Post Office Box 357, Williamston, Michigan 48895-0357

Telephone: 517-655-5140

Website: www.wclf.info

Email: contact@wclf.info 

 

MEETING MINUTES 

 

WILLIAMSTON COMMUNITY LIBRARY FOUNDATION 

 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS REGULAR MEETING 

Wednesday, 9 May 2007

 

MEETING LOCATION:

Williamston Annex, 175 East Grand River, Williamston, Michigan. 

 

CALL TO ORDER:

The meeting was called to order at 7:01 p.m. by President, Susan Graff.

 

DIRECTORS PRESENT:

Jeff Bartrem, John Brazier, Fred Campbell, Marlene Epley, Susan Graff, Frank Kolasa, Julia O'Connor

 

DIRECTOR ABSENT:

Tom Clay and Fran Schaffert 

 

OTHERS PRESENT:

Bob Hanna, Carl McIntosh,  Chris Yelvington.

 

ADDITIONS TO AGENDA/APPROVAL OF AGENDA:

Work day at the lot was added by Marlene as a discussion item. Motion by Susan, seconded by Julia to move Discussion Items back on the agenda, ahead of Action Items. Susan called for a voice vote for the agenda change; voice vote passed. Motion by Susan, seconded by Fred to add a Discussion Item about Nominating Committee and an Action Item about the make-up of the Nominating Committee. Susan called for voice vote for change; passed by voice vote. Motion by Fred, seconded by Julia, to move Donation Policy out of Action Items and into Discussion Items. A discussion took place about whether or not to move the item to Discussion Items. Fred said that Susan can set the agenda and a vote doesn't need to be taken. Susan added to Discussion Items - a carry over from last meeting regarding, communication from the State regarding Solicitations for Charitable Organizations. Susan added Announcements to the Agenda to come after Public Comments.

 

INTRODUCTIONS:

None. 

 

PUBLIC COMMENT:

Bob Hanna announced the city has a budget workshop scheduled for Saturday, 9 a.m. [12 May 2007], and Barb Byrum who is the chairperson of the Small Government Committee, will be attending the City Council meeting on Monday [14 May 2007].

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Susan announced that Chris Yelvington is in attendance and has with her tickets for the dinner to be distributed for sale. Chris stated that payment for the tickets needs to be collected by the seller at the time of sale and all unsold tickets and money collected from sold tickets needs to be accounted for by 17 June. Julia asked if meals need to be purchased when tickets are sold to people who know ahead of time that they will not be attending the dinner but purchase tickets to support WCLF? Marlene answered that it can not be counted on because sometimes those people give their tickets away to someone who will attend. Last year at the point at which we knew we had extra food, we began selling tickets 'at the door' to walk-up customers. Julia suggested that instead of selling tickets to those people we ask if they will give the same amount as a donation.

 

At this point Chris assigned tickets while the meeting continued. 

 

Susan announced that Ms. Hurten from CADL has announced that the Next Phase Report is due and a date has been set to follow-up meeting with CADL, the architects, and township, city and WCLF representatives. Marlene volunteered to attend. Fred and Jeff need to know the date before they commit to attending. Susan will find out the date and let all of them know.

 

APPROVAL OF FINANCIAL REPORT:

Fred distributed the financial report in Tom's absence. Fred delivered information from Tom and pointed out that there were donations last month of $14,000 and principal and interest payments were made in the amount of $11,278.75. Tom would like to have authorization for another $10,000 payment for this month. A major item of concern is the renter Ryan who appears to be $3,800 in arrears. Tom is still reconstructing the ledger regarding the rent. Marlene asked how this happened. Jeff said that he has talked with, and obtained legal forms, from Dave Jones to proceed with eviction and collection of past due rent and utilities. Susan said that a registered letter needs to be sent to the renter. Frank asked the amount of the monthly rent which Susan replied is $550. Fred stated that he believes Tom's position will be that we need to pursue this as soon as possible. Fred stated that as soon as this matter is resolved the board needs to talk about what it is going to do with it in the future.

Motion by Julia, seconded by Jeff, to approve the Financial Report. Motion passed by voice vote.

Susan added Tom's request to make another $10,000 payment to Action Items. 

Susan explained that the $14,093 donation was action taken by Fran Schaffert as a result of closing on Fran's brother's estate. 

Fred said that the Board needs to decide how to receive donations of stock. He asked if he and Tom have permission to set-up an appropriate way to receive stock. Susan said that it first needs to be discussed. Fred said that no one can give stock until the Board has set up an appropriate method to do it. He will talk with Tom this moth and get a recommendation for next month.  

 

WCLF MINUTES OF 11 APRIL:

No additions or corrections were made to the minutes. Motion by Fred, seconded by John to approve the minutes as written. No further discussion. Passed by voice vote.

 

DISCUSSION ITEMS

• Small Towns Initiative Workshop - Marlene gave a brief explanation of meeting.  Susan, Fred, and Leo also attended. The final session will be a compilation of the results of the first and second sessions and is scheduled for September.

• Renter Arrears – Susan charged Jeff with pursuing as quickly as possible. Copies of letter and documents need to be given to the secretary. Susan instructed that a registered letter be sent by the end of the week. Jeff will check on the status of the utility bills. The water is billed to WCLF and WCLF bills back to the renter. Electric is in the renter's name. Susan said there needs to be two separate registered letters; one for Notice to Vacate and one to pay utilities and back rent. Jeff will report status and progress to Susan within a few days.

