FOL Annual Meeting for January 9, 2021

At 1 pm Chairman Marilyn Van Note opened the meeting.  She shared some thoughts about this strange COVID year and how it has affected Friends. Approximately 23 members in attendance for this ZOOM meeting. 

Anita Summers gave the Director’s report. 
•The County increased funding so hiring and training is proceeding as quickly as is possible.  •Ball Ground library is being used as the Library’s training facility. 
•All library branches are expanding hours. All branches will now be open for limited hours.  •People will need to check the SRLS website for the hours their branch will be opened.  •Woodstock library is changing weekend hours from Sunday to Saturday to facilitate additional hours. 
•Rose Creek library will be open 3 day a week. 
• RT Jones is open 6 days and expanding hours opening one hour earlier each day. •Ball Ground and Hickory Flat libraries will be open 8 hours per week with variable hours. The hours open are based on the availability of staff due to the virus. 
• All branches will be closed on Mondays to allow staff to do work necessary out in the stacks that they cannot do when open to the public.
•HF renovation is still in progress with initial concept plans expected by the end of January 2021
• SimplyE is a new, free e-reader app that is available GOOGLE Play Store and will allow patrons to access several e-book sites.
•The library and the Cherokee County School District are working together to allow students to access the resources of the library with their student ID.  At this time 65% of the students have signed up.  This was the library’s goal for the three year mark and it was reached almost immediately.
•Several branch managers have moved.  Brenda Beihl retired from RC; Jill Green moved from WPL to RC; Joey Dye moved from BG to WPL; and Laura Sheehan moved from RTJ as assistant manager to manager at BG.
 
Joan Hill read the minutes from the 2020 Annual Meeting.  They were approved as read.

Tom Hill gave the treasurer’s report.  See attached sheet.  The report was approved.

Bill Guion and Dianna Gunter gave the audit report.  They reported no discrepancies and that everything was in good order.

Membership report was given by Bill Guion.  At present we have 163 members.  Most of our current members are renewing when notified.  We are not getting so many new members probably due to the lack of book sales.

Grant report was given by Dianna Gunter.  We have had $8900 in grants for the year.  Grant funding organizations were the Joe E. Johnson Foundation, Cobb EMC Foundation and the Amicalola EMC Foundation.

Susan White Award was presented by Susan Stanton.  Penny Westbrook and Martha Pierce served on the committee.  Dianna Gunter was the recipient.  During a year when we only had one book sale Dianna worked to write grants that would allow us to be able to provide funds to the libraries.  She is also a liaison to the RC branch.

Nominating Committee report
Chairman - Sarah Reed
Vice Chairman - Marilyn Van Note
Treasurer - Tom Hill
Secretary - Joan Hill
Membership Co-chairpersons - Bill Guion and Susan Stanton
Webmaster - Savannah Parham
Liaison to the Board of Trustees - Tom Hill
Branch Liaisons:    BG - Tom Hill (one other is needed)
                               HF - Sarah Reed
                               WPL - Marilyn Van Note
                               RTJ - Susan Stanton
                               RC - Tammy Lynn
This board was approved with the exception of Tom Hill as Liaison to the Board of Trustees. He was inadvertently left him off of the list.

Other business for 2021
The possibility of an outdoor book sale or bag sale was mentioned from the October meeting.  The liaisons are to get together and discuss options and possibly plan a sale.

The Board thanks Angela Glowcheski and Savannah Parham for making the Annual Meeting via ZOOM a reality.

Bill Guion made a motion to adjourn. Seconded by Dianna Gunter.  Meeting adjourned at 1:45.

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