That’s what I asked myself when I joined the Book Sale Committee. “Sort a few books; arrange them on tables – nothing to it.” That illusion shattered the minute I was taken to the Book Sale storage room. Books were sorted by type in large boxes. Stacks of boxes were piled against every wall. In the middle of the room were two tables with yet more volumes waiting to be classified.

Then I was told that a sizable selection of hard back and paperback books would have to be carted upstairs to the auditorium and laid out for the upcoming November book sale. Any leftovers had to be carted back to the storage room as soon as the sale ended. The whole process of schlepping, displaying and dismantling would have to be repeated for the December sale. “Yipe!” I thought.

I needn’t have worried. Members of the Book Sale Committee function like a well-oiled machine. The chairs of the committee, Betsy Cutler and Amelia Carew, laid out the tasks to be done and the time-line for doing them. Experienced publicists and schedulers swung into action.

An IOU system was set up for the sale since Carolina Meadows residents often don’t carry money when they visit the Club Center. Folks would be able to browse, select and take books with them. Anona Serpas had prepared ample IOU slips along with envelopes stamped with her name and mailbox number so that residents could easily remit what they owed.

Everything ran smoothly at both the November and December sales. The result was $1,380 raised for the Library Fund. Now that it’s 2016, the whole committee is looking ahead to May when “the mother-of-all-book sales” is scheduled. Watch The Meadowlark for further details.