This fiscal year has been a challenging and an uncertain time for the Friends. However,
we end fiscal year in May 2021 with a lot of forward moving ideas and hopefulness.
Read the full report HERE.
The bookshop was closed from March 14, 2020 through October 4, 2020 and closed
again December 21, 2020 through February 14, 2021. Fortunately, Amazon sales
were consistent through the year. A big thank you to all the volunteers who worked
on projects from home during the closings. Jeff Budge worked tirelessly quarantining
books and getting the bookshop ready for safe shopping. Once the bookshop
did open, there were limited hours and all donations and shopping were by
appointment only.
The Friends currently have 150 members, of which 47 are Ex Libris. This is a significant
drop from last year, however, the Friends Board see this as an opportunity and will take
action. One of the goals for Membership is to increase those numbers to where they
were Pre COVID or better. We would like to thank our members for their patience as we
get back to normal business. We appreciate you valuable and continued support.
In the fall of 2020, the Friends collaborated with and became the fiscal sponsor of the
Saratoga Book Festival. This relationship is a great way to reach new members and
add more fund raising possibilities that serves our mission. We are very excited with
this endeavor.
We start the upcoming fiscal year with new board members and an effective executive
committee with Klare Ingram leading as president.
Thank you to Jessica Niles and Rose Contadino for their outstanding support and
service to the Friends. They will be missed but not far away.
There is a lot of work to do going forward as we recover from an unprecedented
experience. We are committed to reestablishing and restructuring all the various
committees that have been lacking this year. However, thanks to of all the support in
the Friends community, we can be very proud that we have weathered the storm both
financially and emotionally.
– President Bridget Languth