• Shirts – Marlene reported the shirts have been ordered and are expected to arrive any day. Marlene remembered the board had approved a $300 expenditure last year to purchase shirts but could not find any mention of same in the minutes. Fred motioned, Frank seconded that $300 be spent for purchase of the shirts. No discussion. Passed by voice vote.

 

ACTION ITEMS:

• Nominating Committee – In December 2006 Jeff, John and Marlene were appointed to the Nominating Committee. Since then the bylaws were rewritten and Marlene joined the Board. The bylaws specify that the Nominating Committee must have three members and no more than two of the members can be Board officials. Jeff, John and Marlene all volunteered to leave ?. John and Marlene will remain on the Nominating Committee and another person from the community will be recruited to fill the third position. Fred suggested that he and Jeff work together to recruit a third Committee member.

• Susan announced that it will not be possible for her to serve another term as President. Her term ends January 2008. 

• Stock and Real Property Transfer Donations – Fred said that this issue needs to be included in the Acceptance of Donations Policy topic. A discussion ensued about the draft Acceptance of Donations Policy. Fred reviewed the items in the draft policy that he believes need to be added, clarified and/or redrafted. Susan asked the Board to comment on the timeliness of acknowledgement.  Fred, Jeff and Tom will create a second draft which will be supplied at the June meeting.

• Endowment Fund – Fred said that Tom has spoken to someone at the Capital Region Community Foundation (CRCF) and they have not changed policy and there is no indication of when they might change their policy. They are willing to work with us to pursue and endowment fund with them and to work with us on a plan so we can accumulate a fund up to the minimum.

Susan asked if the Board thinks this is a good time to pursue establishing the endowment. Jeff asked if our first priority is to pay off the property note and are we ready to begin writing grants if the fund is in place. Fred expressed concern that once the money is in the fund it is locked up and it is no longer available. Fred wants to wait to learn the result of the Feasibility Study before committing $10,000 to the endowment fund. John, Frank and Julia agreed with Fred. Marlene agreed but asked for assurances that as soon as the Feasibility Study is finished the Board will take action to establish the endowment fund. She stated that the only thing that is holding up writing grant proposals is not having an endowment fund; we do not have to wait for the Feasibility Study to seek grants.

Susan asked that everyone continue to educate themselves about the endowment fund and be ready to submit questions and ideas as soon as the Feasibility Study results are learned.

• Printing Price Quote – Marlene reviewed the quote from Limner Press. The Board agreed to and order of 2500 letterhead and envelopes, 1000 note cards and envelopes, and 4000 one-color bookmarks. Jeff said his uncle has a printing business and he might possibly give us a better price or a donation. Susan proposed that the Board approve a specific amount of money and direct Marlene to pursue purchasing the stationery from Limner Press, pending feed back from Jeff about the possibility of a better price from his uncle. Motion by Julie, seconded by Frank, to authorize $1250 for purchase of stationery. No discussion. Approved by voice vote.

• Charitable Solicitation Form – Marlene will look though the old files that came from Ed and see if this form has been filed in prior year. Frank and Marlene will work on completing this form. 

 

REPORTS 

• Campaign Consultant Report – Jan is not in attendance tonight because she had oral surgery today. The information Jan shared with Marlene is that she has completed six of the first batch of interview and is waiting for return calls from the other candidates. Letters for the second batch of interviews have been mailed.

• Building Committee Report– Carl presented a Building Committee Report. He sought and received information from Lynn Wilson of the City about the zoning on the WCLF lot. The lot is zoned C1 which eliminates all set-backs. The city will have to do a site plan approval. A public hearing is set for 4 June to consider amendments to the zoning ordinance in regard to libraries and public buildings and Carl is planning on attending. Lynn Wilson asked Carl to make a projection, based on the square footage the proposed building, to determine how many parking spaces there would be that would adapt to the ordinance that is being proposed. Common parking in C1 zoning district is within 600 feet of the lot. Therefore all the parking does not have to be on the site.  Carl also reported that he is following up on obtaining adjacent property.

Susan reported that she had attended a City Council meeting at which a representative of MDOT spoke. Afterward Susan sent an email to Judith advising her that MDOT should be involved early in the planning process. 

• Fundraising Committee Report – Marlene reported that the Fundraising Committee is mostly focused on planning the dinner. Gordon Food has a water bottle program for non-profits so research is being conducted to determine the most economical plan. We are working with Joann to determine if we can have a WCLF drop box in the library. Father Clark has a scheduling conflict and will not be able to provide entertainment for the dinner. Saturday {12 May] a lot cleaning work session is scheduled. Leo and Marlene will begin work around 8:30 a.m.

 

PUBLIC COMMENTS 

Bob Hanna suggested supplying Holly Thompson at City Hall with a copy of our dinner flyer. Holly will make copies and include them in the City Council Board Packets for the meeting on Monday, [14 May]. Susan will get a flyer to Holly. 

 

BOARD MEMBER COMMENTS 

None.

 

ADJOURNMENT 

Motion by Fred, seconded by Julia. Vote not taken. Meeting adjourned at 8:32.

 

Respectfully submitted: 

 

Marlene Ann Epley, Secretary 

Approved: 14 June 2007