Our speakers from London and Oshawa provided a great program at the recent Ontario Library Association. By the end of the morning we had heard from everyone involved in the sessions, making it a highly interactive and successful Friends Day at OLA.

Hilary Bates Neary, President, Friends of the London Public Library began our day with her review of best practices in membership development and retention. We had a brief break, which gave us an opportunity to visit displays provided by Oshawa, London, FOCAL and others.

OLA President Stephen Abram brought us back to our seats to offer a welcome to Friends’ Day delegates and to thank us for the contributions made by Friends to the library community. Additional conference delegates settled in for the second session, and Marjorie Hodges continued the "best practices" theme relating to fundraising.

It almost seemed as though Hilary warmed up the audience, and Marjorie capitalized on it by getting the high level of interaction. Marjorie, a retired school teacher, brought her professional skills to the task, and called upon us by name when asking questions and looking for a response.

Highlights of both sessions are contained in this newsletter. Some conference photos and the full text of Hilary’s speech may be found on our website: http://www.friendsoflibraries.ca/OLA-2002.htm

RECRUIT

• be clear about your purposes, range of activities and the relationship between Friends and Library. (advocacy, fund-raising)
• Recruitment methods – personal contact, library staff, membership drives
• Handpick first executive
• Recruit from outside
• Be flexible
• nurture active members
• mentor

• think about succession planning

• CELEBRATE: social events just for Friends – bonding

RETAIN

• ORIENT new members to the organization – tell them who is who and what the org does and how to keep in touch and encourage their ideas and involvement
• THANK at all times – personal, hand-written notes after volunteer events
• -formal thank-yous at events - Library should show its thanks as well
• REGULAR renewal times gives the organization an opportunity to report on past events, lay out future projects, encourage new and renewing members to sign up, get involved, express opinions, suggest new projects, etc.
• say THANK YOU and GOODBYE to those leaving

Choose a fee structure which enables all to join and some to be generous . . .and THANK immediately

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL TIME is a good time to survey for ideas, volunteer opportunities etc.

MEMBERSHIP FLYER

State aims, give past accomplishments, list future goals, contain sign-up form, contact #s, web-site, THIS IS YOUR FIRST CHANCE TO CAPTURE AS MUCH INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR MEMBERS AS YOU CAN – TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT!

ADVOCACY – a way of life. If this is a Friends’ role, then talk up the Library and its Friends at all opportunities:

• retiree groups, service clubs etc.
• Municipal Council – and not just at budget time – use direct political action in the form of petitions, letter writing, your PRESENCE

When publicizing Friends’ events – talk about the impact of this community link to the Library

MEETINGS

• AGMs are a major opportunity
• report on past year’s accomplishments
• introduce Executive and highlight their contributions
• conduct nominations/ elections
• gather ideas from members
• insure membership knows how to contact executive
• if Executive meetings are open to all members, communicate this information and publicize meeting times

INVOLVE

There is ACTIVE and PASSIVE involvement, SLEEPING members need to feel connected, too. Some projects develop a LIFE OF THEIR OWN. Friends groups must keep an eye on future possibilities for growth and expansion of the projects in which they are involved, and find ways for them to grow and involve new members.

THANK participants. List and photograph and celebrate them!

Develop a RECOGNITION program!

REPORT TO MEMBERS AND PUBLIC – AGM, Newsletter, Friends’ page in Library Newsletter will reach the broader community, spread the word about your role and witness to your support of Library.

BRANDING: identify members – pins, badges, t-shirts, ribbons

-wear at all events – shows your visibility – advertises your involvement

-enables media to identify your group easily, they will be more likely to recognize your role and contributions

-plaques, bookplates on Friends’ funded contributions

VOLUNTEER opportunities

• try to INVOLVE AS MANY members as possible
• encourage your event teams to bring in new members as often as possible
• look upon all your events as a training ground
• ensure that your teams are inclusive and welcoming, not "cliquish"
• if you have to recruit from outside, see that as an opportunity to sign up new members

listen to your members for new ideas, and try not to fall into a rut of "we do it this way". It is often easy to dismiss suggestions before trying them, or before giving someone a chance to develop an idea into a plan.

MOTIVATE

Your success in RECRUITING, RETAINING and INVOLVING your members will add to their motivation to be a Friend of the Library.

