FOGL Board Meeting, Monday, March 08, 2010
Friends of Georgia Libraries
Monday, March 08, 2010, 11:00 a.m.
Edgar’s Bistro , Macon
Members Present: Bede Mitchell, Chuck Gibson, Claudia Gibson, Jane Hildebrand, Liz Camp, Lyn Hopper, Arlys Ferrell, Bill Starr, and Wally Eberhard. GPLS liaison Elaine Black also attended.
Members Absent: Cindy Perryman, Terry Kay, Lamar Veatch.
Bede reviewed for the group the minutes from the board retreat. Follow-up items:
• Lyn mentioned that we do have contact information for Friends groups—there are 190 in all (some are Foundations). The list is as of 6/30/09; by November, we should have updated contacts as of 6/30/10.
• Bede provided Arlys with a form to secure a booth at the Literary Festival in Statesboro October 23—it is only $25.
• Lyn announced that she did secure an email address for the FOGL Editors: fogleditor@georgialibraries.org.
• Bede has informed the winners of the two awards, who will be attending the April meeting.
• Liz will be representing FOGL at Library Advocacy Day in Washington, DC in June.
• Lyn said that Lamar had suggested Equinox as a possible corporate member, and she will send contact information to Bede.
High priority items identified at the board retreat included:
• membership campaign drive
• establish marketing committee and plan
• develop Friends inventory
• create an advocacy values statement
• expand the board to 15 members, reinvigorate the Board Development committee, make VP the President-Elect
• develop corporate membership package
The group discussed a one-time offer for free membership for remainder of this year to Friends groups, perhaps in conjunction with the April meeting. After much discussion, we decided to leave the April meeting registration fee as is. Liz will call the 190 contacts on the Friends group list simply to promote the April program. Arlys & Lyn will work on planning a membership drive. We will postpone changing the dues structure for now.
There was discussion of the appropriate advocacy role for FOGL. Bede will discuss with Lamar, and then get back to the group.
Marketing committee and plan: Need to have a systematic process for marketing. Board decided to wait about appointing this and other committees until after the April meeting so we have a larger group to draw from. We should try to have board orientation and assign board responsibilities in May or June.
Potential Board Member Candidates:
• We have two people identified who are willing to serve as board members.
• Lyn nominated Pat Carterette, CE Director at GPLS.
• Bede will follow up with John Roberts from Union County Friends.
• Jane Hildebrand suggested Sue Bailey, who is a recently retired attorney.
• Elaine will contact Jamila Owens with the Georgia Humanities Council.
• Elaine will also ask one of her contacts at Ga. Public Broadcasting.
• Lyn will ask Stella about asking Anil Lewis or Thelma Godwin, GLASS customers.
• Jim Wooten is another possibility.
• Lyn will check with Alan Kaye to see if there is someone in his Friends group he’d like to nominate.
• Wally suggested Wayne Minchew from Calhoun Co.
• Bede will contact someone from Equinox.
• We will start with the GHC and GPB and go from there.
Academic friends—Bede will survey RACL and pursue information about private institution Friends.
Notice for April meeting needs to go out soon. Bede will draft a letter to be sent directly to members along with a registration form for the April meeting. The letter will indicate that it will be the last communication sent to non-members before they are dropped from the mailing list.
Chuck suggested an incentive plan for local FOL groups to get FOGL members (one cash award to the Friends group with the highest number of new members to FOGL, one for highest retention rate). He will follow up with Halley about creating a Facebook page for FOGL.
The next board meeting will be in Newnan on April 22, the day before the membership meeting. We will use email and perhaps a conference call for communicating between now and then. The meeting was adjourned at 1:30.
