Notice of Annual Meeting

December 30th, 2011

The Annual Meeting of the Members of The Mercantile Library will take place at 4:30pm on Tuesday, January 17, 2012.  

The Nominating and Governance Committee of the Mercantile Library Board of Directors has selected four members of the Library to stand for election at the 2012 Annual Meeting.  They are Brendon Cull, Furaha Norton, Timothy Plunkett, and Kristen Wheeler. The new directors will fill three of the six new seats approved by the membership at the 2011 Annual Meeting and one unexpired term. 

Brendon Cull is the Director of Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs at The Kroger Co.  He has worked as an independent consultant specializing in media relations, as a campaign manager, and as a press secretary.  He has also taught undergraduate courses at Xavier University, his alma mater, and worked for two years as a page at the Dublin Public Library.  He can catalogue as well as shelve, placing him squarely in the sights of the Mercantile’s own Collector who is frequently backlogged.  Members casting about for something t read will enjoy Brendon’s blog somuchtoread.wordpress.com.

Furaha Norton is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Cincinnati.  She is a graduate of the University of Chicago (A. B.) and Cornell University (M. A. and Ph.D.).  She has worked as an editor at The New Press and Vintage Anchor Books, and as an associate and assistant editor at Oxford University Press.  She has also taught at numerous workshops and seminars and, like Brendon Cull, has been a campaign worker.  As a member of the Mercantile Library’s Events Committee she had a hand in shaping the formidable 2012 calendar of events.

Tim Plunkett is Vice President, Senior Executive Recruitment at Macy’s, Inc., having joined that firm through the 2005 acquisition of The May Department Stores Company, by whom he had been employed for twenty three years.  A graduate of St. John’s University in Philadelphia, Tim has also worked as a high school teacher and counselor, a college admissions director, and as Human Resource Director for a national accounting firm.  His community affiliations in St. Louis, home of the May Co. include the United Negro College Fund, Ronald McDonald House, Wellness Community, and the Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club.

Kristen Wheeler is a financial consultant and senior vice president at the investment firm Hilliard Lyons.  A graduate of Xavier University and Arizona State University Kris worked for several years as a social worker before joining the business community.  She lives with her husband and daughter in Anderson Township.  Kristen is a second generation member of the Library.  Her father Jim Wellinghoff served as a Director and as President of the Association.  

The Annual Meeting will be preceeded by afternoon tea.  Following the meeting Robert C. Vitz will deliver a lecture on Library member William Henry Harrison and the War of 1812.