Welcome to the first blog post of Friends of Georgia Libraries!  This blog will be the place to go for all your news on advocacy, events and news from Friends groups from around the state!

Please submit any ideas, events, success and news to foglblog@gmail.com

ANNUAL MEETING AND WORKSHOP

FOGL's annual meeting and workshop was held in the beautiful Jefferson Public Library.   "Things Friends Should Know About Their Georgia Libraries, But Are Afraid to Ask" was the theme and it focused on information about Georgia libraries, their partnerships around the state, along with a great session on advocacy.  Beth McIntyre, Regional Director of Piedmont Regional Library System, presented a session titled, “Libraries ROCK” & “Why Choose, We Have Both….”.  She focused on the e-books program at Piedmont Regional and the planning and budgeting it takes to begin an e-book program.

After lunch, board president, Kathy Ash, and treasurer, Keith Schuermann, presented a session on advocacy. “Advocacy is the planned, deliberate and sustained effort to raise awareness of an issue.” Advocacy utilizes many marketing and promotion tools. One such tool the Piedmont system recently acquired is a small “screen cleaner cling.” Designed to stick to the back of your cell phone, when needed it can be used to wipe your cell phone screen clean.  The logo of the Piedmont Regional Library is on the front, making it excellent advertisement and a conversation starter on libraries and their needs. 

Rounding out the day was an excellent informational tool disguised as a game show.  “Who Wants to Be a Library Information Millionaire?” was  presented by George Tuttle, Piedmont Regional System IT Librarian.  Many facts on libraries were learned by all!  All pamphlets and presentations can be made available to you upon request.

FOGL board meeting was held directly following the workshop and election of officers took place.

Results are as follows:

Kathy Ash- President

Dan Aldridge- Vice President

Keith Schuermann- Treasurer

Beth Ratliff- Secretary

We also would like to extend a warm Friend-ly welcome to Belinda “Bel” Outwater, our newest board member.  Bel has worn many hats in the land of books and is currently the Branch Manager for Statham Public Library.