The Chairperson, Colleen Van Auken, called the meeting to order at 7:39PM
Present: J. Fausone, M. Siegrist, D. Turner, C. Van Auken
Absent: G. Snow, K. Schulz
Also Present: E. Davis, K. Gladden

Call to Audience

No comments (R. Havenstein-Coughlin, A. Heidemann, P. McNichol, L. Papa, S. Rzetelny)

Approval of Agenda

The agenda was approved as presented.

Approval of Minutes

J. Fausone moved and M. Siegrist supported a motion to approve the minutes of the December 16, 2010 meeting.
The motion passed unanimously 11/1-20-1

Communications

E. Davis shared the non-donation responses to the donation solicitation letter.

Report of the Library Director

The director informed the Board that a minor patron had been suspended for attempted theft of materials and that the library will be pressing charges.

The letter soliciting donations for the Operating Fund brought in around $12,000 before the end of 2010; these donations will be deposited to the fund balance, thus reducing the amount of the fund balance transfer for the RFID project (any donations that came in dated or postmarked in 2011 will be used for operating expenses in 2011; so far, around $2,000 has been received). Only a very small portion of the donations were earmarked for the Endowment Fund (Davis thanked L. Papa and the IT staff for their work in making fund choices available to patrons who donate online).

At the January meeting of the Friends of the Library Board, two requests for funding were approved:

• Subscription service with eShred to securely shred library or Friends’ documents containing sensitive information
• $3,000 for the purchase of eReaders (three each of the following: iPads, Nooks, Kobos and Sony Readers). B. Czerniak and O. Lo will begin training staff in the use of these eReaders so that they can assist patrons in downloading Overdrive books to their personal devices

There is no news from Lansing re: state aid in 2011 although, if state aid goes away, so will federal matching funds that support statewide interlibrary loan services. State Librarian Nancy Robertson has advised that she will release allocated funds, even though there is a lawsuit pending re: rules for qualifying for those funds.

Old Business

Nomination and Election of Officers for 2011

J. Fausone moved and C. Van Auken supported a motion to elect M. Siegrist as Chair, K. Schulz as Vice-Chair, and D. Turner as Secretary/Treasurer.
The motion passed unanimously 11/1-20-2.

Fundraising in 2011

Discussion was held as to what the Board’s fundraising philosophy and goals should be. Trustee Fausone shared examples of fundraising materials used by the Grosse Pointe Public Library Foundation. Chair Siegrist appointed himself and Trustee Fausone as members of a Fundraising subcommittee which will identify goals for fundraising efforts and clarify which issues the director should investigate.

New Business

None.

Call to Audience

None.

Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at 8:10PM