 Welcome everyone. Welcome back. Welcome to everyone on the zoom we've got about as many people in the room as we have on online so I'm very excited to feel like we are living and breathing our hybrid world. I am going to be brief but I just wanted to say that I'm so excited to be here and be able to tell you all that we're not only back in business with our doors open with programming live people showing up online and in person experiencing our events but we're also really launching a number of initiatives and making progress in ways that are really propelling the Institute into the future. So I'll just give you a couple of examples I'm not going to steal Kimberly slender so I'll keep some of the little surprises for later, but one of the things that we started you, you probably have seen the scaffolding is we are starting the work on the exterior of the building to make sure that this beautiful place continues to be available to us all for our programming and our library and our chess room for many many years to come. We have started strategic planning. So we are well into the process of making sure that we've got a really clear crisp vision for the next three to seven years of the Institute and really clear goals that we are all working towards. And I know a number of you helped participate in that process so thank you all again for speaking with us and providing feedback and making sure that we are continuing to meet the needs of all of our members so very much appreciate that. On that note, don't let that be the end of us hearing free from you so obviously we hold these member meetings and we get feedback from you in this capacity, but definitely feel free to reach out and tell us what you're thinking about, I hope most of your great ideas help us know how we can better serve you at any moment, and also let us know if you'd like to volunteer we have a number of tasks committees and different board committees that we love members to participate in in a non voting capacity, or if you're interested in becoming a future board member we'd love to know that to particularly coming out of the strategic planning process, we're going to have a lot of work to do. And so we would love to have you guys be a part of that process with us. So with that, I will turn it over to Kimberly to give you some more details about what we've been working on. Oh, I am Lindsay Tom soccer, I am president of the board trustees. Thank you so much. And thank you so much Lindsay and for the full board of trustees have been so supportive of mechanics Institute as we work on these new projects that she had mentioned. You know, just using your earphones. You might want to listen. There's a little feedback on there. So I think you heard and you probably have noticed the scaffolding outside. So this is a project that we've been planning for many years and this is part I'm sure you've heard in the last few years we've been partnering with the any age to be able to restore the building and this is something we need to do in order to make sure that the building continues to be able to serve us. We are focusing on that one wall that's sort of the east wall which is our sort of most most in need. And so far, we just had a building meeting this morning and so far everything seems to be going well and we are on target. The project will last probably about another five to eight months depending on supply chain and other things like that, but we're confident that that things will continue to go well in that regard. We also anticipate that folks might be wondering what we're doing in terms of our hours and so the library will be expanding hours right now we're staffing up so we are hiring more folks. We probably will be focusing on opening more in the evening hours right now because the construction that's taking place is a bit noisy in the morning. So about 10 or 11 and we really don't want folks to to have to experience that while they're in the library. So that is that is a key consideration. We are again open 12 to six so far Monday through Friday and 10 to three on Saturday so if you haven't been to the library lately we invite you to come by. The chest room is also open 11 to five every day or during the week so please stop by more and more folks are just stopping in to play a game of chess at lunch or just to get to know other folks so we really welcome you to to join us there as well. In terms of programming a couple quick announcements I mentioned the NEH we actually got a large NEH grant for programming as well and that's really enabled us to grow what we're doing in terms of our author events film events and other activities and so that's been very exciting that's been a large And in addition last week we just learned that we received the NEA the National Endowment for the Arts big read grant, which is basically a year, a year's worth of doing programming around one book and the theme that it represents. So we're doing interior Chinatown and we will be working in partnering with other organizations locally, and putting on a whole series of different types of events, so we encourage you to stay tuned and we will be sharing more of that soon as well. In addition, we are having, we're doing strategic planning, and so that is entails us reaching out I think probably all of you hopefully received our member survey we appreciate any feedback you have and it's not too late you can always let us know what's going on. And we also have, so we can make sure if you don't have if you haven't received it we might not have your email so we can get that for sure. We had some print versions in the library as well but we're always welcome