Minutes of the Friends of the Mission Hills-Hillcrest/ Knox Library
September 25, 2021
The meeting was held in study rooms 3 and 4 at the Mission Hills-Hillcrest/Harley and Bessie Knox Library. The meeting was called to order at 10:05 A.M.by Anne Box, President. An attendance list is at the end of the minutes.
Minutes: The minutes of the August meeting were approved as submitted.
Financials: Don Rudesill provided the financial report for August. We sold $1,662.28 in the bookstore, $1,111.06 on Amazon, and $115.69 on the book carts. Our expenses totaled $ 263.46, leaving a balance in all accounts of $144,474.46.
Income included $95.00 in memberships and $45.00 in donations. Expenses included $142.71 from the Goltz fund, which was spent on staff of the branch.
Membership: Nancy Carol Carter was not in attendance. No report. As mentioned above, we had $95.00 in memberships.
Website: Al Hoefer said that he would like editors for the site. Mary Rose Mueller volunteered. He would also like a sub-committee for the site to work on content. Michele Pieters said that she is interested. Others who are interested, contact Al.
Al also said that we have the ability to use Google Environment if we want to experiment.
Michele Pieters said that she would like to remove “call for volunteers.” She would like to have one point of contact for all volunteers. Jean Stein volunteered.
Corporate Friends: Anne Box attended the last meeting. She reported that some branches are taking our donations since the Friends store at University Heights is not available.
Anne said that she has also been adding to the Little Libraries in her area which led to a discussion of providing books for us to put in local Little Libraries and books for patrons to take for the ones in their areas. We agreed to put books outside the store for these uses.
Anne said that CANVA may be used for fliers and similar items.
There are still four closed branches and three partially open. Staff shortages are a problem in being able to reopen branches.
Fundraising/Book sales: Michele said she will make a list of meeting notes to put in the binder in the bookstore and will funnel it to Google.
We need to buy a book cart for holiday books and other special collections in the future. Michele will research suitable carts for the next meeting. We approved up to $700.00 for the purchase.
Michele advised us to save December 4 for a holiday open house in the meeting room from 10 A.M. to noon.
Kim McDaniel suggested that we keep books to be processed in the branch until they can be worked on. There are too many carts in the storeroom which can be dangerous as well as making it difficult to move around in the storeroom. We agreed to this.
Sue Eubank will make signs to post above the top shelves in the bookstore telling patrons to ask for help if they cannot reach books. Absolutely no patrons are to be on the stepstools.
Steve Wheeler agreed to have branch staff move the outdoor carts closer to the bookstore so that patrons enter the store to pay and browse more.
Michele will advise volunteers to empty the blue recycle bin into the bin in the meeting room. The bin is often not emptied even when the trash is emptied.
Librarian’s report: Steve said that the branch is able to host a few more events now. There will be banned books festival movies next week.
Interviews for new staff should be in October.
The special funds balances are: Materials (Books, DVDs) $23,961.34, Equipment $13,866.26, Performers $10,279.67 and the SDG&E Trust $10,466.93. The trust is money provided by SDG&E for having an LED building.
Expenditures were for a blue ray DVD player for $230.57, craft supplies of $26.39, glitter glue $27.49, and, previously authorized by the Friends, $40.00 for extra book copies for book clubs.
Steve asked for $40.00 for movie refreshments, $300.00 for Halloween pumpkins for children to decorate, $20.00 for Lysol spray to clean Legos for playtime. We authorized a total of $400.00.
President’s report: Anne asked for old and new items.
Old business: None.
New business: Starting October 1, there will be a new tally sheet for bookstore volunteers. We will no longer need to tally books sold, money collected or number of patrons. Sue Eubanks distributed the new tally which only requires hours worked.
Pat Littell agreed to research hand held bar code scanners and Square credit card processing fees and equipment.
Michele will create a shelf reading plan for the bookstore so that we can keep each category in order.
The meeting schedule for the rest of the year is: October 23, November 20, and December 18. Meeting will continue to be at 10:00 A.M. at the branch.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:20 A.M.
Submitted by Pat Littell, October 11, 2021
In attendance: Steve Wheeler, Anne Box, Elaine Kalin, Don Rudesill, Al Hoefer, Michele Pieters, Sue Eubanks, Jean Stein, Holly Murten, Kim McDaniel, Jenny Hartman, Mary Brown, Alan Sparks, Mary Rose Mueller, and Pat Littell