CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by President Chris Colby. Also attending were Mohammad Babur, Cynthia Daube, Don De Keyrel, Ann Farnell, Frank Iossi, Jean Michaels, Sue Reinke, and Joanne Swenson.
Others Present: Audrey Betcher, Library Director; Tom Dyer, Communications Director; and Kathy Olson, Administrative Assistant.
LIBRARY BOARD AND DIRECTOR'S ITEMS
Audrey Betcher reported that the Friends presented the Library Board a check for $40,000 as proceeds from the book store. That amount doesn't count income from the garage sale, holiday sale, or Barnes and Noble holiday gift wrapping. Also the Friends are sponsoring the "Books for Babies" program from book store profits, so it was a very successful year for the book store. The $40,000 will be deposited in the Library Gift Fund to be used strictly for the purchase of materials.
At their January meeting, the Library Board discussed disbursement of the Foundation Endowment Fund allocation. The items was tabled and will be further discussed at the February meeting. The recommendation from staff was for Storytime Kits, Audiobooks, Children's Programming, Rochester Reads, and Foreign Language and Learning English materials.
The Library Board has approved a strategic plan for 2004-2028 and copies were distributed to the Foundation Board. The plan contains overall goals and staff will be bringing back specific action plans to achieve those goals.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Advocacy Committee: has not met. There is a need for additional people on the committee. It is valuable to have people to turn to when issues come up since there are certain things Audrey can't advocate for as Library Director.
The committee has been active for about 18 months. They identified categories of decision makers that may need to be lobbied on behalf of the library, i.e. political or business. In the future the committee may be working with the Development Committee to identify additional advocates.
Audrey added that based on the preliminary output from Laurie Ward we may be expanding the mailing of the monthly newsletter to keep people in the loop on Library and Foundation issues.
Don De Keyrel and Mohammad Babur volunteered to be on the committee. Chris Colby will step down from the committee since he is President this year. Joanne Swenson will chair the committee.
Finance Committee: Kathy Olson gave a report on the status of donations for the Mayo matching grant. We raised over $51,000 from the annual fund drive, Book-A-Year Endowment, Endowment Fund, Wit, Wisdom & Wine 2003, and other miscellaneous small gifts. Audrey will send a letter to May on how the library intends to spend the endowment proceeds, and then will send a letter indicating how we raised our $50,000 and asking for the matching funds.
Development Committee: Kathy gave a report on 2003 fund drive. It was a very successful year with $2,262.50 donated towards programming and $23,162 towards materials. In addition there were donations to the Book-A-Year Endowment and Endowment Funds.
The Board discussed why results may have been better than previous years. The mailing included a letter and brochure and was mailed in early July. The letter mentioned the Mayo matching grant.
Audrey gave a report on staff's initial meeting with Laurie Ward. Laurie has prepared a timeline for Plans for Action/Activities with the goal being a presentation to the Board at their regular Board meeting on March 24. and distributed a timeline distributed. Laurie indicated that the Foundation is well positioned to begin a major fundraising campaign.
Special Events: Kathy gave a report on the results of Wit, Wisdom, & Wine 2004. There were 107 paid attendees which is slightly less than 2003 but slightly more than 2002. Underwriting was down this year, but the silent auction proceeds increased. There were very nice items for the silent auction and thanks goes to Board members for securing the items. Expenses were less since Davies Printing underwrote the printing costs.
The Board discussed whether we should do advertising next year in order to increase attendance. It is very expensive. One suggestion was to send five invitations to every Board member to personally send or hand out.
The committee will meet soon to have a debriefing on this year and start planning for next year. Cynthia suggested that a committee of three meet to pursue ideas of how to increase attendance.
OTHER ITEMS
Don suggested modifying the by-laws that the member present constitutes a quorum. Audrey and Kathy will look into this.
The next meeting is scheduled for March 24, 2004, at 4:45 p.m. in Meeting Room B.
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Cynthia Daube
Secretary