Meeting
of the Friends of Union County Library
Unions
County Public Library Community Room
January
18, 2012
Friends in Attendance:
Arlene Gray, President
Sally Woodworth, V.P.
Medora MacKinnon, Treas.
C. J. [Jack] Waters, Secretary
Susie Brendle, Librarian
Dottie Byrd
Carol Stanley
Don Stanley
Miki Rice
Joy Vansant
Barbara Williams
Shirley Brackett
Tammy Allan
Cathy Fiser
Teresa Moore
Awen McCamy
Joanne Olson
The meeting was called to order by Arlene
Gray, President, at 1:00 PM. Ms. Gray reminded all that memberships expired at
the end of 2011. All present were asked to recruit new and recurring members. Ms. Gray also suggested that we need to revise the by-laws and a committee chaired
by Ms. Gray was formed to accomplish that task.
Minutes:
A motion was made, seconded, and passed that the
minutes of the previous meeting, held on November 16, 2011 be approved as written. The
minutes are published on the organization’s web site.
Election:
It was noted by the members present that Barbara
Hale was duly elected as Secretary of Friends. It was further noted that she
has reported that she cannot serve her term. Therefore, C. J. [Jack] Waters was
duly nominated to serve as Secretary for the calendar year 2012. No other nominations
being offered, an election was held and Mr. Waters was unanimously elected to the position of Secretary.
General Discussion:
During the idea meeting held on January 10,
Vice President Woodworth agreed to research the costs of providing uniform vests for volunteers working at various functions. She reported that the cost seems excessive to buy them from Coosa Creek Marketing. She advised that she wants to continue looking for another source. She believes she can sew them for about $20 each. This was
tabled until the next meeting.
She also reported that providing advertising plastic
bags for staff to use when checking out large numbers of books, seems to be prohibitively costly and she will look at other
possibilities in that area. Several members present suggested other possibilities
as suppliers for such bags.
Discussion was held in reference to the Christmas
lunch in December. Ms. Woodworth reported that we essentially broke even between
the costs and specified donations, but it was much too labor intensive the way we did it.
Several suggestions were thrown out to cut the labor. This discussion
was tabled.
Discussion was held about the fact that Friends
has dropped the Books for Babies program and we are planning to substitute a program to have the Health Department give out
to mothers of children using their services, packages of books, learning materials, information about the library and its
services, and information about Friends.
Treasurer’s Report:
Medora MacKinnon, Treasurer, submitted the Treasurer’s
Report consisting of a Balance Sheet effective December 31, 2011 indicating that Friends has a total of $28,852.27 on deposit
in various accounts at the United Community Bank and $100 in a cash change bank in the Treasurer’s safe. She noted that she will be increasing the cash change bank to $200 based on past needs. Ms. MacKinnon also submitted a Profit & Loss statement for the period from January 1, 2011 through
December 31, 2011. Both of these reports are hereby incorporated into these minutes
and made a part thereto.
Committee Reports:
Membership Report:
Sally Woodworth, Vice President and Membership Chair,
reported that all members have been notified that it is time to renew memberships. We
have 38 renewals already paid. There was discussion in reference to changing
the membership levels to allow multi-year dues payments/memberships. This idea
was tabled.
Fund-Raising for 2012:
Discussion was held in reference to 2012 fund-raising. It was agreed that the Trash & Treasures sale will be dropped unless some member(s)
volunteers to run it.
There was general agreement among the officers and
other members present that the following fund-raising activities would be conducted for calendar year 2012:
·
Quilt Raffle (Suggestion was made that we add a basket of local business coupons to attract more
local participation.) It was decided that instead of reading to children during
the Sorghum Festival we would try to set up a “Corn Hole” game or something similar with prizes.
·
One or more book and bake sales. (Volunteers needed
to accept donated books.) It was moved, seconded, and passed that we will add
book and bake sales to our Fund-Raising repertoire.
·
Several silent auctions (Using donated items valued at $20 or more, librarian said no more than
quarterly.) Barbara Hale and Jo White agreed to serve as chairs of this. Further discussion of this was postponed until one of the chairs can attend a meeting.
·
Antionettas’ dinner was canceled due to problems attracting customers.
Hospitality/Social:
Dottie Byrd discussed plans to promote book signings,
visiting poets, and any other activities that we can do to attract our members and the public to come somewhere to mingle. Joy Vansant advised that she has built a one-room schoolhouse, modeled after a turn
of the 19th Century one, which is located at 318 Frank Martin Road. She
continued to advise that it is called Joy of Learning and she would like to share it and host some type of gathering there. She also advised that she has many books and other artifacts from the same period.
Librarian’s Report:
Ms. Brendle reported that the library’s quarterly
report shows that services provided to the public are growing in leaps and bounds. Adult
fiction and non-fiction checkouts are increasing, attendance is increasing. The
seats in recent computer classes have all been filled and waiting lists are kept. This
information comes from a period, the fourth quarter, which is usually a slow time for the library. The last quarter of 2011 the library gave out more than 200 library cards against a total of 39 for the
previous year.
New Business:
·
Suggestion was made at the idea meeting that we occasionally have evening meetings to supplement
day meetings to allow more participation. This idea was tabled for now.
·
President Gray requested that anyone with information for the newsletter please send it to her.
·
Next month we will have a man named Charlie Sowers come to discuss an adult spelling bee for teams
of people to compete with each other.
·
The new officers will be setting up a meeting at the United Community Bank, the Friends of the
Union County Library’s corporate depository, to sign check signatory cards.
A motion was made, seconded, and passed that the
meeting be adjourned at 3:18 pm.
Respectfully Submitted:
C. J. Waters, Secretary
