Contact: Jillian Kalonick
Marketing/Public Relations Specialist
ALTAFF
312-280-2161
jkalonick@ala.org
For Immediate Release
April 6, 2010
PHILADELPHIA – Ã The Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations (ALTAFF), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), has named Robert O. Bonam and Margaret J. “Peggy” Danhof as the 2010 ALA Trustee Citation award winners.
The ALA Trustee Citation, established in 1941 to recognize public library trustees for distinguished service to library development, honors the best contributions and efforts of the estimated 60,000 American citizens who serve on library boards.
Bonam has served continuously as a trustee of the Rochester (Mich.) Hills Public Library (RHPL) for 27 years, during which he has also been a member of ALA. He currently serves as the treasurer of the RHPL governing board, a post he has held many times in addition to other leadership roles. Bonam’s greatest involvement has been with the library’s finances. He helped negotiate a creative purchase agreement during the sale of the old library, which saved $75,000. In addition, he negotiated contracts among three cooperating communities to provide a steady revenue stream for RHPL, while at the same time offering quality library service to the residents of all the communities. He has also been involved in the management and structure of library investments, which have earned the library outstanding returns, and the establishment of a library endowment that has grown from $30,000 to $150,000. Bonham owns and operates his own accounting firm, R. Bonam Accounting.
Danhof has served as a trustee of Fountaindale Public Library (Bolingbrook, Ill.) for a total of 15 years. She was elected president of the board in 2003 and has since helped oversee a space needs analysis and community survey and plan for a new building. She was part of an effort to successfully pass a $48.6 million referendum to construct a new main library in Bolingbrook and a $5 million renovation of a branch library in Romeoville. A groundbreaking ceremony was held in August 2009, and the anticipated opening date of the new building is estimated for early 2011. Danhof is a member of the Illinois Library Association and its Trustee Forum and was a board member of the Prairie Area Library System from 2004-2008, serving as treasurer in her second term. Danhof has been an ALA member since 1998, joining the Association for Library Trustees and Advocates (ALTA) Membership Committee in 2004. She has served as acting chairman for ALTA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee, president of ALTA and co-president of ALTAFF. She is currently immediate past co-president of ALTAFF, serves as ALTAFF’s nomination chairman and is a member of ALA’s Committee on Advocacy and ALA’s Advocacy Coordinating Committee.
Bonam and Danhof will be recognized as the winners of the ALA Trustee Citation award at the opening general session of the 2010 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. For more information about the ALA Trustee Citation, visit www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/altaff/trustees/grantsawards.
ALTAFF is a division of ALA with approximately 5,000 Friends of the Library, Trustee, Foundation and individual members and affiliates representing hundreds of thousands of library supporters. Begun in early 2009, the new division brings together Trustees and Friends into a partnership that unites the voices of citizens who support libraries to create a powerful force for libraries in the 21st century. For more information about ALTAFF, please contact Jillian Kalonick at (312) 280-2161 or jkalonick@ala.org.
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