AGENDA #15

MEMORANDUM

TO:                  Mayor and Town Council

FROM:            Naming Committee (Council Member Sally Greene, Mayor Pro Tem Bill Strom, Council Member Jim Ward)

SUBJECT:      Library Naming Rights Policy

DATE:            June 12, 2006

PURPOSE

The purpose of this memorandum is to recommend to the Council a number of naming rights possibilities for the Chapel Hill Public Library.

BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION

The Council’s Naming Committee met on April 7, 2006, to discuss a petition from the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation regarding a request to work with representatives of the Council to determine ways to use naming rights to help fund collection improvements recommended in the 2003 Library Services Master Plan. The Committee met several times to discuss this request.

The Committee concluded that after considering the Library Foundation’s request it had determined that the existing policy was not applicable to the Library Foundation’s request. The Library Foundation’s request raised a question on policy that the Council had never directly addressed. The Committee believed the Council had a number of possibilities, from no naming rights to a range of other options.

The Committee petitioned the Council at the April 10, 2006 meeting, for guidance on the Naming Rights Policy. The Mayor directed the Committee to take the comments it received that night and come back to the Council with a number of options to consider.

At its meeting on May 22, 2006, the Naming Committee reviewed Council comments made at the April 10, 2006, meeting and developed the following options for naming rights:

• No naming rights.
• Name plates in the books donated, acknowledging individual donors.
• Name plate in the books donated, acknowledging individual or corporate donors.
• Roster of individual names of donors (donors of a specified threshold amount or more).
• Roster of individual or corporate names of donors (donors of a specified threshold amount or more).
• Roster of individual names categorized by amount donated (beyond threshold amount).
• Roster of individual or corporate names categorized by amount donated (beyond threshold amount).

RECOMMENDATION

The Committee recommends that the Council review the options and determine which option or combination of options would best address the policy request.

ATTACHMENTS

1.         Petition (p. 3).

2.         Excerpt from April 10, 2006, Minutes (p. 6).

3.         May 23, 2006, Naming Committee Quick Report (p. 11).