PRESIDENT’S SPEECH AT MAY GENERAL MEETING OF THE FRIENDS OF BHPL 2010

I would like to welcome you all to The Friend’s Annual General Meeting. I am especially honored today by the presence of my Dad. He has lived in Beverly Hills and used our Library since the late 40’s and was one of the residents who signed the petition in 1961 urging the City to build the Library. He has always known the secret about BHPL: The Library is just a building, but it contains the universe. The library is the heart and soul of our city, and The Friends is the heart and soul of the Library.

Among the programs saved for this year by The Friends: Homebound delivery, delivery of books to the Roxbury Senior Center, Literacy program luncheon expenses, teen programming, summer reading club party and adult programs.

The Friends dipped into its reserves to help the City to preserve the above programs and will continue its efforts to provide assistance to the Library. Each year the Friends provides in excess of $100,000 in assistance to the library. Just as important to the community is the Friend’s bookstore, operated by volunteers 7 days a week, using books donated by our community.

During the coming year, The Friends will continue to fund children’s programming, the Teen Zone, adult programs, the Judith Palarz book groups as well as underwrite the library’s various collections.

I would like to thank all of our general members, who joined the Friends in order to help maintain our Library’s services and collections, and I would like to encourage any of you who are not members to pick up one of the envelopes on your table and join us today. I would specifically like to thank Lilli Bosse, our beloved late Ernie Ach, the ever generous Betty Harris and the B.H. Rotary, all of whom have provided special support during a very trying fiscal year.

Thank you as well to my officers: Charlotte, Jean, Kathi, Michele, Fran and Lorraine. It is a scary prospect to become an officer, but they did it and did it brilliantly. All are returning next year save Fran, who I would like to thank for her five years on the Board. We hope you will return after your one year off. The centerpieces, which I made, are for my officers to take home.

Thank you as well to the bookstore committee for their unbelievable numbers of hours spent going through the donations, pricing and stocking the bookstore. Thanks to Annette, the hostess chair for her ever efficient management of our little events, and to Kathi Rothner who used her Parks and Rec influence to get us to Greystone today.