Board Members Present: Marcia Dillon, Ruth Forman, Eileen Lynch, Kathy MacDonough, Ceci McCormick, Joy Naquin, John Stevenson, Mary Bowler, Brian Billings, Sandy Ebbott, and Jack Yeatman. Also present were Library Manager Tom Weaver, and members Kristie Moore and Ed Burke.

The February, 2006, minutes were approved as Emailed, with the following corrections:

• The Building Fund update should state "Kathy reported that a check for $17,000 had recently been given to the county from the Building Fund Account."
• The reference to CD-ROM should be all caps.

  Ceci announced that she has literature from other libraries, which was left in her box. The materials were passed around the table for board members to review briefly. Ceci will leave this information in the Friends' office.

  Treasurer's Report
  The following Treasurer's report was given by Eileen Lynch: There is a total of $50,000, in various accounts. There is a total of $8000.00 in approved spending that is not yet paid. Most of the large items are from 2004, i.e., large print books and DVD collection. Tom has the invoice for the books and will get the DVD invoice soon.

  Marcia will be talking to a possible auditor (Phillip Spiegelman) on Friday. Mr. Spiegelman is not an accountant; Jackie Harris has had previous dealings with him and recommends him highly. The by-laws only require that someone outside of the Board review the Board's finances. There is no requirement for a professional audit. After brief discussion, the Board agreed that this would be acceptable, since the building fund is no longer part of the picture.

  The Board will need to file a tax return for 2005. Eileen is willing to take care of it, using the tax forms sent by the IRS.

  Conflict of Interest Policy
  Eileen gave the following update on the conflict of interest policy handed out at the last meeting:
  The objective of this policy is to prevent problems. Board members must be aware that interaction with outsiders must be independent. If a board member has a relationship with anyone hired by board, such information must be disclosed prior to making a decision. We might want all board members to sign the policy every year, as a reminder that they are still bound by it. On motion of Mary, seconded by Kathy, the board agreed to accept the conflict of interest policy as presented. Eileen will finalize the policy and present it for signing at the next board meeting.

  Old Business
  

  • Annual Membership Drive. The membership drive is scheduled for April 2-8, 2006. The schedule for working the drive was passed around for board members to sign up for two time slots on the schedule (a total of 4 hours). The remainder of the schedule will be filled in by other volunteers. There wll be a poster on display showing how dues money is spent and the purchases that have been made for the Library by the Friends. Mary Bowler offered to have the poster made. Eileen will Email a list of how monies were spent to Ruth, who will put the poster information together and send it to Mary. It was agreed to use the same format as last year's poster. Ruth will write an article for the newsletter and contact Big Sky Bread and the Friendly Gift Shop for premiums. Sally or Ruth will set up each day, and would like for a board member to close each night, if possible (the 6-8 pm shift). Ruth stated that volunteers get a premium as a thank-you for their service. The tote bags are at the printers and will be ready in a few days. There is a good supply of refrigerator magnets left. The Library will provide lists of desired books for Give-A- Book donations (separate lists for children and adults). Joy will provide a list of current members, with membership expiration dates. On motion of Mary, seconded by Marcia, the Board approved up to $3000.00 in spending for the membership drive.

  • Communications Committee. Ceci reported that the committee met before the board meeting. The discussion was about articles for the April newsletter. Carol Harrington presented a draft of the newsletter mailing procedure (who is responsible, what the steps are, how to prepare mailing for bulk mail). The committee brainstormed topics for which the Friends should have a prepared statement. John spoke about a few ideas that the committee discussed, giving examples from ALA. New Castle County has a draft of a policy on how books are selected. If Friends groups write down a goal or belief, it is easier to get the ideas implemented by libraries. John volunteered to forward the URL's of statements that we may want to look at (located on other library web sites). The county has policies that govern operations of the library. While there is no need for the Friends to mirror the county policies, we may want to know what the policies are.

  • Proposed special event for Friends Members. The historical event proposed at the last meeting was considered. Jack stated that we may want to plan something local to members and that the planners were looking for a theme. The event needs more discussion and more planning. It was agreed to have further discussion at the next meeting.

  • Lease by Friends of two copiers for use at BHL. Tom reported on information received from the vendor (NWC Services, 2738 East Allegheny Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19134 (215) 634-2669. Fax: (215) 634-8817). Tom was concerned about a clause in the contract stating that the Library would give the vendor exclusive rights to provide and service copy machines. Tom explained to the vendor that the Friends cannot guarantee that. The vendor has agreed to withdraw that clause and will be faxing a revised version tomorrow. Based on the removal of this one clause, Tom recommends that we accept the contract. The Friends would receive 10 per cent commission on all revenue from two copiers. The Friends would be entitled to 500 free copies per month, with additional copies being charged at 1 cent per copy. The Library will be provided two Canon copiers, with letter and legal paper. Copiers will have the ability to reduce and enlarge and copy originals up to 11X17 and will be equipped with dollar changers. The vendor will provide supplies, paper and toner and next-day service on the equipment. It will take about three weeks to get copiers installed, once the two-year contract is approved. On motion of Jack, seconded by Marcia, the board approved the leasing of copiers by the Friends.

    Library Manager's Report (Tom Weaver)
    The Library's main problem was the disruption of service due to hardware and software failures. The problem was county-wide. Neither failure was within the BHL building. The system went down on March 8, 2006. The Library lost access to the database and lost all transactions on March 8 before the crash. A news release went out to the News Journal and other media, explaining what could and could not be done in the library. While patrons can check out materials, they cannot use the catalog, place holds or renew. Nothing can be checked in until the system is fully restored. The anticipated date of recovery is March 16. The Library is using a backup system for checkouts. There are over 10,000 items to be checked in. Tom is working on an action plan for getting all materials back in service as quickly as possible. The staff has offered to work extra hours. The visibility of the catalog will be delayed, in order to allow staff more time to shelve materials. Board members expressed interest in helping. Tom stated that volunteers would most likely be needed on Friday morning. Tom also announced that he has finally received a proposal for the shelving for the large print books and other changes in the teen and circulation areas. It will take six weeks for the new shelving to arrive.

    New Business
    The Board has expressed interest in creating hanging signs/banners to identify the podiums that hold the donor and brick locator books. Kathy volunteered to check with Mitchell Associates, who did the donor signage and get a quote on what a canvas banner would cost. This would be the "high-end" option. The Board may want to explore less expensive options. We also want a brass plate to acknowledge that Ron Hasse built the podiums.

    Newsletter
    The next newsletter deadline is March 16; mailing will be on March 27.

    The meeting was adjourned at 8:45pm.

    Respectfully submitted,
    Joy A. Naquin
    FBHL Secretary

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