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FOCPL Board of Directors Minutes from the Meeting of April 8, 2013
The meeting was called to order at 6:00 by Board President Janet Flowers. Present: Bill Barrows; Robin Bedingfield; Marcia Cameron; Sandy Gerstner; Chris Holaday; Laura Simmons; and Mark Smith. Absent: Erin Shepherd. Present: Andrea Tullos, Assistant Library Director. A quorum was present.
Minutes: Robin presented the draft minutes from the Board's March 11 meeting: The minutes were APPROVED as written. (M Laura Simmons / S Marcia Cameron)
Financial Reports: Sandy presented the report for March 1-31. The Financial Report was APPROVED as written. (M Laura Simmons / S Robin Bedingfield)
Updates: TCF: Mark reported on his recent luncheon with the Triangle Community Foundation's CFO. Mark asked specifically about the investment strategy and monitoring of individual funds. The CFO assured Mark that he monitors the funds himself for the safety of the foundation. Mark was pleased to report that the discussion had been fruitful, and he is confident the TCF will continue to provide a broad range of financial services to local non-profit organizations such as The Friends. - Book Sale Follow-up: $1,652.50 was earned at the Spring Book Sale last weekend. Janet thanked the 26 volunteers who manned the tables and helped customers. It was noted that the sorting of non-fiction books into sub-categories worked well. - As a community service, left-over books were sent to the local prison (2 boxes), New Hope and Central Elementary Schools (8 boxes), Brookshire Nursing Home (3 Boxes), and The Peachtree After-School Program (1 box). Board members were pleased that the books will be used by these worthy organizations. - Areas for improvement for future book sales included sending out a final schedule for volunteers and posting a general instruction sheet for the volunteers to follow. Also generating wider and earlier publicity (to include posters for local shop windows) might make more people aware of the Sale. Info posted on Facebook and the town's Twitter Feed was noted and appreciated. - In addition, the Membership Committee was encouraged to provide book marks with the dates of the next Book Sale to be included at check-out, and to have an adequate number of Friends' brochures available. A small budget (not further defined) was approved to purchase drink/snack items for volunteers. - The subject of vendor behavior was discussed at some length. Janet will get the rules the Chapel Hill library uses and share them with the Board. - The Board approved the recommendation that we host a "By Invitation Only Friends' Night" on the Thursday evening to kick off the sale, for Friends whose memberships are in good standing, and with the 2
stipulation that no scanners will be allowed. The Board was positively inclined to turn this into an event with light refreshments: Details will be discussed at a later date. - Financial Review Task Force: This group will meet in May to review the 2012 accounts and Financial Reports. Mark will chair the meeting(s), with Janie Morris and Marvin Teer to assist him. - FONCPL News: Janet urged everyone to attend the Friends' of the North Carolina Public Libraries Workshops at the new Chapel Hill library on Saturday. The following Saturday (April 20th) is the Grand Opening of the new facility. - Staff Appreciation Breakfast: Erin asked for volunteers to help set-up the large meeting room on the evening of Thursday, April 25th. - Newsletter Designer: Thanks to Josh Walker for volunteering to serve as designer for the Friends' newsletter.
Other Events: The library is involved in two LAST FRIDAY events on Friday, April 26th: - Jill McCorkle's program on her new and much-acclaimed book Life After Life will begin at 6:00 in the large conference room. Friends' Board members will be present, as the sale of books prohibits library staff from coordinating that portion of the event. - The Youth Services team will have a booth and Earth Day-related activity for children at the Market House. This is a cooperative venture with the county Parks and Rec Department.
News from the Library: Andrea provided the following update: Strategic Planning: We began our process in the fall, collecting data on user needs, services and requests. In January, our steering committee and staff met to create our Vision, Mission, Goals / Objectives and Strategies based on the data collected. Based on these meetings, our consultant provided a DRAFT plan. We have sent out surveys for feedback to 1000 random sampled households. We have provided an online opportunity on our website for the wider community to provide us with feedback. We have connected with our leadership, our elected officials, and our past task force members requesting feedback on our DRAFT plan. Our DRAFT plan will be presented to our Board of Commissioners at a work session in May for comments and direction. Library News: Our Self Check System (RFID) has been up and working since the 15th of March. We have had a great response to this new technology. Our new ILS will be installed and we will go live on April 30th. Staff has been working closely with the “Sierra Team” since January and we are really looking forward to the opportunities that the new system can provide.
The next FOCPL Board meeting is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. on Monday, May 13th in the Large Meeting Room. All business completed, a motion to Adjourn was APPROVED at 7:00 p.m. (M Mark Smith / S Laura Simmons)
Robin C. Bedingfield Secretary
