The Library Board met 12/17/2024. They received information on donor signage plans as well as reports from Friends of Appleton Public Library on the Capital Campaign and the Friends’ plans for 2025.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
DONOR RECOGNITION: Library Executive Director Colleen Rortvedt went over the signage guidelines for library donors. This was done to give the board an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the guidelines ahead of having to vote on them in January of 2025.
The types of recognition were fairly straightforward with donors separated into different tiers based on the amount of their donations. The largest donors will be given the opportunity to not only have their names listed but also to have plaques posted that give their biography, humanizing them and explaining why they felt drawn to contribute to the library.
There were a couple of spaces in the library that do not currently have donors associated with them including the Bluff, the Story Room, and Co-Working Space.
FRIENDS CAPITAL CAMPAIGN UPDATE: Friends of Appleton Public Library Executive Director Kara Sullivan then gave a report on the activities and plans for the Friends.
Thus far, they had raised $11.85 million in the library project capital campaign. Their goal was $12 million which would mean they have around $150,000 left to go. Additionally, she noted that they were under budget for their expenses which meant that whatever they had left over from expenses could also be put toward the total. She said that they had two or three remaining donor contacts and would know the outcome of those contacts in a few weeks.
FRIENDS 2025 PLANS: Per Ms. Sullivan, they planned to host a speed puzzle contest in April of 2025 during National Libraries Week. They held a similar event in 2024 which was “wildly popular”. For the upcoming event, they want to create custom puzzles feature some of the new artwork that will be displayed in the library and will then possibly donate those puzzles to the library.
Their annual fundraiser is scheduled for June 8, 2025 and is currently planned to be held at North Shore. The reason it was not planned to be held at the library is because the library wasn’t open yet and planning for the event needed to start in January; however, there was a possibility that it could be moved to the library depending on how logistics worked out.
The Friends were hoping to hold a book sale in November. Ms. Sullivan commented on community interest in the event and said that she knew people were ready and willing to donate books for the event.
She finished up by saying that, after the Capital Campaign is over and the new library opens, the Friends were thinking about more aggressively pursuing grant funding. “[W]e are working out a strategy for how to do that. How can Friends take advantage of some better grant opportunities for library programming that frees up some dollars that we spend on programming currently to maybe explore and do new things or different things. And so that’s in the very beginning stages, but that’s really where I see Friends going in the future once the capital campaign wraps up.”
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1142283&GUID=DB9AA5B9-D098-4BEA-AF22-A50919196ECC
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