Friends of the Victoria Public Library (FOVPL) is alive and well.

As many may know, we hit a bumpy patch when Lunenburg County left Southside Regional Library System and returned to a standalone library system known as the Lunenburg County Public Library System (LCPLS).

County supervisors appointed citizens to a governing board and gave them the responsibility to manage the libraries.

The board of trustees of LCPLS is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, supported principally by public funds from the county, the towns of Kenbridge and Victoria and the state.

During the start-up and first two years of operation of LCPLS, our organization struggled not only with continuing as a viable resource for the Victoria Public Library and other local literacy and education efforts, but with severe illness and one death among our board members.

Some important duties fell to the wayside, and we temporarily lost our 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. We have had our status retroactively reinstated back to May 15, 2015, so when you donate to FOVPL, check with your tax adviser to see whether and how much of your donations to FOVPL are tax deductible for you.a

Throughout it all, we remained, and we are still striving tao support the Victoria Public Library in whatever capacity we are able. While we support the Victoria Public Library, we must also support ourselves.

As with any organization, we have recurrent annual expenses to meet, such as State Corporation Commission fee, post office box fee, insurance and website fees.

The website allows us to keep the public informed about our meeting dates and events and lets them see who our members are and who is on the board of directors.

It also allows us to provide the public with access to the minutes of our meetings. We also post events and meeting notices on our Facebook page, but not everyone is on Facebook, so the website gives them the opportunity to get information that they otherwise couldn’t.

To keep literacy and education at the forefront, we are planning a fundraiser to begin in January and hope to host in July a 45th anniversary celebration of our inception.

We have yet to decide where to hold these events since the new library meeting room policy prohibits selling in the meeting room and selling admittance tickets, so keep your eye on our website (www.fovpl.org), our Facebook page and this newspaper for information.

We appreciate the support and donations you provided us during the upheaval as well as your continued support and donations, and we encourage you to become a member of Friends of the Victoria Public Library to help support us, the Victoria Public Library, and our efforts to advocate for literacy and education in our local community.

Dues are only $1 per year. You can find a membership form on our website.

Lamont Brand is president of the Friends of the Victoria Public Library. His email address is lamont@fovpl.org.