Meeting Minutes - Bracken County Imagination Library Council
11-22-22 The Bracken County Imagination Library Council's third meeting!
Attendees: Tom Burke, Christian Shroll
Prior meeting minutes reviewed. 306 out of the 635 eligible preschoolers enrolled!
Funding.
Tom applied for a $2500 TCEnergy grant for 2023. Last year we were awarded a $2000 grant for Dolly Library program.
Note: For the last few years the Rotary Club has received a $2000 grant for Rotary Heritage days until 2022, where they said they quit funding events.
Enrollment activities since last meeting.
11-10-22 Tom attended Samantha's Bracken County Interagency meeting. I spoke briefly of our enrollment needs and passed out flyers where some groups said they will display or pass out.
10-30-22 Halloween Trick or Treat. Tom got 25 phone #s from his porch.
7 enrolled.
7 enrolled outside of Bracken County.
6 never responded.
5 too old.
It was a little crazy, Haha.
10-22-22 Trunk or Treat in Brooksville. Stephanie got 20 enrollment forms filled out! All but 1, missing phone and email, so they couldn't be contacted.
5 total enrolled. Found 3 phone #s on internet and signed them up. Mailed 13 and received 1 call back.
Enrollment form updated to make it clearer. Copy of revised enrollment form attached.
10-5-22 Enrollment station setup in Primary Care's lobby.
Increase enrollment
- Upcoming events
Augusta Christmas Parade has Santa at Fire Department giving gifts. Perfect time to knab kids!
Will be pretty laid back for the rest of the year, except Santa at Augusta Fire Dept on Dec 10.
Next meeting January 24.
Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
9-20-22 The Bracken County Imagination Library Council's second meeting!
Attendees: Tom Burke, Robin Roseberry, Stephanie Hamilton, Christian Shroll, Samantha Wilson.
Prior meeting minutes reviewed.
Enrollment activities since last meeting.
- 9-17-22 Tom attended Germantown Community Center Political fundraiser/kids event. Signed up 4, 2 being in Robertson county. 276
- 9-1-22 Tara Boling, Samantha Wilson and Tom Burke attended Taylor Elementary Preschool Open house and signed up 21 kids on the sidewalk. Wow! 265
- 8-24-22 Tara Boling attended Taylor Elementary Open House. 8 signups. Great job Tara! 249
- 8-20-22 Tara Boling attended Rock the Block, where it rained and turnout was poor. 2 signups.
- 8-1-22 week. Germantown Fair. Chamber of Commerce table handing out flyers but no one specific for DPIL. 0 signed up. Missed opportunity!
Since our last meeting of July 26, we have increased the enrollment by 61 to 277! 28% increase!!
Increase enrollment
- Upcoming events
- Oct 22 Trunk or Treat, followed by a movie. Stephanie will sign up parents.
Tom will bring Dolly stand up, box of books and signup form to Stephanies.
- Samantha has a Ready To Learn event and is sending info out. Will include DPIL flyer.
- Halloween Trick or Treat night!!! Tons of kids. Robin suggested "just get a name and phone #". Great idea! Tom has 700 kids hitting his house in 2 hours!
- White Christmas Parade in Augusta. ????
- Social media ideas
Samantha's post after our last meeting
- Samantha volunteered to post a contest for the "best picture of kid with a book" raffle. Great idea!!!
Other ways to reach the 350 eligible kids,
- Under the Son daycare event coming up. Tom will contact them again.
- Fairview Christian event. Tom will contact Troy Bronstein, Youth Minister.
- Health Department , Marcella Hampton, has a Hands Program for 0-3 yr old. Tom will contact her.
Suggested that Tom meet Tony's replacement, John Dells, new Head of Health Dept.
- Samantha has an Interagency meeting that brings many county groups together. She will invite Tom.
- Burl and Basket on Rt 10. Tom will hang flyers there.
- Samantha was getting creative and thoughts of "Picture with Dolly" event or "Find Dolly" contest. To be continued!
Misc
Tom quickly mentioned the "Committee Only DPIL page" on the Augusta Rotarys website.
https://www.augustarotaryky.com/committeemembersonly Once you signup with a password, you will be given access to this page. Includes links to 2 other pages: Log - DPIL Page and Meeting Minutes. Place to track our progress.
