March 14, 2011 Board Meeting – Friends of the Paul Sawyier Public Library

Members present: Russ Wright, Carol Baughman, Ev Claffy, Christina Evans, Donna Gibson, Mimi Gosney, Ann Howard, Libby Kadler, Arba Kenner, Stacy Klink, Janet Meyer, Cindy Shemwell, Cloyd Stratton, Judy Stratton, Natalie Wilkerson and Reba Pierce.

The meeting was called to order by President Russ Wright. The minutes were approved as read.

FINANCIAL REPORT: Treasurer Christina Evans reported balances as of 3/13/2011: checking account: $44,591.82 with $490.78 outstanding; savings balance $42,558.32 for a total of $87,150.14. Cloyd Stratton reported the bookstore’s finances: February total $6033.54, which included store sales (with a “special” sale on Friday during the book sale of $351.04), Internet sales of $258.17 and $100 from Mr. Greenwell for the books remaining following the sale. Grand total for the year to date: $9391.13.

Report of Standing Committees:

Bookstore: (See financial report, above.) Judy Stratton reported the bookstore chairs are in the process of purging books, a process that happens every other month. Older books are either marked down or put aside for the book sale. Several books from the 2009 KY Book Fair have been purchased for the store at half their retail price.

Cloyd also brought the latest news from the Friends donation cage. The work so far includes $1705 for the fence, $1644.01 for the rollers and $562.89 for the light. Of the $3000 allocated, $2911.90 has been spent. The figures don’t include the cost of fabricating and installing a chute to cover the book drop opening.

There was also discussion of the sorting effort that’s ongoing and the need to find a person to replace Hope Hager as manager. A sorting group is meeting on Monday, 3/21 at 1:30 at the donation cage. Hope is working on a description of her duties as book sale manager.

Project Proposal Committee: Chairman Cloyd Stratton reported on the March 1 meeting of the committee, calling our attention to a spreadsheet detailing the proposed projects to be funded by Friends and how that impacts the group’s finances. The previous commitments, some of which are on-going, total $41,000, which includes visiting authors at $18,000, art project at a total of $20,000, staff appreciation $500, and $2500 partial funding for library beautification,i.e., batik. The current funding cycle includes commitments of $46,000: $20,000 for summer reading, a total of $10,000 for beautification, $10,000 for 5 new televisions, and $6,000 for two color printers to replace ageing ones.

Cloyd explained that based on total Friends’ balance as of 2/14/2011 of $85,439.08 and conservative estimate of earnings to June 1 of $10,500, the total commitment of $87,000 in projects shouldn’t present a hardship.

Following commentary/explanation from Librarian Donna Gibson, all new expenditures were approved by the Board. The possibility of a story about these expenditures with photo in the State Journal was discussed.

Friends Flyer Committee: Janet Meyer presented the latest design for a Friends flyer to be printed by Bob Lanham of Design Print Café. He will print 1000.

Library news: Librarian Donna Gibson reported an author visit with Kim Edwards at the library on May 17. She isn’t expensive to bring. Silas House will read at the Methodist Church March 29. Apparently Diane Sawyer isn’t interested in coming.

Donna also reported that the State Journal has visited the library to do a story on the Book Babies project which hopefully will appear in the newspaper sometime soon.

In April the library will have activities in conjunction with “One Book, One Bluegrass.” Derby Day activities include a visit by Leigh Ann Florence, author of the dachshund series of children’s books, as well as the LIFE House folks.

An event is also being planned with Don Coffey, author of a new book on Paul Sawyier. Details are being worked out through Mary Lynn Collins, who’s in charge of that event.

Friends Facebook Page: There was discussion about generating more interest/traffic for the Friends Facebook page. Carol Baughman suggested the possibility of photos to increase interest. Stacy Klink volunteered to call Steve Cohen to discuss possible changes to the Friends Facebook page. Board members were encouraged to contact him as well.

Library team for Lighten Up! Frankfort: Seven individuals-- Mary Lynn Collins, Donna Gibson, Stacy Klink, Mimi Gosney, and Carol Baughman from the Friends Board-- and Diane Simmons and Nadine Cox from the bookstore, will be participating. Cindy Shemwell approached the secretary following tonight’s meeting and indicated she would like to join the group.

The next meeting was set for Monday, April 11, 2011.