Leadership Saratoga Helps Galway Public Library

Introduction: The Leadership Saratoga Class of 2018 split up into four "teams" at the start of the program, in the Fall of 2017. Each team was assigned a specific nonprofit challenge to tackle and resolve as part of the Leadership Saratoga experience. Below is a snyopsis from the project team that worked with the Galway Public Library. 

1. Goal of the project:

2. We did many things over the first few months to get a handle on the project, like meeting with other libraries, online research for existing library materials and communication plans, meetings with the library group (director, board members, and staff); examining district population demographics and library user demographics. However, our community meetings with local groups (Lions Club, Girl Scouts, Seniors), along with a Survey distributed at the meetings, was the most helpful in informing our mission and determining the deliverables we would create and what role each of us would take.

3. Communication Channels and Deliverables – Binder and USB Drive containing all materials

• Communication Plan to lay out broad as well as specific communication goals and objectives for the following year and into the future
• Survey results of sessions with the community
• Newspaper article to run in Saratoga Today, which will run prior to the groundbreaking at the end of June.     
• Brochure that outlines the Library’s current programs versus their anticipated programs as well as compares physical differences between the buildings. Having something tangible empowers the library and its supporters to show everyone else – here, this is what that vote was for and this is the vision for the future.
• Social Media
  • We created a canva.com account for the library. It’s a free, online program which allows users to create beautifully designed documents.
  • We created a template for the “Did You Know” factoids that we compiled one for every week of the year so that the library staff can just paste the text into the files and have ready-made images that can easily be used on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
  • We also created a “Share Your Love” handout that could be easily distributed to people so they know where to find the library and its information.