Minutes of the Friends of the Mission Hills-Hillcrest/ Knox Library
February 5, 2020
The meeting was held in the meeting room at the Mission Hills-Hillcrest/Knox Library. The meeting was called to order at 6:30 P.M. by Phyllis Marion, President. An attendance list is at the end of the minutes.
Minutes: The minutes of the December meeting were approved with one correction. The November minutes, which were not available in December, will be sent by email for approval.
Foundation news: Phyllis said that she will be meeting with the Foundation next week about their non-performance on previous agreed upon items. She will report at the March meeting.
The donor recognition signs are not up, and there is not new information on when they will be.
Financials: Don Rudesill reported that our Amazon sales were $917.63 and our bookstore sales were $1466.00 during January. Our total December sales were $1767.49. Our major expenses were donations to the Matching Funds Programs funds. Our total balance in all accounts is $176,766.50 as of January 31, 2020.
Phyllis said that Microsoft donated $1200.00 to our Matching Funds because of the hours of one of our volunteers.
Membership: Phyllis said we will be sending a mailing for this year’s dues using the current dues structure since the Corporate Friends have not approved the new structure and the Foundation is not doing what it agreed to do to solicit dues.
Programs: The last Our Neighborhood Stories presentation had 71 in attendance. The next is February 12th at 6:30 P.M. on the history of Balboa Park and Banker’s Hill. Jean Stein said that another program is available on Irving Gill if we want to host it. Another possibility is the history of Little Italy.
Phyllis said that we had previously agreed to pay $800.00 for the four programs. The expense was formally approved. Phyllis and Don will take care of the donation.
Carol Moseley provided a document on Oasis programs that have been or will be held at libraries in the city. We have two scheduled at our branch, one on March 11th and one on April 8th. A third one is not on the list. Carol said that our events need to be listed on the Oasis database, not just in the catalogue.
Carol also provided a list of the Senior Lunch and Learn Lecture Series. These are provided to us at no charge and are held the first and third Monday of each month.
Phyllis said that we need to establish a program committee now that the library has more events than previously. We need three or four volunteers. Contact Phyllis to volunteer.
Website: Al Hoefer said that he will put our Oasis programs on our website. A link is currently on the site for future senior meetups up to August. Al asked if having them arranged by date was the best. It seemed okay to all. Al also found the template for the city colors, so he can use it on our site as well.
Corporate Meeting: Phyllis said that the major topic of the last meeting was the proposal to change the annual dues. The proposal basically doubles the previous dues and eliminates life memberships. The proposal has not yet been approved.
The library shop at Central made money last year, so we will receive about $170.00 of the money we loaned the shop when it was being established.
Corporate Friends are sponsoring one ALA attendee and a second is being sponsored by a donation.
The Corporate budget is in progress.
It is advocacy season again. There will be postcards available to send to City Council members to advocate for the libraries. They are not available yet.
Phase Zero of the Master Plan for libraries is completed and available on the city website.
Phyllis turned in our volunteer hours for the previous six months. Forty-one of our volunteers volunteered 2,196 hours.
Fundraising/Book sales: Phyllis provided a list of bookstore prices at other branches. We charge more than many of the branches.
Michele Pieters said that we have some new volunteers, and the store is going well.
Phyllis advised that we need bookstore managers and soon. We can have more than one manager as we do now with Phyllis and Michele. Let Phyllis know if you are interested.
Librarian’s report: Gina Bravo reported that several housekeeping items have finally been taken care of. These include magazine covers, the elevator being worked on, trash containers secured.
She said that the program last Thursday had 80 attendees, filling the meeting room.
Gina said that “The Union Tribune” interviewed her and Misty Jones for an article in the paper.
The garage at the branch now opens at 7:30 A.M.
There is now a second morning security guard. Security is now all the time the branch is open plus one-half hour before opening.
Gina said that the Idea Lab is all set. Two sessions are scheduled for this month. We have a laser cutter, an air filter, a vinyl cutter and a 3D printer. Our current theme is architecture. We need contacts in the field to help if anyone has a lead.
Gina reported that she has $14,065.00 in matching funds. Gina said that she has upped the leased book orders to compensate for floating circulation. She has raised the order to 50 per month. She will use the $1200.00 from Microsoft towards this.
The circulation for the month of December was 9,907 items. Gina thinks that January will be higher as the holiday season ends.
Gina requested approximately $200 for window film for the window in the break room. We approved the request. An employee has volunteered to apply the film.
Gina said that in addition to being Poetry Month, April also has the 50th anniversary of Earth Day this April. It is also Citizen Sciences month. Anyone with ideas of celebrating these events, let Gina know.
Philip Detwiler advised that Nancy Stockton is working on a display for the Poetry Month blackout poetry event. The supplies are here as well. Now we need to get the work out to as many organizations such as bookstores and community organizations as possible. We need volunteers to deliver flyers and explain the program.
President’s report: Phyllis said that the next newsletter will be sent out the end of March by Charlie Goldberg.
At the board meeting last week, we established a budget committee of Don and Ruth Rudesill, Armin Kuhlman, and Elaine Kalin. We have not had a budget before, but Corporate is establishing their first budget and branches are also expected to begin creating budgets.
Phyllis said that we have the new bylaws and the draft will be ready by March. The committee working on them includes Phyllis, Nancy Carol Carter, and Al Hoefer.
Sue Eubanks has offered to let us use her Windows account in the bookstore, but the license is hers, which could create privacy problems. Phyllis said that she and Al are working on this well as how to get the program to our Google drive.
Old business: None.
New business: Gina and Phyllis have a book to donate for a Garden Club raffle for a Meet Your Neighbor event.
Roundtable: None.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:51 P.M.
Attendance at the February 5th, 2020 meeting:
Phyllis Marion, Gina Bravo, Al Hoefer, Michele Pieters, Alan Sparks, Elizabeth Yaksh, Carol Moseley, Elaine Kalin, Philip Detwiler, Holly Murten, Armin Kuhlman, Leanna Selleck Jean Stein, Don Rudesill, and Pat Littell