this many people at this table at the same time.

I know it's kind of meeting in person.

You can do it at the first floor meeting room in the library.

Otherwise you can uh capture this through the YouTube's YouTube channel or the library's YouTube channel and recording will be on the city's website afterwards.

Committee members are invited to address the board at this time.

Written comments can be sent to the Rochester Public Library office as well.

There are no community members present.

All right.

No community members who want to speak I'm always waiting for like Perna to say hey I got the I got some things to say.

I gotta say so all right then let's call the role Ryan.

Adam here Emily Nick Leah here Laura here.

Mary Beth Connie.

Here Steve everybody is here.

All right anybody want to uh make a motion to approve the agenda please so moved.

Thank you Laura second second thank you Nick any discussion all right all in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes all right uh Rochester Public Library Foundation report I have been seeing no all right we will continue on friends you're up hi I'm Val Kalishwski the president of the Friends of the Rochester Public Library and uh the end of January we had our annual meeting uh which we summarized our um activities from 2025 and um so as you can read in in uh the input that I have um throughout 2025 uh there was 235 volunteers um both direct library support as well as those of us who manage the used book processes so that 235 isn't just the people who work the store and and um process the used books it's it's everybody who helps throughout the library uh they contributed 1600 hours um also for those of us who did manage the used book process um one of the things when books come in if they're what I call Barnes and Noble quality we offer them to the library to see if they want to add them to the collection um not just books but DVDs music CDs um things like that in just 2025 alone they added over 6,600 items to the collection um and they track the cost savings if they would have had to purchase those outright uh they saved the library over 1400 just in one year um profits from the online sales um you know on on eBay or sending things to secondhand book resellers uh as well as large sales um profits from those uh we had pledged last year to give the library sixty eight thousand dollars uh which we did uh in support of programming uh various incentives um we paid for a lot of the stuff with the library open house the renaissance fair themed open house um and uh online database subscriptions um this year um due to a variety of reasons uh we're trying to spend down our carryover um we received that 10 000 from the ultra award um and and things like that uh we have figured out that we have 118000 that we can pledge to the library for using in 2026 um i'm gonna pause just one moment on the bookstore but um to finish off the um annual meeting um we did have speakers from three different community organizations that we give um used books to and they got to speak about what is their organization do and how does it benefit that they're getting books from us one of those was christmas anonymous one of those was hawthorn helps which works with um immigrant families that uh uh newcomers that come into rochester um and then the third one was the social workers um the caseworkers that get to give free books out to the the the um people that they work with and um it was it was very well received uh those those speakers and I think a couple of those organizations ended up with some new volunteers out of our uh group as well so uh the full annual report and a video of that annual meeting are available on our friends

And then the third one was the social workers, the caseworkers that get to give free books out to the people that they work with.

And it was it was very well received, those those speakers, and I think a couple of those organizations ended up with some new volunteers out of our group as well.

So the full annual report and a video of that annual meeting are available on our friends' website.

And then a week or two later, we had a book sale in this room, and uh we generated a net profit from that book sale of $7,300, which covers what we have pledged to cover for the seed library.

They purchase labels, uh packets, um, as well as seeds.

Um then also the annual Vlogistics subscription that is used to track volunteer hours.

Um it always amazes me when I come up here and say, yeah, we made $7,000 on a book sale that you know, the most expensive book was $2.

It's like, how do we do that?

Well, now I know because the first night that we opened on Thursday nights, it's members only.

And when we opened the door, I'm standing there, and they just kept coming and coming and coming and coming.

And I finally asked somebody, and they said, Yeah, the line was all the way out to the front door.

And one of the library staff came to me and they said, Do you do a door count?

Because they said, for our programming, we do door counts.

So, do you know how many people come in?

And I said, No, we used to do that years ago for Rochester Fest, but it's a lot of work to sit there with that.

So, what I did do was I looked at our um sales reports out of the cash register and out of our um credit card system, and that first night we had over a hundred transactions in two hours that totaled $1,900.

So, you know, when when each person averages $20 worth of purchases, and there's a hundred of them coming through.

Now I know why we are making so much money.

And across all four sale dates, so Thursday night, all day Friday, all day Saturday, and Sunday afternoon, we had um over 720 sales.

So at a minimum, there was 700 people who came through our auditorium sale.

Um, you know, if you add in spouses and partners and kids, and you know, there was a lot more than 700 people that came through our auditorium sales.

Um, our next book sale is scheduled for the end of June, which coincides with Rochester Fest.

And at this time, um, as part of our um annual meeting, um, we also present a check from the bookstore.

The bookstore is kept uh the um monies from the bookstore is is tracked separately from our auditorium sales and online sales.

And so Dee Voldal and Sandy uh George are part of our bookstore management team, and I would like them to talk a little bit about the bookstore, and then uh they're gonna give a check to you guys.

So very very briefly, um 2025 was very successful in the Friends Bookstore.

And that is due to the quality of donations that make up our inventory.

Um, the volunteers we have that are competent and friendly, and then um the customers.

We have loyal local people, and we get a lot of people from out of town that are here for a downtown event or at the clinic.

We have about 70 active volunteers in the store that fill 68 person hours every week, and during sales, um, we have extra shifts and extra hours, extra people.

Some of the special sales we did this year that raised um a lot of money.

We had an art book sale in conjunction with Art Center across the street.

We pushed cartfuls of books over there.

Um we participated in small business Saturday along with downtown businesses.

We stayed open for the library's Renaissance Festival open house.

Um, and we have uh biannual half-price sales in the store and some other things.

Uh we also do a brisker business in the store, which is counterintuitive to me.

When the auditorium sale is in here, we also have much better business those days in the store as well.

And we don't have the cheap books over there as cheap as over here.

Um, and then I just want to mention that black box that's um on the circulation desk that we put in not quite four and a half years ago for people to drop money into if they want to buy a book or a puzzle off the carts that stay outside of the store even when the store is closed.

And in those not quite four and a half years now, over 11,000 has come through that little black box.

So I just I'm just always impressed with that.

So after paying sales tax insurance and other operating expenses in 2025, and with all the hard work of all the volunteers involved in the entire book donation assessment process, we get to give this check.

I'm gonna make to this side so you don't have wicked uh glaring thousand dollars.

Right space.