Organizational Tools

The most effective Boards have highly effective organizational structure. Whether starting a new Friends group or engaging in a strategic planning process to revitalize your Friends or Library, you can learn from others' mission statements, policies, and bylaws. You don't have to develop or improve your structure from scratch. FOLUSA has provided you with samples that you can modify or copy for your own use. Use the links in the menu at left to access these samples. Previously a member benefit, the Model Friends Cooperative Network is now available for your reference. This tool will help you define the roles of the Friends, Trustees, and library staff in working together to support the library. An in-depth version of this table with full explanations of each category is available to our All-in-One members.

The Library Shop: Resources from the Friends of the Santa Maria (CA) Public Library

Learn how a small group of dedicated volunteers helped plan a bookstore for a new 60,000 square foot library in Santa Maria, CA. You can read the article from the November 2008 issue of News Update or download the Sales Assistant Handbook and Business Plan directly. Additional materials will be available soon.

Book Shop Committee Manual and Volunteer Handbook

Are you thinking of starting a used bookstore, but not sure where to start? Well, you’ve just hit the jackpot! The Friends of Ferguson Library in Stamford, CT, have done the work for you, and the best part, they want to share it with Friends everywhere! More than 200 pages of detailed information is included in the manual developed by a committee of volunteers. Robbie Monsma, Chair of the Friends of Ferguson Library Used Book Shops, has granted permission for FOLUSA to post the manual on our website as a PDF document. Although it is copyrighted, the Friends of Ferguson Library permit other Friends groups to reproduce limited portions of the manual without charge as an aid to their own bookshop and book sale fund-raising efforts. To open the manual, left click on the link in the menu to the left or here. To save the manual to your computer, right click on the link in the menu to the left or here and select, "Save Target As" to save locally on your computer.

Establishing a Library Foundation: Planning, Persistence, Progress

An edited version of this article by Jeanne Thorsen, Executive Director of the King County Library System Foundation (Issaquah, Washington), was previously featured in News Update. The article has recently been updated and is available here in its entirety.