Capital Campaign Committee meeting, Sunday, March 6, 2011

Time: 5:30 pm; location: JTEL office

Agenda:

Review of notes from February 17, 2011 meeting

Librarypalooza wrapup/overview

Reports on assignments:

• Deirdre: Murdock grant, federal appropriation, community revenue sharing, survey response to date, grantwriting workshop
• Greta: grants.gov registration
• Monique: 501(c)(3) application, business plan, marketing plan, survey booth sitting
• Roy: office sponsors, Rasmuson grant
• Todd: Rasmuson grant

Financial implications of USKH design, campaign goal

Endowment recommendation for board

Grant application timeline

Schedule next meeting: April 1, 2011

MEETING NOTES

call to order at 5:51 pm

present: Greta Burkart, Roy Earnest, Deirdre Helfferich

Deirdre took notes; Monique on her way to Juneau, previous meeting’s notes unavailable, so minutes were tabled until the next meeting.

Librarypalooza overview:

Deirdre recapped discussions at Lallapalooza wrapup meeting held at the Eagle on Monday, February 28, explaining volunteer job descriptions idea, checklists for station setups, Star Davis’ plan to rework pay table procedure. General smoothness of Lallapalooza despite odd glitches. Publicity good, and although fewer bidders (61), spent proportionately more. Good article by Molly Rettig, despite controversial quote. Nancy deposited $5,588 from Lallapalooza, including a $500 donation from CB Bettisworth.

Leftovers Sale earned much less than previous year, only $304.10, with an additional $230 paid on Lallapalooza items picked up at the sale. This smaller income was probably due to lack of variety in items available: mostly books. Last year’s sale had many more things (pottery, inexpensive jewelry, artwork, widgets). Still, not bad.

Additional comments:

• door prizes were too many, door prize draw not well planned. Many of those items could have gone to the Leftovers Sale, board members should not have received any of the door prizes.

• general agreement that three hours was too short, five too long; four should make a good compromise. Deirdre suggested that, since the Fairbanks Symphony always has a concert on this same day at 4 pm, that the time of the Lallapalooza be moved back to noon to 4 pm, making it more of a lunchtime event—and perhaps not losing symphony-goers, who are often well off and like to support libraries.

• note that dessert auction didn’t make as much money as last year—no item went even near $100, but the silent auction of desserts two years before brought in one or two items that approached or exceeded this figure. Important to think about where we actually make money: outcry or silent auction? which items are best for which auction?

• Greta asked about how the donations compared between this year and last: value vs. actual bid (spreadsheet not yet created).

• Roy asked about BP donation: not received, apparently no response. Nancy waiting for word from Jeff Rogers.

• Roy said that Rasmuson Foundation had asked about any Friends of the Ester Library group; Roy recommended strongly that a FEL be organized, rather like a phone tree or action listserve, so that when events came up or particular fundraising goals set, the group could be involved. FEL would include members of the library, interested people and volunteers who may or may not be members, etc. This group would be somewhat like our current very loose-knit FEL, but more organized. Roy will take on getting this started.

• Roy & Greta suggested that a list of items to be bid on, at least in the outcry auction, be available at the start of the Lallapalooza to hand out to guests so they have a little time to think about what they want to bid on. Even better would be an advance list to send with invitations to people who might want to come out and support the library with significant donations or bidding (big-money supporters).

• No one has volunteered to write about the Lallapalooza for The Ester Republic as a followup article, despite request beforehand. Deirdre will write if no one else does, but then the problem of all the library news being from her viewpoint continues to exist.

• Applause note needs to be sent to the News-Miner and the Republic, including list of volunteers and businesses that donated.

• Very important: thank-you writing party and general dinner needs to be held SOON. The longer the delay, the more difficult it gets to do, and the more irrelevant. Very important that thank-yous be sent out promptly and that volunteers be recognized and offered some kind of appreciation. Problem of where to host such a post-Lalla event. Deirdre will ask Nancy and Amy if they would be willing to host this; send general note to board.

Assignments:

Deirdre: NTR on Murdock, draft letter of inquiry will be ready for workshop; did not remember to file for federal appropriation with Begich’s office—to much to do, and completely forgot about it; still in the queue for consideration on community revenue sharing.

Community Survey:

Deirdre recapped survey to date: 19 respondents so far. Booth sitting on Saturday made a definite difference in responses (12 respondents on Fri March 4, 19 on Sun March 6).

Items of note:

• most people think that a local, community library is valuable or very valuable

• PickClickGive the most-suggested fundraising means

• a quarter of respondents (5) think that joining the FNSB library system would be worthwhile

• only three actual concerns/criticisms (of eight comments) of the plans/library: plans too ambitious, concern about operating costs, and library thought not necessary (due to Noel Wien)

• computer use and WiFi high among reasons to use the library

Grantwriting Workshop:

Deirdre spoke with Susan Willsrud on March 5; looks like the first or second Sunday in April will be best, with perhaps an orientation, info handout on the Friday before. Workshop will be a half-day, three to four hours, more a work session with participants gaining practical experience and working in teams on potential library grants. Mix of experienced and new grantwriters will be good. Sue Hills might be interested; Deirdre will contact. CCC decided April 10 good date for workshop, with April 1 being a preliminary meeting to hand out information on particular grants and the grantwriting process.

Greta: grants.gov NTR, will investigate problem

Roy: updated office sponsors spreadsheet; need to look for more possible sponsors. Called Sine Anahita; no response yet. Deirdre will send an e-mail, and will talk with Judie Triplehorn.

Rasmuson Foundation:

Roy talked with Ann Holen regarding the Homer Library; she sent a copy of their grant application and various other materials, including a brochure to solicit “recognition opportunities:” sponsors for various parts of their library ($100,000 for the fireplace/lounge, $75,000 for a conference room, $50,000 for the circulation desk, $20,000 for a window bench, $12,000 for a reading nook, etc.) Deirdre will create a similar draft brochure for the JTEL, using the current floor plan.

The Homer Library also sent its financial information, which will be helpful for creating a business plan. Roy & Todd Hoener are working on the “dream budget” for the JTEL; hope to have it complete by end of March.

Endowment

After some discussion, the CCC agreed to recommend to the JTEL board that $2,000 be used to start an endowment with the Alaska Community Foundation, with the only restriction on it being that no funds can be withdrawn before 2014, to make clear to the public that no money in the endowment will be used for construction, but rather for programs and long-term support of the library.

Proposal from Don Cameron

(Deirdre has informed the full board that a proposal is coming from Don Cameron on the possibility of his selling us the Annex for use as a library.) Deirdre asked Don, when he informally approached her with the idea, to provide the JTEL board with a more formal proposal for consideration, but did indicate a few concerns to him: heating costs & carbon footprint, location, land already purchased in the village, design contract signed. Concern generally expressed by CCC that, by even considering a proposal to purchase a building—and especially this late in the process—the board is opening itself up to all kinds of other proposals and problems resulting from them. At some point, the board must commit itself to a given course. Signing the design contract with USKH is pretty close to that, but not exactly. Board should make a resolution of some sort committing itself to this course of action: desiging and building a library. Make it official. However, the board will have a better idea about the possibilities and the direction it should take once it sees the proposal.

Grant Application Timeline—tabled

Next meeting: April 1, to coincide with workshop

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