Members Present: Betty Bakker, Peter Bergamo, Suzanne Christensen, Christine Cuttler, Mary Desole, Deborah Eisberg, Barbara Hespenheide, Susan Hill, Gae Hutton, Jackie Klein, Art Punsoni, Ike Rubin, Murray Solomon, Reed Sparling, Jennifer Teague, Noel Tepper, Norma Torney, and Frank Van Zanten.. The PPLD was represented by Gareth Davies.

Members Absent with Notice: None

Members Absent without Notice: Gayle Garin, Wanda Mitchell, and Mark Pastreich.

President Sparling called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m.

Minutes of Previous meetings: Suzanne distributed the March and April minutes. The minutes were accepted as submitted.

Treasurer’s Report: Christine distributed a treasure’s report covering March and April. Our disbursements during this period were $58,818.98. $54,535.00 of that amount was earmarked for the library district; $30,000 for 2003 grants and $24,535 for the annual appeal. Our balance on April 30 was $65,292.35. $10,000 of this is restricted; the remaining $55,292.33 is unrestricted.
Christine explained that also restricted is $10,000 from 2002 donated by a foundation towards the purchase of the woodworking shop behind the library. Frank said the library finally closed on the property the week before our meeting.

President’s Report: Reed reported that Norma has agreed to chair the nominating committee this year. Gae will also serve on the committee. He thanked the Program Committee for their hard work on the National Library Week and Weedless Gardening programs. He distributed a letter from Ann Pinna, a former Friends Board president, thanking us for the National Library Week celebration.

Program Committee Report: The National Library Week program was discussed. Several Board members thanked and praised the program committee members for planning such a successful event, especially the food! Jenny expressed disappointment at the number of parents and children who attended. Lauren had told us that from 30 to 100 families had attended in previous years. It was suggested we change the time of the event next year.
The Author Signing by on May 1 by Lee Reich was poorly attended, with 25 to 30 in attendance, but Reed praised it as “a wonderful event,” and several members felt it was a very good program.
The program committee will meet again soon to plan programs for the fall. Chris mentioned the membership brochure needs to be corrected to reflect we are a 501(c)3 organization.

Booksale Committee: 35 High Street was discussed. Suzanne reported it is very cold, since it was formerly an ice house, and we lost 3 months of sorting time. She is also concerned about the backlog, and that we paid $500.00 a month for three months we didn’t use the facility. She also said the landlord has been very cooperative. Frank reported the landlord had installed heat, but it didn’t work. Frank personally didn’t mind the three month break, and reported our Book Sorting has resumed 5 days a week from 10 a.m. to noon, since it is warm enough to sort now. We have a backlog of 1,100 boxes. That means we have about 2,750 books backlogged in addition to daily donations, which are plentiful at this time of year. The facility is holding all the books so far, but it may be a tight fit soon. Frank also mentioned the lighting at 35 High St. is very good. He appealed to the Board members to help us. At the end of April of last year, we had 1,528 boxes packed. We are running 31% ahead of that this year, and all our books may not fit in the former Old Navy store in the South Hills Mall. We may have to consider using the Service Merchandise store, which is hard to secure, because the mall uses it as an entrance.

The Bylaws Committee plans to meet in June.

New Business: Reed tabled discussion of the newsletter until June, because Lauren wants to be part of the discussion.
Gae mentioned the Maplewood Branch has closed.

PPLD Report: No report.

Frank mentioned one of our loyal members, Hazel Barcher, died. She had made the huge purple sign we use over our checkout desk at the book sales.

Reed adjourned the meeting at 6:15.

Respectfully submitted,
Suzanne Christensen
Secretary