To the Editor:

My name is Matthew Grunert, and I am running for the Guilderland Public Library Board of Trustees.

I grew up in Chaumont, New York, a small town on Lake Ontario, just south of the Canadian border. I attended the University at Albany, where I earned bachelor’s degrees in criminal justice and computer science.

I’m graduating from UAlbany again in just a few short days with my master’s in business administration. I’ve been a full-time resident of Guilderland since 2013 and a homeowner since 2021, when my wife and I purchased our first home together.

I’ve spent my career in service of New York state, having worked at several state agencies before moving into consulting with a local non-profit. My first decade of professional experience focused on information security and systems administration, while more recently I’ve found myself working in business analysis and project management.

I have always found great joy and fulfillment in service to my community. I spent my college years supporting UAlbany students as a resident assistant, and I joined the Westmere Fire Department in my late twenties. I served as a firefighter with Westmere through the pandemic and was later appointed as the department’s public information officer.

I was also elected as one of the fire district’s commissioners, where I drafted district policy, shepherded a technology modernization project through to completion, and assisted in managing our district’s $2.7 million budget.

Since leaving Westmere and moving into our home, my wife and I have adopted a dog from the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society, who I’ve trained and certified as a therapy dog. You may have seen Oatmeal and me haunting the Barnes and Noble in Colonie, the Troy Farmers’ Market, or any of the many cafés littering the Capital Region. We’re volunteering at the Guilderland and Colonie libraries’ Paws 2 Read programs over the summer, where our community’s children can come to read Oatmeal stories — he’s a very good listener.

For as long as I can remember, I have found refuge in libraries. When I was young, my mother, a trustee of our little Lyme Free Library, would enlist my help in preparing for the annual book sale and flea market. I remember checking the young-adult section every week for any new arrivals to read on our way into town, then again for audiobooks when it was my turn to learn to drive.

I was, and still am, a regular visitor of our community’s libraries: as a quiet place to study as a student, or now to work as a professional. I also hold a deep love for games of all types, and discovering GPL’s board-game selection has become a fixture of my adult life.

I have three goals for the time that I would spend serving as a trustee:

— First, I want to develop relationships with the academic libraries in our community. Plugging into those organizations will strengthen our informational network, open possibilities for greater digital lending, especially in the enterprise software space, and assist in developing programs to help refine our media literacy;

— Second, I want to continue developing our library as Guilderland’s quintessential third place. Community is built intentionally, and the work being done at GPL is impressive, laudable, and should be continued with vigor and zeal. (Personally, I would love to participate in another attempt at an on-site café!); and

— Finally, we live in challenging times, and I believe firmly in defending our institutions. Guilderland Public Library’s role as a safe and inclusive space is integral to the community I want to live in, and I believe it is my civic duty to ensure that space continues to flourish.

Thank you all very much for your time in reading my piece, and I look forward to your consideration on May 20.

Matthew Grunert

Guilderland