MINUTES
FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE
ELISHA D. SMITH PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES
JULY 31, 2015
Called to order at 9:02am by Crawmer
Present: Coopman, Crawmer and Wicihowski
Absent: Rollins-Jump
Also Present: Murray, Director Lenz and K. Dreyer (Administrative Assistant)
Public Comment/Communication: None
Action Items/Fundraising Efforts
A. Approval of Minutes: Wicihowski moved, Crawmer seconded to approve the Fundraising Committee minutes from April 14, 2015. Motion carried unanimously.
B. Mission Statement: The board of trustees has requested this committee’s mission statement & goals. Crawmer will send out a survey for some direction.
C. Smith Family Book Collection: The Smith Family Book Collection came with a catalog of the books and an estimate of the worth of each book is according to eBay or other sources. Volunteers verified each book and made some additions/deletions. Peggy Steeno, City of Menasha Director of Administrative Services, said that the collection is part of what we do at the library and we can do whatever we want with it. Tom Lyons, Thomas A. Lyons Fine Books, suggested having a live auction. The committee will recommend to the board to put a PDF list of the books on the library’s website with an opportunity to bid for the entire collection with a deadline of November 1, 2015. All bids will be considered but any bid under $10,000 may not be accepted. If we are unable to sell the whole collection, then we will sell it piece by piece in the book sale as part of the sale’s usual collection of antique books.
D. Incorporation as Nonprofit Organization: Even though the library/Friends are not a 501(c)3, donations to the Friends or the endowment fund have the same tax benefit since they are part of the City of Menasha. In order to form a 501(c)3, there is a cost of about $800-$1,000, IRS forms would need to be filled out each year to maintain that status and another board would need to be formed. The committee does not feel that we are at the point of needing to incorporate as a nonprofit organization.
E. Relationship with Friends: The committee discussed how to coordinate efforts with the Friends volunteers. A member of Friends is now a part of the Fundraising Committee. The question is do the volunteers want to become a formal organization and meet 2-4 times per year? On August 19, some of the volunteers that help with the book sale will meet to discuss how the book sales are going, how they can be improved and what staff can do to help. Crawmer and Wicihowski will attend this meeting to find out how they feel about Friends formalizing.
F. Future Fundraising Projects: In April, the committee talked about holding a Murder Mystery fundraiser around Halloween. Instead, another chili cook off at Waverly Beach was discussed for either October 25 or December 6. It was suggested sending a letter to the vendors to see if they would be interested in donating chili again to try to take away the title from the Neenah-Menasha Fire Rescue. The fundraising events for 2015 could be (pending board approval): end of year donation letter, chili cook off and the proceeds from the Smith Collection.
Adjournment
Motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:53am was made by Crawmer and seconded by Wicihowski. Motion carried unanimously.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathy Dreyer, recording secretary
