Last week I mentioned that something would be happening and, as expected it did. It’s taken me the last seven days to absorb it and, although the full repercussions will not happen for a little while, I’m comfortable enough with it to start blogging about it.
On Tuesday, February 14th I was officially appointed the new bookstore manager for the Friends of the Aurora Public Library. I’ve been on the board for the past five years as the publicist and Web master and seeing as I have 10+ years of bookstore experience, I always had an opinion on how the bookstore was run. (Not that the rest of the board always like my opinions mind you.) When the previous manager retired this past November, it was up to the board president to appoint someone to the new position. She asked, and after much consideration, and a deep look at the amount of free time I already don’t have, I decided to accept.
So far, the rest of the board and volunteers seem to be o.k. with my appointment but some are still leary since they know that I’ll be making changes to how the place is run. The central problem is that I’m looking at the organization (how to make it better so we can better send funds to the library) and not so much at the individuals or their inter-personal relationships.
How will this all go down in the long run, well, worst that can happen is that I try, fail, and both the president and I are replaced at the end of the year. Best case scenario, the store goes from being open 2.5 days a week and making about $30K per year for the library to 5 days a week and making $100k. I’m willing to give it a try.
