Friends of the Mission Hills/Hillcrest Knox Library
July 15, 2023
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 June 24, 2023, meeting were approved as submitted.
Financials: Don Rudesill presented the June 2023, financial report. Our bookstore sales were $1,730.89 including $650.95 in Square sales. Amazon sales were $712.19, Abe book sales were $21.62 and book cart and donations totaled $58.17. Total bookstore sales were $2,522,87. We also had one new senior membership of $5.00. Interest income totaled $241.56. We also had a donation of $20.00. Total income for June was $2,789.43.
Expenses included $375.00 for bookstore supplies, $500.00 for previously approved articles and ads in local papers, $598.29 for volunteer luncheon, $16,000.00 to Matching Funds for books and $3,000.00 to Matching Funds for Equipment.
Our total in all accounts is $151,801.08.
We approved moving $20,000.00 from our money market account to a 12-month CD at 4.2 percent interest.
Don said that there was a charge to our business credit card which is unexplained. There will be a meeting on Monday, July 17 at Mission Federal to resolve the issue.
Librarian’s report: Steve Wheeler said that the Summer Reading Program participation is strong. There are programs every Friday for children. The programs have been very popular so far. Upcoming programs include:
July 19, Wednesday, at 7 P.M. two YA authors, Erin Craig and Amanda Linsmeier.
July 24, Monday, at 6:30 P.M. Make Your Own Book. Sign up required in advance.
August 21, Monday, a San Diego history presentation provided by Oasis.
August 28, Friday, a concert for adults.
Steve provided balances in Matching Funds accounts. Materials has $6,195.51, Equipment and Supplies $-205.84, Performers and Contracts $5,465.79 and the unmatched Trust Fund $10,466.93. The balances do not yet include money from the Friends of $16,000.00 and $3,000.00. The amounts are shown as expenses in the financial report above.
Expenses were primarily for performers and $324.72 for Makerspace supplies.
Anne mentioned that Corporate does not think that the $2,000,000 goal was reached this year to be matched by the city.
Bookstore: Jean Stein sent an email that all shifts are covered, and all is well with staffing.
Susan Chenven said that we have two new Abe orders for $270.00. She and Holly Murten plan to inventory our Amazon and Abe books on Monday, July 17, to clear out any that have been posted for a long time but have not sold.
Holly said that she is tracking withdrawals online. She also said that Amazon sales have picked up somewhat after we reverified our account. We have received another request to reverify which Holly will investigate.
Holly will meet with someone from the Central bookstore regarding donating sets of books to them. These are muti-volume sets that are too heavy and are time consuming to package for shipping. Central is willing to deal with them. Sales benefit all libraries.
Sue Eubanks said that she is working on end of the fiscal year statistics.
Chuck Leib has installed bar code scanners on both the bookstore and backroom computers. This will speed pulling up book information by removing the need to type in the ISBN. Our thanks to Chuck for researching, ordering and installing these.
Steve will let staff know that we do not want fiction discards from the branch, but we will consider non-fiction.
Newspaper ads and articles: Elaine Kalin reported that both the “Presidio Sentinel” and “The Uptown News” have run our ads and articles for June and July. The August article will be about The Friends and the bookstore and will also be in both papers. Elaine suggested a monthly ad, but not necessarily a monthly article. She agreed to research prices for 12 months or other options.
Sue Eubanks suggested running a coupon for $1.00 off in the bookstore to see what response we get. She also suggested posting our QR code for membership in the bookstore and in an ad.
Website: Al Hoefer said that all is up to date on the website. He can also provide the QR code.
Corporate news: Anne said that there are no minutes yet for the last meeting.
Possible book club: Michele Pieters asked about the process for starting a book club at the branch. Steve said that we have two clubs now, and a volunteer wants to start an art focused club. He said that the process involves applying, being fingerprinted, and being approved by the city. If a club just wants help gathering books for a meeting, the library will help. Don Liddell said that he has started the application process.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:02 A.M.
The next meeting will be August 26 at 10 A.M.
Attendance: Steve Wheeler, Anne Box, Don Rudesill, Kim McDaniel, Sue Eubanks, Elaine Kalin, Susan Chenven, Mary Rose Mueller, Holly Murten, Al Hoefer, Anna Boone, Marilyn Harkins, Michele Pieters, Don Liddell, Pat Littell