RIVER FALLS LIBRARY FOUNDATION MINUTES
Wednesday, April 21, 2026
Call to order: President Rita Kozak called the meeting to order at 6:29 p.m.
Present: Rita Kozak, Callie Trautmiller, Mary Baumgartner, Linda Jacobson, Patricia La Rue, Sarah Nelson, Anna Zalusky, Linda Vivoda-Sadee, Theresa DeRusha, Tanya Misselt (Library Director, Ex-Officio.)
Absent: Library Board Trustee Kari Heinselman. Mary Torgerson decided to not become a Foundation member and will no longer be with us.
Approval of meeting minutes: Motion to approve the meeting minutes from March 25, 2026. Discussion on language and subtle changes. Patricia moved to approve the March 25, 2026, meeting minutes, seconded. Motion passed.
Financial report: Sarah provided the Treasurer Notes.
Capital Campaign donations totaled $1,407,162. April’s donations came to $124,997, including a business donation of $100,000. Transferred donations of $16,393 to the RFPL for the children services wall. Accountant Jennifer Schutz will file for a tax extension to accommodate a full audit as needed. We now have until November 2026 to file our 2025 taxes. Reviewed donations and expenses. Nothing surprising or out of the usual.
Membership report: Linda Jacobson
$30 in membership income with additional donations of $803. $650 in memberships so far and $6,540 in donations this year.
Library Director report: Tanya Misselt
Tanya provided the Board with a copy of her Director’s report which will be provided to the Trustees.
Emphasis to be placed on the May 20th events. Alice will obtain a tablecloth with the Board’s logo. She has made sandwich boards as promo. The Library has ordered a decal for the Technology Lending Library, recognizing the Foundation. Considering a display TV with just Foundation information. (Not for May 20th.)
May 20, first 30 minutes are just food in the meeting room and celebrate our hard work. Food will be moved into the main area. Members will have name tags. We will be by the Tech Lab to help promote the Foundation. The public to enjoy music. The Trustees’ name tags are gold, Foundation members in silver with Staff in white. Tanya will keep them. The name tags are $20 each. Library staff will have everything set up. We only have 30 minutes for our private celebration (so don’t be late.)
The FFP grant was approximately $4,000,000. Of that, $3,500,000 assigned to construction itself. Bidding came back at $2,300,000. By law, construction overages cannot exceed15% of the original bid. Tanya will be requesting permission from the state to amend the original budget to include the following
1) Repair the solarium roof as well as solarium updates
2) Install a glass wall around the community room
3) Upgrade technology in the lower-level
4) Partially fund new furniture
Discussion on the PBS documentary on The Librarians. Currently licensed and not available for private showings. Tanya will check.
Earth Fest went really well. The Library Staff helped others repair and sew their usable clothing.
Old Business:
Linda Jacobson
Linda attended the Board of Trustee meeting. The Trustees discussed large conference room furniture arrangements. Discussed water damage in the gallery/mold. Furniture will be ordered in Mid-Century modern design. Need to make purchases before the termination of the grant. Meeting room policies were discussed. The May 20th celebration, kids opening and adult opening. Discussed the different events and presentation planned throughout the summer.
Tanya discussed blending mid-century modern and craftsman furniture styles.
Rita Kozak
New Board Member information packet additions were taken up. No changes at this time.
Foundation membership, annual fund drive, issues were taken up. Discussion of the next newsletter. Updates from the Foundations will be put in the newletter, together with the group photo. Try to get newsletter out in May before the Summer kicks off.
Movie theater ad. Callie updated the members. She has been speaking with Craig. Turn around time on the ad is quick. Can get it out by the Summer Blockbuster season. Craig will take the video and edit it down, because we are Chamber members there is no charge for the editing. Pricing for 30 sec ad, $2,059. Six month run. Two screens at the theater. Would be shown 938 times. Couple of Foundation members will okay the edits. Members agreed to go with the clip they already have. Callie moved to have Craig edit the video and have it available for showing during the summer months.
Linda J. seconded. Discussion. Confirmed editing was free. The Library is a Chamber member. Callie will take the lead to approve the ad. When time to review Callie will let the members know for their input. Motion made, all in favor, none opposed.
Foundation T-shirts. Callie updated members. River City Stitch did our campaign t-shirts. Callie presented options. Left chest and full back logo will be $19.28. Same style shirt as the Capital Campaign shirts. Discussion of colors. Discussion on having Foundation pay the costs. Decision to order 10. Order sheet with sizes passed around. Callie moved to have the Foundation pay for the shirts. Theresa seconded. No discussion. Motion passed with all in favor. Discussion on color. Decision to go with a shade of blue.
