Minutes of the Friends of the Mission Hills-Hillcrest/ Knox Library
December 18, 2021
The meeting was held in the meeting room at the Mission Hills-Hillcrest/Harley and Bessie Knox Library. The meeting was called to order at 10:00 A.M. by Anne Box, President. An attendance list is at the end of the minutes.
Minutes: The minutes of the November 20th meeting were approved as submitted. Steve Wheeler said that a donation reported in the minutes was not ours. The error was found after our November meeting.
Financials: Don Rudesill provided the November financial report. Bookstore sales were $1669.30, Amazon sales were $858.17 and book cart sales were $79.75. Total income was $2,611.49. Expenses included Amazon supplies for $59.25 and bookstore supplies of $86.66. Other expenses were office expenses of $35.99 and children’s program expenses of $363.50. Total expenses were 545.40. Our totals in all accounts are $151,863.38.
Holly Murten said that during the last 12 months we have posted 628 items on Amazon and have sold 614 items.
Membership: This position is currently vacant. We agreed that we need a year end letter and donation envelopes. Anne will contact Nancy Carol Carter to gather information.
Michele Pieters thinks that meeting information should be emailed to all members. Al Hoefer said that he will take care of it for the future.
Website: Al Hoefer said that he has purchased Forms software and will wait on PayPal since we need a membership officer in order to send out requests for dues payment. Having PayPal will make it easier for donors to send payments.
Corporate Friends meeting: No meeting was held in December. No report.
Fundraising/Book sales: Michele Pieters said that she is working on credit card processing information. Anne said that she has been referred to a contact at the Central bookstore. The store has been using Square for non-cash payments.
Michele also reported that she is ordering additional new shelving for the bookstore back room. The shelving will be delivered to the library, but it will need assembly.
The bookstore will be closed Christmas and New Year’s Eve and the two holidays. The library will also be closed these days. We will have signs with the closed information.
Michele said she has one new volunteer for Saturday, but we still need to cover Monday from 4 to 6 P.M. Kim McDaniel works in the bookstore during those hours, but she is working on Amazon.
Holly Murten reported on Cool Collectibles, which is an idea to expand programs from only books to other collectibles. Holly may be able to have a speaker from rare books at Central. Holly also mentioned expanding our on-line sales to include the bookselling site Abe for some books. A basic problem is the inability to limit sales to the United States. Overseas postage rates are high and can wipe out profit.
Programs: Pat Littell presented suggested procedures for requests for funding of programs. We will discuss this again in February, our next meeting.
Steve Wheeler said that Jean Stein is working on a poetry event for April, which is Poetry Month. Other possible programs are an LGBTQ presenter as well as Cool Collectibles.
Steve said that the ornament decoration program was successful. It was paid for with matching funds.
Today is the gingerbread house program for children, and Hullabaloo will be on the 21st. We approved funding for both programs previously.
Future programs will include a program with a miniature therapy horse. This goes along with this year’s theme of disabilities in the One Book One San Diego selections. Steve asked for $125.00 for the program which we approved.
Librarian’s Report: Steve said that the matching funds have the following balances: materials $21,363.00, equipment $21,637.78, performers $9,519.83. The total is $52,520.61. The trust fund has $10,466.93 which can be matched.
Expenses will be around $15,000.00 for security cameras which will come from the equipment fund.
Steve said the staff would like a toaster oven for the staff kitchen. We approved up to $75.00. Steve said that a staff member is creating a Friends facebook page. We need a volunteer to work with Jamie on the page. See Steve or Jamie to volunteer. Send ideas to Michele to post on the site.
Roundtable: Anne said that she tried to find out the funds other chapters had available, but the annual report seems to be the only source of the information.
Michele said that the carpet in the bookstore needs to be cleaned. Elaine Kalin has a referral as does Anne. We agreed that the weekend that includes Martin Luther King’s birthday on Monday is the ideal time to have it done so that it has time to dry.
Sue Eubanks said that she gave old stock children’s books to the preschool across the street. Sue said that she is willing to check with Florence School to see if they want books.
Attendance:
Anne Box, Steve Wheeler, Michele Pieters, Elaine Kalin, Mary Rose Mueller, Al Hoefer, Sue Eubanks, Holly Murten, Armin Kuhlman, Don Rudesill, and Pat Littell