June 18, 2025 Annual Member Meeting minutes.

“We end this year with gratitude to the Friends of the Port O’Connor Library members for their support this year.”

Since July 1, 2024, the Friends have continued to work hard to support the Port O’Connor Library Branch and its endeavors. With the county's permission and on the POC Library’s request, the Friend's capital campaign has been in full swing to expand the POC library by 2,500 square feet. We are closing in on that goal and collaborating diligently with our contractors to get that building up and equipped with doors, windows, ac/heat, insulation, electricity, and flooring.

     For our building expansion, the Friends started last year with our capital campaign outreach through mail vouchers. We had several chili cookoffs at Josies Mexican Restaurant. A special thanks to Tom Stephens and Mona Schlieper with the South Texas Tolbert Chili Cookers, Eloisa and her team, and to all who donated silent auction items and participated in cornhole tournaments. We also had a successful raffle with generous donations from local guides and local businesses. We had lots of fun at the POC Boat Show and the POC Crawfish Festival, accepting donations for the expansion project, answering questions, and giving away children's books. Another big thanks to the POC Chamber of Commerce for organizing such successful events.

     Our Grant Committee was top notch in gathering funds from numerous foundations to help us get where we are now. Another big thanks to them for their dedication and writing skills.  For the community events at the library this year we conducted several childrens’ programs and an adult program and provided baked goods for Coffee and Conversation monthly. We provided the cleaning and landscaping for the POC Library. Special thanks to Cindy Hanson and her crew for the planting, weed eating, and watering. The Friends purchased the plants.

     The community has witnessed our dedication to raising funds and advocacy for our POC Library through the Friend’s social media, the Chamber's Website and Facebook posts, several Billboards in Victoria, the 4th of JulyParade, the monthly updates through “The Spotlight” in the local newspaper and websiteThe Dolphin Talk and other public events.

     For this forthcoming year, our main focus is on raising funds to complete the building project. We are behind on the projected timeline from last year's members’ meeting mainly due to the weather.

     The new year’s operating budget was voted on in May’s meeting and approved by the board. Furthermore, we met with the county librarians who expressed no opposition to the county overseeing community programs and maintaining the library. The county affirmed its support and commitment to overseeing community programs and ongoing library maintenance. Calhoun County has an awesome children's librarian (Kelley) whose job involves running programs like the Friends have done in the past. She took over in January and has been doing a fantastic job.

     The board did not feel the need for a membership drive due to our recent letter updating members on construction status. Since that letter was mailed out, we have been receiving donations from our members and are grateful for the continued support from them. We have set a membership fee of $5 for members this new year.

     As the next year approaches, the majority of the board members have expressed their intentions to step down to pursue other interests and commitments. The current board of volunteers is determined to stay on and complete the building project. Therefore, board recruitment is another objective for this new year. The volunteer hours for this end of year were 913 hours.

     Thank you all for attending this annual member’s meeting.