Good Monday Afternoon, In my experience, planning a lecture series is a lot of work with great reward. We are offering an opportunity to join in the reward without much work. *We* are Robin Seymour and Thomas Trahey of the Mason County District Library (MCDL) and Brooke Portman of the Abondia Center. The opportunity is the Cairns & Beacons (C&B) lecture and discussion series. The series will consist of eight presentations each followed, a week later, by a discussion. The topics are on some of the pressing issues of the day, although not necessarily the ones that grab all the headlines. I’m attaching a document with a more thorough description (the dates may not be accurate). The discussions will kick off with a carefully selected, pertinent work of art that will be a common starting point for the discussion. We are asking you to try this for several reasons. We would like C&B to have a wide and diverse audience. We would like the discussions to involve varied communities with different points of view. We would like to start building a network of libraries willing to work together on providing quality programming. Perhaps in the future, MCDL will be able to join your program in the same way, or perhaps some of us will plan the next series together. We would like to invite your library to be a part of this program, to brand it as your own and offer it to your patrons for as long as you find it worthwhile. If you haven’t done anything like this before, this is an excellent opportunity to be involved and experience what it’s like to run a lecture series without the responsibility or workload of creating and running it. In addition to planning the series, procuring the presenters and writing grants to fund the series, we can offer other assistance to libraries interested in participating. We will be able to help with technology, promotion, related materials, and funding. We are asking for as much of the following as you are willing to give, for as long as you are willing to give it: C&B flyers on display in your library, a small display space in your library for C&B related material (promotional and reading material), some help advertising to your community, and to set up and run a Zoom meeting for each presentation and discussion. Note that you can choose your level of participation and that you don’t have to commit to the full series. If you are at all interested, we are hosting an informational Q&A this Wednesday, May 24th, at 9:30am. Here’s the link: bit.ly/MCDLCairns. If you can’t make that or would like to contact me directly, feel free. Here’s my contact info: Thomas Trahey Head of Circulation at MCDL 231-843-8465 ttrahey@mcdlibrary.org -- Thomas Trahey Mason County District Library Head of Circulation 231-843-8465