Notes from All Branch Friends Meeting

Martin Luther King, Jr., Library

September 26, 2009

Instead of meeting in the Community Room, we had our meeting in the Children’s section of the Library. Terry Checkon and the Branch Friends provided us with sandwiches, fruit & Starbucks Coffee.

INTRODUCTIONS:10-10:30AM

LIBRARY REPORT:Alison Landers, Deputy Director -- 10:30-10:45am

Rifka Sass was attending The George Simm Community Center “GO Library” Grand-opening

George Sim Community Center does not lend itself to a full library presence (100sq ft space); consequently they have installed an ATM style book dispenser “GoLibrary” that holds approximately 400-600 items. It is a Swedish machine with Italian software so there have been a few bugs to work out. At this point, they are testing out what will best represent the needs of the community. This will be the first library presence in this community.
Valley Hi Grand-opening went well; the event was more than well attended since there was little fanfare or advertisement for the event. Terry Checkon mentioned that there had been coverage in one of the Sacramento weekly newspapers.
Joanne & the System Friends presented a check for $50,000 to the library for books and materials
Mentioned the Branch Booster for Teens that April Butcher would be speaking to later on in the meeting
The Library has passed the final budget in May, but the ending budget amount ($35,000,000) really does not reflect the actual budget ($41,000,000) due to Capital projects. We need to prepare for the actual $1,000,000 expected shortfall next year. The Friends support and fund-raising means more in view of the current financial climate.

FOUNDATIONApril Butcher, Foundation Director; 10:45a-11:15a

April asked for her portion to be moved up on the agenda since she was participating in a fundraiser being run by the Colonial Heights Teen Advisory group – a carwash/bake sale.

FSPL Office—they have called and added 350 members to the Friends Roster (170 are those “recaptured” members who renewed their membership after several years absence). 170 remain to be processed. A total of 220 donations & memorials for different branches came out of the phone calls made to former Friends members. Cheryl will be sending out updated members lists. A request was made for someone with tech skills to help make this a monthly occurrence. I volunteered to help facilitate the input and send-out of updated member lists.
Question—How did the Foundation begin? It began as a group of interested people who wanted to fund the Sacramento Room
Colonial Heights—April will be helping with their car wash/bake sale fundraiser.
Goal -- Sustainability! The goal is to raise $50 million to provide funding for books and other endowments to support the library. “If Crocker can raise $90 for an addition to a building, we can raise $50 million for our library system”.
Branch Booster—We raised less money this year ($7,000 less), but there were contacts made for future endowments. The bulk of the funding will go to support libraries that have no Friends group to support them.
The foundation received $10k instead of the $26k that had originally been promised by Target
Sacramento Room endowment goal is $2.5 million
Question—Why do we not have a better policy for donor recognition? There was an endowment from a long-time Rancho Cordova library patron. She was very specific in what she wanted/expected her money to be spent on, yet there doesn’t seem to be a “system” in place to acknowledge endowments large or small. Alison said that recognition is “critical” and that the library is working on a “Recognition template” that would make the process more uniform.
The Foundation’s focus is on book & material endowments. Our city is approximate 900,000 5th in size of 11 comparable cities (resources per capita in CA) and we rank 10th on the scale of money spent on our libraries. Rifkin’s goal is to have a “World Class Library system in a World Class City”

FRIENDS PRESIDENTS’ REPORTS:

McClatchy-- Arts in the Neighborhood was catchword for the summer.
“A Little Night Music”—An evening acoustic music jam on the patio
Art Program—Tibetan flag workshop
“Going Green in the Neighborhood”
Sustainable Landscaping
How to repair windows – geared to replacing single pane with double paned windows
Tour of the upstairs—repair work being done on the upstairs area…will be closed for the time being (beginning 10/1)
Cherril reported on FSPL—Focus on Writers contest. 506 entries
Southgate—self-pay working well for them. They are bringing in $200/mth
N. Sac/Hagginwood-- had a bake sale & earned $300 + $60 (Tim took the remaining items to his church and sold them there)
Colonial Heights—They had been sitting on money and finally asked their Librarian for a wish list that they funded to a tune of $5,000. The purchases included a popcorn machine; X Box system & video games; chairs for the teen room and additional items.
Elk Grove—just finished a book sale in the new community room. They had an incident with a car hitting the library…no one was hurt (hit gas instead of brake). The issue of parking is still a problem, but they are working with some of the businesses to use their parking spaces for the overflow.
Carmichael—preparing for their 100 yr celebration. Annual Meet & Greet was published in the newspaper and the person they spoke to recommended that the advertisement read “Paid for by the Friends of the Library”. Their goal this year is to get more participation from the Friends members. They have a large Friends list, but little participation from the rank and file. The same people end of doing all of the work. They have a monthly book sale.
North Natomas—I spoke to the preparation for our Book Store and thanked the entire branch Friends groups that have been so giving in their help and advice. Talked about the upcoming closure of the library and the move to the new one. Suggested that members check out our Shutterfly site for current library pictures.
Rancho Cordova—The library will be closed for repairs. A long-time member left her estate to the library with specific instructions to remodel the workroom. A teen room will be created. Desks will be moved and improvements to the foyer. The Library system is kicking in to install new carpet & better signage. The expenditures are being closely scrutinized by the SPCA (another beneficiary of the will). They took in $500 in one week in a Hardback fiction sale. $6,000 has been given to their branch for programs.
McKinley—Sherri & Chris are the librarians. Since they are restricted on expansion, they try to do the most that they can with what they have. They are focused on maintaining their collection. They have put money into the Teen collection. Put a book plate in each Teen book saying “donate by the Friends”/ Two annual events:
Ice Cream Social (bounce house donated by Council member along with staff to monitor use of bounce house). Ice Cream was discounted by Burr House along with Staff to scoop. They had someone making buttons which were a big hit.
Pops in the Park

Book Sale table brings in $200/mth.

