Minutes of the Friends of the Mission Hills-Hillcrest/ Knox Library
April 23, 2022
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 11:00 A.M. by Anne Box, President. An attendance list is at the end of the minutes.
Minutes: The minutes of the March 26th meeting were approved as submitted.
Programs: Jean Stein said that Ron Salisbury, San Diego Poet Laureate, was pleased with the honorarium we gave to him. Blackout poetry, which had been postponed for two years during the pandemic, went very well. The winner was able to receive her award on Saturday at the program. Holly Murten’s tutor student read her work in public for the first time. The feedback for the event was positive.
Our next event will be “Book Collecting Essentials” on May 7th from 3 to 4 P.M. in the meeting room. Holly Murten has obtained the services of Eric Hansen and Mathew Nye, who is the librarian of the rare books room at Central, for the event.
Jean is planning to have a July event for Pride month, but June and August are available for suggestions. Send ideas to Jean Stein.
Steve Wheeler said that the children’s event featuring Elmo from Sesame Street was an overwhelming success. There were over 200 in attendance, many from other areas.
Don Rudesill suggested that we have a sign in sheet at events so that we can add names and emails to our mailing lists.
Financials: Don Rudesill provided the March, 2022 financial report. Bookstore sales were $2407.60, Amazon sales were $1,692.63 and book cart sales were $113.89. Total income was $4,214.12. Expenses included Amazon supplies for $95.84 and bookstore supplies of $90.95. An additional chair for the sorting area cost $75.41 and Square credit card equipment cost $346.93. Total expenses were $1,094.14. Our totals in all accounts are $158,127.42.
Librarian’s report: Steve reported that the matching funds balances are: Materials $29,998.26, Equipment and Supplies $11,113.81, Performers and Contracts $9,269.83. The total of the accounts is $50,381.90. The Trust Fund, which is unmatched, has a balance of $10,466.93. No matching funds have been spent in the past month.
Steve requested $150.00 for supplies for the silhouette machine for a Mother’s Day craft event. He also requested $300.00 for the June 27th Pride story time. We approved the total of $450.00.
Steve said that we have two new staff members, Leo who will be a full-time assistant, and Julianne who will be a part-time assistant.
Bookstore: Michele Pieters said that our Square account and terminal are both set up. We have the bank information loaded as well. Today Michele and Anne will do tests and then will send a You tube video to all who work in the store for training. Michele and Anne will also provide training, and the first who are trained can train those who work after them. Square will accept credit and debit cards. We hope to increase sales in the book store because many customers expect to use credit cards and do not have cash for payment.
Michele said that we have a backlog of material in the back room, so there is a moratorium on donations until May 15th or earlier if we can process everything before that.
We are now accepted at ABE books, but due to vacations, we will not start using it until the end of July. This is because ABE has a minimum monthly fee.
Michele said that we can still use one more person to process books.
Our minimum for posting on Amazon is now $15.00.
Website: Al Hoefer said that we will be using WP Forms which has an edition for Square. This allows us to use the same bank account we currently used instead of using Pay Pal.
We received two messages on our website, both have been forwarded to the appropriate person.
Membership: Chuck Leib was not in attendance, but Anne will discuss with him the use of donation envelopes that require a current address label.
Corporate Friends meeting: Anne said that all volunteers must be vaccinated against COVID. Anne will verify the status of each and just show the last date of vaccination. No copies are necessary and no other personal information will be collected.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 P.M. The next meeting will be May 21st in the meeting room at 11:00 A.M. The following meeting will be June 18th, also at 11:00 A.M. in the meeting room.
Attendance:
Anne Box, Steve Wheeler, Michele Pieters, Elaine Kalin, Al Hoefer, Sue Eubanks, Holly Murten, Armin Kuhlman, Don Rudesill, Jean Stein, Marcia Schulman, Elaine Barrett and Pat Littell