feedback. And as part of that process is really making sure that we are continuing to meet the needs of the members and the folks who come to our programs. With that we've also sort of looked at our priorities and our realigning a few things. We are bringing on some new staff, which is very exciting we have a new development director starting next week. And in addition, one of our members, our staff members has who's in operations and I'll introduce her in a moment has agreed generously agreed to take on more responsibility. She was initially at the library manager and then moved into operations and now we'll be overseeing building and library operations and will be a senior director. Bobby Monza will sort of share a few things as well. So, thank you very much. I appreciate it. I have to move this sorry I'm a little short. Hi everyone. You may not have seen me in the library last five years I've been upstairs but as Kimberly mentioned I was the manager there for a couple of years and so coming back into the library is something I've been wanting to do since I first went upstairs and so I'm happy to come back and work with you all and I'm eager to get to know you all once again. I really just started going back into the library this week so I don't have a lot to share but I am also helping with the building project. And so my time is kind of shared between these two big parts of the Institute. I do quickly want to acknowledge the staff that are here. Craig, Craig in the library I'm sure you all know, Hannah with membership she's right there. Miles is helping with the AV he'll also be talking about our library programming and Steven. Taryn is helping with the zoom here and if there's any other staff members I missed my apologies but we all work very hard for you here at the Institute so again I look forward to meeting you all again in the library and now Laura will come and talk about some of our programming here. Thank you. I'm Laura Shepherd director of events here, and I just want to thank the board and the staff and also a big shout out to our volunteers who assist with our programs. I wanted to say we had an amazing spring with the assistance of the NEH grant, and some of those programs were just so inspiring Marco Jefferson Pulitzer Prize winning author for her memoir about identity black culture history, it was so moving. And also recently with Greg Saras, for his becoming story of his native American identity, and, and really connecting again with history and land. And it was just such a powerful author events so we have a whole series of events that is continuing through the summer along with that with the theme, and also with civil rights. Also, I want to mention that upcoming June 16 is guess what blooms day, but it's not only blooms day it's the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses and all its grandeur. And this is going to be a citywide celebration it's called blooms Bay. So, what a great title, and it's going to include venues, San Francisco public library mechanics Institute, the Irish cultural consulate next door city lights bookstore so they're going to be events all over the city but I want to give you a heads up on what's going to happen here on the 16th. That's a Thursday, we will have a 12 o'clock zoom event, which is a literary tribute with Catherine Flynn for her new book, and a centenary edition with essays on Ulysses, it's going to be spectacular. We also have the publishers of this amazing book and that's going to hold it up for your viewing. It weighs, it weighs a ton. Okay, ready. This is an illustrated Ulysses okay out there fans. This is an amazing and hubris and gorgeous illustrations by the Spanish illustrator Eduardo Arroyo deceased just recently deceased. This is a spectacular book and the publishers will be on also the zoom for this literary tribute, but then in the 12 o'clock, we come back here in person for our blooms day celebration with live music and performances by local actors and then we'll have of course our libations are Irish cuisine, and then table readings with the audience. So you have to join us on blooms day for the 100th anniversary please. And actually registration is open on the website. Also, I want to make note of a few other programs coming up this summer. On July 7, we're going to have a program, every vote counts, protecting our voting rights with representatives from the League of Women voters and various organizations around town that are showing up voting rights and different communities across the Bay Area and across the country. So please join us for that July 7, and then we're going to come back again on site for bus deal day July 14, and we're bringing back our favorite group, the jazz hot. So it's going to be our wonderful celebration and so I hope you'll join us for that event and then moving on for you birders out there. It's the public life of private birds of the Bay Area, and that's going to be a very enjoyable event so just remember to bring your binoculars. Now I'm going to turn this over to Miles Cooper who is our programming librarian, Miles take it away. Laura. Hello, my name is Miles as you heard I'm programming librarian here at Mechanics Institute. And why I'm here is to talk about what's going on in the library, and also give you some updates on writing workshops that we have and also some classes and programming. Before we start I do want to acknowledge the people who are joining us online. Hi. You're a little distracting here but there you are okay. So we have an in person event that's happening in this room for LGBTQ plus pride month, it's happening on June 8 at 6pm, called play orchestra play