Week 5 - Thank you!

THANK YOU! to everyone who participated in the Staff Brainstorming session on Tuesday, February 19th. We had about 48 Staff members and 2 Board members attend the meeting, which was facilitated by our Consultant, Maureen Sullivan. The Strategic Plan Steering Committee greatly appreciates your input.

The group was first asked to brainstorm nouns and verbs in answer to the question – “What is the purpose of the library?” Next we considered the question – “In an ideal word, five years from now, what would we like this library to be?” The responses collected will be the foundation for developing our Mission and Vision Statements.

The Steering Committee, along with Maureen Sullivan, met the next morning to review the input we received. To get started we looked over all the flip charts and identified recurring vision themes, listed here in no particular order:

Be more user-friendly
Access
PR, Marketing, Outreach
Community gathering place : welcoming, ambiance, quiet, busy
Teens
“Edutain”
Technology – achieving the right balance
Adapt to evolution of community
Working/Networking with other community organization
Staff Development –What we (the library) do now; learning new skills, bonding

Next, we will be drafting Vision and Mission statements for our library. We have saved all the flip charts and will continue to refer to them as we move forward. On March 19th, from 11-12, we will be inviting staff to an open discussion of the draft Mission and Vision Statements. People will be able to take a look at the first drafts and give us their reactions in person that day. You will also have other opportunities to respond.

On April 9th we are planning a focus group meeting to gather information from the community at large. Representatives from a wide range of community groups, businesses, and organizations will be invited to participate. This meeting is still in the planning stages.

We continue to welcome input from everyone. You will now find a Suggestion Box in the Staff Lounge by the Strategic Planning bulletin board. We have also made it easier to post comments to the Blog. Look to the right of the Blog screen for “General Comments and Ideas”. Click here and add your comments. We look forward to hearing from you and will post responses as appropriate.