Chairman's Report — Gibsons & District Library Foundation, 2011
This will be my last report to the library foundation because I will be stepping down after nine years on the board. I have enjoyed my time with the Library Foundation, as well as my earlier service with Friends of the Library and before that the library board. Our library is a very valuable and very popular local institution, and I feel that all of us on the library foundation can feel some pride in having enhanced its effectiveness.
These are a few of the highlights of the past year:
- Thanks largely to the efforts of treasurer Bert Reeve, with helpful input from John McNevin and Russell Crum, we have a new long-term investment policy which will enable us to invest the money we receive in very effective ways. Bert will be giving more details later in this meeting.
- The website has been updated with new directors’ photos and biographies, and photos from “A Way With Words.”
- A “donor book” was created by former chair Lynda Coote to list all the donations that have been made to the Library Foundation since its inception.
- The Library Foundation received about $2,100 in donations in 2010, including two substantial anonymous donations.
- Donations to the library totalled $5,700 last year, bringing the over-all total since the library foundation started to about $47,000. Among the items purchased with our gifts last year were an upgraded Microsoft Office package for the public internet stations and replacement of wicker chairs throughout the library.
We decided not to proceed with the “Lights for Literacy” campaign in 2010, in part because most of the donations in the previous two campaigns came from Library Foundation directors themselves. This campaign may be resumed at another time.
One of the subjects that we have discussed over the years is the need for a focused fund-raising effort. As one director put it, we need to “rally around” something that the library really needs but can’t obtain without our help. The regular, annual “wish list” is fine, but to attract major donors, we probably need a major request. I believe the Library Foundation has been very successful in supporting the library in modest ways, but if the proposed expansion ever goes ahead, this may be a good opportunity for the Library Foundation to raise a substantial sum of money for a substantial project.
Good luck to all of you as you continue the work of the Library Foundation. I will continue to support you behind the scenes.
—submitted by Vern Giesbrecht, chairman, March 30, 2011
