MINUTES OF FOCPL BOARD MEETING OCTOBER 14, 2015 Submitted by Shannon Turlington, Secretary Present: Tommy McNeill, Lori-Anne Shapiro, Robin Crawford, Stacey Gamble, Marcia Cameron, Shannon Turlington Absent: Tori Williams Reid Ex Officio: Andrea Tullos Presiding: Tommy McNeill, Chair Purpose: Discuss priorities for 2015, book sale, and upcoming events Call to order: 6:00 pm. Review of agenda: approved as stands. Minutes of previous meeting: accepted as presented. Board recruitment: Four seats need to be filled for the 2016-2017 term. There are currently 2 vacancies. Tori and Tommy are resigning at the end of their terms, effective December 5, 2015 date of Annual Membership Meeting. Lori and Stacey distributed a flyer advertising for new board members and advertised on social media. Lori reported that there are four candidates who have been interviewed and 1 interview pending. Bios for proposed Board members need to be submitted by November 5 to be distributed to the membership 30 days before the annual meeting, per the bylaws. New Board members will be nominated at the annual meeting in December. The Board will vote on offices in January. Lori is planning new member orientations for the new year. StaffFest report: Special thanks to Samantha Bryant for designing the flyers for StaffFest. Lori reported that only 6 staff attended but the event was well attended by Friends members. While the event was well received overall, scheduling on a Sunday evening made it difficult for staff members who live out of town to attend; next year, the Board will plan an in-house event as well as more frequent Friends’ member events. Book consignment/ongoing sale report: Marcia reported that $315.14 were earned for consignments and she is expecting a check at the end of the month. Book sale report: A thank you was sent to volunteers and to authors who gave readings at the fall book sale. Programs, requests, and ideas from OCPL: Amber requested through Lori for a Friends member to attend an author reading on October 31 at 3 and 4 p.m. Tommy will attend both readings. Shannon will attend the 3:00 reading. Next year, the Board may request volunteers from the general Friends membership to attend readings instead of relying on Board members. The Board would like to see more requests from the Library. Tommy encouraged the library to consider more staff development opportunities in their requests. Andrea reported that requests would be forthcoming, especially as new staff members begin submitting ideas. Both Tommy and Andrea also stressed importance of FOCPL Board Members participating in educational opportunities, both locally and away, including attendance at the ALA conferences. Last Fridays: Tommy and Robin volunteered to staff table at Last Friday on October 30. Lori reinforced availability of “outreach kit” she developed and encouraged Tommy and Robin to use it on Oct 30th. Last Fridays have been very valuable for recruiting new members. Next year, the Board should plan to attend all Last Fridays and budget for the events. Membership incentives: The member preview sale for members only at the book sales used to be an incentive for joining but has been discontinued. The Board discussed perks that can be offered to members. Ideas proposed that need further discussion include: • mystery dinner or wine and cheese party at the library • “FriendsFest” -- similar to the StaffFest and offering coupons to frequent volunteers, etc. • open book sale earlier on Friday and perhaps offer an early bird incentive Website/social media report: Shannon reported that she is sending blasts regarding news and events to the membership mailing list (Yahoo group). Andrea will ask the library staff to send updates to Shannon for the website. Tommy will compile the year’s highlights to have available in the library. The Board discussed issuing a print newsletter but there currently are not enough volunteers to design and format it. Membership form: Shannon distributed a revised version of the membership application for review by the Board. Shannon moved that two new options for membership be added to the form: individual lifetime membership for a donation of $150 and family lifetime membership for a donation of $200; seconded; passed unanimously. Minor revisions to the form were discussed. Shannon will send out the final version of the form to the Board for approval and then add the form to the website. Robin will make copies of the form to give out at Last Friday and to have available in the library. Membership report: Stacey will coordinate with Robin to post shoutouts on Facebook to new members; Robin continues to work on entering new members to the spreadsheet. The tax letter needs to be sent to all members who have joined since January 1. The Board discussed the Yahoo group used to communicate with members, which is out of date. Shannon proposed transitioning at the end of the year to a Google Group, which will be easier to manage. The transition can coincide with sending renewal requests to the memberships and ensuring that the tax letter is sent out to all members who joined in 2015. Robin will schedule a special meeting with Shannon to plan this transition. Secretary’s report: Shannon reported that Tori gave her the PO box key, so she can collect the mail before the monthly meetings. Treasurer’s report: Tommy reviewed the treasurer’s report in Tori’s absence. Annual meeting planning: Lori reported that Mayor Tom Stevens will kick off the event. Bart Barker, a local poet, will emcee. Tommy and Lucinda will report the highlights for the year, followed by the business meeting and Board member elections. Jill McCorkle and Celisa Steele will be the guest speakers. Adjournment: 7:25 p.m. Next board meeting: November 11, 2015, 6 p.m.
