[Flyingbrickvolunteers] general meeting notes, 6/21

Tue Jun 22 23:45:34 UTC 2010

All,

POST-ITS

Alison and I made check-out strips before we opened the library. The strips
included the name of the organization, the date due, address, open hours,
and email contact for renewing the book. We were generally able to fit about
20 strips onto one piece of paper making it pretty cost effective. At one
point in time these strips were located on the desk in a black pen
container. As far as I knew the word file for the check-out strips was on
the library computer's hard drive.

MEDIA AND PROPOSAL

Alison and I also worked very hard to create task lists for volunteers as
well as a list notifying volunteers of things needing to be done and a list
where people signed off on tasks that they had accomplished. All of this was
located in the Red Book. It's fat and has graph paper in it. This book also
contains all of the user names and passwords for flying brick accounts.

Hope everyone is well,

Hermelinda

On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 11:33 AM, claire schoen <clairemschoen at gmail.com>wrote:

> hi everyone-  here are notes from the meeting yesterday...
>
> TFBL general meeting 6/21
>
> Al, Nathan, Christie, Jasper, Claire, Matt
>
> Agenda
> -post-its/ check out slips
> -radical erotica night
> -electronic media
> -telephone outreach
> -ad in the Defender
> -increase open hours?
> -need someone to bottom line open hours for next mo.
> -proposal to open space to Jobs with Justice for their meetings
> -possible talk from neighbor about guns
>
> post-its
> Suggestion: stick post-its/markers alison left in books when they're
> checked out, with the due date and TFBL address and hours.
> This might encourage people to bring books back on time.  Getting a FB
> stamp was suggested.  People seem okay with that if it's not expensive and
> someone wants to bottom line that.
>
> Proposal:  Find cheap/free sticky notes or improvise check out slips to
> place in books as they're checked out.  The proposal passed.
>
> radical erotica night
> ...is this Friday.  If a few people are lined up in advance to read aloud,
> more people might feel comfortable participating.  Folks should definitely
> read things in advance to make sure they're appropriate.  Some stuff will be
> marked and available to read if people want to participate.
> It would be cool if folks bring some snacks to share.
>
> media
> it is mentioned that the electronic media (myspace/facebook, etc.) are a
> little bland, and sometimes aren't updated.  This is probably due to lack of
> energy/ person power to keep up with this stuff.  We're still working out
> the kinks in keeping the library operating on a base level.
> Folks could offer feedback/ make suggestions for the pages.
> TFBL literature/pages should probably mention wi-fi access.
>
> proposal:  keep a list of voluntary tasks around, like a "to-do" list that
> people can add to/ cross items off during open hours/whenever so that little
> things get done here and there.  These tasks are completely voluntary, so
> people can regulate their own participation in the library's functioning.
> If someone has a few minutes during open hours, for example, they could
> update the events list on the myspace.  The proposal passed.
>
> telephone outreach
> Folks tried to call the open-hours volunteer list to touch base with
> people.  There is concern about walking the line between too much
> contact/too little.  When is calling appropriate?  Folks seems to agree that
> it would be a good idea to call people about the general meetings.
>
> Would a uniform meeting time for general meetings be a good idea?  Folks at
> the meeting think this might be worth trying.  Claire and Nathan will bottom
> line calling people to arrange a good date/time for the next general
> meeting/ to find out how people feel about this idea.
>
> It is mentioned that 2 weeks-ish notice seems to be effective in getting a
> turn out for meetings/ events.
>
> Ad in the Defender
> Hermo sent around info about getting an ad published in the Defender for
> hte Brick.  The deadline for doing that this month has passed, but it could
> still be done.  Folks mention that this reaches a different demographic than
> we have typically been able to reach, which would be good.  This would also
> support the Defender and advertise the Brick for about 6 mo.  (the paper is
> released every other month.)  There is concern about financing this... TFBL
> has a little bit of money, but not much.
>
> Proposal:  Try to raise funds at appropriate events/ collect what we can
> from volunteers able to give a little, try to raise the $75 to place the
> ad.  An add is normally $35, but if we buy 3, it will be $75.  The proposal
> passes.
>
> July
> Jasper will bottom line open hours for July.
>
> Increase open hours?
> Folks are interested in possibly opening hte Brick on Saturdays.  Mondays
> get little traffic, so it might be worth trying this for a month just to see
> if Saturdays are a little more popular.
> Proposal:  Create open hours on Saturdays from 12-3 for the month of July
> and then re-evaluate the open hours schedule..  The proposal passed.
>
> Community
> Claire wants to get together a casual discussion on how to strengthen the
> community we have/ preventing burn out (trying to build community amongst
> the volunteers we have, before outreach.) Claire will put this together.
>
> American Gun Culture Report talk
> A neighbor approached Brick folks about giving a talk about guns...safety,
> functioning, etc.  He has written for the American Gun Culture Report.  We
> aren't sure yet what exactly he's interested in talking about, this needs to
> be investigated further.  Folks feel like this is a touchy issue as far as
> addressing this stuff in the Library.  There shouldn't really be a problem
> discussing legal gun ownership/ gun safety/ issues, but if this is set up,
> it needs to be done so with careful word choice, etc.
> Concerns: There are a lot of strong feelings about htis issue, promotion of
> an event might be touchy.
> Thoughts:- 2 seperate events might be called for:  one about very practical
> stuff: safety, for example..."what you should know"
> Another event might be an open discussion about issues, without endorsing
> anything.
> -this conversation shouldn't be ignored/shelved just because it is
> controversial- the polarization of this issue is interesting.
> -these discussions are often dominated by the right, so it's important thta
> they are discussed more broadly
> -this should be navigated carefully, and we need more information.  Folks
> originally contacted about this will look into it further.
>
> Finally, after the meeting, we sat and talked about it for a few minutes,
> and gathered people's feelings about hte effectiveness of the meeting, just
> to observe/discuss the dynamics.
>
> Thanks everyone!
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>

-- 
Hermelinda Cortes
Richmond, VA
804-386-7798
hermelindacortes at gmail.com
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