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Friends of the Libraries of Towns County Meeting Minutes

October 5th, 2010


The meeting was called to order at 10:37 A.M. by President Marilyn Pierce. There were 14 members present, including a new member, Merle Mueller. (See attendance attached.)

Since the Meeting Minutes are sent to the officers via e-mail, there was no reading aloud and minutes were accepted as printed.

Treasurer, Jim Reynolds, presented the Treasurer's report showing a balance of $9052.89. Henceforth, that report will also be sent electronically to the officers.

Committee Reports

  • Corresponding Secretary, Maureen Gustafson, has sent out 20 pieces of correspondence since June 1st.
  • Membership Chair, Jane Farrell, was attending a Library Board meeting and could not be at our meeting.
  • Barbara Hale stated that the October book, Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, will be discussed on October 20 with Jim Hale as the discussion leader. At that time, we will select the first 5 books for the upcoming year with the remaining 5 to be selected at our Nov. discussion. It is hoped that Donna will once again provide us with bookmarks listing all the books to be read and discussed for 2011.
  • Publicity Chairperson, Jan Cochran, was not present.

Library Report by Branch Manager Sandy Vaughan

  • Sandy and Lynn had attended a 3 day conference sponsored by the Association of Literary Services to Children. From the variety of topics discussed, Peter and others at Mountain Regional are thinking of establishing a Y.A. area which will target the 9-12 year olds and the 12 and up groups with the focus being the playing of appropriate computer games. Attendance at the conference was funded by a grant.
  • Peggy Keyes has returned to duty after being out a month. A temporary worker, Curtis, was a tremendous help during her absence and that of others. He is in process of entering into the computer all the books that have not yet been recorded there.
  • Sandy is putting together kits geared to be used with parents and children 5 years old and younger. There are 20 in all that consist of a canvas bag containing a book and matching objects; they can be checked out just like a library book. Some of the topics are potty training, gardening, new baby in the home, etc. Jan Roberts made a motion, seconded by Chris Thompson, to donate $200 to be used to purchase some of the "props" for the kits. The motion was passed unanimously. Since there are no CD's geared to children, Jan Roberts made a motion that the FOL donate $300 for the purchase of Children's CD's. It was seconded by Barbara Hale and unanimously passed.

Old Business

  • Thanks to the efforts of Marilyn Pierce and others, Donna Howell has been officially nominated for the I Love My Librarian Award, with the winner to be announced on December 6th. The winner will receive $5,000 and an all expense paid trip to NY City. Barbara Hale complimented Marilyn on doing "a masterful job in filling out the application."
  • The cabinet purchased in memory of Norma Mullican has arrived and is on display near the quilt at the entrance to the library along with a picture of Norma. A plaque is on order. Maureen Gustafson will send a letter and picture to Norma's niece indicating that.
  • In the history of FOL, awards have been given to Ethelwyn Bowen, Doris Tilly, and Zell Miller. Marilyn brought up the question of how often we should recognize someone. It was decided that Marilyn would set up an Awards Committee who would in turn set up guidelines for conferring awards.
  • Jan gave a final report on the 2010 August Book Sale. There were approximately 4500 books donated, set-up and clean-up took 73 hours, 17 volunteers worked the sale, the volunteer hours totaled 397.5, and 17 folks either renewed or initiated a membership to FOL. Having it for 2 weekends worked well and next year the date will be coordinated with the fair held at Mayor's Park. Some of the remaining books were traded with the Humane Society's Thrift Store, there are some books to go to Ed Quinn, and we need to remember to fill up our book cart after the sale ends. There will be a follow-up article to the public in the newspapers. The Book Sale raised $2381.53 and the Bake Sale brought in $858.

New Business

  • There will be a library related conference, Much Ado About Authors, held in Washington, GA on October 30, 2010. Marilyn has the details.
  • Doris Tilly and friends will be doing some plantings in our Butterfly Garden following this meeting. Included will be 3 flats of yellow panolas donated by Mike Clark of English Country Gardens.
  • Barbara Hale and Maureen Gustafson will be the Nominating Committee for next year's officers.
  • Jan, as our Communication person, has separated our membership list into those who would receive communiques via e-mail and those who would receive printed, mailed materials. It was decided that the following would be sent electronically: meeting notices, the newsletter, a members' survey, and notifications of upcoming events. We also discussed sending thank you cards to new members mentioning the web site and date of next meeting. Barbara stressed the importance of extending a personal invitation to attend a meeting to a new member.
  • Marilyn has already contacted Andy Moschetto and reserved the banquet room for Tuesday, December 7th at noon. Reservations will be necessary and the anticipated number of attendees was given as 40. We can decide if we want to order from the menu or arrange for a buffet which cost could be about $13.50 per person. Spouses could be invited as well as prospective members or members who are non-participating. Jim Hale suggested we could plan on having a meeting at Moschetto's next year.
  • Meeting was adjourned at 11:50 A.M.