First in a series of blog posts describing our various committees and their work.

CGS will celebrate its 125^th anniversary next year. Lots of things are being planned. If you stop and think about it, it’s pretty amazing that we have sustained this organization for all that time almost entirely with volunteer efforts! The officers and board of directors deserve much of the credit but behind them are the committees.

CGS has eighteen committees that are chaired, staffed and run entirely by member volunteers. This is where much of the work that sustains the society gets done. (You can see a complete list of committees on the website.) In this blog series I will feature each of the committees and explain what they do. Without this network of support the society would falter and be crippled in our efforts to accomplish the things that need to get done. While the board sets our course and guides the organization, it is the committees that complete the essential day-to-day tasks.

Some committees are large. Others are small – sometimes just one individual. Some meet weekly while others meet monthly or on an as-needed basis. New volunteers are always needed so I hope this new blog series will pique interest and that more of you will consider offering some of your time to help support and strengthen CGS.

	Library committee
Purpose	The Library Committee maintains the library, processes book donations, purchases new books and removes outdated material
Chair	Chris Pattillo
Meets	Second Thursday of the month
Time Commitment	One hour a month for a meeting plus additional time as needed to work on projects
Helpful Skills	Library or eBay experience, data entry, good organization, a love of books
Work Location	In the library

I begin with the Library Committee – the committee that I’ve chaired since August of 2021. Current committee members include Kristi Wessenberg, Linda Edwards, Wendy Polivka, Arlene Miles, Gibran Rath, Karen Halfon, and Shirley Hoye.

As chair I set and send out the agenda and lead our monthly meeting on the second Thursday of the month. I type up and send out meeting minutes, do various follow up tasks, serve as the liaison with the board and I also schlep excess books to local bookstores to sell which provides revenue for the society.

Kristi Wessenberg is in charge of our eBay sales. She lists duplicate books that have been donated and mails out those that sell as another revenue generating effort. Kristi is supported by Gibran and Shirley in these efforts.

Arlene Miles is in charge of new book and supply purchases. She does research to find books we want and then buys them.

Wendy Polivka catalogs our new books and enters them into WorldCat. She makes recommendations regarding which books we should keep.

Linda Edwards and Karen Halfon are currently reviewing our holdings and deaccession books that are outdated, duplicates, and readily available online for free. This needs to be done to make space for new additions. In the past they completed a shelf read to make sure books are in order and to identify missing books.

Everyone helps process newly donated books. During my tenure hundreds of books have been given to CGS so this is a big part of what the library committee spends time on.

Our monthly meetings typically last about one hour and always include laughs and personal sidebars. It is apparent that we enjoy each other’s company. After the meeting we each work in the library and then gather for lunch and more socializing. Depending on how much work needs to be done some committee members work in the library between the monthly meetings.

The library committee can use one or two new members! Let me know if you are interested:  [email protected]

The post CGS Committees: Part 1 – Introduction & Library Committee first appeared on California Genealogical Society.