(From the February 2017 Circle of Friends Newsletter)
Happy New Year! This month marks the completion of the first year of my tenure as President of the Friends and it’s been quite a learning curve. So many responsibilities and details to come up to speed on! I couldn’t have done it successfully without the advice and support of the current and past Board members and feedback from the volunteers
and customers. Thank you all.
Become active: What keeps an all-volunteer non-profit organization like ours going and growing is having new people come aboard. We are always looking for new volunteers, whether as substitute BookStore staff, a dedicated BookStore shift assignment, or book sales assistance. Bring your energy, expertise, and interests so that we can continue to grow with and support the CV library.
Toward the end of this year, we will have four Board of Directors openings to be voted on at the regular General Members’ meeting. These are open to all members. New retirees could use this to make the segue from work life into a fulfilling volunteer life. Bring your business, teaching, or professional experience and direct it anew. You may have retired, but your mind and energy haven’t. The effort required in these positions, other than President or Treasurer which have some defined responsibilities, is pretty much what you are willing to put in.
BookStore Operations: This New Year sees the re-establishment of the BookStore Committee. This committee, which has been in abeyance for some time, oversees the orderly and consistent operation of the BookStore in the library. As such, it is charged with ensuring that all BookStore volunteers are trained in the procedures and policies of the various operations that have been developed over the years to ensure that we provide a good product for our many customers and Friends members who are ultimately the ones who allow us to support many programs at the Castro Valley Library. The books that you find on our sales shelves are assured to be clean, free of odor or stain, and properly categorized by our genre experts. Please feel free to let me know, via a note placed in my folder in the BookStore office, if you have any issues.
December Book Sale: The sale was a great success both in book sales and memberships. Due to lower donations, we started out with about twenty percent fewer books than usual but what there were sold very well and we ended up a little more than half the usual leftovers which are donated to local non-profits for their resale. Gross results were about fifteen percent above the August sale. Thank you all for your custom.
Roger Caswell, President
Friends of the Castro Valley Library