ACTIVITY is motivating

RECOGNITION and APPRECIATION is motivating

SUCCESSFUL VOLUNTEERING is motivating

More subtly, creating a group of people who relate well to each other, treat each other with respect, appreciate each others strengths and support each others weaknesses, will motivate your members to continue their involvement, and to recruit others for your group.

The success of the fundraising workshop was due in part to Marjorie’s coverage of the topic, support she received from fellow members of the Oshawa Friends, and also the expertise she was able to draw upon from the delegates. We were all scrambling to take notes, and record the collective wisdom.

Margaret Aldsworth taught us all about book sales, and how Oshawa raised $12,000 last year from their three-day sale. Have you heard of the five "P"’s?

Product – lots of books

People – volunteers

Preparation – sorting all year

Promotion/marketing

Public – get them in

Profit

Party – at the end, to celebrate

They have a book sale manual which lists volunteer duties, and plan for their book sale all year. They learned from a previous OLA speaker to use standardized cartons and clear labels. Books are loaded in boxes in a single layer. These boxes can be used in a sale for display.

A penny raffle which takes place at the same time as the Oshawa book sale raised $1,300. There were 20 items in the raffle, and tickers were sold at $2 for 25. It was noted a lottery license is needed, and a separate bank account was used for the proceeds.

Oshawa Friends displayed their lawn signs used to promote the book sale, and described their experience in obtaining municipal permission to use lawn signs. They spent $1000 for 100 signs, and are allowed to have then up for a week. The first year they put up 100 signs and retrieved 72. The next year they used 72 signs and retrieved 55.

The profit from a book sale is not only measured in dollars and cents but in increased traffic in the library. Their sale takes place from Thursday to Sunday, Monday through Thursday are clean-up days, and Friday is their party and opportunity to evaluate what worked, what didn’t and what to change.

Books are colour coded and priced accordingly in categories such as new, nearly new or new/large. Grocery bags are sold for $1 or $2 and used for paperback sales. Paperbacks or Readers’ Digest Condensed books can be tied with ribbon and sold in the branches between Friends’ book sales.

The word "discarded" has a negative connotation – others ideas include "released from collections" , "withdrawn" or "recycled". Idea for dealing with leftover books after a sale include giving to schools, culling, storing for next sale or heating fuel(!). Readers Digest condensed books can be burned (for fuel), or donated to hospital waiting rooms or nursing homes.

One publicity tactic suggested by Ajax was to have the date of the next book sale printed on the automatic receipts printed for every book loan.

Friends in North York use a "pick and pay" table, which is outside their book store when the store is closed. A donation box receives donations for items such as National Geographic magazines, worn paperback books and Readers’ Digest Condensed books. A similar idea based on the honour system is selling books from a book truck with an attached donation box.

In addition to book sales, other fundraising success stories were shared.

Lois Magahay reports the Lindsay Friends sell Hasti notes with the floral emblems of Canada’s provinces and territories. They are sold year-round and tourist sales are significant.

Leona Hendry described Belleville’s "Last Dinner on the Titanic" where quests attend in period costume, and there is a local author. The dinner menu is taken from recipes contained in a book about the Titanic. Tickets are $100 per couple, and corporate sponsorship is sought to pay for the food. Proceeds were $6,000.

Meaford had a "Guess Who is Coming to Dinner" event, with local wine donated. At $40 a ticket it was felt they didn’t charge enough for the ticket.

One Friend noted they have an author afternoon, which helps for awareness but does not offer much profit, Friends in Durham and Ajax run a Cinèfest, which judged to be both profitable and providing a cultural service. Marjorie calls that FUNdraising, with the emphasis on FUN.

Friends in Windsor took over the library’s café 14 months ago and raised $8,500. Twelve Friends have developed a solid reputation and now contract their food services out for breakfast meetings.

Jamie Swift reported Kingston’s fundraising and promotional projects such as a children’s art contest, hasti notes, bags, and a silent art auction of limited edition prints.

Mary Desaulnier described the efforts of nine members in Atikokan to offer a May book sale, run seasonal raffles and have a tag day.

Georgina described a car raffle so successful that the winner donated the car back to the Friends and they will raffle again! They also organize silent auctions. Three was general agreement silent auctions can make a lot of money, and one group does one at their Annual General Meeting.

Doreen Pratt related Ajax’s Christmas market that takes place in conjunction with their Christmas book sale, where area crafts and sold and there is a silent auction.

House tours, garden tours, concerts and teas were other fundraising ideas offered by delegates.

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