play something sweet, light and gay. And that is moderated by Matthew Felix, and it's a musical author event. And it will include panelists like Vernon Keeve, the third, Laurie, Austin, sorry, Alex Scott. There will be tunes short readings and passages from their writing and questions and answers so join us for that event celebrating pride. We also have an upcoming writers lunch happening on June 17, called the art of critiquing fellow writer. So join us for that. And we also have a class coming up in person. It's happening in the library on Saturday, and it's called get invited to read at literary conferences. I think you should join. A lot of people here should join. We have a number of librarian led classes, and those blossom out of questions we get at the reference desk we get a lot of questions about how to use email, or what's going on with my iPhone. So we have a number of classes, both virtual and in person, some of our virtual classes that are happening again that have been successful or understand your iPhone. We have streaming on canopy, which is our awesome streaming service, or you can watch our house films, all kinds of video learning videos. We have a class called flip through digital magazines on our app Libby, which is great and downloaded from the app store, and give them your MI card credentials that are on the back of your card. And we have some him person classes. I mentioned those before, like email basics, our book groups can I talk about book groups. All right, our world literature book groups are happening, or in the process right now of nominating our new round of books so if you're in that group or you want to join, send those two nominations to me by Memorial Day, really appreciate that. Okay, let's talk about the library. So we have simplified our Wi Fi. Now when you swipe your card to go into the library, you can simply join our Wi Fi it's called Mechanics Institute, you no longer get that pop up we have to put in your long library card number. Those days are behind us for now. So come to the library and use our Wi Fi it's very fast. We have a number of tours, virtual tours, they've been happening about every two weeks and they average about 10 people. We do do personal or a small group tours if you have a group of people and you work with maybe a birding. We talked about birders earlier, you have a birding group you can let us know either Taryn Edwards or myself, and we will give you a little tour. We're working in the library to do a big project with windowing so in library land we use this word windowing, which is a way to activate the collection to create better sight lines, where we move books around and we, we right at kind of I level we have books turned around into the cover, and that helps people understand the collection better. You can understand what books are in what area without just looking at the small spine or going on to our catalog. So that's been a big project and Craig has been working on that Steven so thank you for helping with the windowing. So doubled the amount of physical books that we are buying. So we have more staff now working on processing those materials, cataloging them making them available for you all. So please next time you come to the library don't bring one bag I see a lot of people here with one bag bring to we need you to bring more bags. And we have a new hire we're very excited to welcome back Heather miles who's a member and is back in the library working for us. She's helping with that windowing project she's helping the processing and shelving and also she's a brilliant mender of books so she's taking some of our old books and making them available for you all to use again. So she's great at that. So welcome Heather miles back to library. And now I think I'm going to hand it over to Kimberly and we're going to take some questions from people here first, and then we'll take some questions that have appeared online. All right. Thank you so much. That was great. Thank you everyone for sort of sharing everything. Do folks have any questions. Yes. I see headlines these days about librarians on the ramparts fighting the forces. So that's a great question for those of you on zoom the question was about book banning and the role that the librarians have taken in protecting first amendment rights. Would a librarian like to answer that question. So we don't actually have the sort of problems here that you see reported in the media. We could do an advanced featuring then books. That's a possibility. See you about my life. And a lot of possibility to publicize. So that's what the members come in. I think that's a good way to contribute and to support why there is just generally not just us. Sorry. Sorry. The question was about sort of, if there have been book requests that have not been granted. And again, I will defer to another librarian. Okay. I think that someone is wondering why their purchase request was turned down. There are a number of factors that we look at probably the most important is whether that particular book is going to be of interest to a large number of members, it'll circulate ideally. We look at the authority of the author, their publisher, what they published before the intended audience of the book, price of the book. I would say there are about 10 different factors, but I think the most important one as I said is, we don't want to get a book that's too erudite to scholarly to specialize where there may be a very limited audience, or a book that's so basic that we probably already have material in the collection that covers that subject area. So we try to strike a balance in that regard. So I think it's