Minutes of the November 18, 2014 Meeting

MINUTES FOR THE MEETING OF THE FRIENDS OF THE MERRICK LIBRARY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2014 Karen A. Tusa opened the meeting at 4:35 PM. Present: Karen A. Tusa (President), Howard Schwartz (Vice President), Diane Christie (Treasurer), David R. Stayer (Secretary), Marion Ormsten (Correspondence Chair), Joan Sculli (Publicity Chair), Ellen Firer (Merrick Library Director) and Art Sacharof (Library Trustee). The minutes were read and approved. Ellen Firer suggested that since the minutes are emailed in advance that they not be read aloud. Karen A. Tusa will ask at subsequent meetings if the minutes need to be read. Diane Christie gave the report of the treasurer. Savings account $3,462.65 Checking $298.58. The tote bags brought in $16.00, Better World Books brought us $130.78, Raffle $47.00, Membership brought in $75.00 and interest from the bank netted $2.58. Diane moved for acceptance of the report and David seconded. The motion passed. We will order more tote bags. Karen A. Tusa will be in charge of membership and Howard Schwartz will be in charge of the Craft Fair. We will need to update our Friends brochure. A letter from a church which has had craft fairs in the past was reviewed. The Friends have asked Ellen Firer to ascertain whether the library list of patrons can be used for a blast emailing to assist in our membership drive. We do not know the answer since library Lawyers must be consulted. We need to determine how many tables for vendors at the craft fair can fit in the Merrick Library Multipurpose Room. The Friends have purchased flash drives to be sold to patrons who use the Library computers to download data. Karen A. Tusa informed us that the Friends have incorrectly been classified by the IRS as a Support Group. This is being corrected. An amendment to the Friends Bylaws will propose that the Friends change our fiscal year so it goes from January 1, through December 31. The proposed amendment will be read at our December meeting. The Friends now contribute toward the Museum Passes which the library offers to patrons. We will have a presence on Sunday, January 25, 2015 for Merrick Library Day. Also we will submit a Save the Date May 3, 2015 for our Friends Craft Fair. Our next two meetings are scheduled for Tuesday, December 9, 2014 and Tuesday, January 13, 2015 at 4:30 PM at the Merrick Library. The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 PM. Respectfully submitted David R. Stayer, LCSW-R