DELAWARE COUNTY READING COUNCIL

Board Meeting

Dec. 4, 2009

In attendance:

Annemarie Jay, President Ina Galer, Chichester

Sheila Bell, Vice President Joanne Horan, Rose Tree Media

Steve Marrone, Membership Danna Bradley, Ridley

Nick Spennato, Treasurer Barbara Giorgio, Garnet Valley

Toni Himes, Secretary MaryEllen Goldfarb, retired

The meeting was called to order at 9:00 AM.

The minutes of the Nov. 6 meeting were approved.

Treasurer’s Report: Nick will be moving our account from Sovereign to New Century due to Sovereign closing its branch in Newtown Square. The interest rate is higher at the new bank. Nick has entered into an agreement with the DCIU for a biannual stipend to support joint projects. We need to encourage DCIU representation to DCRC meetings on a regular basis.

Old business:

Book reviews for the website: Annemarie feels they are not coming in steadily, but we will continue to post them as they arrive. MaryEllen agreed to do an intermediate review on Chasing Vermeer.

Fall Tea: Twenty-nine were in attendance on November 30. Weather was a factor – it poured! The presentation by Karen Robinson, Swarthmore librarian, was excellent. DCRC would like to make a donation to the library to thank her.

Nominations and elections:

Annemarie will be stepping down as President. She has accepted a new commitment with IRA.

We worked on the creation of a ballot. Some members have agreed to serve for a second term or to shift to another office:

President:

Vice President: Sheila Bell

Treasurer: Nick Spennato (appointment)

Membership: Steve Marrone (appointment)

Secretary: Ina Galer (appointment)

Gov’t Relations: Toni Himes (appointment)

The Government Relations chair and the President need to attend 3 KSRA meetings a year in State College. These meetings run Friday evening through Saturday. The deadline for voting is April 30, but we may want to have it slightly earlier so that we can announce the new officers at our Dinner Meeting on April 28, 2010, at the Townehouse.

New business:

Young Authors’ letters: The letter was reviewed and revised. We will stuff envelopes at this meeting. Members can take letters back to their districts. The second letter will be on the website.

Winter Tea update: This will be February 4, 2010, at Widener University. Dr. Jolene Borgese will be the speaker on the 6 traits of writing.

Committee reports:

International: (Sheila) We received a letter from the child we sponsor through Pagus Africa. Ina will add it to the archives. We will be continuing this project and the project through Rotary.

Family Literacy: (Lorraine – not in attendance today) We need an update on the family literacy project. Annemarie will contact Lorraine.

Membership: (Steve) We have 69 expired memberships listed and 79 active members.

Archives: (Ina) Ina shared the book at the last event. Members did review it. We need to take more photographs at our events.

Honor Council (Toni): We need to increase by 4 new IRA memberships to make Honor Council status. We will give 2 student memberships away at one of our events.

We will need a family and literacy project if Lorraine is not pursuing the other one. Annemarie has been active at Widener Partnership Charter School Parents’ Academy – Annemarie is giving 5 sessions there. Ina offered to participate for DCRC as well.

Bylaws (Ina): Second review of the bylaws. Members made suggestions for revisions.

Website (Ina): The website is up-to-date. We need to encourage more traffic to our website. We could connect with universities to encourage students to check it out. We could be a link on district websites, too.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:30. The next meeting will be Friday, February 5, 2010, at DCIU, room 102.

Respectfully submitted,

Toni Himes

Recording secretary