a balancing act to some degree, as I said, so you were talking about increasing the hours, you were talking about increasing the hours. That's a great question. The question was about increasing hours and potentially returning to Sunday hours. So we are looking to increase hours as soon as we can do the staffing as I mentioned earlier, it probably won't be opening very early in the morning until the noisy construction is done but we were looking to open at least two evenings so that folks can come in after work and really have a longer span of time. In terms of Sunday hours, that's definitely something we're looking at in terms of strategic planning. We traditionally haven't had a lot of use and other membership libraries are not, most of them are not open seven days a week so we're going to be looking at that. We are looking at other opportunities for the New York Times. Does anyone else want to also answer this question from the library perspective. Okay, so the question was about the Sunday New York Times specifically. So newspapers are tricky. If we're not here if nobody here is here for the building really early in the morning. Sometimes those newspapers don't get delivered. So the subscription for Sunday newspapers is different than subscription for the weekly Monday through Friday papers for libraries. So that's something we're looking into I know we are looking into beefing up our New York Times subscription I think Bobby had an email about that recently. We are looking at ways to expand those newspapers and our holdings. Yeah, that's a good question. Do we have any questions online. We haven't taken any online questions. Can you tell us we have Taryn our colleague here running zoom. Yes, there are a couple of questions, one by Tom lack her. I just call him Tom. Tom was wondering what is the plan for the data bar space. That's a great question so one of our ground floor tenant spaces has been vacant there was there was a previously a bar there and during cove it obviously a lot of restaurants and bars had to close. We are currently looking for a tenant to come in there and we are we are using a leasing broker to help us vet some potential folks and hopefully have someone in. It's a very challenging commercial real estate market as probably most of you know, but you know I've heard of a couple recent developments in the neighborhood so we're hopeful that this this coming year will be able to potentially get a tenant. All right and then there is one other question by George. Is there any possibility that cinema lit will get a zoom component. That's a great question so the question was will cinema lit get a zoom component. As I mentioned that any h programming of funding that way received was both to create more opportunities to hear from diverse filmmakers and artists and writers. Another piece of it was to increase our capacity to do hybrid events. So for instance, if we did cinema lit for you know folks who want to come can come here and enjoy the movie and have a glass of wine and some popcorn and for folks who perhaps in person could watch the movie ahead of time and then have the conversation and dialogue be on zoom so that is definitely something we're looking at we are in the process of recruiting for an AV specialist so that we can do more of these hybrid events. Any other online questions. Well Carol Simmons had a question about whether a library director will be hired. So the question was if a library director will be hired, and this is something that I mentioned in terms of strategic planning we really looked at sort of our staffing structure, and what we were looking to do in the next few years, and really determine that the library director was such a vital position that it really grew a lot over the last you know 10 to 20 years and became a much broader sort of role. And so as part of that we decided that we were going to take the responsibilities that the library director was overseeing into the library operations and library programming. And so we are recruiting for a senior director programming and outreach to be able to centralize our programming, whether it's library programming or events or chess so that we can leverage all the successes we have in different areas and really be able to grow our programming, which was a big piece of what we heard from members was that they really appreciate our programming and wanted to see even more programming. So that's that's strategically what we're doing right now. Any other questions. Yes. I want to know if there's anything in the pipeline that might bring a supply of water to chess room. Now some chess players up there, they don't really care, but there's a nobody that would like water in my case I was selfish water, because I'm 77 when I walked in, I got COPD so it's a real ideal to get to over there and now they're down to the third floor. Yes. I just want to tell me that something you just did with the time, because there's a precedent was set many, many years ago to have water supply and chess room. Sure. And then I started COVID. It was there. We came back to my conference. No more water. And I've been catching black and static numbers that I've touched base with, and their attitude seems to be. It's all right. So the question was about returning water to the chess room. And I understand your concern and we, you know, we I was just actually discussing this today I think there's a number of options. One is that we can set up water stations in the chess room. In addition, and so that it's easily accessible. We've had some issues with the water cooler that we have there before so it was it was disengaged and we did remove