Minutes of June 6, 2011

Haverhill Library Association
Minutes of June 6, 2011 meeting

The monthly meeting of the Haverhill Library Association was held at the library and called to order by Board of Trustees Chairman John Landrigan at 7:30 P.M. on June 6, 2011. Present were Trustees John Landrigan, Vesta Smith & Mike Marshall and Librarian Nanci Myers.

Minutes of the May 9, 2011 meeting were approved with the notation that the book discussion of Will in the World, How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare would be held on June 29, not 28. A discussion was held regarding the best way to answer a letter from Robert Fillion requesting research material.

Work has not yet started on repairs to our roof and gable ends and there was no new information offered about a cleanup day for the library’s grounds. John reported that he sent letters requesting funding for the building repairs to six foundations and received two replies. The Cogswell Benevolent Trust has requested more information and the Byrne Foundation sent us a check for $3,000 with an offer to give us $2,000 more if we can match it in fundraising. We discussed the possibility of making another appeal to our Annual Appeal list and also to area businesses in an attempt to raise these matching funds. Discussions of the proper way to acknowledge donors to such an appeal were held with the possibilities using the Library’s web page, FaceBook, newspaper ads and/or a sign in the library for that purpose. Even with more successful fundraising, it appears that the balance of funds to pay for the roof and brick repairs will have to be withdrawn from our investments.

John explained that a deposit of $240, received from the Annual Appeal, does not appear in the financial report; the actual total received from the Annual Appeal is $1,700, not $1,460, and therefore the Total Income figures for May and Year to Date are under-reported by $240. John noted that the report shows a large gap between income and expenditures, but that will close with the expected large payments still to be received from the Mildred Page Fund and Haverhill Corner Precinct.

John plans to man a book sale table at the Haverhill Congregational Church’s strawberry festival. A book discussion of Will in the World, How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare will be held on June 29 to mesh with Alumni Hall’s summer Shakespeare festival. The status of the Autumn Festival formerly sponsored by RSVP is still unknown and we will wait to see what happens before we attempt to make plans to hold another pig roast such as we did at last year’s festival. Looking ahead, the Board agreed to hold an Author’s Luncheon with Jane Cleland on April 15, 2015.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 P.M. The next monthly meeting will be 7:30 P.M. at the library on Monday, July 11, 2011, which is one week later than usual due to the Fourth of July holiday.

Respectfully submitted,
Michael Marshall