May Board Minutes

Recorded May 19, 2009 by Elaine Nelson, Secretary

Present: Mary Belz, Irene Osborne, Mary Campbell, Eve Johnson, Mary Flannery, Patti Paul, Gayle Newsom, Mary Applen, Emmett O’Connell, Jean Finely, Winnifred Olsen, Elaine Nelson, Cheryl Heywood

Guests: none

New/Old Business Discussion

• Elect Elaine Nelson to Board. Gayle Newsom nominates, Jean Finely seconds. All ayes.
• Logo: Mary Belz showed several variations of the logo concept being designed by Minuteman Press. Confusing between seals and otters? Mary and Cheryl Heywood talked about people who connect to the building and their emotional connection to the otter sculpture. Will be setting specific colors for consistent use, and who is allowed to use the logo (other than the Friends), would be used for events where we partner with TRL. Cheryl asked about background color. Irene Osborne asked about having the boy look towards the otters, problems with page placement and faces looking out off the page (etc). Eve Johnson doesn’t find the orange particularly clear. Emmett O’Connell notes that it’s not the final orange. Gayle wants the otters to paying attention to the boy. A couple asked why is the boy in the painting? Responses that it makes it more directly the library. Irene Osborn also suggests closer cropping on the faces, (otters and boy both). Patti Paul likes the white background. Emmett is reminded of his own childhood sitting & reclining on otters. Eve likes the lettering inside the shape. Discussion of text inside or on top of logo? Readability (both ways) and use at various sizes, also distraction. Gayle finds lettering on top to be too distracting. Emmett asked Irene for more detail about her concept: does that make the otters less recognizable? Discussion of cropping, overlaps, etc. Emmett will get Irene in touch with Mark Derricott.  Jean Finely asked about darkness of colors. (Side note: did someone send the artist a thank you note? Beth may have. Beth did not send a thank you note.) Meeting will be set up with designer and those interested in providing comments. Mary Campbell thinks it’s cool. Winnifred Olsen finds it hard to see the boy.
• Email list. Marissa Tsaniff has said that she would come up with an email list based on membership signins, and is willing to put that together. Mary Belz said Ross Lasater is sending emails to about 3 people who don’t want paper mail. One issue is making sure the addresses are correct, Marissa said she’d take care of that. What should we be sending? Newsletter has more impact being printed, as discussed at cmtecommittee meeting, also under 200 costs significantly more. Discussion of how to get emails we don’t have now; I recommended something in next print newsletter. Week before book sale, welcome letter, special calls for volunteers or other calls to action. Don’t want to be sending out a whole lot. Gayle Newsom thinks there’s two issues: privacy (esp older people, odd library users), other orgs she gets email newsletters from, she doesn’t read those. Emmett O’Connell said consensus of cmtecommittee is not to push newsletter by email, but for folks to address us directly. Eve Johnson asked about welcome letter: if only half have email, why send that way? Suggested postcard, hand-written even. Emmett talked about how we might use it to encourage volunteering. Discussion, (in which I was involved), about different preferences for email, phone, postal mail, and having a volunteer coordinating role.
• Website update: no changes, except news updates, since last time.
• Postcard/Notecard uses: not going to cover now. Be thinking about what you want to do. Gayle Newsom brought up Eugene Library Sale crafts bazaar before Christmas (crafts), raised a bunch of money, very popular, work done by Friends. On a Friday night. Could be great way to launch cards. Irene Osborne would love to be on that (bazaar?) committee.

Library Manager’s Report: Living Library thing looks really cool, will be on our site soon. Cheryl Heywood will be participating as part of the immigrant experience. Three additional requests from report: Enterprise for Equity has showcase $10, table at Comics Festival charge is $15, $75 for a substitute appreciation party on the last (Friday?) of May, they will be buying and cooking the food. (Subs all being let go w/budget cuts) $2233.49 Jean Finely moved, Gayle Newsom seconded, passed.

Minutes: didn’t get names last time, nobody has the list of attendees. Correction of name spelling from April minutes: Lila Sjodin. Elaine Nelson needs a card for next time.

Committee Reports

• Treasurer’s Report: passing, due to Beth Dubey’s absence.
• Book Sale Report: Patti Paul reported that we made $3371.50, gross, including memberships, all 3 days. Expenses: about $170 for tables. Went very smoothly, no big snafus. Great weather. Cheryl Heywood & Irene Osborne will schedule next (year’s?)spring’s sale for June. Anecdotes about people’s experiences at the sale. Patti thanked Cheryl for Garrett (?) the security guard being there on Sunday, he was volunteering! Also two Americorps volunteers, one is Marissa Tsaniff’s roommate, helped immensely. Volunteer Center said they could help in the future, able-bodied to help with lifting books. Included “may I help you to your car?”! Suggestion (from Mary Applen) to say that the sale is in “the meeting room.” Another visitor suggested focusing on the crazy deals (i.e. most books $1! bag of books for $3!), bag of books is already included in most, but could also talk about the other cheap bits. Definition of “bag”! Why a third lower in books? Just a shorter time frame. Now we don’t care, because the library is closed all year round on Sunday anyway. All dates will be set before next board meeting. Emmett O’Connell asked if we’d want to set a bazaar date; Irene would like to do some research before saying yes/no. Cheryl had some advice based on author book fair experience. Discussion of how artists might be selected.
• Membership Report: Mary Flannery reported 361 members! 22 new members at the sale or just before.
• Communications Report: nothing else to add.
• Outreach Report: Mary Belz reported for Marijo Loftis, who was sick. The outreach committee need people for Living Library event (5/30; 12:30-1:30, 1:30-2:30, 2:30-3:30, 3:30-4:30), will probably email, but let her know.

Adjourned at 1 pm.

Order for next time: Minutes, Business/Discussion, Library Manager, then mix up Treasurer/Committee reports.