oops, anne is up next

Thought I would be reading "The Giver," but the library had other plans. I finally was able to check out a copy of "The Wolves of Midwinter" by Anne Rice.

Whoop! I started it last night. As always, good stuff.

In other news, keeping lots of positive thoughts and prayers for a former soccer girl as she has decided to head back to school. This young lady struggles with panic attacks and anxiety. She had a very rough first semester and was on the fence about returning for the spring. She is going. Her mom and I chatted over the weekend and she sent me a note late last night to let me know what was going on. She is such a sweet young lady and it breaks my heart to know she is having problems.

Rainy day yesterday and while it isn't pouring this morning, it is extremely damp and icky outside. I really need to get back into my walking routine. The cold and icy sidewalks kept us off the 'path' for a while. Now I'm just being lazy. Ugh.

Off into Tuesday I go...have a good day.

good old friends

Had a lovely call yesterday from one of my college friends. I met Anne my first week at IU. We were in a Journalism class together and became buddies in a matter of minutes. It was so good to catch up with her over the phone instead of over Facebook.

Another old friend, well her hubby, who is also an old friend, spent an hour of his time last night on a skype call with the oldest. You see, having a physics PhD enables you to tutor Physics 105 with ease. The oldest was super impressed with his mad teaching skills and is much better prepared to take her first exam tomorrow.

It is good to have friends, but it is even better to have old friends. Those folks who have stood the test of time and still stick by you and your kids. They are with you through thick and thin and even physics.

It is Thursday. Our magazine proofs arrived yesterday. I have a lot to do today as we try and wrestle this debut issue into form. It looks pretty good. Not too many things to fix or rework.

Off we go.

the one where I lose my cool.....

Mission Statements. Non profits. Libraries. Books. Volunteerism.

Yesterday we had our monthly Friends meeting and one topic for discussion was a review of the bookstore pricing structure. The prices in the store were set almost four years ago and I felt it was time to review what we charge for each item. As the executive board talked about the issue, several of the gals offered to take time out of their days and make trips to several used bookstores in our area and see how those items were priced.

What they discovered was not unexpected. We charge less than everyone, and are closely aligned with what our fellow Friends group in Gtown charges on some items, but on others we are priced lower.  That group, however, pays their store manager to do the job I did for free for two years.

We brought this information back to our group. Interestingly enough, we actually had a few faces show up to discuss the topic who do not bother to attend meetings any other time. Hmmmm. One of those faces borrows books from the store, sees if she can sell them online, and if so, does that and then pays for the book. She is a regular volunteer at the store and the sales.

The discussion ensued yesterday and several folks brought up the purpose of the store. They feel, strongly, that we need to keep prices where they are as this is more than an effort to raise money, it is also a community resource and outreach service with the money generated being an added bonus.

Now, if these folks were not active participants in the store, I wouldn't take their comments as seriously as I do. I view the store in a different way. The money generated is our PURPOSE. That the store is a community resource is a byproduct.

The store has generated over 100K in revenue for our group to donate to the library. That is a lot of money and we work very, very hard to make that money. Yes, it is a nice thing to have this as a service. Who doesn't love finding a great book at a great price, but we aren't talking about raising prices to equal what the stand-alone store-front stores charge. Those places charge half the cover price on most items.

We are talking about going from $1 to $1.50 and increases of that nature.

I guess I have a different philosophy about our purpose and mission and goal. I volunteer with the Friends to help them raise money for the Library. I don't volunteer with them to give books away. We help buy the books and programs that the Library can allow to be checked out or attended for free. We exist to support the library.

So, when the topic of giving books away was broached and viewed as the 'ideal', I got a bit steamed. My tone changed. I counted to ten. I sucked in some big lungfuls of air. I wrapped up the meeting.

The topic will be presented again next month for a motion, second and further discussion. I expect that will be an interesting meeting as well.

what you leave behind

I've started my second year as president of the Friends group. I'm already thinking about my transition out of the group. I guess some might think those thoughts are a bit premature, but I feel a very keen responsibility to the person coming after me.

The president before me came in and hadn't been very active with our group. She struggled a bit at first getting to know the routine, but as we had seasoned 'managers' in place, they steered her along and she soon hit her stride. She was an experienced 'president' because she had been at the helm of several other groups in our town through the years.

This is my first presidential role, but I came into this position straight from managing the bookstore and I knew all the players, their personalities and the role I was taking on when I said yes to the nominating committee.

But the role of president and the responsibilities have never been written down or defined. I'm going to attempt to do that. I want to write down what I've done and why I did it. Whether the next person decides to follow that model or adjust it or ditch it will be up to him/her.

Part of this process will be to streamline our website and our media presence. I'm working right now with our website person to get our very beautiful site down to two generic pages. She wants to move on and as of now, no one in the group has the skill or interest in this aspect of our group like she does. 

The bottom line is I want to hand the reins over with a clean conscience. I want to give the next person as much guidance and direction as I can manage.

I love this group and I love our mission and I want the group to continue to flourish after I leave it.

movie night and money

I think I have hubby convinced to head out to the movies tonight. I really want to see 'The King's Speech' and it has finally arrived at our local cineplex.  No, it isn't some 3-D action adventure thriller, but I think we will enjoy it...or at least I know I will!

Today is our executive board meeting for the Friends followed by our lunch out at the local 'watering' hole.  Not that we will imbibe much beyond ice tea, but the option is there if needed.

I've been working on estimating budget numbers for our group as well as compiling the stats for the annual report.  We gave approximately $9,000 less to the library this past year. For the past four years we have contributed over $31,000, and this year we were at $22,000.  We have, however, saved almost $45,000 for the future expansion of the library. Our goal on that effort is $100,000 and we are almost half way there. That is exciting news.

