Cynthia Dobrzynski, Chairperson of the Library Board of Directors, sent me this email:
The Franklin Public Library continues to accept donations and will hold a book sale in May. We are grateful to the Friends of the Franklin Library for their support and past efforts in running our book sale.As we had just received a letter in the mail from the Friends of the Library which was confusing, I wrote back to ask for clarification. Cynthia replied:
The Friends were wrong in stating that they were no longer accepting donations. Donations are to the Library, not the Friends. There is still the same space at the Library for sorting donations. The Friends were never denied this space. However, the Library could no longer allow the Friends space to store books year round on the premises when it was deemed necessary to allocate such space for other uses better suited to provide services. We worked diligently to find other storage space and Jeff Nutting has been very supportive of our efforts. The Friends have been aware of this issue for quite awhile and did not attempt to make other arrangements in the meantime. We expect other storage space to be available shortly.
At this time, the Library plans to run the next book sale with the assistance of volunteers and the support of the Board of Directors.
I hope this clarifies things. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any other questions.
Franklin, MA
This is not at all clear to me. From my perspective there appears to be a serious disconnect between the Friends and the library board of directors. The Friends are the fund raising arm for the library. They are a 501c3 organization. They controlled the money they raised and working with the library staff determined how best to spent it (passes, study carrels, programming etc.). As best I can tell the library board of directors cannot fund raise. They are similar to the Council on Aging, an appointed town board.
ReplyDeleteThe Friends letter was very strange. There was no name or contact information. It suggested it was not attempting to solicit dues/membership because they could not offer the Friday book sale preview/sale to the membership. The dues were always part of their fund raising efforts. The Friends organization seems to have disappeared. Their link to the library web site is essentially gone (no contacts, no programming information, no meeting dates, nothing).
Ken Norman
Former President and Treasurer
Friends of the Franklin Library
Huh. Well, I'm glad to hear the library still accepts donated books!
ReplyDelete