e e e e e e e e I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with and justice for all okay and then we're going to approve the agenda roll call roll roll call oh that's right roll call okay uh member Holmes yes here member Kennedy here member boura here member Perkins here we have a Corum okay um approval of the agenda I move to approve the agenda as written I'll second it I second okay audience comments we we have to vote I have to do a a vote to make sure everyone agrees okay um member boura yes member Perkins yes member Holmes yes member Kennedy yes motion carries okay okay um what do uh audience comments and there's no audience so approval of minutes I make a motion to approve the amend a second okay okay uh member boura yes member Perkins yes member Holmes yes member Kennedy yes motion carries then do you this is are we doing the voting then this is your board and so you get to decide whether to do this today or to put it off until September can we discuss it election how do you guys feel if Judy's not here do you think she would still want to do it she always has yeah I don't know [Music] um uh I would like her to be I would like too yeah um but hate to vote her in if she doesn't want to be right maybe we should postpone it can I make a motion to postpone it September I second the motion okay member boura okay yes member Perkins yes member Holmes yes member Kennedy yes motion carries I just feel better if she was here yeah okay are we going to do discussion items then yes okay why don't I take over why don't you take over uh so I'd like to talk to you about the programs that we've had since the last time we met uh the last time we were together was in September and we've had great successes with our program since then we've partnered with many outside groups including shine to offer Medicare counseling we've hooked up with creative clay to offer art programs we were a ballot drop off location for the primary uh and we will be again in November um we partnered with a Suncoast seabird sanctuary and they bring live Birds to the library every month uh We've also had since September we've had pigs dogs cats skunks bats inside the library and we've had donkeys goats and other farm animals outside the library our animal program are always very well attended and and people just love to love to see them uh we've had some musical performers including those who sang holiday carols Irish songs we've had the sax quartet and lots of others along the way we've offered a variety of informational programs including American history we've done local history programs we've done Advanced Care programs and we've got sign language for children currently ongoing and of course these are just a sampling uh each year our summer reading program is primarily geared toward children to prevent the summer slide which is losing reading skills while not in school so we decided to have a winter reading program for adults uh to kick off the program we had a very successful local author showcase very well attended lots of positive feedback about that uh we also had a punch card system to win prizes we had a published author to discuss how to get published we had events for writers to gather and talk about their projects and and have writing opportunities uh We've averaged more than 30 programs each month since October which doesn't include some passive programs including wildly pop popular scavenger hunt in the kids area uh which changes every month so every time they're in they go running through the kids area looking for those scavenger items so that they can get a prize from the box it's over and over again they do it so much fun to watch uh so those are the past programs uh and we've got some and if I can move on to the next part of of the agenda I'll talk about the upcoming programs that would be good all right uh the biggest announcement we have to make is now through April 30th we have an exhibit at the library from smithsonian's Natural Museum of Natural History entitled exploring human Origins was it what does it mean to be human if you can see we've got the title panel here so the library has 20 of these panels throughout the library uh to document what we know so far about our evolutionary Journey um I don't know that any other library in Florida has done this yet um and so we're very fortunate to have the opportunity to do this um we also have program events related to the various aspects of Being Human including a genealogy program titled skeletons in the family closet we've got a discussion of science faith and reality and other programs relating to that the exhibit we are allowed to show for 5 years so after we're done with all 20 panels in the library we're going to move the panels to other venues other City venues um they don't need to be in their entirety I don't need to show all 20 of them at a time so I'm going to take five or 10 and put them in City Hall I'm going to take five or 10 and put them in um in other venues the Warren Webster the community center so that hopefully during the 5-year period everybody in St Pete Beach will get to see all of the panels so this is the first time we've ever done something like this we're pretty excited about it we also currently have a fundraising campaign inspired and coordinated by a fourth grade student student from G Beach's Elementary School it's called light up your library campaign and her goal is to raise money enough to install a light board in the children's area of the library um she's done an amazing job so far we've raised a lot of funds we have a long way to go so if anybody would like to contribute to this uh visit our website SPV library.com for more information on how to go about that and what is a light board picture a giant light bright but with dials instead of pegs a giant I'm light so it's like a Peggy