Wednesday, September 2, 2015

New team, new collaboration


On September 1, 2015, three of the new officers of the Friends met with HPL staff member Nancy Kocsmiersky of the Library Development Office to discuss ways that we could work together. Nancy snapped this photo of us:
   Sandy Ward, President (standing)
   Kate Kruckemeyer, Vice President, left
   Pattie Lumbra, Assistant Treasurer/Membership Co-Chair, right.

We are considering new ways to keep our membership information up to date.  It has been a challenge, in the past, to keep the Friends membership list (maintained in a spreadsheet by a volunteer on a home computer) and the Library's main mailing list (maintained by Nancy with much more sophisticated database software, not accessible by the Friends) in sync. People move, phone numbers change... and notification of such changes might be sent to the Library, or to the Friends, or neither, or both. In spite of efforts to communicate changes, our lists evolve separately.

In August Nancy printed address labels for mailing the Friends newsletter. That was a helpful efficiency, but some of our newsletters were undeliverable, costing us fees at the Post Office. As we investigated each bounced address, comparing data from our two separate lists, we realized, again, the nuisance of this separation. We are seeking solutions. The software in Nancy's office will soon have to be upgraded. We are hopeful that the new version will provide new options for collaboration.

No comments:

Post a Comment