Alas, it is true. The Friends of the Olathe Public Library will not be having the April Ella Mae Memorial Book Sale this year. Yes, it is a popular event. Yes, it raises money for the Friends, which goes toward equipment and materials at the libraries. So what’s the problem? Just this…it no longer is a cost-effective event. When the Friends board entered into the discussion last year about the future of the 2010 EMM Sale, it discovered that for the amount of time, effort and volunteer hours spent setting up, taking down and running the sale, it really wasn’t that profitable. Here’s why - a moving company had to be paid to move the materials, tables, etc. from the storage facility to the Center of Grace Church and then paid to take the tables and equipment back to storage after the sale was over. Depending on the size of the sale, the amount was anywhere from $800 - $1000 or more. “Back in the old days”, that was not a concern for these services were donated.
The church had to be paid, rightfully so for tying up its gymnasium for five days. The rental fee was very reasonable, but it still was a fee that ate into the profit. Add to that the expense of hiring some temp workers to help move the hundreds of boxes to the proper tables. A penny here…a penny there…it all adds up.
The second consideration was having enough people to run a sale of this magnitude. Let’s face it - everyone is busy, busy, busy and it takes many hands to haul boxes of books, unload them, arrange them on the tables and break down the boxes. Then, volunteers need to man the sales for one evening and three days. And, lastly, clean-up, is a huge task if there is a large amount of materials to unload, repack or recycle. Many times, there were only five - ten people that were available to do this - many of them the same volunteers that had already spent a large amount of time at the sale the previous days.
So, the Friends board members compared how much they were making at the EMM book sale as compared to hosting one day sales throughout the year at the Indian Creek Branch Library meeting room. The findings were staggering. In a five-hour time period, the Friends could raise approximately $1000 - 1400 dollars and all of it was profit. Compare that to a profit of roughly $3,000 or less, depending on the success of the EMM sale. Bear in mind, we’re talking multiple days involved to reach this sum.
After realizing this, the decision was easier to make. The Friends board recognizes that people are disappointed that there no longer will be a large sale, but they are offering perks to sweeten the pot. They have added an additional sale in March - making a total of six Saturday sales from 10 am - 3 pm. There will be two Friends Preview Sales - one on April 9 and one in August 6 from 5 - 8 pm. Only Friends members will be able to shop these sales for first pick at the materials. Both sales will be followed with a Saturday sale and new materials will be added before opening on Saturday. Finally, they will be offering Friday noon - 5 pm sales on June 11 and July 9 with sales following on Saturday, June 12 and July 10. And, of course, the popular bargain “Five Bucks a Bag” Sale will continue.
In addition, they have reconfigured the room so that it is easier to move around while shopping. Each sale will offer the regular fare of fiction, mystery, romance and children’s materials. Then a variety of genres are added into the mix - westerns, science fiction, cookbooks, signed books, reference, history, computer, “how-to”, collectible Little Golden Books - too many categories to list here. So, attending the sale is like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates - you never know what you will find at each sale until you attend. Each sale will be different!
The Friends did decide to slightly increase the prices of the materials, because, quite frankly, the OPL Book Sales were the cheapest ones around. An effort is being made to increase the quality of the materials offered at the sale - tattered paperbacks don’t make it into the sale, really old computer or textbooks are eliminated and musty materials are given a decent burial.
So, please, don’t look at the glass half empty, but rather, half full. You have an opportunity to attend ten sales plus two more if you’re a Friends member in 2010. I call that a win-win situation, don’t you?
See a complete listing of the sales on the Friends book sale page on the library website @ www.olathelibrary.org
Would you like to know about activities for children at the library between now and the end of the school year? Then stop by Children’s Services at either Olathe library and pick up a copy of our Winter/Spring Children’s Programming booklet. This booklet will tell you about all programs happening for children in 6th grade and younger through the end of May.