Friends of the Library
Minutes of the Spring Meeting
October 26, 2007
Chairman, Ann Reams ‘42 convened the Fall Meeting of the Friends of the Library in the Browsing Room of the Mary Helen Cochran Library on 26 October 2007. Mrs. Reams announced that Elisabeth Lipscomb has graciously accepted the position as new Vice-Chairman of the Friends. Mr. Jaffe presented Mrs. Reams with a gift from the Friends as a small token of our appreciation for all that she did as Chairman of the Friends. The following new council members were announced: Melissa Coffey ’98, Sarah Jane Moore ’59, John Ashbrook, and Rosaria Putz ’88. Mrs. Reams then passed the gavel to Stephen Mirabella, new Chairman of the Friends.
Mr. Mirabella thanked Mrs. Reams for all her efforts as chair including revitalizing the Friends committees, sending out minutes in advance and increasing the membership.
Mr. Mirabella announced that Jane Nelson, past Chairman of the Friends, sends her regrets for today’s meeting.
Friends present included: Greg and Edna Armstrong, John Ashbrook, Nancy Baldwin ’57, Mary Landon Brugh ’57, Eric Casey, Kathy Chase ’67, ‘57Melissa Coffey ’98, Roscoe Fitts, Connor Forren, Dorothea Fuller ’53, Mrs. Milan Hapala, Karen Hyde ’54, John Jaffe, Larry Janow, Julie Kane, Eebbie Kasper, Joyce Kramar, Helen Lewis ’54, Joe Malloy, Mary Alice Merchant, Stephen and Sigrid Mirabella, Sarah Jane Moore ’59, LaVerne Paige ‘06, Ro Putz ’88, Anne Richards ’84, John Risher, Peggy Ann Rogers ’56, Anne Rowe ’57, Janet Steven, Harold Swisher, Dick Wills.
The minutes were mailed out to council members before the meeting so that members would have time to read them and make notes in regards to any questions. It was noted that the Fall 2007 Meeting date was incorrectly listed as October 27th. The meeting is October 26th. Correction was noted & approved. Since there were no questions or other corrections to the minutes, Mr. Mirabella made a motion that the minutes be approved. The minutes for the Spring Meeting 2007 were approved.
MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
Connor Forren, Director of Donor Relations and Development Operations presented the membership report. The college fiscal years ends June 30th and last June the Friends had 182 members with a total dollar amount of $18,111.00. For comparison for the year before on June 30, 2006 the Friends had 180 members with a total dollar amount of $14.418.00. We had a 26% increase in giving this year. Mrs. Forren attributed this increase to the hard work of Joyce Kramar and Ann Reams. We start all over again on July 1st. 2007 and we are off to a great start. As of October 25, 2007, the Friends had 35 members with a total amount of $4,463.00. We have one new life member - Elisabeth ’59 & Lloyd Libscomb. Joyce Kramar has sent out the largest renewal mailing and will be sending a letter to all freshman parents in November. We will also do a solicitation in January 2008 and another one in April or May of 2008. Ms. Forren reminded the members to please be sure and keep up their memberships and to help you do that we have some renewal forms here today.
FINANCE COMMITTEE
Janet Steven, Assistant Professor of Biology had no report. John Jaffe stated that the Finance Committee work was in the spring and they had proposed that we continue with the same budget we had last year. Mr. Jaffe proposed that we accept the same budget this year as last year. The friends accepted the budget. Ms. Steven is replacing John Goulde who was our Treasurer for many years. We want to welcome Janet and thank her for serving on the council.
NEEDS COMMITTEE
Eric Casey, Associate Professor of Classics, gave the Needs Committee Report. Mr. Casey stated that we the committee had to do a lot of cutting as our total faculty requests came to $12,500.00 and we only had a little over $6,000.00 to spend. Making the requests was a lot easier than trying to cut them. We had a good meeting with excellent discussions and believe that we came up with a reasonable list of needs requests. Our total requests came to $6,140.41 and Mr. Casey requested that the Friends accept the Needs Requests. The Friends approved the purchase of these items.
EVENTS COMMITTEE
Mr. Joe Malloy gave the Events Committee Report. First of all Mr. Malloy once again thanked Tom Burford for his wonderful apple tasting presentation. We had a wonderful group and really enjoyed tasting all the apples that Tom Burford brought as well as learning history about the apples. Mr. Malloy also mentioned that we had a grape tasting event in the fall. Cliff Ambers, husband of one of our faculty members, gave the presentation. Mr. Ambers has a great vineyard and sells his grapes every week at the Lynchburg Farmers Market. April 11, 2008 will be our Spring Meeting of the Friends. We don’t have a pre- meeting event scheduled as yet, but President Muhlenfeld will be our Gerhard Masur Lecturer immediately following our spring dinner with the Friends of Art.
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
The Library Gazette will be published this spring and distributed to all members of the Friends of the Library. The Nicole Basbanes Book Collecting Contest will be featured as well as the results of the Friends’ apple tasting.
OLD BUSINESS
There was no old business
NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Jaffe stated that the spring meeting will be on April 11, 2008 and the fall meeting will be on Oct 24, 2008.
STATE OF THE LIBRARY REPORT
Mr. Jaffe reported on the state of the library. He also invited everyone to the Ghost Tours at 5 PM and to the library for hot cider and cookies afterwards. Then at 7:30 tonight after dinner the Theatre Department is presenting the play “Measure by Measure” to which everyone is invited.
The library has been very busy over the summer through the fall period. The final pieces of the new furnishings in the Reading Room and throughout the library are in place. The furnishings have been very well received. The library has been seeing almost three quarters of the student population pass through the front door everyday.
The Library Planning Committee has been tasked by the Board to review the plans for the new library facilities that were done in 1995 and to bring them up to date. A preliminary report is due to the Board in November and a final report is due in the spring.
Between those times the committee will be gathering data affirming the program elements and gathering data from costs. Eventually architects will be asked for design proposals.
It was planned that the expansion of the library will take place on the backside of the original Cram building. This is still being considered but so are several other ideas including a new stand-alone facility. In 1995, the expansion called for serving 620-650 students. We are already doing this. New projections are for 800-850 students and 1,000 users, which changes the 1995 proposals. New technologies in book storage and retrieval are also being considered.
The mandates of the American Disabilities Act continue to state that you need certain spaces for aisles, door widths, ends of isles, staircases. We are lacking in this building in many of these requirements.
We are considering all plans in conjunction with the President’s campus climate initiative in which Sweet Briar will be seeking to reduce its carbon footprint. We hope that all new buildings on campus will be able to be LEED certified, that’s the standard for green buildings.
Finally, Mr. Jaffe introduce Julie Kane our new staff member who came to Sweet Briar from Stanford Law Library. Please get to know her she is a great new asset to the library.
Mr. Mirabella adjourned the meeting. |
