Boot Camp 2012 will be held his at the University of Hartford, Gray Conference Center, on Saturday, April 21st. Our theme focuses on how Friends groups communicate with both their membership and their community. The program consists of a main speaker, an introduction to the new FOCL on-line Directory, and three discussion groups.

The main speaker, Nancy Frede of Frede Enterprises, kicks the day off with her presentation titled ”Marketing Your Friends Group”. Nancy, who specializes helping non-profits market themselves, will discuss branding your group, creating community relationships, working with media, and marketing best practices.

The web is here to stay, so following Nancy, we will turn to Adam Delaura, FOCL’s own Webmaster. This year, FOCL is replacing the printed Directory with a new on-line version. Adam will introduce the new on—line directory including some new features that makes it more responsive to change. FOCL is looking for feedback on the enhanced Directory and any additional features you would like to see included.

After a short break, we will break into three discussion groups; “A Chat with the FOCL Webmaster,” “Communications in Small Towns,” and “Communications in Friends Groups with Large Memberships.”

• Adam Delaura will lead “A Chat with the FOCL Webmaster.” He will offer ideas on ways to rev up your website or Facebook page, discuss technical questions you might have, and explain in detail on how to get your Friends group onto Facebook.
• The second discussion group will address the challenge of “Communications in Small Towns.” This topic has been requested a number of times and we hope to have a good discussion and to generate ideas and lessons learned that Friends groups can put to immediate use.
• Shifting focus from small Friends groups to large ones, the third discussion group will deal with the challenges of “Communications in Friends Groups with Large Memberships.” Large groups need focused attention and creative ways to communicate with and retain members . We will identify and share ideas that work those that don’t.

Boot Camp is designed to present some general concepts first and then let each attendee chose a discussion group where a moderator will help the group talk through the issues with Friends from other groups. The feedback we get, including feedback from the Fall Conference indicates that you wanted more time to speak with each other.

As always, it important to FOCL that we address issues and questions that are important to you. So please forward your questions ahead of time to carlybilly@aol.com. This is especially true of questions you have for our Webmaster, so he will have time to research the answer.

We plan to have the full schedule, registration details and direction available by the end of February.

Hope to see you in April

Carl Nawrocki
FOCL President

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The Fall edition of our FOCL-Point Newsletter has been published. Click on the link below to check it out.

FOCL-Point Fall 2011

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Almost 80 people flocked to Central Connecticut State University in New Britain on Nov. 5, 2011, for the second Friends of Connecticut Libraries Annual Conference. Individuals represented Friends groups at libraries throughout the state.

Here are the four presentations and the presenters:

• Do Friends Groups Need Insurance? – Kate Houlihan, an insurance consultant for Bearingstar Insurance

• Defining and Achieving Our Goals – Ann Jepson, president of the Friends of the Ridgefield Library

• Trends in Friends Fundraising – Sally Neale, who recently received her master’s of library and information science degree from Southern Connecticut State University

• Friends Fundraising in Connecticut – Carl Nawrocki, president of the Friends of Connecticut Libraries

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FOCL’s Annual Conference will be held on Saturday, November 5^th at Central Connecticut State University. The conference will start at 9:30 a.m. and conclude mid-afternoon; a buffet lunch is included. Building on the success of last year’s conference, there will be interesting speakers covering relevant topics and plenty of time for discussion.

Leading off the day, will be Kate Houlihan, an Insurance consultant for Bearingstar Insurance. She will address the perennial question, “Do Friends groups need insurance?”  Kate will differentiate the various types of insurance a Friends group might need and present some steps each Friends group can use to decide whether or not they need insurance.

The second question is “How do we define and achieve our goals?” The Ridgefield Friends have recently undergone thorough review and planning process and Ann Jepson will share their experiences. She will go over their process and identify how it might help other groups discover new important relationships and create an organization that focuses on achieving their goals.

After lunch, Sally Neale will present information on “Trends in Friends Fundraising.” As a Master’s Degree of Library Science candidate at Southern Connecticut State University, Sally has collected some of her presentation data from you through her FOCL-Forum request. By the end of the day, her work coupled with information from the upcoming FOCL membership survey, will provide the audience with a myriad of fundraising ideas that their Friends group might try.

In addition, we will solicit questions with registration and at the beginning of the conference, and will answer them as long as we have an audience. Last year, questions led to great discussions and possible solutions to nagging problems.

Please have your registration to us by October 28, 2011, so we can finalize our head count. There will be no registration at the door.

Getting Friends together is always great time to exchange ideas and discuss common solutions to problems. We hope to see you and members of your Friends group in November.

Carl Nawrocki

FOCL President

2011 Annual Conference Registration Form

Conference Agenda, Facts and Program Descriptions

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FOCL’s Annual Conference will be held on Saturday, November 5^th at Central Connecticut State University. The conference will start around 9:30 a.m. and conclude mid-afternoon; a buffet lunch is included. Building on the success of last year’s conference, there will be interesting speakers covering relevant topics and plenty of time for discussion.

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