Happy Thanksgiving

For all the Friends of Libraries - it's a season of Thanksgiving,

Thank You for your dedication to your group,

Thank You for your support of your public library,

Thank You for the countless hours you spend sorting books for the sales,

Thank You for raising awareness to the community around you that your library is an amazing resource for all,

Thank You for all the fund raising events that keep your calendar full of great things to do, and

Thank You  for reaching out and involving so many people in the mission of the Friends.

May you enjoy the holiday season, pass along the thanks to everyone you see.   May you enjoy Health, Joy and Peace.

Photo Courtsey of  mckenzieo @flicker

Mail Bag

Hi all, I've been settling back into the way of life since the FOCL Conference.  I am so impressed by the great job that was done and by the number of people that attended representing so many Friends groups.

In the last week or so, I've received some email questions and will be sharing them with you as I receive them.


From Penny:
We currently only send thank you's to new life members, and those making donations over and above the membership amount. Based on all I heard Saturday, I would like to send thank you's to all the rest of the members - new and renewal - wonder if you think a hand written postcard would be ok (short, save postage) or it really needs to be a proper note card ?  thank you!

To Penny:
Actually postcard idea sounds great. It's isn't the actual "form" in as much as it is the actual "thank you" you send to your members. As we heard from the conference, Thank You is so important.  You need to look at your budget for membership and plan accordingly for either postcards, note cards and the postage.

Couple of ideas for your postcard: Have some information preprinted, such as; your logo, address and phone number of how to get in touch with you, and your website address. You won't need the postal service "Address Service Requested" as you are writting to current members.

Depending on your budget, you might make the postcards available to all your committee chairs so they can send quick notes to those members that volunteer.

Great Job Penny

Getting those Volunteers! Stop it

I read this great article that said we need to Stop trying to get volunteers and instead begin to interview our members.  We should find out what they are interested in, their passions, and then our organization may gain new insights and then new volunteers. 

Click here Three Questions That Mobilize Members to Volunteer to read more about it.

There is also a great tip card link that summarizes the essence of the article. 

Snafu's

Just last night, I found out that there was difficulty using the downloads from my links to Google Docs.  Much thanks to Mary and Carl at FOCL for pointing this out!

My apologies to everyone.  One of the difficult taks in writting a blog, is determining what is 'best'.  We all know that 'best' is different for everyone.  My first choice didn't work!  Opps and a great lesson learned!

Late last night and early this morning, I've changed all the links on my Great Download page to make it easier for you, my readers, to view and save the presentation.

Again, Thank you, Keep up your work with your Friends Groups, You all do a Great Job.

Books for FOCL Membership seminar

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Books for FOCL Membership seminar

View more documents from pjfcpa.

Advocacy at www.ilovelibraries.org

Election Day is over once again.  Here in Connecticut we had some real battles, not enough ballots to vote on, and it was ruled we could wear WWW clothing to the polls.

While all of that is over, I urge you not to sit back.  Our battle to keep our libraries funded is not only on the local level.  Some of the sorely needed money is funded at the Federal level.  The site http://www.ilovelibraries.org/, part of American Library Association has some great information about advocacy for libraries and what we need to remind our legislators about in Washington.

At the Federal level, there is a grant called LSTA - or Library Services and Technology Act which was signed into law in 1996 by President Clinton.  It wasn't really "new" as it's predesessors were the Library Services Act and the Library Services and Construction Act.  This Act, LSTA, needs your support.  This grant helps funds all that is technology, and we all know that is important.  By clicking on the link above, you will be taken to the site and you can then hunt around. 

On of the links for this page allows you to send a prepared email to your Federal congress person.  It's great - except in my humble opinion - email stinks.  If you really want the elected offical to pay attention, take the note and send it to the local office.  That means they have to handle it in person and it is delivered in the "pouch" to your representative.  Even better, and this gets lots of attention - pick up the phone and call the local office or call Washington.  Don't be surprised that you'll speak with a staff member.  Staff members are the best. 

Several years ago, I was in Washington and 'stomping' on the Hill.  It was a lot of fun and we got a great chance to walk around.  What we found amazing, is how much staff wanted to talk with us, "the voters from home".  When we had the chance to speak with our representatives directly, they said that unfortunately they can not answer all emails, but getting a phone call means the most and they can get additional information right away.  On that last stomping visit - we were asking for our congress persons to sign on to a 'friend of letter'.  Staff was unaware of the "letter" and before the day was out, (we got an email two hours later) the congress person had signed on.  It works!!

If you have the chance - pick up the phone - call Washington and let them know that your library depends on the LSTA grants. 

Here's the "message" from the ALA site, consider sending or calling your Legislators today.

I am writing to urge you to support $300 million for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) in the FY 2011 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill. Across the country, countless libraries are facing state and local budget cuts while experiencing sharp increase in patron traffic. America's libraries need your support now more than ever.

Your constituents depend on their local libraries every day,perhaps in ways you may not realize. Sixty-seven percent of our nation's libraries report that they provide the only free access to computers and the Internet in their communities, but libraries provide more than access. Within the last two years, libraries have experienced significant increases to the areas of support to the public they offer the greatest increases of services have been in helping patrons complete online job applications, create resumes, and access job databases and searches. Unfortunately, during this time of increased demand for public libraries, library budgets all across the country are being drastically cut. This culture of rising demand and lowering budgets has created a 'perfect storm' for America's libraries.

