Friends of the Mission Hills/Hillcrest Library
February 24, 2024
The meeting was held in conference rooms 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 January 13, 2024, meeting were approved as submitted.
Financial: Anne Box presented the financial report for January, 2024. Bookstore sales in cash were $905.42, Square credit card sales were $744.64, Amazon sales were $902.19, Abe sales were $211.96. Book cart sales and donations were $69.00. We also had $121.26 in memberships during the month. Interest income from all accounts totaled $464.76. We had one direct donation of $3.00. Special thanks to all who work on book processing for online sales. Our sales are a major source of income.
Expenses included postage and fundraising expenses, website expenses and donations to matching funds for programs and for maintenance. Total expenses for the month were $1,443.00.
Our total in all accounts at the end of January was $164,491.53.
Sue Eubanks reported on the proposed budget project. She said that every month, historically, we have about $2,000 net income. Ruth Rudesill had provided year-end figures for the last two years. The budget is an ongoing project. We have not done this before.
Librarian’s report: Steve Wheeler provided Matching Fund balances. Contracts and Performers had a negative balance of $4,720.00. This was calculated before the Friends donation. Equipment and Supplies had a balance of $386.64, Materials $17,466.15, Pool Distribution $5,959.37 and the unmatched Library Trust Fund $10,466.93.
Expenses at the branch were mainly for performers and a small amount for craft supplies and a filament for the 3D printer.
Steve said that the performers for the Summer Reading Program have been booked. There will be one performer per week from June through August.
Steve requested money for shelving in the lower parking garage for storage. We approved $1,000.00 for this. We also approved $150.00 for an egg hunt on March 30 in the branch. The eggs are plastic. April is Poetry Month. We will have a Blackout Poetry Contest again with a prize of a $50.00 gift certificate at the Central bookstore. Poet Laureate Jason Perez will have a poetry reading during the month. We approved both the gift certificate and a $100.00 honorarium for him. We will also purchase his book.
Next month Steve will have more information on the expenses for the Summer Reading Program.
Steve presented upcoming programs:
Kids’ Craft Time will be the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month from 11:00 A.M. to 1 P.M.
Tax Preparation Assistance provided free from AARP will be on Saturday, March 2, from 11A.M. to 5 P.M. in the Community Room.
Lunchtime Concert with Jose Rodriguez will be Tuesday, February 27, at noon.
Author Talk, Becoming American, by Cary Lowe on Saturday, March 9, at 2:30 P.M.
Animal Encounters for Adults with Special Needs, Saturday, March 16, at 2:00 P.M. Wild Wonder will bring wild animals to the library.
The Social Life of Giraffes presented by Fred Bercovitch, PhD, Saturday, March 30 at 2:30 P.M. This is an Oasis program.
Blackout Poetry, Create Your Own Poem, April 2-6.
Anne mentioned that Tierrasanta hands out flyers of upcoming programs in the neighborhood stores. Sue said she will add it to the bookstore notes to see if anyone is interested in doing that here.
Don Rudesill showed a flyer he received that had tech help as a program and wondered if we need that as a program here. He also said that Logan Heights has a program on repairing clothing. Steve said we might get a sewing machine, so we could revisit this at that time.
Bookstore: Pat Littell said that we have two new volunteers, one who is trained, and is a published mystery author, and one who will be trained soon. She also said that Poetry is a new section in the store.
Susan Chenven and Kim had no news on Amazon and Abe.
Holly Murten said that we already have two boxes of holiday books. Sue agreed to buy some plastic tubs to store them in until needed.
Sue will remind volunteers to sign the new volunteer agreement. Thirty have already signed. Sue also ordered some material for Black History Month for the bookstore. March is Women’s History Month. We will display appropriate books on the front display shelves.
We will sell self-help and religion and philosophy books two for one in March.
Sue said that our Square report shows total sales for the year using Square at $8,702.00 with an average sale of $30.00.
We discussed the ALA convention which will be held at the Convention Center June 27 through July 2. We are working on details of payment and attendance.
Website: AL Hoefer said that Stripe, another payment method, is not worth the cost for the few donations we get online.
Membership: Chuck Leib was not in attendance. No report.
President’s report: Anne Box wants to make sure that inclusivity awareness is a focus of the bookstore. We are honoring Black History Month in February and will feature Women’s History Month in March.
Anne reported that Corporate Friends would like donations from branches for the John McAllister Memorial Library Scholarship. The scholarship(s) fund classes for Library Science classes. We voted to approve a donation of $1,000.00.
Anne presented the subject of less fortunate library branches. We discussed putting more money into matching funds accounts to allow a greater pool distribution to those branches. This will be considered in the budget plan.
The next meeting will be March 23 at 10:00 A.M.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:00 A.M.
Attendance: Steve Wheeler, Anne Box, Sue Eubanks, Susan Chenven, Don Rudesill, Nancy Carol Carter, Al Hoefer, Kim McDaniel, Holly Murten, Pat Littell