Rothley Community Library Report by SteveMitchell Chair

Rothley Community Library (R.C.L.) received charity status in September 2015, having been formed some six months earlier as an unincorporated organization. Being a charity we can access funding streams more easily and avoid certain costs like rates, which in our case amounts to an annual saving of £1,200.

  • Roles taken by trustees

Currently we have 8 trustees who take on a variety of roles who work within a sub group system. These cover the following areas; finance, events and activities, day-to-day library activities, which includes the oversight of all aspects of help, publicity & communications and premises.

  • Management of premises / contracts / team members

~ R.C.L. have the responsibility to oversee the upkeep of the mobile building erected in 1997. The County Council is financially responsible for the upkeep of the exterior and have recently completely refurbished the external wooden panels and repainted them. In addition as part of our LCC property maintenance contract we have had replaced at no cost to RCL all window locks, the hot water boiler, new taps and new W.C. cistern. R.C.L have spent LCC grants to replace outdated and expensive to run heaters and strip lighting.

~ In March 2107 LCC contracts will stop for the following; grounds maintenance, cleaning, property maintenance and security. R.C.L. are currently looking into getting contractors in place for security and obligatory health & safety aspects. Letting certain contracts expire could possibly save R.C.L 35% of our annual costs.

~ Team members. The team members are supported by one of the trustees who has a very close grasp of who is available and who may be ill or unable to come. The development of this close relationship has been a crucial factor in retaining our volunteers and being able to remain open for every planned opening.

  • LCC & RCL

R.C.L continue to have a good relationship with the County Council via Anne King the Community Managed Libraries Support Officer. We have regular contact with her and she attends our cluster group meetings where 8 community managed libraries from Anstey to Bottesford meet every few months to exchange ideas and discuss common problems.

  • Stats

Since the beginning of 2016 we have been keeping figures for people attending the library. From monthly figures of 300 visitors in January the numbers have steadily risen to around 550 with a best of over 600 in July. Attendance for each session varies quite considerably with Saturday being the best with over 65 coming on two occasions. Book issues have ranged form between 850 and 950 per month with August seeing over 1,300 issues. These figures compare favourably with the same period 12months ago.

  • Policies

R.C.L. are obliged to have a number of policies covering finance, safeguarding, and complaints for example and have developed a further raft of documents that are reviewed on an annual basis.

  • 3 rings

Three Rings is an online volunteer management system that is a non profit organization that helps volunteers give their time and energy to causes they care about without spending too much time worrying about paperwork and administration. We were recommended to use this programme that also has the capacity to store documents and files, message volunteers as well as rota volunteers offers of help. It is tremendous value for money.

It has been a tremendous privilege to be associated with a very talented group of local people who have transformed the library into a vibrant meeting place, a provider of a huge range of community activities as well as a venue for books and Internet access.

SM 28/09/16