​The Board held its annual meeting at Papi’s Tacos on Thursday, December 12, 2024.  The twelve participants included current board members, Friends volunteers, and family members.  Derek Simmonsen, President, convened the meeting and facilitated introductions. Malissa Ruffner, Treasurer, presented the financial report from the fiscal year that concluded on October 31, as well as a narrative report submitted by Deborah Mason, Recording Secretary (both posted below).
​Informal conversation covered highlights of the year: growth and capacity building, increased financial stability and gifts to the library, both made possible by recent expansion of the Board and volunteer team.  In answer to questions from new volunteers, Derek and Malissa discussed the operation of Friends groups generally, and the Hamilton affiliate, in particular.  We all enjoyed the opportunity to eat well in the neighborhood, socialize informally, and brainstorm about the coming year.   

Click on the image below for the full schedule of events! ​

The Friends of the Hamilton Branch Library held its annual meeting on 4 December 2023.  Branch Manager Renee Marks attended and opened the meeting by outlining her priorities for the branch in the coming year. Renee is particularly interested in making the library a welcoming and secure space for children at all times, especially after school.  The library’s engagement with the children is an essential community service, and she is eager to expand the number of students using the library.  She is also looking for opportunities to promote adult programming, including new book clubs and painting classes. 

This year’s annual meeting was the first since the approval of the by-laws at the previous year’s meeting, which meant it was also the first board meeting to be held after the online election of board members.  The following slate of successful candidates was introduced:

Lou Curran is a retired career City public defender and active peace activist.  He is also a book and library enthusiast with decades of experience organizing book auctions and fundraisers.  Active in his local community, he has initiated and participated in a wide array of community projects, including serving on local Boards. He plans to bring ideas for the Hamilton branch to increase its appeal to seniors. Lou grew up in Teheran, Cape Town, Dar es Salaam, and Rome and currently lives part-time in France.  His mottoes are “Occupy High Ground!” and “One World: Leave it Better Than You Found It!” He is happy to serve the Friends as a Board member.

Aviva Klugh is a resident of Beverly Hills and a new member of the Friends of the Hamilton Library Branch. Although new to the neighborhood, Aviva has lived in Baltimore City for almost ten years and has frequented many neighborhood branches and Central Library events.  As a lifelong reader and patron of local libraries, she values the importance of access that libraries provide communities. Aviva is a transportation planning professional with the State and is interested in connectivity, planning, and exploring Maryland’s trail networks in her free time.

Deborah Mason has lived in Mayfield since 2013.  She joined the Friends in 2018 and joined the board in 2019, serving as Secretary.  In addition to helping with Friends programs, Deborah has also written several staff profiles for the newsletter, introducing new Hamilton Branch librarians to the community.  Deborah is originally from Long Island, where she was inculcated with an undying love for books, writing, large dogs, and aloof cats.  A former Maryland Assistant Attorney General and retired high school English teacher, Deborah is a self-employed tutor and writer.  She is also finishing her second term as President of the Mayfield Improvement Association.

A resident of Beverly Hills, Malissa Ruffner has been a Hamilton Branch patron for over 35 years. She began volunteering with the Friends in 2015 and has served as Treasurer and President of the organization. She particularly values the opportunity it offers to meet and work with Northeast neighbors and believes that libraries are essential to healthy communities.  She currently works as a genealogist, with a focus on African American research in Maryland, and in her spare time, enjoys reading (of course!), and playing pickleball.

Derek Simmonsen is a Lauraville resident and current member of the Friends board. You might have seen him selling used books to benefit the Friends at the Lauraville Fair, Tuesday market, or the summer sale at the library. Derek is originally from Pennsylvania and has lived in Baltimore for 15 years. He is an avid reader and has been taking his kids to the Hamilton Branch since they were babies. In his free time, he likes to browse new finds at Snug Books, check out used vinyl at Wax Atlas, and volunteer at Garrett Heights Elementary Middle School, where his kids go to school. Derek is a lawyer in state government and teaches as part of the moot court program at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law. 
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Highlights from the year included the very successful used book sale, the popular return of the Banned Book reading at Snug Books, and very well-attended programs presented by Bill Barry and Malissa Ruffner.  One sour note was the destruction of the planters by a reckless driver.  However, there was more than one silver lining:  DOT quickly replaced the planters, there are already plans underway to replace the plants, and the outrage generated by the incident fueled an increase in donations.  To coin a phrase, it’s an ill wind that blows no good.

The following reports were presented at the Annual Meeting held on December 4, 2023:

This is the first year that the Friends has been operating under new bylaws, passed at last year’s Annual Meeting.  They have given the Board flexibility on how and when to hold meetings, setting a schedule for regular board elections and making it easier to ensure that the Friends can fulfill their mission of supporting the Library.  After outreach from a Nominating Committee to members and the general community, we held our first Board election online from November 25 through December 1, and are pleased to add two new members to the Board: Aviva Klugh and Lou Curran.

The Board has been focusing on increasing membership and attracting more volunteers.  We have thirty new members (up from 56 in FY 22 to 86 in FY 23), and we have had significant support from new volunteers Sara Roberson, Sarah Weissman, Jane Backert, Donnell Kelly, Suzette Morgan, and Katie Murtaugh. We are especially grateful to Sara Roberson and Sarah Weissman for their work on the Nominating Committee.  We still hope to establish a membership committee and a gardening committee in the near future.

