New Pages for 2012-2013

Submitted by Chris on Mon, 05/07/2012 - 10:20pm
A Message From the Presidents:

Our fiscal year has come to an end and before we close the books on 2011-2012, the Friends would like to remind you of some of our past accomplishments. 

Most importantly, we continued to hold our ongoing used book sales steady this year by developing new pricing and marketing techniques.  The ongoing sale operates seven days a week during library hours and is staffed by a team of dedicated volunteers who spend countless hours sorting, pricing and shelving books.  New to our volunteer team is Todd "T.J." Duckett who connected us to a group of young people who helped the Friends move thousands of books for our Annual Sale. Also helpful to the Friends this year was a group Todd cofounded called Lunch with a Purpose, a team of young people who volunteer their time over the lunch hour. These efforts plus help from our regular volunteers added up to 100 hours of hard work and made our Annual Sale the best volunteer effort and largest profit to date.  Finally, in addition to all the volunteers, we have partnered with Mission Books, a non-profit online used book seller, to expand our market and increase revenue. 

With the proceeds of our ongoing used book sale and our fall used book sale, we were able to once again sponsor library programming for all ages.  This included supporting all book groups, the teen advisory program, babytime, storytime, writing workshops, author visits and more.  We also made a substantial contribution to the library’s material budget allowing Library Director, Kristin Shelley, to purchase books, e-books, magazines, DVD’s and newspapers and obtain access to several scholarly databases.  Further, we purchased I-pads for staff, book carts and other necessary library items.  We also co-sponsored the One Book, One Community events and author visits. The community response to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was enthusiastic and made our considerable donation worth our investment.  We look forward to co-sponsoring the events and author visit next year featuring the New York Times Bestseller Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo.

This year, the Friends presented eleven art shows in the library’s North Foyer Gallery.  These shows are new every month, displaying the work of our area’s best known artists.  Check out this blog and our newsletter for more information on our art shows and Gallery Walks, scheduled on the first Sunday of the month.  The Friends also attended all of the monthly Board of Trustee meetings, and were able to successfully keep everyone informed of Library and Friends news through our newsletter, Friend to Friend, published quarterly.  For more news on our upcoming book sales, be sure to visit our Facebook or website page.

As we begin the next chapter, we hope to continue to serve the library. For those who have contributed to our success, and have so freely given your time, energies and ideas, we thank you.  You have made the Friends, a completely volunteer organization, an asset to the library.  A special thanks to the Friends Board: Jan, Ruth, Carole, Lanette, Marsha, Sandi, Pat, and Maribeth.  Also, a thank you to Kristin Shelley and her staff for their support and guidance.

Sincerely,

Christine Korest
Marny Figenshau