Thursday, February 4, 2010

MLF seeks Silent Auction chair(s)

Minnesota Library Foundation is seeking a chair/ chairs
for this year’s Silent Auction

Who or what is the Minnesota Library Foundation? The Minnesota Library Foundation (MLF) is a non-profit (501 (c)) organization that was set up to “benefit the community by raising and distributing funds to enhance the services and increase public awareness of Minnesota libraries.” Money raised from MLF activities has been used to help several libraries recover from disasters, sponsor events such as the MILE leadership Institution and the Minnesota Library Book Awards, and providing grants to assist individual library programs.
What is the Silent Auction? The Silent Auction is one of the fund raising activities of MLF. It has been part of the MLA conference for the past 15 years and is one of its highlighting events.
What is the role of the chair? There is a lot of planning and organizing that goes into the Auction. Donations need to be solicited and processed, bid sheets need to be created, transportation to the conference, and set up.
Silent Auction chair/chairs are the ones responsible for the planning, organizing and ultimately the implementing. As MLF is a non-profit, it relies on volunteers and not salaried employees, meaning it is an unpaid internship. That said, the Silent Auction internship does offer a few perks that non-volunteers may not have access to:
•    Networking with the greater Minnesota library community;
•    Networking with the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) community and conference coordinators;
•    Learning about and actually work for a non-profit institution;
•    Participate in MLA Conference Oversight Committee meetings;
•    MLA membership fee, conference fee, food and hotel stay (during the MLA conference) paid for by MLF  (~$500.00)

What are some of the responsibilities? In general:
•    Attend MLA Oversight Committee meetings
•    Mailing solicitations for donations (warm lists)
•    Processing donations
•    Boxing and transporting materials
•    Facility setup
•    Supervising volunteers and facility
•    Cleanup
•    Report
•    Thank you letters

REQUIREMENTS:
•    Be enrolled in a library program
•    Be able to give 1 years worth of time to the position

Interested? Contact Belinda E. Lawrence @
belawrence@stkate.edu or 651.690.6648