The Board also focused on raising the Friends’ profile in the community.  Board Treasurer Derek Simmonsen sold books at the Tuesday Farmers Market, organized the Friends’ table at the Lauraville Fair, and also attended several other school and neighborhood events on behalf of the Friends.  We also held a very successful used book sale in the library meeting room in July, with help from volunteers Sara Roberson, Sarah Weissman, and Katie Murtaugh.   And for Banned Book week, Derek, Deborah Mason, and Tween librarian Melissa Foley-King, read banned board books to young children.  Everyone—readers, parents, and especially the kids—had a blast!  Additionally, the Friends continue to support and advertise library programs via email and Facebook.  Friends members have also put on programs.  Bill Barry presented programs on the Irish connections to Frederick Douglass, the women of Sparrows Point, and the Red Scare in Maryland. Board President Malissa Ruffner introduced Rachel Swarns, author of The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church, and then gave a talk on the intricacies of researching the genealogy of enslaved people. 

At each of these events, members of the Board collected the names and information of new members and people interested in supporting the branch.  Our email list now consists of nearly 200 names. 

In August, the Board sent a letter to the Board of Municipal & Zoning Appeals urging it to prioritize pedestrian safety in its consideration of the proposed Royal Farms gas station across the street from the Library.  Board Secretary Deborah Mason was preparing to testify at the hearing on December 5 when it was abruptly postponed to February 2024.

We bid farewell to Branch Manager Gabby Miller and welcomed Renee Marks who took over that role. We look forward to working with Renee in the coming year.
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After so many highlights, it’s sad to end on a low note.  As you probably know, the library used to have four beautiful wooden planters built by the Department of Transportation, installed on July 6, and filled by the Friends with $325 worth of perennials on October 30.  Nicole Hartig suggested the plants, and she and Michael Lachance, Rochelle Hayward, and John Odell planted them.  And then, on the night of the 28th of November, a car plowed into them and totally destroyed them.  While we can only be grateful that no one was injured (or worse), it is disheartening to see so much hard work obliterated.  But, with the support of the membership, the Board is hopeful that we can come up with a new way to beautify our wonderful branch library.

Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Mason , Board Secretary

Click on the image below for full calendar of what's coming to the Hamilton Branch. You'll be amazed! 

Click on the image below for the full list of library programs--for children and families, teens, and adults. From quilling to sock puppets, opera to action movies. the Hamilton Branch has it covered.

By Deborah Mason

​​It has taken many years and many miles, but Melissa Foley-King, Hamilton’s Tween Librarian, is back home.  Born in Hamilton, her father’s job took her family to Puerto Rico and then Harford County.  After earning a BA in Creative Writing at the University of Baltimore, Melissa received an MLIS from Drexel University.  She and her husband then moved to Harford County, where she worked in the public library system for ten years.  After a three-year break from library work, Melissa returned to the city, moving to a house very close to her first home.  In fact, when she applied for the position of the Pratt’s first-ever Tween Librarian, Melissa pointed out that her proximity was a plus:  the branch would never have to close for inclement weather because she’d be able to walk over and open up!
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The image of Melissa trudging in hip-high snow for half a mile to open the library rings true.  It takes a very short time to realize that Melissa would do the impossible if it meant that the library would be open and ready to serve the community.  Like many librarians, Melissa was an avid reader when she was young (she’s still a huge fan of The Babysitters’ Club series), but she never dreamed of being a librarian when she was little.  Instead, she wanted to be a writer, and wrote short stories on her portable typewriter from a young age (Melissa is still pursuing this dream, currently working on her MFA in Creative Writing at UB).  As it happened, she had no idea how much she would love being a librarian until she became one.   Only in a library can a member of the community come in, ask for help, and get it for free.  Over the course of our interview, I was able to watch Melissa in action: someone needed help with the printer, another had questions about the homeowner’s tax credit.  Each time, Melissa was warm and gracious, eager to help, and happy to do further research as new questions came up.  Melissa derives energy from helping the community, but even she can sometimes suffer from “empathy fatigue.”  She credits Branch Manager Gabby Miller and her colleagues for providing a supportive and creative environment that makes public service both possible and pleasurable. 

But it’s in her role as Tween Librarian that Melissa provides her greatest community service.  “Tweens” are students in the fourth through sixth grades—that difficult age between childhood and young adulthood.  Thanks to its proximity to the Hamilton Elementary Middle School, Hamilton Branch has a very large and energetic tween population who regularly come to the library after school.  Melissa makes sure that the library is a warm and safe environment for them, with plenty of activities that they can participate in.  Even more important, she is a supportive adult presence in their lives, with no parental expectations or grades to hand out.  She can help them navigate a critical transitional period of life, when they are children who are also dealing with crushes, more rigorous classes, and all the other ordeals of young adulthood.  Making crafts, playing board games, talking about books— all provide opportunities for Melissa to gently guide the tweens, reminding them that they need to stick together and be kind to each other.

And they give back to Melissa, too.  They are smart and funny, she says, mature in so many ways while still very young and innocent.  They are fun and silly, and uninhibited about being cool—making them the absolute coolest.  And they are ambitious—Melissa is even helping three girls set up a slime business.  She would like to get the boys away from the computer games, so she’s invited  Moving History, a group that teaches history through music, to come, and one of the sessions will be a drum session—which just might draw in the boys.  But mostly, she gets her ideas from the kids themselves, listening to what they want to do that day, and then making it happen for them.  So, one day they might be making friendship-bracelets, and another, they might be learning cursive writing.  Not only are the tweens more engaged in an activity they chose, but, whether they realize it or not, they are participating in a small, but significant, form of community building.

She says all this with such affection, that all I can think is how lucky those kids are—and how lucky Melissa is to work with them.