FOSL Meeting Report
February 2025

Meetings > 2025 > Feb

Meeting Details

Date

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Time

6:30 pm

Location

Sumas Library

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Mar 2025 Meeting

I. DETAILS

• Location: Sumas Library, Sumas WA
• Date: Feb 26, 2025 6:30pm - 7:30pm
• Frequency: Monthly
• Treats: pretzel bites and apple muffins
• Attendees: Nancy C., Lynn A., Deanna L., Cayla S., Robin H., Sarah E., Brett E., Samantha D., Gina B., Tera K., Paul F. (Sumas Branch Manager), Mary V. (WCLS)

II. SUMMARY

A. Action Items

• get quotes for summer movie options - Cayla
• list of Silent Auction donations to send out thank you cards - Lynn
• writing of thank you cards - Gina
• email to attendees of Valentine and Wine with recap and upcoming events - Brett
• create volunteer from for website to ask people what they are interested in helping with and/or what their strengths are - Brett

B. Upcoming Events

• Sumas Days: Saturday, June 28
• Movie in the Park #1: Friday, July 25
• End of Summer Reading/Fall Carnival: Saturday, August 23
• Movie in the Park #2: Friday, August 29 (tentative - possibly Friday, September 5th)
• BINGO: Monday, November 10
• Valentine & Wine: Saturday, February 7, 2025 (tentative)

III. MEETING REPORT

A. Approve Prior Meeting Report

• No changes needed, record approved

B. Financial

• Current balance: $3585.79 (bank) + $1414.93 (PayPal)
• Outstanding deposits: $0
• Outstanding disbursement: $20 to Lynn

C. Library News & Events

• Kokedama plant workshop - March 5
• Budget Listening Session - March 15

D. Old Business

• Valentine & Wine

  • Change the name for next year as this sounds more like an event for couples, when it’s more of an adult social for anybody.
    Feedback from some of the people who attended all said they had a great time and are looking forward to next years.

  • There were a lot of other events happening this same weekend. Many people said they were interested, but they had other things going on. For next year, consider having it a week earlier or later - do more research about what is going on.

  • Rough estimate of money collected: $1200 + tickets

  • Sold 1/2 the tickets desired (35 out of 70). Should cap at 50 people next year unless we get more volunteers to help.

  • Drinks: number of people this year was ok because if there were many more people it would have been difficult for Deanna (our server). Next year we may need to add another server. Also need to build a break in the schedule for server to eat. Drink ticket sales brought in extra revenue and may have loosened people up to play the Newlywed game, sing karaoke, and bid on auction items. And liquor board did not show up to check license (although FOSL did have license and a licensed server)

    • All wine and beer donated: wine from private individuals, beer from Boundary Bay. North Fork Brewery donated a number of gift cards for the silent auction (but no beer that night) and Van Vino Winery donated a wine basket for the silent auction.

  • Food: Charcuterie table: meats probably don’t need to be cut in half. Gabe from the library has experience creating a charcuterie table and said he is willing to help next year (possibly in advance to show how to do it rather than day of). Need to get more tongs and serving utensils next year, and possibly stylish cutting boards, etc. for displaying the meats, cheeses, etc.

  • Silent auction was AMAZING. Kudos to Lynn for doing such a great job with the entire thing - gathering the goods (with help from Samantha as well), putting together the baskets and packaging them so beautifully, and being so organized with the signup sheets. People loved that every basket had at least one book in it. One thought: next year have the MC go over the “rules” of a silent auction as in one case a person crossed out their name and added another bid (rather just adding another line to the bottom of the bid), so Lynn didn’t see the highest bid. Silent auction was a huge money maker - highest priced item was the snowblower going for $100. Next year ask for donations from a more county-wide perspective so we don’t tax our local Sumas businesses (as FOSL will ask for donations for BINGO from them).

  • Newlywed Game: was a big hit and seemed to be enjoyed by all. Lots of laughing. Brett did a fantastic job at emcee throughout the night.

  • Donors: FOSL should do a better job next year of promoting those businesses/people who donated to the event and the silent auction.

  • Post event:

    • send out recap email to attendees
    • send out handwritten thank you notes to donors - Nancy/Lynn will provide info, Gina will write notes

E. New Business

• Picking dates for future events.

  • Movie in the Park #1: Friday, July 25 - movie TBD

    • Get quotes for: Emperor’s New Clothes (currently the 1st choice), Ice Age, Lilo & Stitch, SpyKids

  • Movie in the Park #2: Friday, August 29 or Friday, Sept. 5 - movie TBD

    • Community will vote on this movie at Movie #1 and at the library (as was done last year as well). Get quotes for: Minecraft, Dog Man, Piece by Piece, Moana 2

  • August 23rd - Fall Carnival. This will be the same day that all the other library branches do something as an end of summer reading celebration. Current plan is to keep many of the events/games the same.

  • Suggestion: have 2 committees for August events since they are so close together: movie group and carnival group. This way people can chose one event to help with and don’t need to commit to both.

  • BINGO - Monday, Nov 10 (no school on Tuesday due to Veterans Day)

    • ask local Sumas business for donations for prizes for this (and ask businesses county-wide for Valentine & Wine so as not to put too much burden on local Sumas business)
    • Rather than purchase cards for BINGO, have people purchase a dobber (some people really love these). Samantha already has a lot of dobbers.

• Create task sheets for events to stay organized, optimize time and ensure all tasks completed and not left to the last minute.

• Volunteers needed for events: Possibly create form on FOSL website to ask current and potential volunteers what they are interested in helping with, what strengths or skills do they have. Give people a list of possible options but then leave an option for them to add their own thing.

• Try to upcoming events with scheduled library events (ex. Fall Carnival for end of summer reading program).

• Other possible events: escape room, library murder mystery, help with Christmas in the Park (would want to have it at the library/community center building).

• All agreed to a no on the Fishing Derby this year (both to not organize it as FOSL was asked to do, or to have a bake sale there)

• Resources: Need to get the FOSL stuff out of Brett & Sarah’s garage and try to have all FOSL items in one place. Can store items in the shed at the library, but need to get some shelving for this and/or plastic tubs to store items in.

F. Community News

• Community Garden applications available in the library lobby and City Hall

G. Next Meeting

• Meeting concluded at 7:30pm
• Next meeting on Monday, April 7, 2025 at 6:30pm at the Sumas Library.