vendredi 8 août 2014

The new catalogue (Author Alphabetical Order) is now online. To download it, just click Here.
Also available : Alpha Order by Title Here.
Scroll down to middle of page to a small red PDF file and click on "télécharger le fichier"... hey presto !

mercredi 6 août 2014

Summer Newsletter 2014


SUMMER NEWSLETTER 2014                            



                              


·         FOAL held its AGM on June 12th with a rather disappointing turnout but better than some.

·         Vicki gave an overview of the past year ; the Christmas party and Raffle were very successful, as was the annual Book Quiz. The search for premises is ongoing (City Hall has had our dossier for two years now and they receive regular reminders about our situation). We will be addressing the question of a move from the Claringbull’s in the autumn. We will never be able to thank them enough for their generosity and patience. In this week’s Gazette, there is a snippet about premises for associations, some of which, apparently, are put to uses for which they are not intended (gaming, drugs and even brothels !!). The new Mayor is going to look into this and put things in order. Logically, this should free up some premises. In my next reminder, I shall assure them that we have no intention of setting up anything but a library !

·         The Foal website has changed its name to foal34.free.fr as we had to change hosts.

·         We did quite a lot of advertising in the autumn but until we have permanent premises we are in a chicken and egg situation. We cannot augment the collection (apart from new books) due to lack of space or increase our opening hours or advertise Book Sales so it’s rather difficult to seek too many new members.

·         FOAL received a grant from City Hall again this year (500 euros) we will be ordering new books soon for « la rentrée ».

·         We collected the 10 best books of the first decade, thanks to the efforts of Philippe Marchand and Art Fell.

·         Philip Claringbull’s Treasurer’s Report shows that our financial situation is healthy, we have quite a lot of money in the bank which we are husbanding so that we will be able to afford shelves and other expenses when we move to permanent premises.

·         A Fundraising Committee was set up in the spring. They hope to raise significant funds. These would be used for premises and the Physical Library as a priority but the idea of a Digital Library was mooted which could either become an addition to the Physical Library or set up as a sister association.

·         FOAL will be present at the Foire aux Associations this year on the 14th September, our stand will be on the Place du Nombre d’Or, you might like to drop in to support the team who will be there plugging our library.

·         Christmas Party : to be held on Friday 12 December at the Claringbull’s. Given the success of the party last year, we might be obliged to restrict numbers. We will hold a Raffle again which enabled us to raise a goodly sum last year and is a fun way to support the library, (tickets on sale in the library from November and on the day itself). If anyone would like to contribute a prize, send an email to foal@dbmail.com




HAVE A GREAT SUMMER, if attendence at the library last week is anything to go by, you will have lots of good reading to be getting on with. One more opening before the summer break on Wednesday 30th July