental material will be posted in accordance with Open Meetings Law.

Click here to stream the November Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees – View Only

November 15, 2023 Board Packet including Agenda and Draft Minutes

2022 Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes, Agendas & Videos
2021 BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING MINUTES

Budget Overview 2023

Annual Statistical Report 2022

Board Members

President
William E. McCoy
(Term expires 12/31/23)
Bill is a native of the East End. After attending local schools, he received a BS from Wagner College and an MBA from Duke University. He worked in the corporate world with Aetna and Exxon, then returned to the East End. He has lived in the Sag Harbor School District for 23 years with his wife Seirin and son Nicholas, who is in his second year at SCCC and grew up at John Jermain. Currently Bill is the assessor for the Village of Southampton and the Town of Shelter Island. He also serves as the Junior Warden and Treasurer of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Southampton and is the secretary/treasurer of the Bridgehampton Cemetery Association. Residents may hear Bill Tuesday nights in the summer playing trumpet with the Sag Harbor Community Band of which he is the Treasurer!

Vice President
Michael Garabedian
(Term expires 12/31/25)
Michael received his Bachelor of Arts degree at New York University, with a double major in English Literature and Classical Civilizations, and received his Juris Doctor from Union University, Albany Law School. He is a partner in the law firm of Egan & Golden, LLP, and is actively involved in the litigating civil cases in federal and state court. In addition to practicing law, Michael is the President of the Board of Directors of Hopscotch Adoptions, Inc., a Hague Convention accredited, not-for-profit international adoption provider dedicated to orphan relief and adoptive placement of children with families in the U.S. and abroad. He is also a member of Board of Directors of the volunteer medical organization, Operation International, Ltd. As former President of the Board of Trustees and two-term board member for the John Jermain Memorial Library, he was actively involved in the renovation of the historic, main building as well as construction of a new addition, which opened in 2016.

Treasurer
Elliott Sroka
(Term expires 12/31/25)
Following BFA and MFA studies at Carnegie-Mellon University, Elliott earned his Ph.D. in Drama and Humanities at Stanford. He taught acting, directing, and playwriting at San Francisco State University before coming to New York to develop arts programming at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
In 1986, Elliott was named Executive Director of Tilles Center for the Performing Arts on the LIU Post campus. During his 29-year tenure, Tilles Center was Long Island’s leading presenter of classical and popular music, dance, touring Broadway shows, family programming, and school performances. Since retirement in 2015, Elliott and his wife Karen have made Sag Harbor their year-round home.

sECRETARY
Robyn Obler
(Term expires 12/31/25)
Robyn Obler grew up in Brooklyn and received her BA from Brooklyn College in anthropology. In between college and graduate school, she pursued a career in dance and performed in various theaters and studios in NYC. She received an M.A. in anthropology from CUNY Graduate School and taught at several of the colleges in the CUNY system as well as the United Nations School. Thirty years ago, Robyn and her family moved to Sag Harbor where her children attended the local schools and she served as Vice President for the PTA. She taught several courses at Southampton College, worked at a local bookstore and taught Pilates in a local Sag Harbor studio. More recently Robyn worked as a researcher for several Native American groups, traversing the country numerous times to do research at various archives, universities, libraries, government and religious organizations. The data collected was used by Robyn and her associate to write reports for the Native tribes to address issues of tribal identity and recognition, membership and historical connections to specific pieces of land. Robyn and her family have had close ties with the John Jermain Library over the years. Robyn has been in an ongoing book club for six or seven years and her daughter worked at the library before leaving for graduate school in library science. Currently Robyn is a volunteer at the Sag Harbor Community Food Pantry and is working with the Hamptons Documentary Film Festival.

Gloria Primm Brown
(Term expires 12/31/23)
Gloria Primm Brown grew up in Washington, D.C. where she attended public schools and Howard University. She has a masters degree in library science from Columbia University. She worked for four years as a children’s librarian in the District of Columbia Public Library System. Later, she moved to NYC where she obtained a job as librarian and supervisor of files at Carnegie Corporation of New York, founded by philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie. Joining the grantmaking staff at the foundation after a few years, Gloria’s portfolio over 33 years included early childhood education, adolescent pregnancy prevention and health, and libraries. The last five years, Gloria served as Senior Program Officer and Director in charge of designing and implementing the Corporation’s public library initiative in African Commonwealth countries. Gloria is a founding member of the New York Women’s Foundation and also chaired the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers (now Philanthropy New York). Since moving permanently to Sag Harbor in 2004, Gloria served as President of the Friends of JJML for 11 years, Board Member and Secretary of the Eastville Community Historical Society, Board Member of the Sag Harbor Community Housing Trust, a member of One for the Books, and volunteers at the Sag Harbor Community Food Pantry.

Diane Deger
(Term expires 12/31/24)
Diane received her B.A. in Studio Art and Art History from Manhattanville College, and a M.A. in Art History from Hunter College. Before opening a seasonal art gallery on Main Street, Sag Harbor in 1985, she began her career as a corporate art consultant in New York City. She then took a position with a publisher of signed and numbered limited-edition graphics, and within a few years began publishing her own editions. While looking for a book in Bookhampton here on Main Street, she met her future husband Gregg, and moved permanently to Sag Harbor. As Director of Education at Guild Hall, she initiated new programs for children and adults in both fine arts and drama and organized the first Student Arts Festival. Diane served as an education advisor for CMEE and led workshops in bookmaking for children. In 2001, she was hired by the Perlman Music Program to create an arts and crafts curriculum for the young musicians participating in the Shelter Island summer program. Recently retired from her position as a teaching assistant in the Sag Harbor Elementary School, she spent many years, in its wonderful library, helping readers of all levels find that just right book!

Dan Glass
(Term expires 12/31/24)
Dan Glass grew up in a small town in upstate New York. As a young child he travelled extensively, visiting such far-flung locales as Narnia, Xanth and even outer space. Eventually he settled down in Sag Harbor, got married and started a family. He continues to travel, and looks for many more adventures on the way.

Ann Sutphen
(Term expires 12/31/23)
Ann grew up in New York City, spending her summers in Sag Harbor. She graduated from the University of Rochester with a BA in Political Science and Yale University with an MS in Nurse-Midwifery. She moved to Seattle, where she met and married her husband David Rhoades, a civil engineer. While in the Seattle area Ann worked as a midwife and then as a volunteer coordinator managing over a thousand volunteers for an annual four day arts festival. She and her husband took two years and sailed the West coast of the United States and Mexico. On returning to Seattle they had their daughter while living on their sailboat. In 2010 the family embarked on a three year cruise from Seattle to Sag Harbor, sailing in Mexico and Central America, transiting the Panama Canal and working their way North through the Chesapeake. They now live in Ann’s family home, as the sixth and seventh generation to live in this house. Ann works with her husband in his engineering firm TF Engineering.