Huntsville-Madison County Library Foundation

“On monday, january 23, 2017, a meeting was held to discuss our annual audit. A representative of the huntsville library foundation finance committee, the board chair and the director of institutional advancement, along with 3 clerical assistants, met with our auditors to review findings and ensure ongoing procedures are well developed and established.”

“The foundation board holds an orientation session for new members each year in advance of our january meeting. This year the orientation session was held on january 9 and included three new members. The conflict policy was carefully explained and understood by the attendees. The full board met on wednesday, january 11 and the board chair again explained the non-conflict policy to all attendees. Forms were passed out for signature and then collected and will be kept on file in the department of institutional advancement.”

“Governing documents are made available to the public upon request.”

“The huntsville library foundation (hlf) was established in 1985 to assist in fundraising for a new main library to serve the city of huntsville and madison county. Since that time, the foundation has grown in both scope and board member size. The foundation's primary role today is to raise awareness and funding for the huntsville madison county public library, currently consisting of 12 locations; 6 within the city of huntsville, and 6 others across madison county: triana public library, madison public library, monrovia public library, hazel green public library, gurley public library and new hope public library. The library system's mission statement is: this is the public's library. We empower individuals to create their own futures, explore the universe of ideas, and connect with our community and world. All foundation activities and efforts are in support of the library's mission. Therefore, the foundation has dual missions: 1) to advocate for the huntsville madison county public library, and 2) to acquire resources that enhance the library's value to the community. The foundation established an advocacy committee in the fall of 2016 comprised of both foundation board members and strong library supporters within the community. The goal of the committee is to learn detailed information about each of our twelve locations, specifically their financial or programming needs and to network with all local and statewide governmental office holders attached to each location. We are seeking to create a strong and confident 'ask' arm to secure local governmental dollars and ensure funding is made available to meet not only basic operational needs, but to also expand programming dollars to allow for targeting activities in each of our library locations. Our biggest financial challenge this year has been to raise capital campaign dollars in support of three new replacement branch facilities located in the city of madison and two in the city of huntsville - one in north huntsville and one in south huntsville. Our combined goal is to raise 7 million over the next 5 years. Each location is designed to replace a small and outdated facility that no longer meets the needs of the community. While we are seeking funds as "one library", monies for each location are being held separately and are carefully documented as they are received. The foundation plans and hosts a large literary evening in the fall of each year to raise monies; this year we had over 450 attendees. The event features a well know author and the opportunity to purchase books for signature. Ticket prices, table sales, and sponsorship opportunities allow us to make profits above costs, all of which is allocated back to the library system this past year we were able to provide 55,000 to provide overdrive, our digital downloadable e-books. In addition, we provided approximately 24,000 in direct support of employee authored grants to provide extra programs or materials. We also allocated 12,000 in direct support for new books for each of our 12 locations.”