Finally some good news
While I don't want to diminish the impact winter had been having on folks in more northern climes, we've had our required three days of winter about four times now. I'm snowed in at the moment, but the sun is out and the road is starting to clear, so I'm planning to go in to work at 1, and close at 5:30 instead of our usual 7 p.m. on Thursday nights. Things are melting, but they're going to refreeze, and I don't want to drive on that, and I sure don't want to walk to my car in a poorly lit parking lot and risk a fall.
But I digress from the good news! I sent in an application for a "reimbursement program" to the State Library last week. In these programs, you write up what you would spend money on to meet certain goals, and if they approve, then you buy stuff and send them the invoice to be paid. One of the things we've been wanting to do with the former council room is truly make it into a community room, where people can have meetings (one of the goals on the list), I can teach classes (ditto), and hit a couple of other things on their list. So I requested funding for a dozen stacking chairs, 6 laptops, and licenses to upgrade all computers to Office 2013.
I got the approval email Tuesday, so I've submitted the purchase orders to city hall to get things rolling. We're also asking if the city will pitch in some money for paint, so we can refresh the walls. It's a really boring cream color that's turned yellowish over the years. We'd also like to paint the metal doors something other than ugly dark brown. We need to get some paint chips of colors we like and show them to the mayor so we can be sure there's no objections.
The chairs will allow the room to be a bit modular in how we use it. Story Time? Enough chairs out for the adults, tables at the edge of the room, kids on the story time blanket on the floor. Teaching a computer workshop? Tables in the middle of the room where the light is the best and chairs as needed. The laptops will normally stay in our storage closet, but come out to play when we need them for a workshop. People can bring their own, but this will cover those that don't, and we'll be focusing on things such as computer basics and job searching and resume writing.
I still have dreams of a new building, but at least this will let us do more in the space we have. I also want a couch in the community room, but there wasn't enough funds available for that, but I'm hoping maybe I can make a deal with the local furniture store.
But I digress from the good news! I sent in an application for a "reimbursement program" to the State Library last week. In these programs, you write up what you would spend money on to meet certain goals, and if they approve, then you buy stuff and send them the invoice to be paid. One of the things we've been wanting to do with the former council room is truly make it into a community room, where people can have meetings (one of the goals on the list), I can teach classes (ditto), and hit a couple of other things on their list. So I requested funding for a dozen stacking chairs, 6 laptops, and licenses to upgrade all computers to Office 2013.
I got the approval email Tuesday, so I've submitted the purchase orders to city hall to get things rolling. We're also asking if the city will pitch in some money for paint, so we can refresh the walls. It's a really boring cream color that's turned yellowish over the years. We'd also like to paint the metal doors something other than ugly dark brown. We need to get some paint chips of colors we like and show them to the mayor so we can be sure there's no objections.
The chairs will allow the room to be a bit modular in how we use it. Story Time? Enough chairs out for the adults, tables at the edge of the room, kids on the story time blanket on the floor. Teaching a computer workshop? Tables in the middle of the room where the light is the best and chairs as needed. The laptops will normally stay in our storage closet, but come out to play when we need them for a workshop. People can bring their own, but this will cover those that don't, and we'll be focusing on things such as computer basics and job searching and resume writing.
I still have dreams of a new building, but at least this will let us do more in the space we have. I also want a couch in the community room, but there wasn't enough funds available for that, but I'm hoping maybe I can make a deal with the local furniture store.