Tom also showed his Excel sheet where he tracks all locations where flyers are hung and an EVENTS sheet which lists all events we have gone for enrollments.
Tom mentioned he was going to set a table up at Primary Plus and try to knab the kids going to Pediatric care, as they invited him to do. Everyone said BAD IDEA, YOU ARE GOING TO GET SICK! Change of plans. Will set up a table with Dolly stand up, but not man it. Just flyers to grab. Much better and easier!
Tom discussed the $2000 energy grant we received for this program last year.
Even though we don't need it, everyone said apply since marketing costs can be substantiale to enroll these last 350 kids. Tom will pursue this.
Great meeting with good plans, until our next meeting of November 22.
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6-26-22 Meeting Minutes - Bracken County Imagination Library Committee - July 26, 2022
The Bracken County DPIL, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, Committee's first meeting!
Attendees: Tom Burke, Robin Roseberry, Stephanie Hamilton, Christian Shroll, Samantha Wilson.
After introductions, Tom gave an overview of the DPIL program, which the Augusta Rotary Club is considered the "affiliate" sponsor for Bracken County.
Three parts of the program.
1. The Augusta Rotary Foundation has ownership as an affiliate of the DPIL process in Bracken County. We manage enrollments and billing through their website. Resolve address issues and books returned to the Post Office. The Augusta Rotary Foundation is a 501c3, which allows us to receive non-profit mailing rates and tax deductible donations, which is an affiliate requirement. Eternal 20+ year commitment!
2. Fundraising. With generous donations, grants and fundraisers we have plenty of money for the next 4 years! Current level of 216 enrollments = 34% of total and annual costs are $3000 annually. When we reach 70% enrollment, costs will be $8000 annually.
3. Enrollment. We currently have 216 of the 635 eligible preschoolers enrolled. Enrollment has stalled a little recently, as seen in the graph below.
All agreed, we're pretty much set, except enrollment needs to increase.
Logistics
- We agreed the committee should meet every 2 months. Next meeting is scheduled for Sept 20, 2PM at the Library.
- We agreed this is a good mix of members, but it covers mostly Augusta and Brooksville, not outlying areas. Troy Braunstein - Youth Minister of Fairview Church in Foster would be a great addition. Robin said she will contact him about this.
- Mission Statement for this committee. Samantha suggested " Increase literacy opportunities throughout Bracken County". Good, but needs more discussion.
Enrollment discussion
- Discussed getting the enrollment message out to caretakers of the preschoolers.
- Newspapers are not very effective.
- Social Media is powerful. Facebook is common but the under 30 crowd really uses TikToc, Instagram, Spotify. Samantha and Stephanie mentioned they have a great network on Facebook where they can post Dolly info.
- In-person events targeting preschoolers and young children are very effective. If possible, sign them up on the spot or at least get them to give us all the signup info, since flyers are common and often get ignored. Case in point, a young mother at the library with 2 kids was asked and she heard of the free books, but never signed up. We took all the signup info and she explained her phone and internet are sketchy where she lives and she just hasn't got around to it! Tom will create a simple one page signup sheet to collect all needed info, if Laptop not readily available.
- Samantha and Stephanie told us of the power of a Raffle Prize!. People get excited for something to win and will sign up. They both said they can donate a prize for the Taylor Elementary open house.
Events we need to pursue
- Taylor Elementary Open House Aug 24, 5-7PM. Mindy Hamilton is the contact. Samantha and Stephanie can donate a prize for a raffle signup giveaway. Samantha will have a chrome book for direct enrollment. Tom will attend.
- Samantha is doing a Poscicle & Books giveaway drive through soon. She will include enrollment flyers.
- German Town Fair July 30 - Aug 6. Set up a DPIL table possibly. Robin suggested we get Rotary volunteers to help.
- Germantown T-Ball when/who????
Tom passed out enrollment cards to Stephanie and Samantha who will be handing them out as much as possible. Flyer attached to this email.
DPIL enrollment T-shirts handed out.
Picture taken of the committees members!
Great first meeting! I think we're all enthusiastic and can really drive enrollment and address future issues, resulting in us increasing literacy in Bracken County!
Thanks and let's continue to communicate and work together for these upcoming events.
I'm excited,
Tom