Felton Library Friends Steering Committee
January 5, 2021, 4:00-5:30
Desired Outcomes
Strengthen relationships among members
Shared understanding of current/future Library and FSCPL activities
Exploration of Our Community Reads project
Shared understanding of Parks Team and Donor Relations Team activities
Suggestions for highlighting Steering Committee members in the newsletter
Sharing of Steering Committee member interests for 2021
Diane McCormick, Bruce Cotter, Michele Mosher, Jennifer Mount, Valerie Haff, Nancy Gerdt, Angie Lyons, Jackie Danziger, Cindy Sekkel, April Zilber, Denise Ward, Donna Ziel, Kirsten Hill, Judi Sherman
Our Community Reads 2021–guests Denise Ward of Aptos Friends and Felton Library Friend April Zilber.
Denise Ward: This year has been surprisingly successful. Traffic was an obstacle to organize this program, so being able to do it virtually has been great. SCPL has agreed to help organize it and support it on the technical side. UCSC humanities institute has been involved with OCR since year one, and now want to be more involved next year. They can contribute through their program called “The Big Read”. Our community votes on our book, so we could include their book as a nominee. They got $$ from a grant and can bring in an author. OCR got a grant from the CA humanities program, and brought an author. Now that people are familiar with virtual events, we can organize more broadly.
April Zilber: will be doing two events for OCR. There will be two book discussions. April would like to expand activities like a paper art workshop. Need to overcome bandwidth challenge, and there are options. Gratitude to Aptos friends that ordered a book kit that will come to the Felton library. Website listing this year’s events:
www.freindsofaptoslibrary.org/our-community-reads-2021.html. People will need to register for events on Zoom. The library will be posting events. FLF will include the information in our upcoming newsletter.
How to decide whether or not to have one book across the system? Pros: lots of opportunity for people to participate. Cons: the book might not be interesting to different communities.
The Library World
Library Advisory Commission: the SCPL system – Bruce
No meeting since our last meeting. There will be a workshop on Jan. 25th about the confusion about how the Library is funded. Open meeting; Bruce will send agenda
What is happening at the Felton Branch? Angie and Jackie
Thanks for the basket from the Friends. First day back from holiday and very busy. Re-shelving the children’s section. New vacancies in the system, especially in the North part: Scotts Valley specifically. Programming: mostly regular programs and Community Reads as part of Reading in the Redwoods. Jackie highlighting partnership with Middle School in the newsletter.
FSCPL – Michele
Friends has hired a full time office manager, Rebecca Scott. Will be looking for a 60% executive director. As a board member, Bruce has volunteered to be the liaison with the Boulder Creek branch, and hopes to support organization of a Friends chapter there.
The FLF World
Treasurer’s report – Michele
Reporting to end of Nov. $166k. Check was written to Community Foundation for $100k for the Flex Fund. Unsolicited donations from December not yet accounted for.
Park team – Jenn
Tremendous progress to enhance the park experience. Shout out to Kirsten: doing research on plant identification. Scheduling a regular work day in the park. Organizing the maintenance schedule for the park and how we’ll support volunteers. We are installing a bench; estimates for the sundial coming; great collaboration with Quail Hollow thinking about internships (high school students to support the park). Planning a storybook walk throughout the park. Questions about “Sunshade” and its placement–should Donna continue to research shade grants?. Wait to take action until we’re clear on correct placement. Michele will follow up with Margaret. Move forward with cantilevered shade for children’s gravel pit.
Donor relations team – Donna
We want to stay in touch with donors. We sent 140 postcards of the donor wall to major donors. We’ll celebrate our birthday in February with another card. We’ll put a donor highlight in each issue of the newsletter of donor’s who have spaces named after them. “What’s in a Name?” It will be a short section about “why” people chose to name that particular space/thing..
Writing thank you notes to unsolicited end of year donations. Michele will send the list of end of the year donors. Note: Michele decided after the meeting that we should list all 2020 donors in the January newsletter.
Newsletter – Michele
We started the newsletter in June. It’s been evolving. Valerie, a professional editor, has offered to help edit the newsletter. Added a “Park Plant of the Month”. Kirsten helping with that. We have profiled all library staff. People are reading the newsletter.
Feature Steering Committee members: Great way to start some engagement and have a conversation. Put a question out to the community. A way to invite people to participate. Maybe put a photo in the newsletter so people know who we are. The newsletter is linked to the website now. Possibly put SC member photos and short info on About Us page of website. Mary Andersen has created the look of the newsletter and posts items on Facebook for us. She also updates the website.
Question: Reflections on last year on the Steering Committee. What you are particularly interested as a Steering Committee member in the year ahead? Where is your energy for participation?
Bruce: first experience was coming to the opening. The quality of this group has been exemplary for other Library Friends groups. Looking ahead: liaison to Boulder Creek and wants to identify core of people up there to get a solid result for BC.
Jenn: seen the passion for this library and how it leads to tremendous progress. Excited to create more synergy, partnerships, alliances with school and parents.
Nancy: overjoyed in the way the SC has come together. Hopeful that in the next year we bring more community members involvement.
Kirsten: Excited when I saw the library and how beautiful it is – and the park is astounding. Working with Nancy and getting to know the park and the possibilities. We can expand the plants within the park and the park itself. Would like to see park programs, gardening, getting the community involved in understanding the plants and garden.
Donna: Seen how we’ve all worked together. Walking into the building was overwhelming. Interested in, and continue to be, is collaboration with other community organizations and groups. Looking forward to working with new members of the Steering Committee to work with schools, Quail Hollow, and other parks.
Valerie: Inspired by the progress prior to the pandemic; her daughter’s girl scout group helped raise the flag at the opening. Excited to support community interest, help with the newsletter, with the schools.
Diane: opening was such a good experience. Passion now is to focus on something tangible. Being on the events committee is exercising our vision, whether in or outdoors. Continue to celebrate in an appropriate way.
Michele: we have reorganized this committee and great to have new people and new directions. Capital campaign ended last year and we used some of that money to start the Flex Fund – another part of our legacy. Looks for us to being the pilot branch for community led programming.
Cindy: Watched and now happy to be on Steering Committee. Supports library as a “place” for community to get together.
Judi: Last year, the planning for the Community-led Programming was satisfying and challenging. We were ready to start and then COVID-19. Was concerned that we would slow down. The evolution of the Steering Committee to include people with different perspectives and interests has enriched our effort. Looking forward to expanding reach to include others in new ways.
Next steps
Next meeting: February 2
Agenda building:
Boulder Creek – can we brainstorm with Bruce, who is the FSCPL liaison with BC, about who we might know to participate in a new chapter. There is a skeleton of a group (now one remaining in BC – maintains a contact list. Need real solid players.
Start organizing around community outreach. Who is reaching out to whom: what is happening in those conversations? Main point of contact with Steering Committee and what is the question we want to ask different groups.
Website revamp: take a look at the SLV Chamber website so we can discuss what we want ours to look like.
OCR: do we keep Friends groups together? What could be park related? Diane thinking about this through the efforts of the events team.
Is there a young kids opportunity for “Our Community Reads”?
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