Thank you, and I hope that you will support libraries in FY 2011.

Social Media - It's here to stay

And what are you doing about it? At the FOCL conference this past Saturday we discuss the future with social media. It's big and getting bigger as we 'speak'. Found this video... watch it... we need to go forward and use it.

FOCL CONFERENCE

What a Success!  Thanks to our Friends at FOCL and Elihu Burritt Library at CCSU, the conference was a success.

More than 40 Friends groups were represented.  I enjoy presenting to FOCL and subjects about the Friends.  Friends of Libraries are near and dear to my heart.  They are the individuals that add additional deminsions to our libraries. 

We learned tremendous information and were able to share stories of what worked and what didn't work.  The statistics at the end of the event gave us some great information about what is happening now among our groups.

I did notice that the "fear" that if a group gives the library too much then the Town will cut the budget.  It's not real a real fear.  Most town/cities want their libraries to flourish.  I would hope that if the town cuts the budget because the Friends made a contribution, then I would hope that the Friends show up loud and clear and let them know that  "fear" doesn't work.  Advocacy - topic for another day.

Thanks to Chip Marsh, Sharon Clapp and our Carl Nawrocki for being my co-presenters on this most important topic.  To read more about it, visit FOCL's website .  You can pick up the handouts on my Great Download & Links.

Thanks to everyone that has stopped by to visit.  I will be publishing more of the topics in a bit more depth.  Do you have a comment?  Email me at  friends at pattyjfoley dot com.

FOCL CONFERENCE

The FOCL Fall Conference will be held Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, CT - tomorrow.

I'm just about ready - the last of the handouts are printing.  I'm re-rehersing the slides so all goes well.  Tomorrow will be a great day for Friends of Libraries.

This year's topic is Membership - a subject so near and dear to my heart.  We, as Friends Groups, need to create sustainable funding for their groups and their library. 

In the next couple of days I'll be preparing a review of the other speakers and will have my slide presentation available for you.

Hope to see you at CCSU!

Email Etiquette

Email can be a quick and efficent tool for communication today.  We can jot off a quick note, forward jokes, and send replies. 

Yet, when we use email for communicating with our Friends group, we should take care and use etiquette.   This email represents not only who you are, it represents your organization!  So put your best 'send' forward.

Every email sent, should have a saluation to the addressee, the message and a closing.  Seems easy enough and of course it really depends on who you are writting/responding to.

Addressee - be sure that their name is spelled correctly.  Not a great way to get started if you spell their name incorrectly.

If this email is going to a multiple of individuals, like the board where everyone knows each other, then putting their names/emails in the "TO" or "CC" box may be fine.  Ask everyone on your Board their preference.  This will be especially true when the group is collaborating on a project or an event.

If this email is going to a multiple of people, then use your "BCC" box or a 'list' that will not disclose the individual's email address.

One tip I read about is not to fill in the Addressee until the end.  That way if you  inadvertently hit the 'send' button too quickly, you'll save yourself a possible embarrassing moment.

Salutation - While you may be best buddies, and Hey you, may be appropriate, remember that your email may get forwarded to someone else that may be interested in your group.  If it is the first time you will be writting to a person, it may be approprate to address them as Mr., Ms. etc.

Subject Line - this is an interesting area and a bit of contention with me.  I'm a believer of not putting more than one subject in an email.  That way, on forwards and replies the email thread stays relevant.

Message - keep the message brief.  Keep the tone polite and friendly.  If spelling or grammer  isn't one of your strongest skills, be sure to spell and grammer check.  If your email editor doesn't contain those two tools, you may consider typing your email in a word processing software and when you are sure that it is ready to go, then copy and paste it to your email for sending.

Since we are communicating about our Friends group, we need to keep the communication at a business level.

Post Script or P.S. - another great tip I just read about was to put your PS before your closing.  Depending on the length of your closing, your reader may never see the PS!

Closing/Signature - here is where we may need to be careful.  The 'sincerely' may be too formal, and 'see ya' may be too informal.  You could try 'best regards/wishes', 'kind regards/wishes', 'many thanks' are just a few to choose from.  Next, and in my opinion, do not leave this out.  You need to put your name, full name, title, name of your Friends Group, contact phone, email, website, and possibly a tag line.  The tag line is a great way for you to get some important information out to the reader.  Depending of the software used, you can have several different 'signatures' for email.  I keep a different one for each type of engagment I may be working on.  Just lately, I've been receiving email with the senders picture in it.  It's a nice touch.  Something to consider.

How is your email doing? Keeping the etiquette up will continue to reflect you and your group's professionalism.

PS.  Here is an example of my signature for my Friends group.

Best to you,

Patty
Patricia J. Foley, CPA

Membership Chair
Friends of the Lucy Robbins Welles Library
http://www.friendslrwlibrary.org/
Email info@friendslrwlibrary.org
Phone 860-667-0000

~~ Supporting our Library since 1961 ~~

My Blog - http://friendslibrarys.blogspot.com/