FRIENDS OF THE ELYRIA PUBLIC LIBRARY SYSTEM BOARD MEETING
November 7, 2016
PRESENT: Nancy Baldauf, Cherie Fabian, Tim Widman, Marcia Widman, Kathy Wainwright, Denise Klammer, Jane Leavell, Carolyn Young
Non-Board Members: Dick Jacquemotte
Meeting called to order at 6:30 p.m.
The meeting opened with a round of applause for the co-chairmen of the Book Sale, Phil Lyon and Tim Widman. The book sale grossed $16,937.60, which was $1200 more than last year, and surpassed the gross sales of the past five years. We attribute much of this increase to the large number of books on sale this year. In addition, Maynard Miller paid $500 for the pre-packed boxes of history books.
OCTOBER MEETING MINUTES
Marcia Widman moved to accept the minutes as presented. Tim Widman seconded. Motion passed.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Tim Widman moved to accept the report. Cherie Fabian seconded. Motion passed.
DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Although Lyn Crouse could not attend, she and Nancy exchanged emails regarding the library renovations. Lyn says they can hold a dozen boxes of library withdrawals and donated items at West River until we move them to wherever we would store and sort books. Since no bids have been put out yet, she can only guess that Central may not be closed until at least March. The library must raise money for the asbestos abatement, which means they may have to reduce funds set for renovations. Tomorrow’s election may lead to tearing down the South Branch, which would produce more books to be disposed of. Everything is very much up in the air.
NEW BUSINESS
Tim Widman moved that due to the upcoming renovations of the central branch of the Elyria Public Library System, the Board of Directors of the EPLS will cancel the book sale for 2017. The Board will, through the end of 2016 and throughout 2017, continue to raise funds for the treasury of the FEPL by all available means, and will make plans to hold a book sale in 2018.
No one present was willing to chair a book sale in 2017.
Cherie Fabian moved to approve the motion. After much discussion, the motion passed with 1 vote against, 4 abstentions, and 6 votes in support. The motion passed.
It was suggested that all items normally sold at the book sale be boxed, and we ask Maynard Miller to accept them, anticipating that in return he will donate money to the FEPLS. It was also suggested that a committee be formed to aggressively work on selling the accumulated Special Collection on EBay or by auction, either of which would take 30 percent of the profit. As a non-profit, we can sell items for six days a year without having to pay sales tax.
With Central closed for possibly five months or more, we’ll have fewer books removed from that library. However, the number of donations and withdrawn books in the basement is already out of control. It was suggested that we get Maynard’s criteria for pricing and continue sorting but by “better” and “worse” categories, with the hope that this would result in a higher donation.
As a result of today’s vote, we need to have the library’s PR person put an announcement in newspapers that we will accept no donations this year, and that there will be no book sale in October of 2017.
We will need to remove items from St. John (including supplies, banners, empty boxes, several truckloads of empty boxes for sorting) and ask St. John to cancel our payment for storage, since we can do the sorting and boxing for free at Central. We will also ask St. John Lutheran to reserve the date for 2018’s book sale.
Due to lack of time, a second proposed motion—to set up a sorting committee—was postponed
OLD BUSINESS
We ran out of time to discuss an agenda item in old business to discuss our contribution to the library renovations.
It was agreed that we should send Maynard thank you’s for his donations, which we have not done in the past, to meet IRS regulations requiring acknowledgement oflarge donations, and confirming the amount..
The meeting ended at 8:00 P.M. Since so much business remained to be settled, we will meet again at the Central library on Tuesday the 15th at 6:30.
Respectfully submitted by Jane Leavell.