board but it lights up when you push them in a picture a cool and the one we've got our eye on doesn't have those pegs which are removable they have dials which stay in place and the color changes um and we would be the first one in Florida to have one of those as well so I'm I'm very excited I I hope we can raise enough money so spread the word get your um rich and poor friends to donate we'd appreciate it yeah cool we've got a solar eclipse party on April 1st and we're giving away eclipse glasses at the event we've got St petersburg's poet laurate Gloria Muno and a local author Robert Lane coming to the library to discuss their Works uh and before you know it we're going to be launching the summer reading program again and this year's theme is Adventure begins at your library so we've got some great things coming up and fun programs to to keep an eye out for that's great uh we hope to be sponsor at a couple of upcoming outside events the novelist Inc which was brought to our attention by Linda boura last time around uh we hope to be at the conference as a sponsor okay for that um haven't haven't quite penned that into the calendar yet but we're hoping it we can do that and the Surfers for autism event that happens every year in July here in St Pete Beach we're going to be trying to be a sponsor at that as well just to get the word out about the library and everything the library is doing and connect with those folks who might want to also bring programs of theirs to our library so hoping for a good collaboration there uh last time we were talking about statistics so I've got a few statistics that I'd like to share with you from October through February we had 3 thou 3 4,766 visitors to the library which averages 292 people every day that's great that's amazing it is amazing um and since October through February we've provided 194 programs which engaged 4977 people so almost 5,000 people took part in our programs um all of the work on the programs is done primarily by Alexa Sawyer our programming librarian so I wanted to just mention her name and say what a wonderful asset she is to the city and to the library um she does collaborate with her other uh with the other staff members to do PR um promoting inside the library and outside the library we've got a a robust PR campaign going and and I'm convinced now that we we are reaching people to the extent possible because some of our programs are are just overwhelmingly large so I I believe that we're getting the word out so if we do have a program that's not well attended it's not because they don't know it's because they they don't want that program so because I'm very confident in our PR um we're going to be able to refine exactly what people want what people will come to the library for so better programs in the future that's what it's that's what it's all going to come down to that's great that is terrific are you finding that summer is almost as busy now as as winter for the library I mean people don't go home anymore we we have seen the season the the season that we call that January to March be extended a little more each year and of course now that we have Alexa on board and we're doing so many summer reading programs it we're engaging a different group of people but but still the numbers are very very good I I can't be more pleased for an 88,200 square foot building yeah we do an amazing amount of foot traffic um and of course it's not just the program we we also check out materials uh we have some fun things in our library of things that we're checking out these days we've got pickle ball kits we've got Tony boxes which are audio boxes Geared for little kids we we now have a metal detector uh so we we do a lot more than just programs and and it seems to be a a package that we found pretty successful great job I I mean that's the busiest building in the City by far you I believe you may be right I can't think of another well I can't think of another like even the rec center that's tremendous yeah thank you thank you we're very pleased we've got a great staff we've got a brand new building it's it's all just coming together beautifully yeah it was a little scary after the pandemic yeah it was and and we kept trying y you know we would try uhhuh programs to get people just talking or just come back out come see things and don't talk you know it was hard it was hard to figure out what people wanted because we didn't know ourselves and and we've crossed all those barriers we've crossed those boundaries and we are we are back in full swing yeah wow that's tremendous good leadership yes thank you yes we appreciate you thank you and all you do thank you yes thank you you're magical yes I I've managed to assemble a really great staff I nobody works in a in a vacuum and I couldn't do it without all of them yeah it's a great group MH yeah very very great okay so is there anything else do you guys have anything no I would just Echo that I attend many of the programs at the library and some of the first run movies have been shoulder toosh shoulder row to row 100% full by the time the movie starts I went to the Taylor Swift rave last week with my grandson and my my husband and Grandson were making friendship bracelets everybody was singing and laughing it's it's a joy to be in the library and I'm happy to be a part of this committee and um do whatever I can to keep it surging it's great to have you yes thank you well is that it then I think that's it it so you covered your agenda good job so yeah thanks um so we have the next meeting is um September 19th 19th 19 okay thank you is it is it always at 2 p.m MH okay all right so do I make movement for adjournment uh I move we adjourn second it okay great member boura yes member Perkins yes member Holmes yes member Kennedy yes motion carries that was that was very uh efficient