Minutes of September 10, 2014 Meeting of the FOCPL Board Submitted by Lori-Anne Shapiro
Presiding: Laura Simmons, Vice President Present: Lori-Anne Shapiro, Marcia Cameron, Tori Williams, Bill Barrows Absent: Tommy McNeil, Mark Smith Ex-officio: Andrea Tullos, Lucinda Munger
Call to Order: 6:06pm
Review of Agenda: Laura stated that time may not allow to hear all items on Agenda; may have to table some items to October 8th Board Meeting when President Tommy will return to preside.
August Minutes: Motion to approve by Tori, seconded by Marcia, passed unanimously.
Status of Board positions: Discussed Treasurer- Elect Linda DiGangi’s resignation; Board nominated Tori to fill position; Tori in agreement. Motion made by Marcia, seconded by Lori, and passed unanimously to approve moving Tori from Member-at-Large to Treasurer-Elect. Motion included approval to officially accept resignations from Chris Holaday & Linda DiGangi. Board requested that email be sent to Linda to accept her resignation; Laura agreed to do so.
Board understood that Tommy had not yet contacted Chris. However, Lori acknowledged she had communicated with Chris about his resignation along with request for his assistance with upcoming Semi-Annual Book Sale.
Also, Laura raised issue of Mark’s position and conflict with By-Laws. He has thus far missed four Board Meetings this year, included this evening’s plus Feb, May, and June. He gave notice at last Board Meeting that he would have to miss this evening’s Meeting, plus November and December Meetings.
Laura distributed copies of FOCPL By-Laws and stated that Board members cannot miss more than 50% of Board Meetings in a given year without being asked to resign. Board understood work-related pressures of Mark’s new job while also in agreement that he should be made aware of consequences of FOCPL By-Laws. Laura said she would send Mark an email to explain this.
Financial report & pavers report: no Reports available, Treasurer absent; tabled until October.
Status of Checking Account & PO Box #1238 Payment: Appears that checks have not been written as needed and no payment made to maintain PO Box, which has prompted Post Office to place lock on box until payment of $63. is made, includes fee for past six months ($42.) and late fee ($21). Payment for PO Box rental fee was due end of July 2014. Now that it is late, Post Office requires payment be made in person. A Motion was made by Tori to approve automatic payment by direct withdrawal annually, seconded by Marcia. To set up automatic payment also requires going to post office in person. The payment would be automatically withdrawn every three months. Board discussed converting to automatic payment at Hillsborough Post Office. In emails between meetings suggestion made to borrow money from On-going Book Sales to pay PO Box bill. Motion made by Marcia, seconded by Lori, that no funds can ever be used from on-Going book sale to pay for other FOCPL needs.
As Treasurer-Elect, Tori offered to make the payment on what is due in arrears and what will be due for next six months, and can be reimbursed later. She also paid for gift card for Erin’s recognition, for which she needs reimbursement. Tori will contact Linda who has the key for PO Box. Tori will then retrieve anything currently in mailbox.
On-going Book Sale: Marcia reports that Ava Jordan of bookconsignment.com is coming on 9/12 to select books for resale consignment. Marcia states she also plans to contact Stacey Gamble, our second consignment contact person, about coming to select books on Tuesday, 9/16. Lastly, Board discussed benefits of Little Free Libraries and possibility of offering support when local communities develop such libraries.
Maya Angelou Event: Lori and Tori continue to be involved from FOCPL group; Tori reports she has not yet heard back from Jamie, possibly due to new school year starting only 20 days ago. Lori reported on new proposal following her contact with Mariana Fiorentino, Board Member of the Art Center of Carrboro (TAC). Lori contacted Mariana to get feedback from their experience with similar event recently. Lori-Anne reported that as a result of this contact Mariana offered to host co-sponsored event with FOCPL on Nov. 9 2-4 pm at TAC , if it is the pleasure of the FOCPL Board. Discussion held, and agreement made to proceed. Tori suggested that, given lack of precedence in Hillsborough, the Nov 9 event in Carrboro could serve as model or ambassador to bring back to Fairview community potentially in January 2015. Andrea suggested that Friends of Carrboro Library branch may want to be a part of this event as well; she agreed to connect Lori, Tori and Carrboro Friends group contact person, Alex Brown. Lori-Anne will get back to Mariana to share the good news and move to schedule a meeting to begin planning.
Upcoming Book Sale: Laura summarized key points from Book Sale Planning Meeting of August 29; Lori had taken Minutes that were sent to those who attended meeting. Prior to meeting Lori had communicated with Chris about repeating what he had done in past Book Sales with computer work, publicity, and other duties. Bill & Chris will be co-chairing event. Laura reviewed schedule from set-up through clean-up for the Sale. Laura asked Bill if it was ok to adjust schedule on Tuesday from 12noon to 2pm so Stacey (Gamble) and her sons can help bring to the Meeting Room the heavy boxes now in different locations around the Library.
Secretary’s Report: In advance of meeting Lori-Anne had sent copy of suggested letter of recognition for donations that includes statement of tax deduction. Lori-Anne came prepared to discuss her letter and sample copies of similar letters that she had received in 2013 in response to making contributions to different non-profit organizations. Laura and group agreed discussion should be tabled until Oct Meeting when Chair would be available.
Status of Newsletter Committee: As part of her orientation as a new Board Member, Lori-Anne stated she recently met with Sara Levinson, Chair, FOCPL Newsletter Committee, who indicated that she and the other two members of the Committee (Chris Holaday and Josh Walker) all plan to step down in December after the final issue for the year; will need to start recruitment for new Members as soon as possible. Andrea and Lucinda suggested idea of International Baccalaureate high school students doing Josh’s job as they have strengths in working with computers; can explore option of converting from Publisher to Word. Andrea and Lucinda also offered that they can collect the articles from internal staff. Lori-Anne offered to take Sara’s job to be first line editor; will need to recruit final editor. Andrea agreed to write up job description to put as notice at front desk; will ask Tommy to send out same to List Serve to find volunteers.
Recognition of Erin Shepherd: Lori-Anne reported that in recent email correspondence with Erin she stated that Janet Flowers was really the person who deserved recognition for contributions to FOCPL. Discussion followed, then Motion made by Marcia, seconded by Lori, and passed unanimously to purchase additional gift card for Janet and invite her to join Erin for recognition at start of October Meeting. Lori-Anne agreed to contact Janet and Erin. Tori agreed to purchase second gift card, and will be reimbursed by Board.
Status of Membership Database Reconciliation: Tori stated that the database is in order to the best of her ability, though some remaining issues are still outstanding. For example, she still has not been able to locate the check that she herself paid to Board in late 2013 for 2014-2016. Mark has transferred to Tori all the information that he had. We are now at 52 paid memberships; Tori will provide a printout of this membership list for the Friday evening Members-only portion of the Book Sale.
Upcoming Author Talks: Lori-Anne agreed to attend Piedmont Laureate Carrie Knowles event on Sept 30 as Board Representative. Lori-Anne mentioned having recently attended a writers’ workshop given by Carrie Knowles at the Burwell School. Lori Anne asked about upcoming event with Kianna Alexander, which she had not noticed on OCPL web site calendar, though Tommy had sent out press release kit prior to August Board Meeting. Andrea stated that Author Talk happens on November 22nd, which is too far out for calendar items as this time. Agreed to table discussion of other Author Events until October Meeting.
Next Board Meeting: October 8th.
Adjournment: at 7:10pm Marcia made Motion to adjourn, seconded by Tori, passed unanimously by Board.
