The Numbers: What am I doing with them? or, We have goals and we're not afraid to use them

Because my garden makes me happy

I love planning. In fact, sometimes I like planning things more than actually doing them. I am sure I am not alone in this. However, this year I tried to...plan my planning, if that makes sense. I have goals from my evaluation in May, from discussions with my director and colleague about where we're going with programming in the fall, and finally I put together a department mission and goals.

Mission Statement
The mission of the Youth Services Department of the Matheson Memorial Library is to provide informational, educational, and recreational services, in a friendly and supportive setting, to all families, children, and caregivers of the Elkhorn community. These services are available through quality materials and programs offered by a friendly and knowledgeable staff in a comfortable and welcoming environment. The Youth Services Department serves as a family gathering place focused on educating, enriching, and entertaining the families, children, teens, and caregivers of the public.

Department Goals

• Serve all age groups with a variety of programs.
• Serve all families and caregivers with a broad programming schedule
• Make the Youth Services Department a destination by offering a welcoming, fun, and enriching environment

2014/2015 Objectives

• Offer programs for each time slot (morning, afternoon, early evening, late evening)
• Offer a wider variety of programs for early childhood; active/movement programs and programs directed at smaller groups.
• Offer a wider variety of school­-age programs, specifically for smaller groups, which will enable us to build relationships and encourage use of the collection
• Revive middle school and teen programs, creating simple, sustainable programs that build on school­-age program participants 
• Expand outreach to four year olds to build an audience for the preschool programming schedule.

How Will We Get There? Meeting Objectives

• Alternate programs in time slots so we can offer more variety (monthly/bi­monthly instead of weekly)
• Alternate programs ­storytime/dance program/art program etc. instead of the same program every week
• Stagger programs ­ don’t start everything all at once, put in gaps when I know there will be heavy calls for outreach (end of October, end of April)
• Start with one middle school program (reviving middle school madness) and creating a teen volunteer program
• Implement a planning schedule to streamline marketing, budgeting and create better long­-term evaluation of programming and build word­-of­-mouth interest in programs
• November (Thanksgiving) finalize plans for January-May
• April (after big party) finalize plans for June-August
• August finalize plans for September-December