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November 18, 1998
The theme for today's meeting was external funding and publicity. Sarah Thomas opened the meeting by reminding us that we needed to be vigilant about the resources we have. We need to look at our internal resources, and we are doing this through the reallocation process. We also need to attract new funding from external sources.
Ed Weissman reviewed the process for preparing grant applications. That process is described on the web site that Peter McDonald developed last year in connection with the first internal grants competition. Ed announced that the site would be streamlined and moved to the Library server as part of the staff web page within a couple of weeks. The site will provide up-to-date background information, funding sources, and forms.
The goals of the grant application process, Ed said, were to help ensure that he and Marisue Taube use their time effectively, and to ensure that applicants are in compliance with Library and University requirements. Approved projects are institutional commitments and require the signatures of top university officers. For the Library, this means that applications must be signed by Sarah.
Ed described the process for preparing and submitting proposals. He also stressed the need for communications among affected units and, particularly, the University's Office of Sponsored Programs.
Ed was followed by Marisue Taube, Director of Library External relations, who made a presentation about foundation and corporate giving. Individuals, Marisue said, give most of the money received by Cornell, a lot more than foundations and corporations. The competition for foundation money is intense and our success depends very much on how we all coordinate our efforts. She echoed Ed's words about the importance of understanding and following the process of fund raising and said that it would save us time in the long run.
Library External Relations will help individuals in identifying funding sources. They can contribute their knowledge of funding organizations' agenda, politics, and procedures, and understanding of the nature of their relationships with Cornell. While Library External Relations can help with the communications between parties, their role does not supplant that of the principal investigators who are the primary contacts.
Finally, Marisue reminded us that it is really important that proposals have Sarah's signature and, in some cases, those of the Provost or the President. Funders see these signatures as an indication of Cornell's commitment to the projects for which funding is being sought.
The fundraising process may seem unnecessarily bureaucratic, but it is successful at Cornell because of all the planning and strategizing that takes place, and attention to details. Sarah emphasized that, in addition to the money raised, fund raising enhanced the reputations of the Library and the University.
Linda Westlake described the involvement of Accounting Services in fund raising. She, and Lee Cartmill, review the financial information on project proposals to assess their impact on the budget and to make sure that University and library rules have been observed. They also try to identify costs that will continue beyond the completion of the project. Accounting Services keep track of projects in a FileMaker Pro database which Susan Bristol demonstrated.
Brad Carruth, a Trust Officer in the University's Office of Trusts, Estates and Planned Giving, talked about individual sources of funding. Planned giving in the form of trusts and estates are at the core of Cornell, and have always been. Brad reminded us that Ezra Cornell made a planned gift to help create this University, and that the Library was created by gifts from Andrew D. White.
We know a lot, Brad said, about how to help potential donors structure their gifts and when to make them, but we still don't know very much why they give. The Office of Trusts, Estates, and Planned Giving includes four planned giving officers and three trust officers to work with donors or their estates. But we only know about 15-20% of the bequests before they arrive at Cornell. Most people are very private about their money.
Finally, Brad described a number of gifts and bequests that had been made to the Library over the years. The business of fund raising takes place over a very long period. Sometimes we do not know who the friends of Cornell are going to be. The process of developing awareness and interest in the institution may last a lifetime.
Beth Fontana, Communications Manager in Library External Relations, explained why she wanted feedback about the draft procedure dealing with publicity. Lenore Coral suggested that editorial changes to copy submitted to Library External Relations should be reviewed by the original writers. Beth said that anything she changed would go back to original authors, but that she could not vouch that this would necessarily happen in other departments.
Beth also announced that Franklin Crawford, formerly of the Ithaca Journal, was the new writer for Cornell News Service who would be covering the Library. She also reminded us that she wanted to be informed about articles appearing elsewhere that promote the Library.
Tom Hickerson expressed concern about where our stories get sent. He said that it seemed to become increasingly harder to find out and that, when he did, he found that list of places where stories are sent keeps getting shorter. He suggested that it would be helpful for us to have a current list.
Sarah mentioned that she wanted more stories about the Library to go out. She recognized that time pressures make this hard for some and said that she did not want lack of time to be an impediment to getting stories written. She said to let her know if this was happening.
Christian Boissonnas talked briefly about the user survey that is being planned. He said that Nancy Skipper had recently joined the planning team. He also said that feedback was being sought from the Library community on two important questions. The first is, what do we want our users to tell us and, the second, who, exactly are those users that we want to survey? Detailed planning on the methodology cannot really take place until these questions have been answered. Sarah suggested that the planning team might have to go to some of the Library groups and initiate discussions with them.
Respectfully submitted.
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rev. 12/1/98 peo