The Library has their request in for 2011 and is asking for about $16,000. This won't be a problem, although we may have to make that donation in two sums, one before summer and one after.

But, all those numbers won't mean much if we don't get book donations.  We are down, just like last year, in the volume donated to us. Not good. I hope warmer weather and the spring cleaning urge can help us in a few weeks to fill the bins, boxes and shelves.

Movies, money and books...my Friday trifecta.  Enjoy the weekend.

Anne's book club in a bag program

Shortly before Christmas I went to Barnes and Noble and picked up four boxes of new books. Inside the boxes were 120 paperback copies of 12 different titles. Today I'm going to set up Anne's Book Club in a Bag program for our library. Each bag will hold ten copies of a single title, discussion questions, a brief bio about Anne and a list of the books available through this program. The library will roll this out to the public in February, but in the meantime, our Friends book club is enjoying having this many copies of a title available for their members.

I have a list of things to do in order to promote the program. I have a press release to write and basically a 'media' kit to put together. But, today is all about filling the bags.

The store, which she worked in every Thursday morning, has now grossed over $100,000 since we opened the door. Amazing. The amount of effort from our volunteers and the sheer number of books we have handled to earn that money boggles my mind.

Anne would have been so excited to hear that number and so proud.

champagne tastes on a beer budget

And I'm not talking good beer...no fancy packages with nice glass bottles imported from overseas. I'm talking cans of generic! That seems to be my theme for the week. Frugal. Thrifty.  Ignore those extra letters, those are 'four' letter words.

Yep, I have a Friends executive board meeting today....about money.  How much we spend. Where we spend it. How we donate it.

Here is another 'four' letter word: budget.

Ack. Ugh. Ick.

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to make everyone happy? To not have to budget? To not have to compromise? To be on the same fiscal 'page' as everyone else?

Oh hell, what is a few thousand dollars between friends, right?!

library spending

I got an email yesterday from the library director asking for a large chunk of money. Interestingly enough, the amount requested is almost exactly what the book sale earned. I'm sure she had a ballpark number given to her by someone. Ugh.

Of course that puts me in the 'lovely' position of having to stall on her request. Several of the members would like to use the money for putting together book club reading bags for the Friends book club as well as other area clubs.  Some of these folks also see a need to refurbish the foyer of the library. It is looking very dated and in some cases extremely worn out.

Is this the time we push our wishes ahead of the director's?  I indicated to her I was gathering information on some possible projects and her response set my teeth on edge.  She does not want any projects taken on that might cause work for the staff. Okay. Really? 

I did learn the requested funds are for more history books.  Of course this will amuse the membership as the Library withdraws books at such a rapid clip we can't keep up with getting those titles out of the way at times.  Interesting times ahead. Dangerous waters. Lovely.

bic also known as butt in chair

I need to sit and go through our membership lists today and compare it to our online mailing list for the Friends. This will not be fun.  We've had a lot of 'cooks' involved in the membership coordinator job for the Friends since the gal who initially took on that monumental task, and did a wonderful job with the work, became sick with cancer.

We now have someone maintaining the rolls, but we split off the work involved in maintaining the online list for the emails we send out to the members.  I get to work on that for the time being. 

With our fall book sale approaching, the sale manager will also be using the list and comparing it to her list...I'm sure she will find errors, deletions and all sorts of problems.

That is my task for the day.   I hope I'm up for the challenge.  I'd like to finish the work in short order so I can get back to reading the third Kate Daniels book. 

and here we are

I have my first meeting as president of the Friends of the Library today. Wow. Hard to believe that I've been technically 'out of a job' for three years now, because it sure seems like I've been busier than when I collected a paycheck. Yes, I left employment with the library three years ago and on the first day after my official last day, I joined the Friends. I've been working ever since.

But, I do love our library and the whole concept of libraries in general, so while I may not get paid in dollars, I do get paid in other ways.

I've been compiling our 2009 annual report and am always amazed, excited and proud of what this group has done. Every single active member contributes. We put on amazing book sales. The book store is thriving and serves a need in our community for inexpensive reading materials as well as a place to connect with other readers. We have raised money to make visible improvements to not only the library's collections, but also to the library's comfort level for users and employees.

I've made some dear friends through this group. I've grown from knowing them and am a better person today than I was three years ago from the experiences I've had.

So, at 1:00 today, I wield the gavel for the first time....wish me luck!

First book of the new year

The middle kid and I ventured out to B&N on Saturday to purchase 2010 calendars and assorted other things we couldn't live without. Included in that would be the latest Georgia Nicholson book by Louise Rennison. I credit Georgia and her creator for sparking an interest in reading within my oldest child. Ten books later, Georgia is still as hilarious as ever and still on the "rack of luuurrve." "Are these my basoomas I see before me," is the final book in the series and we will miss the entire Ace gang and all of their antics. I hope Rennison has other books in her head and other endearing characters waiting backstage for their debuts.

Because I'm a lazy girl, I didn't enter in each title in the book series I read this past year. I clumped them all together and left it at that. Doing a quick scan and a quick count, I easily passed the 100 book mark again. It was a good reading year and with the excellent start I made over the weekend, 2010 looks to be a good one as well.

I also finished "The Fruit of her Hands" by Michelle Cameron over the weekend. Wonderful book that fictionalizes the true story of a famous Jewish rabbi's wife's story from the middle ages. The persecution of the Jewish people by the Church was horrific and was widespread not only in continental Europe but also in England.

Today is the day I've set aside to go through all the presidential stuff for the Friends and make my lists, take care of some things and basically get myself in order for our meeting on Wednesday. I also have some PR things to do for them and other miscellaneous duties. I hope it doesn't take all day, but I'm prepared in case it does.

The vacation is over. Time to get back to reality.