(as submitted) Members present: Anne Benson, Tulli Kerstetter, Amy Weldon, Mariam Dunbar, Holly Cruser, Koko Smith, Lee Hallberg, Laurie Webster, Dana Petersen, Silvia Fleitz.
1. Call to order 7 p.m.
2. Minutes from April meeting approved as emailed
3. Guest requests — Holly Cruser reported that totals from the pre-plant sale amount to $642 plus $30 yet to come from another buyer. Dispersal of the pre-sold plants will take place on Wednesday, May 15, from 3-6 p.m. Holly will also have her picture board set up for anyone who wishes to purchase more plants; she has extras available and is willing to dig them up on request. Holly needs help with digging up and bagging the plants: Joan, Peter, Miriam, and Tulli have volunteered to help. Extra planting instructions will be provided by Holly on the pickup day on May 15. Koko and Tulli will help Holly distribute the plants. Since there may be further plant sales on the 15th, Laurie will wait until after that date to issue a check to Holly for her percentage of the sales.
4. Proxy/e-mail votes — none
5. Correspondence — Laurie read a thank you letter from Shari Dunn for Friends’ donation to the Navajo poets program.
6. Financial report. Total checking and savings as of the end of April is $9215.43 itemized as follows: $7257.37 in savings and $1958.06 in checking. Major payments included $3380 for the new library phone system and $400 honoraria to the four Navajo poets. (See report for details) This year’s plant sale was comparable in income to last year’s spring book sale. The financial report was approved. See page 1 here. Page 2 here.
7. Librarian’s report. Four programs listed for May include the Death Cafe, Summer Reading program, Teen Game Night, and the end of after-school programs (as of May 23). Program attendance dwindles as summer approaches. Lee and Dana announced that the Kanopy streaming service began online May 1 and can be accessed using the information detailed on the bookmarks handed out, as well as Kanopy’s helpline. Ten movies per month can be accessed by each patron and renews monthly, with three days to watch each program. Zircon art panels are now finished and will be revealed at a PR event May 14 at 6 p.m., sponsored by the Mancos Creative District. The seed library has been re-vamped and is now on display through the spring. See attached.
8. Membership report. Amy reported 66 current members, which is somewhat down from around 100 that were thought to be active members in the past. Amy and Anne will work on increasing membership with a display in the library, as well as through the library’s facebook page and Silvia’s bulk mailing list. Amy will send email addresses from the membership spreadsheet to Anne to forward to Dana.
9. Old business
Plant sale recap and plan for distribution (May 15-16) — see above under guest requests.
Storage shed for snowblower and gasoline. Lee talked with Josh Horner who built the outdoor classroom about a10 x 10 shed on a concrete base. Josh felt that a prefab or stick-built onsite structure would be more secure than purchasing a metal shed online. Josh will give Lee a bid hopefully by the next Friends meeting.
Replacement donor plaque cost & installation location. Silvia will talk with Brad to redo the ruined plaque. The plaque will then be placed somewhere on an outside wall instead of on the donor picnic table.
10. New business
Jersey Jim (July 13) on-line auction details. Promotion of the auction will be undertaken by Anne with a display board in the library, Dana with the actual auction online, and Silvia with flyers. It was decided that the auction should begin Saturday, June 1, at noon and continue through Sunday, June 9, at 9 p.m., with a minimum starting bid of $50. More information can be obtained at the jerseyjimfoundation.org website.
Friends participation in Cowboy Half Marathon (June 22). Dana updated Friends on the program of the marathon to date: 81 participants registered so far out of a limit of 99, 43 for the half marathon and 33 for the 5K run, with one team challenge group. Fundraising is ahead of last year, and times for race starts will be earlier, per request of prior participants, to 7 a.m. for the half marathon and 7:30 for the 5K run. Dana requested that no bottled water be served at the event, and use of paper cups promoted to eliminate plastic garbage. Moose and More will donate popsickles for the kids and the library will purchase same for other runners. A request of $100 for the liquor license to be paid by Friends was approved. Mancos Brewery will be the sole provider of alcohol. Medals for place finishers are being created by the high school, with prizes from Soonto, Osprey, Moose and More, Millwood, and others. The town marshall will be on hand this year to prevent close calls with vehicles, which happened last year.
REMINDER: Mesa Verde artist in residence will perform May 10 at the library, at 6:30.
11. Adjourn at 8:12.
Next meeting: June 3, 2019