ANNUAL REPORT OF THE FRIENDS, SEASON 2006 – 2007

This season, the Friends tried some new programs, relied on some favorites and ended up making some advances in membership as well as increases in our treasury. In other words, it was a successful season!

FoLUSA, our national Friends group, introduced a “National Friends of Libraries Week” in October. We used this event to push for new members. Thanks go to Director Tom Witowski for visiting all of the children’s programs that week, handing out brochures and promoting the Friends with his spiel. A table was set up by the Circulation Desk with more brochures and Tom’s “perks” poster (for joining the Friends). We continued this visible promotion for several weeks and it resulted in 30 new members! Thanks for your efforts, Tom. The Friends had purchased “Thank you for joining the Friends” notepads that were handed out to new members.

The biggest highlight of this season came from our Library Trustees. In December, the remaining Library Building Fund monies were returned to the town - $265,000. That meant the Friends no longer had a pledge to fulfill to the Building Fund! Hooray! We were free and clear to finally use our fundraiser monies to give more support to the library. The board decided that the monies channeled into our LBF account (Library Building Fund) could now be considered for the new LPF account (Library Program Fund), allowing us to fund program needs for adult, young adult or children’s events. The board felt that the weight and stress of earning monies for our pledge had truly been lifted and now we could really work for the library’s needs. Whew…

This year in March, our library hosted a Pioneer Valley Legislative Breakfast. The role of the Friends was to provide the different foods for the breakfast and it turned out to be quite a spread. From juice to coffee, fruit to Danish, bagels, muffins, mini-quiche and homemade breads, it was a breakfast to behold. The folks that attended were impressed. Thanks to all who brought food, set-up or cleaned up.

Our repeat yearly events were profit-makers, enjoyed by those who participated: Summer/Beach Paperback Sale, Wine Tasting, Annual Book & Bake Sale (see Jim’s report). Our basket raffles in the fall and winter provided a different twist. We added a homemade holiday cake as one of the choices for each of those events. Very well received. And our recently concluded Spring Basket Extravaganza was a terrific fundraiser this year (see Anita’s report).

We did sponsor the Coffeehouse in October, an evening for artists, both literary and musical, to showcase their talents. Thanks go to Carol Munro, Sue Superson and Paula Bernal for chairing this popular event.

A new event was promoted for Friends members this season: an evening for your sweet tooth, a Chocolate Tasting. The Friends’ Board provided the many choices made with chocolate (some hot, many cold). It was a delight to see so many come out on such a cold night in February. We promoted this event as a membership “perk”, with 2 folks joining at the door!

Summary of treasury changes: cash on hand May 1, 2006 = $20,053.90;
as of April 30, 2007 = $26,630.08.

Again, thanks to my dedicated Board Members for their ideas, energy and support, making this season very successful.

Laura Palmer
Friends President 2006 - 2007

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