Stowe Free Library

Minutes - Friend's of Stowe Free Library Board Meeting – January 5, 2012

Members present: Dee Reever, President, Caren Goodhue, Rebekka Mateyk, Library Director, Jo Darrow, Ronna Ziegel, Elizabeth Wechsler, Bonnie Knight, Margot Hall, Sally Nolan, Lisa Grady, Bonnie Billings, Helene Martin, Louise Thompson, Phyllis Thibault, Sylvia Pope

The minutes from the November 3, 2011meeting were reviewed and approved as written.

Jo Darrow,Treasurer, gave a profit and loss comparison between the periods July 1, 2010 to January 4, 2011 and July 1, 2011 to January 3, 2012. She provided a balance sheet comparison between January 5, 2011 and January 5, 2012 and noted that we are on track with our mission of raising funds and spending them in support of the library.

Elizabeth Wechsler reported on membership and annual giving. The membership drive netted 18 new members and $320 in new dues. There were a total of 56 responses and $2910 in donations. The Annual Giving Drive of 2011 was considered a success and will be continued in 2012.

Bonnie Knight and Margot Hall made a request for monies to purchase new, lighter tables that would be dedicated to the book sale. It was decided to purchase eight 6 X 8' tables from Costco. Margot will look into discounts for 501C3's. Their request was unanimously approved. Bonnie and Margot mentioned checking out the Stowe Recycling Center for books as people sometimes "dump" good books there that could be used for our sale.

There was discussion regarding the conflict of Helen Day Art Center Sculpture exhibits during the book sale. Dee and Rebekkah will speak with Nathan Suter, HDAC Director, and Rachel Moore, Curator, in advance of the book sale this year.

The dates for the book sale of 2012 are as follows:
Preliminary set up of tables, Saturday and Sunday, July 7 and 8
Set up books, Monday, July 9
Opening day, Tuesday, July 10
Last day, Sunday, July 29
Clean up, Monday, July 30

Lisa Grady reviewed her "In our Own Backyard" speaker series. This month we have Barry Estabrook, speaking on agribusiness in a talk called "Tomatoland". We will have speakers for the following three months also.

There was discussion about our speaker for the May 3, 2012 Friends Annual Meeting, Bryan Pfeiffer. He has offered several interesting topics to speak on and the board reviewed and decided to ask him to combine his inspirational presentation on birds with wildlife seen in Stowe. Elizabeth Wechsler, who arranged for Bryan to speak, will discuss t his possibility with him.

Dee Reever reported that Donna Penndorf is interested in becoming a board member and all present agreed that she should be invited to join the board as a Member-at-Large.

Rebekka Mateyk reported that she has not yet received confirmation regarding the Ashgate Grant which would help pay for new shelving for the Library. The Friends had agreed to provide matching funds for this grant.

Rebekka has put a list of museum passes available through the library in the Stowe Reporter and will do that again in the Spring.

DVD fines have been reestablished.

Regarding possible future library requests, Rebekkah is looking at the age of our computers (old) and considering how best to update them.

Under new business, Louise Thompson is working on the Friends Scrapbook and is looking for an entry for the Ed Billings painting that we use on our notecards as well as something from the Rusty Dewees fundraiser. Caren has an 8 X 11 photocopy of the painting. Rebekka will look in the Library computer files for PR for Rusty. Dee did purchase 100 more notecards to use for thanking donors as well as having them for sale.

The next meeting of the Friends of Stowe Free Library will be held on March 1, 2012, 3 - 4:30PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Caren Goodhue