On Dec. 4, the friends of the JV Brown Library held their Annual Membership meeting. All members of the Friends' organization were invited to attend this end-of-year meeting.
President Tricia Shipman called the meeting to order at 5:17 p.m. David Wright, treasurer of both the board and the book store, presented the annual summary of each account. He also presented tentative budgets for consideration. The budgets will be adopted in January when the December figures are complete.
It was noted that in 2012 the Friends Favorites Gently Used Book Store gave $16,000 to the library and the Friends of the JVB library, as an organization, gave another $28,300.
Shirley Alters, representing the library, read a poem that cleverly captured the help that the library received from Friends, month by month.
Board of Trustees chairman Harold Hershberger echoed Alters' enthusiasm for the Friends' involvement in the life of the library.
Membership announced that as of that date membership is at 468 representing dues and contributions of $22,140 with an average of $47.31 per member. It is this money, plus two annual book sales and the income from the store, that allow the Friends to support the library as they do.
Alison Hopper, chair of the governing committee, then introduced three prospective board members for election. They are Ardythe Cross, Mary Beth Kibbe and David Dahl.
All three have worked at the library book sales and in the used book store. All were elected to positions on the board. Re-elected to new terms were Betsy Madsen, Mark Noe and Greg Thomas.
New officers were introduced. They are Linda Schramm, president; Greg Thomas, vice president; Mark Noe, recording secretary; and David Wright, treasurer.
The last business of the evening was to recognize two outgoing board members for their long years of dedication and leadership.
Maria Gustafson served a tenure of 13 years as a director on the Friends' Board. In November, Gustafson, along with Nancy Lady, was awarded the Carile Brown Award.
Margie Shaw has been in service to the Brown Library for more than 20 years. She has served on the Friends Board in numerous capacities, always an enthusiastic and encouraging worker. She served as president twice - one time for five consecutive years.
In 2009, Shaw also received the Carile Brown Award for her selfless time and energy devoted to promoting the library and its services throughout the community.
Shaw said the when she and her husband, Gordon, decided to settle here more than 30 years ago, one of the most impressive places they visited was the library. Shaw is a former librarian for the Brown Library.