it, but that doesn't mean that we you know we have a kitchen right here we can definitely set up water stations so that folks can don't have to leave the chess room in order to get water. Yeah, I don't know if we can do that in terms of our piping and everything but we will definitely make sure folks can get fresh water. Yes, we do. We still do have some print newsletters if you're not receiving it and you'd like to receive on we were getting a lot of feedback that folks were asking that they preferred email. I do have a few printed out in the library but if you do want one please let me know we will make sure to send you one. We were just trying to sort of be ecological in terms of not wasting paper when folks didn't want to necessarily get printed once but we can do that. That should be out in the next couple weeks. Usually it's within the first week of the new quarter that it comes out so I'm not sure. So the week. Oh, are you talking about the weekly lists are nice. Right. Sure. We can do that we do have a weekly list or so if you're not receiving our weekly update of what we usually send out on Sunday morning around 11am. So if you're not on that email list feel free to give me or anyone else here your email and I will make sure you're added to that list. Kimberly. Yes, we have a question coming online from Tom again. You mentioned briefly the strategic planning process and his question asks over the next three to five years what will be the focus areas of the Institute. That's a great question we're not quite the question was about the strategic plan and what will be the focus areas. We're not quite done yet. I don't want to get in front of it too much, but I can say that it's really focused on making sure that we are sustainable, making sure that we are continuing to enhance our programming and services to everyone. And also, you know, making sure that we are, you know, keeping folks engaged and really wanting to make sure that that we are getting feedback and able to meet the needs that you're expressing. All right and then there's to piggyback on that there's a question from Paul asking if there are any plans to spruce up the interior of the building including furnishings and the elevator which show signs of deferred upkeep. You do have a pretty aggressive the question was about whether we are planning to do some improvements interiorly I believe you said one of the elevators is that correct specifically. He mentioned building interior furnishing and elevators. Okay, building interior furnishing and elevators. We have been doing that on a continual basis I know folks probably remember right before coven we replaced a number of the chairs in the library. And we are also doing continually looking at, you know, renovating different areas and making sure that we are upkeeping it. And, you know, that is part of our continual capital plan that we've been doing. And this year we do have a plan to do some building improvements, as well as some tenant improvements. But if folks have really pressing things that they think we should take a look at please feel free to let us know and we can definitely prioritize some of those projects. Any other questions. Yes. The question was if there's a friend that you'd like to bring to check out my, you know, is that possible or do you have to buy membership. Absolutely. If you have someone who wants to visit just let, you know, let folks know bring them in, give them, you know, and if you they'd like a tour by a staff member just let us know we can definitely do that. But if you just want to show them around we definitely encourage folks to do that. Yes. Absolutely. And if you have any questions like that or want to set up a personal tour anything just feel free to reach out to membership. And we can make sure that everything's ready to go when you want to come by. Yeah, great thank you. Are there any other questions. Oh, that's just from the chance of a chest room to be open longer hours or at night, coinciding with the library. Number two, is there always have to be a chest director and somebody watching over the chest room or prepared to. Number three. Oh, you still have lectures on three lectures on Wednesday and Thursday night. The questions were about the chest room and specifically let me make sure I captured it all correctly. The first was looking at whether the chest room could be open later I believe in the evenings. And then the second piece was looking at the, the, the doing the lectures again, you said on Wednesdays and Thursdays. So we have in terms of lectures and classes, a lot of the chess activities have been virtual, but we are looking to bring those back in person. So it's definitely something we're looking to do in terms of chest room hours it's definitely something we're looking to do as well as we expand the library hours and we have, you know, a lobby attendant and everything we can look at possibly extending those hours as well. You know, we like to have someone there to answer questions or to give a tour, but we can explore how to sort of make sure that there's coverage there as well so when folks come into the chest room they're greeted by someone and can have a can can sort of engage bit around that. I'm sure all of your questions. Yeah, okay, thank you. Any other questions. Yes. The book from the National Development for the Arts in the grant in full to the year. Yes. It's called interior Chinatown by Charles you and what it is is it's a program where they have a list of about, I can't remember 30 or 40 books and you pick a book and you say, I'm proposing that this, you know, we as an organization will do a number of programs