A Health Library for Holyoke, MA

Progress Reports

For current news, see recent progress report entries on another page.

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Progress Reports, June - December 2001

7/1/01-7/6/01
Intense week of behind-the-scenes activity, preparing application for NLM RFQ and following up on Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation for our coalition. Letters of support arriving. On Friday, July 6, 2001, Sandy Ward, President, signed the Articles of Incorporation. We will soon be Holyoke Consumer Health Library, Inc.

7/11/01
Official date of our Incorporation!

7/25/01
Meeting at the Holyoke Public Library, 335 Maple Street, Holyoke. Javier Crespo, the new Consumer Health Coordinator NN/LM, New England Region, attended, as did Pam White, the out-going Coordinator. Madeleine Charney brought a final copy of the NLM application as submitted July 13. Sandy reported on the Incorporation progress and next steps (we still need to apply for an EIN and for tax exempt status). Mary Caraker reported on collection development. We brainstormed possible ways to seek community involvement in planning the collection and service.

8/22/01
Meeting at the Holyoke Public Library. Minutes. We established a Financial Support Committee, chaired by Madeleine Charney. A Financial Support Committee Meeting is now scheduled for September 21st from 2:30-4:30 p.m. at Madeleine's office at the Holyoke Community College Library.

8/23/01
Sandy applied for and received our EIN number.

9/12/01
Sandy met with Arne Malin and members of his staff at Providence Prenatal Center.

9/17/01
Sandy met with Tom Schwab to work on the application for tax-exempt status. Sandy also consulted with several librarians about the collection development aspect of our project, and decided to convene a separate committee for this purpose. Mary Caraker, who had been collecting lists of recommended resources, passed her lists to Sandy, who agreed to chair the Collection Development Committee.

9/19/01
Heather and Sandy prepared the agenda for 9/26 , minutes, and a cover letter for mailing. The letter asks for funds (our first general appeal for donations).

9/24/01
First meeting of Collection Development Committee.

9/26/01
Regular meeting of HCHL, Inc. Minutes.

9/26/01 Sandy met again with Tom Schwab and completed the IRS application for tax-exempt status. Mailed 9/27.

9/29/01
El Octavo Festival Annual de la Cosecha! 12-6pm. (8th Annual Harvest Party, Nuestras Raices). Sandy created a small display about our library project. This was our first publicity at el Centro Agricola for the Nuestras Raices community. The entire festival was outdoors in the plaza, with entertainers on a stage. Our library display was propped against the front of the stage. See photo. Sandy met two Mount Holyoke student volunteers who have now offered to do Spanish translations for us. Sandy also met Meri Jenkins, who had come from Boston representing the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which has provided funding to Nuestra Raices. Congressman John Olver also attended; Daniel Ross gave him a personal tour of the center. Sandy spoke briefly with him.

9/29/01
In the Park After Dark. Sandy attended this gala fund-raiser for several Holyoke institutions (Merry-Go-Round and Children's Museum) and met, among other interesting guests, Gary Reiter, Medical Director of Holyoke Hospital. He expressed interest in our project and offered encouragement about working with both Holyoke Health Center and Holyoke Hospital.

10/10/01
Collection Development Committee met. Sandra Lawson volunteered to type (onto an Excel spreadsheet) information about the books we wish to order. This will help us keep track of our selections and figure out the cost of our wish-list.

10/10/01
Nuestras Raices sent a letter to the National Library of Medicine requesting a debriefing regarding our proposal for their "Consumer Health Information Outreach for Minority Organizations" solicitation. We had just been notified that we would not receive this funding. Out of 22 proposals, only four (Univ of Rochester, Virginia Commonwealth University, Harborview Medical Center, and Northern Wisconsin Area Health Education Center, Inc.) were funded. Nuestras Raices did receive funding via another Holyoke coalition to buy two computers. So our disappointment is offset by this news that we no longer need to seek funding for the computer for the library room.

10/11/01
Board of Directors met for strategic planning session. We decided to shift emphasis to planning a website to help Holyokers find reliable health information. By creating a virtual presence, we will be able to serve all our proposed "locations" simultaneously. For starters, the Public Library already has a room with computers for free public access to the Internet. And Nuestras Raices will be getting new computers soon.

10/12/01
Headline in Union-News: "Holyoke wins $600,000 federal grant". "A $600.000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education will enable a network of city agencies to bring computer technology and Internet services to low-income families." $300,000 to ACCESS Holyoke project, to be administered by Nueva Esperanza, partnering with the YMCA, Girls, Inc., Nuestras Raices, Marken Properties, Americorps, and Hampshire College with goal of creating scattered sites of computer technology centers througout low-income neighborhoods in Holyoke. Another $300,000 to Light of Restoration Minestries to train children and adults in computers and audio-visual production. Note: our HCHL project was not involved in planning or applying for these grants; we celebrate that other Holyoke groups won them, and we see opportunities for reaching more Holyokers via the Internet thanks to these grants.

10/15/01
Sandy attends workshops at the Western Mass Regional Library System office, Hadley, to learn about new Infotrac databases (including Health & Wellness Resource Center) and about MBCL's Consumer Health Reference Center (at Treadwell Library).

10/24/01
Meeting of HCHL, Inc. Minutes forthcoming. We re-elected the following Officers for 2002:

10/15/01
Sandy attends workshop on Web Usability (designing webpages for ease of use) at Dartmouth Medical Center, Hanover, NH.

10/29/01
Tax-Exempt status granted by the IRS. (Notification received by mail Saturday Nov 3)

11/10/01
Sandy drove to Granby to pickup two donated racks for holding pamphlets or small books. She spent the afternoon cleaning the racks, which rotate nicely on upright stands.

11/20/01
Sandy Ward visited the Planetree Health Library in San Jose, CA, and toured the branch library in a local Hispanic community center, Grail Community Resource Center (Grail brochure in Spanish). Photo of Library Assistant Orelia Tercero sitting by reference shelves; video shelves to right. Photo of library shelving at Grail. Closeup of books. A Spanish language website Planetree en Espanol is now available.

11/28/01
Meeting of the Holyoke Consumer Health Library planning group: Wednesday, November 28, 2001, 1:00 - 2:30 pm, at the Holyoke Public Library, Conference Room, 335 Maple St, Holyoke. Minutes.

11/28/01
Jayme Hannay, Treasurer, and Sandy Ward, President, opened a bank account for Holyoke Consumer Health Library, Inc. at PeoplesBank in downtown Holyoke.

11/28/01
Annual Report to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Corporations Division filed by Sandy.

12/13/01
Sandy went to S.C.O.R.E, I Federal St, Springfield, to meet with a volunteer "counselor" assigned to help our nonprofit business. See www.score.org. "The SCORE Association (Service Corps of Retired Executives) is a nonprofit association dedicated to entrepreneur education and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide." She and Jayme will return January 24, 9am for a followup meeting.

12/18/01
Jill Chopyak of the Loka Institute (www.loka.org) came to Mount Holyoke to meet Sandy and discuss common goals. Loka is initiating a project with youth in Holyoke.

12/19/01
Jay Breines and Christine Lapon of the Holyoke Health Center met with Sandy for an update on our respective plans for the future.

12/22/01
Doris McKethan, volunteer fundraiser, delivered some cash donations, which Sandy deposited in our bank account on Dec 24.

12/27/01
Anita Smith showed samples of possible website designs to Sandy.

12/31/01
Another donation deposited to our account. Sandy wrote a letter to the Holyoke CHNA formally requesting the $500 that had been voted in August for our project. A summary of our financial transactions for the fiscal year 2001 was prepared.

This webpage is maintained by Sandy Ward.