(From the August 2016 Circle of Friends Newsletter)
Membership Period Change: As is detailed elsewhere in this newsletter, as a result of a unanimous vote by members in attendance at the 27 June 2016 members meeting, the membership period for the Friends has been changed from being coincident with our fiscal year to the more understandable calendar year. This will result in the 2017 membership period having a total of fifteen months. New or renewing 2016 memberships will be available only until August 14th after which 2017 will be available starting at the Members’ Night book sale on the 19th.
Friends Board of Directors Openings: There will be three openings on the Friends Board of Directors this November as the Vice President and the two co-Treasurer positions come up for election. These are two-year positions with duties as described in the by-laws available on the Friends website. Board meetings are once a month, currently on Tuesday mornings at the library BookStore area. A nominating committee, which is exclusive of Board members, is being established to compile a list of candidates for the positions. The election will be at the Annual Meeting, tentatively scheduled for the 9th of November, where all members in good standing can vote. Please contact any of the Board members if you
are interested in any of the positions or in being part of the nominating committee.
August Book Sale: The Friends’ summer book sale is scheduled for August 19th through 21st in the Chabot/Canyon rooms at the library. Friday night is, of course, Members Only night but you can become a member or renew at that time, and the first 2017 membership cards will be available at that time. Try to arrive by 5:45 pm on Friday as the line gets rather long. From the looks of the contents at the storage facility, there will a good amount of hard cover mysteries, children’s and young adult books, and the usual plethora of cookbooks and food and wine books for the gourmands among our members. A large number of prime condition Japanese Manga books have been donated and should be available unless they are sold beforehand by our on-line sales staff.
Book Store Volunteers: As you already know, the Friends BookStore is staffed by volunteers who receive the book, magazine, and multimedia donations, ensure that the merchandise is clean and salable, sort between Book Store and book sale quality, and sell the merchandise and memberships. These volunteers usually work a set shift each week. Some are in on multiple days. We try to have consistent standards applied by the various volunteers as to operation of the Book Store through our policies and procedures directives. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement.
Membership Information: Often, in the busy times at the Book Store, vital information is missing from the membership forms and thus from our database. This can become an issue at the Members Only Book Sale night. Please help us by ensuring that your membership information is complete when filling out a renewal or new membership form.
Roger Caswell, President
Friends of the Castro Valley Library