around it. We basically are proposing that we'll do some author events, a film series and partner with the Chinese Historical Society and some other partners to be able to host collaborative events in the community over the year. And hopefully we'll have the author be able to come up as well but we're still trying to figure that out we just we just heard about it. And it's something that's very exciting it's a nice, it's really a very interesting way to integrate a lot of our different programs around one theme. He, he, I'm not sure where he's from he's in LA right now but he went to use to Berkeley he's actually an attorney by training. So, I believe he has ties to the Bay Area. Yes, absolutely. Yes. The question was about sort of, I believe our walking tours and that is definitely something that Taryn Edwards who's on the zoom side of this has been working on sort of bringing back I think it's a really wonderful way to engage the members and get them to see other historic and significant landmarks in San Francisco so definitely to stay tuned to that is something we want to bring back for sure. Okay, well thank you all very much we really, oh, sorry. Go ahead. And very light, of course I can hear you, is there, is there something you can tell me the writing groups and the book club groups and the reading groups. There's something that's still left. Right. Sure. Laura, do you want to take that. The question was about doing more events in the evenings. Actually, we have a combination of day and evening. A lot of the writers groups events are that Taryn is doing is noontime and during the day. Most of the event programs with author programs are in the evening. So just check our website as well as cinema lit on Friday nights. So, actually, historically most of our author events are in the evening. Also, if there is an author that is in England or in Paris as we've had this year, we have to do it in noontime because it's going to be nine o'clock at night where they are. And that would be the exception. So check the calendar. And that's a great point to bring up is one of the things you know I think everyone's very excited and it's wonderful to see people in person as well as on zoom and we're trying to do this hybrid piece. And also, you know, one of the sort of things that came out of culvert in a positive way obviously was very traumatizing for the community but yeah we did we were able to engage more national and international audiences and that's something we do want to keep we want to be able to maintain those connections. And I think it adds a lot of benefits for the members to be able to sort of engage with these other things. In addition, we got a much more involved with our affiliate membership libraries throughout the country. And so we've been doing a lot of joint programming there as well so do you know do take a look at some of those opportunities they've been some really exciting literary and historical events that other at the names and libraries have been offering, as well as chess clubs there's been a lot of international and national tournaments and friendly and competitive and so it's been really a nice, a nice opportunity. Thank you. Thank you so much. Well there's still plenty of food and drinks so please enjoy and feel free to hang out for a while. Thank you. Turn your laptop around so we can see what the room looks like. Kimberly. Sorry, I just muted you. I just asked to turn the laptop around so that we can see in the audience, what the, what the crowd is like. And what it looks like everyone is going straight back to the food. Wish I were there. Yeah, me too but it's been fun doing the zoom with me right. You bet. Yeah, we're just trying to make the best of both worlds right now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Does anyone have any questions they'd like to ask me because I don't know how useful it is to just watch people from afar. Gathering their coats and stuff. So you're welcome to turn your mic on, if you want, and ask me directly but otherwise I thought maybe I would close out the zoom, because I think most people have left. Any other questions before I close out the zoom. No, all right well I hope that you had a good. Sorry I was waving but my library got in the way. Hope to see you at the Institute if you are interested in the tour, let us know happy to take you and your pals around. Meanwhile, the virtual tours are coming along nicely and it looks like Linda wants to ask a question. No, are you just waving at me. Okay, bye Linda. Any last minute questions, feel free to ask me. Hi Paul. You have a question, right. Hi Karen. What's going on Paul in the chess room. In the chess room. We're, you know, we're hanging in there we're doing good. Thank you. Great, great. Well I'm doing well in the library to but I was just telling our friends here that I'd like to see more of them in person. Yeah. Yeah, we're getting more people in the chess room. We are people coming back. Great. Yeah, it's a, we really need it because just just to keep the staff feeling happy, I think. It's good for the soul. It's good for the soul. I mean I want to feel fulfilled and I want to help people I want to help mechanics members I want to help people interested in joining mechanics, and if they're not there. I get sad. It's lonely when you're by yourself, right. At the reference desk. Exactly. So yes. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your questions and members come on down to 57 posts. And meanwhile hope to see you there. I think maybe I'm going to close the zoom now. Bye. Bye. See you. All right, I'll, I'll, I'll see you soon. Bye now. Good night everyone.