Board of Directors to reimburse the Foundation for the feasibility study. Sarah discussed the feasibility study expenses to be reimbursed to the Foundation. Discussion of a $24,000 expenditure, paid three times at $8,000 each. Not definite if that was to be reimbursed from the Capital Campaign funds. Baker Street invoices from consulting to be reimbursed. Feasibility Study was one contract, second contract was the Capital Campaign. The Capital Campagn was $147,000. We can request the money, have not done so, have not yet reimburse ourselves. Discussion on where to put the funds.
- The Foundation has an investment account at St. Croix Valley Foundation. We can only take a “spendable amount”, a percent of our investment amount out each year. If we need to take any more than that, their Board has to approve it. Special circumstances.
- We also have an investment account at Edward Jones. We can put funds in and out. Flexible.
Correction on the agenda. It should be the Board of Directors, not the Board of Trustees. What we are considering tonight is whether the Foundation Board of Directors can reimburse the Foundation from the Capital Campaign funds that are there. We are looking at taking the funds from the Capital Campaign account and moving it to our investment account. The Foundation has set up an account titled “Capital Campagn Expenses.” It has the Baker Street Consulting Invoices. Not including the T-shirts. The total to be reimbursed is $146,367. Includes the $24,000 discussed previously. Anna moved to request reimbursement from the Capital Campaign account and to move the funds to our Edward Jones account. Patricia seconded. All Directors were in favor. Motion passed.
St. Croix Valley Foundation Spendable Amount. Sarah discussed a 2026 budget and provided the 2026 Budget & Cash flow spreadsheet. Identify cash flow. St. Croix Valley Spendable comes up once a year. You need to request by June 15 deadline. We could request SCVF spendable amount for cash. Then request from Edward Jones, around December, see if we need to withdraw money. Two opportunities to withdraw funds. Assuming approximately $9,000 in memberships and donations for 2026. The Foundation recovers the fees paid out when donations are made by means of electronic transfer. Sarah reviewed the various expenses listed on the spreadsheet. The Current Balances column does not include the Capital Campaign, does not include the Library checking account.
From the SCVF spendable amount, we can withdraw up to $35,758. Last year we did not take the spendable. This year we could roll the $35,000 into next year and take it then. Or we take it now and put it in our main investment balance. They would keep it at SCVF and put it with our main investment there. Or we can pull the funds out and put them with Edward Jones. We have until June 15.
Will request to determine rate of return on account of Edward Jones or SCVF and management fees. When we initially set up with SCVF the Foundation’s funds were much less than we have today. Didn’t realize it was hard to obtain. Tanya explained that when you provide SCVF with funds, they must own it. It is written in statute. We agree to take a certain amount out, but there is no promise that we will get it all back. It is a relationship matter. The SCVF don’t want to be seen as refusing to return funds. Original Board Member set it up with $50,000. Now there is a lot more money today. Sarah will come back with more information for the May meeting.
Callie informed that Mary would be presenting the Foundation’s 2026 scholarships. The winners are confidential at this time, even to Board members. Discussion on adding additional scholarships. We had 36 applicants this year. Really tough to decide. Consider changing the amounts. The Foundation currently gives out two, $500 grants. The funds go to the recipient, not to an institution. Checks go with the certificate and directly to the student. Callie noted that some of the applicants actually work as Pages in the Library. It may be consideration in awarding the scholarships. Linda J. moved that we plan on awarding four scholarships of $500 each for next year. Mary seconded the motion. No further discussion or questions. The motion carried unanimously.
Future topics.
Rita indicated we have talked about the Map sales in prior meetings and have determined to address this in the fall. We will leave on the agenda.
The Philanthropy education participation or, how to carry on after the Capital Campaign. Tanya wants to visit the different forms of philanthropy from time to time. We had a website addressing these issues that had information in it. Tanya will determine how long we have access to the current website. Linda J. brought up transitioning to an annual campaign. We need to start organizing by October to have something started by December.
Discussion on who will be at the kick off in June. June 8 is the kick off for the children’s summer library program. Then Wednesday is the kick off for the adult summer library program. Mary and Anna will attend the children’s kick off on June 8. Last time the Library had a QR code with information about donations. Mary and Anna at children’s. Theresa and Rita will be present at the adults on June 10. Linda J. thought it would be a good idea for the Library to have demonstrations of the various technologies available through the Library. Some people may not understand or even know what the technology is.
River Falls Day is July 10-11. Opportunity, event to “Meet River Falls.” Does the Foundation want to have a table for River Falls Days. Last year was 11:00 – 1:00. Sucker tree to get people to the table. “I HEART River Falls” is another event for us to consider. That is early June.
Technology Petting Zoo is another theme. Get out the information that sewing machines are available at the library for check out. Decide to pass on the “I HEART River Falls” due to heavy schedules already.
Linda VS will attend the Trustee meeting for May, and Mary will attend in June. The Foundation does not meet in July. Motion to adjourn the meeting was seconded and passed unanimously. The Foundation went to the Library to have a photo taken.
As scribed by Patricia La Rue.