Arden/Dimick—They had the Arden Bark Dog Show where they had a table selling dog/pet related books. Sold Romances 5/$1. They put their money to Teen and Children’s programs.

Question: How can we get more volunteers to support our programs? As suggestion was made to contact RSVP (Retirement Senior Volunteer Program) by Colonial Heights. Alison said that they had found that volunteer group to not be as successful a group as the others in the area.

Franklin—They are focusing on their membership drive. They sell T-shirts and bags and have a drawing for gift certificates as part of their membership drive. Also have an old-fashioned game board day.
S. Natomas—their made $2,000 on their week-long book sale. Nancy mentioned our “collaboration” on Celebrate Natomas and thanked the Friends for their grant. She talked about the handing out of kids’ books and the drawing for gift certificates to Barnes & Noble for anyone flashing their library card.
Del Paso Heights—have a new Library Branch Manager Tim Tomasik since their past manager left for Canada (deported?). They are in the process of establishing a Friends group.
MLK Friends-- The branch opened in May 1970 and they are preparing for their 40th Anniversary this coming year. MLK Essay contest did not have as many entries & they will be reinstating a Speaking Contest as well. They renovated the reopened Meeting Room (it had been turned into a Staff work area) and have purchased artwork from local artists to decorate the area. They are paying for a local artist to add a mural to one wall of the Meeting Room.

FSPL PRESDIENT REPORT:Joanne Murphy (time relative)

She wanted to thank everyone for making the meetings a more positive experience and to thank Cheryl Fitzgerald for helping with the Friends office.
The Foundation has done a great job with its database. 200 former members have been enticed back.
Book Den—if you need a specific genre of books for your book sale (if you find you are low in a specific area) let the book den know and they will be happy to send you a box of books or more to fill in your holes. They had a two Saturday Sale and made approximately $14,000 ($9,000 the first Saturday & $3,000 the second Saturday). They also had a table at an Antiquarian Book Sale and did very well, approximately $1890.
The cost of storage is rising; they have approximately 500 boxes of books in storage.
RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS:
Can Friends groups donate funds to non-Friends non-profit organizations? NO
What Library discards can Friends groups keep? Hardbound and paperback fiction, pocket books.
What Library discards MUST be sent to the Book Den? Hardbound non-fiction & videos. There was some question on this issue (including me) so Joanne has promised to send out an e-mail that specifies what can be kept and what must be sent on [See attached]
What is the cost of running the Book Den? Rent – insurance – Amazon presence – payment to person who researches & posts books online – online sales costs
What is the net income /year for the Book Den? Approx $52,000 - $70,000 after costs are deducted
Partners Working Group? They are working on fundraising rules right now.
Why can’t we solicit from large donors? Joanne said, “Let us solicit the large donations; we are better set up to handle the tax issues involved in a large donation. Let us not compete. By asking for a $30 donation for donuts, you keep us from asking for a large dollar donation since the company feels they have already done their part. DO NOT ASK FOR MERCHANTS FOR SMALL-TIME DONATIONS.” McClatchy pointed out that new areas like N. Natomas do not have an established small business presence and that preventing them from contacting local large box vendors puts us at a disadvantage, particularly since companies like Target also do local donations.
What do we need to do to get our events on the calendar? One branch group was having trouble getting items on the calendar. Alison pointed out that it was the Branch Supervisor’s job to input event details. It was pointed out that the Branch Supervisors were over-worked as is. Alison—everyone is overworked. They have the ability to immediately input the information. They do not need prior approval for input so it should be just a quick 1, 2, 3 type of thing.
Joanne will be making an attempt to attend individual Branch Friends group meetings and would like a copy of our minutes just to keep up with what is happening in our groups.

FRIENDS GIFT

MEMBERSHIPS PROJECTTerry Checkon

Gary Shaffer will have his Marketing Department put together posters to be displayed in each Library branch advertising the Friends Drive in the month of November. I pointed out that the N Natomas Friends would not be participating since we will be closed for the move to the new library. However, we will be doing a Friends Drive on the day of the Grand-opening and thorough the first week of the Grand-opening so we are interested in the posters. The theme will be “Give the Gift of Friends”; it will also be available electronically for those who prefer to do this online.

Suggestions by Branch Groups as to how they do their drives:

Arden/Dimick: “Friends by the Numbers”. They have flyers provided that list the items and the amount of money that the Friends Group provides for the Branch and the Community
Colonial Heights has taken the flyer from Elk Grove and has added to it. They have the “poster” on display in the library. See examples attached

October 13th – System Friends Board Meeting

Questions:

Is there a Library policy against getting Friends Info at the time that people sign up for their Library card? NO, but most people are doing the preliminary sign-up online and then actually get their card when they come in to pick up their books. There is no reason why the library staff can’t hand out paperwork during the week of the Friends promotion.
Can we get a copy of the Friends Logo so that we can be sure that all information being handed out has a uniform look? YES. Joanne will get the logo out to all of the Friends groups.
Can the new SPL website be made more user-friendly? How can we easily access the Friends website? Re-doing the website is labor intensive and in this difficult financial time it will be difficult to find a reason to spend money on this issue. As far as the Friends website is concerned, you can access the Friends link by using this website link:

Rifka Sass came in as we were closing the meeting down. The George Simms event went well and “Dave”, the automated book machine, is working well. Right now, you can pick up books but they need to be dropped off at a regular library drop-off.

Next Friends meeting, February 27th, 2010 at the Valley Hi/North Laguna Library. The North Natomas Library Friends have been asked to hold the June 26th meeting at the new Library.