Annual Meeting

It's that time of the year again! No, not Groundhog Day. It's DeWitt Community Library's Board of Trustees Annual Meeting! This will take place on Thursday, February 5th, so we thought it was a good time to look back at previous Annual Meetings. These meetings are important for two major reasons: 1.) The Board holds Trustee elections, and Trustees can also be voted on and/or nominated from the floor, and 2.) The Director of the library makes an Annual Report on a year's worth of library progress.

A host of different directors in our 46-year history have interpreted the Annual Report process in their own unique ways. Some have been businesslike and succinct, some pithy and amusing, and some visually creative, but all of them have been enthusiastic about the DCL. Traditionally, the Annual Meeting of DeWitt Community Library Associatioin is in February, with the exception of the first year, because the library opened in April of 1962 and the Annual Report was done in June of that same year, even though the "yearly" report would only encompass 29 days. "It has been a hectic year," wrote Director Lindsay Smith, "but highlighted by the cooperation which only a community project can inspire." Generally, early Director's Reports consisted of other Board officer and Committee summaries, although the Director's own words contained the bulk of the message. That first month, however, Mr. Smith's portion of the report was the smallest part, dwarfed by Administration and Treasurer's Committee reports on building costs and cash assets and liabilities.

By 1963, Lindsay Smith had already resigned his position as Director, and Katherine "Kay" Kinney took over the running of the library. She had been a volunteer on the regular library staff under Mr. Smith's leadership. Ms. Kinney did very detailed reports, underlining the tremendous growth and structuralization of DeWitt Library. Sometimes these early reports would contain odd items of interest, as in the papers from 1964: "We are most grateful to Mrs. Donald Moore who continues to give us pleasure with interesting and varied bulletin board displays. With her assistance, a display was arranged in the Lincoln Bank foyer during Children's Book Week." The DCL was truly a community effort, and especially supported by the Lincoln Bank, which even allowed the Board to meet in its building for planning before they got the library up and running. Mr. Smith and successive Directors up into the 1980s were also very complimentary about volunteers -- Boy and Girl Scouts, as well as a large group of other young people and adults, who helped out from the library's conceptualization to reality.

Other important topics Ms. Kinney would include in her Annual Reports dealt with programming. The DCL has always been a place that emphasizes quality programs for all ages, and it started right from that first full year and Kay Kinney's leadership and ideas. In addition to story hours, she introduced weekly film showings for children, a "Great Books Discussion Group" every other Tuesday night, and a children's poster contest. While Lindsay Smith did an incredible amount of leg work in the formation of the DeWitt Library, Kay Kinney was an innovator who was able to take Smith's foundation and build a trademark library that still functions with many of her ideas almost 50 years later. These characteristics are certainly reflected in both these start-up Directors' styles of Annual Report. Lindsay Smith is concise, succinct, and businesslike; and Kay Kinney is very detailed and enthusiastic, placing importance on many of the small interactions that make up a library's day-to-day business.

There has never been any specific structure for writing the Director's Annual Report, and this allows each Director to focus on what she/he thinks has made the year special, as well as let their styles and personalities show. Just from the years 1969-71, for example, there were two changes of Director, and while 1970's Director Louise Hemmingsen did a very short and straightforward report, Elizabeth Gilbert took over in 1971 and wrote a lighthearted and upbeat report that has the tone of an informal letter to a friend. "It is a measure of the stability of the DeWitt Community Library," she begins, "that in 1971, while under the leadership of three successive librarians, it opened every day on schedule and even increased its collections and circulation!" Ms. Gilbert concludes her report with a rousing "The outlook for 1972 is 'All Systems -- Go.' "

Elizabeth "Betsy" Gilbert's chatty and enthusiastic Annual Reports continued through 1975, when Janet Lomicka took over as Director. At this point, the stability of the DCL was well established, and we no longer see such ins and outs with regard to the Directorship. Ms. Lomicka stayed on until 1986, when Carol Johnson took over. Carol's reports tended to be bulleted lists of the progress made in each area of the library, and she continued her work with the DCL until 1996, when Susan Reckhow took the reins. Susan's Annual Reports tended to be showcase booklets with a lot of graphics. Unfortunately, she left the library in 2008 after 18 years with us, and 12 years as Director! So Interim Director Bill Hastings will be giving the Annual Report, and next year who knows? We will have a whole new person at the helm, and a whole new style of Annual Meeting!

Click on the pictures below to see full-size pictures of some of our past Directors: Lindsay Smith, Kay Kinney, and Susan Reckhow.