Our Friends 2023 Annual Meeting was held in October and is an event we do every fall as our Bylaws require.
We like to think of this once-a-year meeting as an hour well spent: two of our four board officers are elected. We address and vote on amendments, modifications or additions to the bylaws. There are reports about the past year from Library Staff and from Board members, and we always have a guest speaker. Our guest speaker this year was Judith Everitt, President of the Friends group of the Philadelphia City Institute, a branch of the Free Library at 19th and Locust. As a former School Librarian, she spoke to both the history of and the current state of book bans, and her presentation was informative and enlightening.
Drew’s report shared some of the events of the past year at the Falls Library which included successful programs and the new Staff people including Grace Foster, the Children’s Librarian. He also honored Mr. Rivers who is celebrating 18 years at the Falls Branch. Drew also announced Ms. Nancy Harris joining as the LEAP After School Leader! LEAP is the Literacy Enrichment Afterschool Program (LEAP) that offers K-12 out-of-school programming that fosters an inclusive, informal learning environment for children, teens, and
families, with accessible learning activities that build on life skills, Maker philosophies, and wellness concepts. Drew also spoke to his hopes for 2024.
In the Q & A following his presentation, someone asked about the new hours that the Library initiated in October which hinder a member of her family having a child there for the after school programs. This challenge has been raised by other people too. This is a city-wide Free Library change and is not just our branch. It is projected that ALL library branches will open for additional Saturday hours (ten branches were added to the Saturday hours list this month-Falls of Schuylkill was not on the list…yet.) We will get the word out as soon as we hear anything.
In the meantime, if you are unhappy about the hours changes or challenged by them, as many of you have told us you are, you can email – Joseph Nevin, the Free Library North West Cluster Initiatives Specialist at NevinJ@freelibrary.org and he will convey thoughts, feelings, opinions,
criticisms to appropriate staff of the Free Library of Philadelphia.
In the President’s Report, I talked of the wonderful things that the Friends have done this past year and how we have utilized money from member dues and our fundraising events, for example, the development and implementation of a series of Author Events/ Book Talks this Fall. Other events and programs organized by our newest Committee, the Community Outreach and Engagement Committee included regularly scheduled Community Game Nights, Film Nights, and two Fiber Arts Groups. These programs are also impacted by the change in hours, and we look forward to announcing Saturday hours down the line so as to continue all
the new programs and activities developed this year.
At the meeting, we welcomed our new Membership Committee Chair, Jenn
Northington, and expressed our gratitude to Andrea Sunderland for her 3 years in
Membership. Andrea helped us streamline our Membership process with on-line applications and payments on line, thus saving time and resources. Her artistic talents were on display with the design for the FFSL tote bag and for the children’s T-shirt designs.
In early October, we held a successful Craft Fair. As a community give-back event, we kept the application fee very low: $25 for a full-size meeting table which we supplied and $15 for a half-size table. it was a wonderful event: 19 vendors, local artisans participated in exhibiting and selling pottery, jewelry, crocheted blankets, made-with-nature art works, home made honey and jams among other unique handicrafts.
Our 110th Birthday Celebration on 11/18 (the actual birthday!) for our wonderful
Library building was held and we estimated that close to 200 folks came. It was also a “Community GiveBack” event – there were activities for children and 3 story time
presentations. The FLP sent historic maps from the collections plus maps were lent for the day from the East Falls Historical Society. Wendy Moody played the keyboard to accompany a group of singers who sang parts of “19 songs in 15 minutes from 1912-1913.”
October was a busy month for our Board members. On October 23, six of our Falls Friends’ Board colleagues met with Joseph Nevins, the new Northwest Cluster Initiative Specialist for the Free Library of Philadelphia, representatives of the Friends of the Free Library of Philadelphia, and board members from other Friends’ groups of library branches in the Northwest Cluster (Wadsworth, Roxborough, Andorra, Chestnut Hill, and Lovett libraries). Neha Pancholi (our Vice President and Advocacy Committee Chair), Jenna Musket (Chair of Community Outreach and Engagement) and I worked with Joseph to set the agenda for the
meeting which will was held in the Library Meeting Room of Falls of Schuylkill.
Drew welcomed the representatives of the groups and said that “this might be the first meeting of its kind in the Free Library system.” it was an informative and useful gathering in terms of sharing experiences, challenges and resources, and we look forward to future meetings with this group.
Please know how much we appreciate your support of the Falls Branch, the Staff and the FFSL. Contact us with any questions, ideas and feedback.
Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season!
Good reading to you!
Martha Fuller |
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