FRIENDS OF THE CRYSTAL LAKE LIBRARY
August 17, 2009 MINUTES

Present: Maggie Noonan Sprenger, Ann Wells, Elizabeth Puchmelter, Jan Polep, Karen Migaldi, Nancy Dlugosz, Alice Fellers, Ranee Strawn, Jeremy Stamp, Barb Mullowney, and Bob Finger

The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm.

The July minutes were reviewed and approved.

Jan announced that Carol Heisler was been elected to serve on the Crystal Lake Library Board and will no longer be representing the Library Board at FOCLL, Alice Fellers has taken her position.

President's Report: Jan told us that she was currently on three Library Boards- Crystal Lake, Cary and North Suburban Library System and she suggested moving a couple of meeting dates because of conflicts with meeting times. It was noted that the Bylaws that are currently on the website are from 2005. New ones were created last year and should replace the current ones. Jan stated that the purpose of FOCLL is to support the library services and collections. Jan suggested following the North Suburban Library System's Ground Rules for Behaviors during meetings which follows-

"Discussions should focus on the current topic, rather than past perspectives.
    History is valued, but cannot be altered.
Contributions from all members of the Board are valued.
    Share floor-time with Board colleagues to facilitate balanced discussions.
    Share constructive feedback with Board colleagues, as appropriate.
    Objectively consider responses before participating in the discussion."

Treasurers Report: Beginning Balance as of 1-May 09 $5833.60. Income: Membership dues $85.00, Interest $1.29, Expenses: Dues & Fees $10.00, Scholastic Book Sale $1152.98. Ann found out that we currently do not have a tax exempt number and that it takes 6-10 weeks to obtain one. In the meantime Karen said that we could use the Library's tax number for the Mum Sale next month.

Committee Reports:

Membership Report- We have approximately 37 members at this time. Jan passed out other "Friends" membership forms to help us get new ideas. Ann will be sending out letters to local business in hopes of getting sponsorships for FOCLL fundraising events.

Market Day- Nancy reported that on our last Market Day August 8th we made $173.20 and that for the summer we made $766.54, which was the second most money we have made since summer 2005 which was $840. Maggie has made about 100 reminder calls to Market Day customers. We only have Market Day during the summer months because local schools do it during the school year.

Mum Sale- Karen said that posters are being made advertising the Mum Sale that will be posted around Crystal Lake. Jeremy, Nancy and Barb have volunteered to distribute posters as soon as they become available. Barb will do bookmarks, print Mum Care sheets, advertising on TV Access Channel, NW Herald and Jeremy will post the sale on Craig's List. Nancy will send out sign up sheets to help out on the day of the sale.

Scholastic Book Sale- Nancy had statistics on Scholastic Book Fairs held from 2004 to 2009 (no Book Fair was held 2008) and proceeds have steadily declined every year. Beth read notes on the 2009 Scholastic Book Fair and will make a copy for our records. Ann moved to make this year our last year to hold the Book Fair and it was approved.

Used Book Sale- Maggie Sprenger said she would be able to obtain an empty storefront from January-April to collect, store and have our Book Sale. We need proof of insurance which Ann said we had to have in order to use the storefront. Drop off collection times were suggested once a month for January and February and a couple of times in March and April. It was suggested that we rent the Lions/Chamber of Commerce sign for $80 a week to advertise our Used Book Sale. Beth and Ranee offered to chair the 2010 Book Sale which will be held April 24th and April 25th.

Ideas for Future Fundraisers Update- Nancy emailed Barnes and Noble and talked to the manager of the Crystal Lake store about holiday gift wrapping and will discuss more about it in the future, The Saturday before Christmas, December 19th would be the best time to have the event.

Nancy met with Nick at Culvers about serving customers their orders for a fundraiser. We could do it on a Monday, Tuesday or a Wednesday from 5-8pm but will receive a 10% profit for the entire day. Tip jars for FOCLL can be set out for the entire week. We would do the main publicity and Culvers would advertise on their sign out front. We decided as a group to have it on Wednesday November 11th which is Veteran's Day. Nancy volunteered to be chairperson and will call to confirm the date.

Nancy also suggested a possible new fundraiser, "Book Lover's Calendar", a 365 page calendar that costs $2.50 each that we could sell for up to $12.95.

Ranee looked into the Chili's Fundraiser called "Pepper Partner Program" in which we will receive 10% of the bill (before taxes) when a customer presents a voucher for FOCLL. We would get a PDF of the voucher to have on our website to print and to handout at the Circulation Desk. We thought that we could do this once a month and Ranee said she would look into possible booking dates.

Jeremy suggested selling t-shirts and hats from a vendor he uses as a possible future possible fundraiser.

Beth will provide us information on Colonials fundraiser in the near future.

Library Director's Report- Karen informed us that the new website for the Library will be unveiled next month. Internet use has been lengthened from 2 to 3 hours as long as no one has reserved a time slot. In the next Beacon, FOCLL's information will be on the second page as opposed to being on the back of the newsletter. Deadline for the next newsletter for November-December needs to be in to Karen by September 30th.

Library Board Report- Our new FOCLL Library Board representative Alice Fellers said at the last Board meeting with the newly elected officers they discussed the strategic planning, priorities, and limitations for the next 3-5 years. She announced that tickets for the Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt Christmas presentation at the Raue Center just went on sale. The show will be on Saturday November 21st and details can be found on the Raue's website.

Old Business- Regarding the website, Bob announced that he has recently made some changes to it and is still open to feedback for content and design. Jeremy gave the yahoo bill which was $35.85 for three months for the website to Ann. In order for FOCLL to take ownership of the site which is currently in Jeremy's name, we need to have a credit or debit card to set up our own account. We do not have either one at this time and Ann will be looking into accruing one. Questions were brought up as to how to protect and manage the credit card once obtained.

New Business- Next month's meeting will be changed from the regular meeting of the third Monday which would have been September 14th to Wednesday September 23rd. October's meeting has changed from October 19th to Wednesday October 28th. November's will remain the same Monday November 16th. There will be no meeting held in December.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:00.

Respectfully,

Barb Mullowney, Recording Secretary