Rebuilding the trust between Timberland Regional Library and its Friends groups

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, June 23, 2026

Earlier this month, Timberland Regional Libraries (TRL) sent the TRL Friends Newsletter to its Friends of the Library groups. In the introduction, Interim Director Andrea Heisel wrote, “In the Friends meetings I have attended so far, I have heard your frustration and I am listening. In the weeks and months ahead, you will be seeing changes in how Timberland operates and how we work together with you to support your library and our library district …”

The frustrations that Friends groups have voiced range from how library refreshes have been handled, changes in how Friends groups partner with TRL to even how friends have been treated by staff.

For members of the Montesano Friends of the Library, their treatment at the Board of Trustees meeting held on July 24, 2024, remains a fresh memory. It’s an example of how the culture developed between Friends groups and the library they support became at odds with TRL policies developed under the leadership of former Executive Director Cheryl Heywood.

Upon hearing that the Montesano Library would host the July meeting, “[the Friends] were just so excited about what was going to happen, and they started planning” to make the trustees feel special, said Lilly Pomeroy, president of the Montesano Friends of the Library.

They decided upon providing a spread of desserts and serving coffee and tea in the teacup collection the friends had curated over the years, which they’ve done in previous years when board meetings were held at Montesano.

Helen Hepp shared that she learned this practice of “wowing” after attending a Friends of North Mason meeting at Belfair, a practice that had been cultivated since the ’70s or ’80s she figured.

In the days leading up to the Board of Trustees meeting, Pomeroy spread the word throughout the community and invited them to attend the meeting.

“I said, ‘I would be thrilled if we filled up that room,’” she said.

The friends also wanted to temporarily place “love notes” in the stairway leading down to the meeting room, which the board members would see as they walked down the stairs to the meeting room.

“And then we were told we couldn’t do that. We couldn’t put anything on the walls,” said Pomeroy

The group pivoted. A day before the meeting, they placed the notes on a bulletin board that hung in the children’s section of the meeting area.

When they arrived to help set up for the meeting, they discovered that the love notes, “the ones that were put up disappeared; we never saw them again,” said Hepp.

Although they had been told refreshments couldn’t be served to the public, with the refreshments already having arrived and donated by local businesses, the Friends decided to serve the refreshments anyway. Pomeroy briefly left to go home and get a cake cutter.

“When I came back, everything was gone. I said, ‘Where’s everything?’” Pomeroy recalled asking. She was told they had to get rid of it. “And so everything had all been cleared out.”

For the meeting itself, the community turned out.

“We not only filled up the room — we had standing room only,” said Pomeroy.

The meeting clocked in at over two hours long. During the public comment period, members of the audience asking for more transparency and communication between the Friends groups and TRL and called out why Montesano Friends were unable to continue their tradition “of being great hostesses,” said Hepp.

In an email that Stephenie Reece, the acting branch manager, sent to the Montesano Friends on Aug. 15, she wrote, “To be clear, it is no longer the practice at TRL for Friends groups to be involved in the Board of Trustees regular business meetings any differently than the general public.”

“Apparently the Board meetings have since morphed into “business meetings,” Hepp shared via email with The Daily World. “No more schmoozing around the dessert table afterwards with the Friends. Anyway, somehow, I didn’t get that message.”

On Sept. 24, 2024, the Montesano Friends of the Library held a meeting, with the TRL staff in attendance that included: Reece, Deputy Director Kendra Jones, Operations Director Brenda Lane and Heisel. (Of the individuals, only Heisel remains with TRL; the most recent departure was Lane following the release of Teams chats that disparaged TRL employees and trustees.)

During the meeting, Lane yelled at Friends member Pat Bossard.

“And at that point, our president Lilly said, ‘Okay, I think that’s enough,’” Hepp recalled.

Fortunately, there are signs that TRL is rebuilding their relationship with the Friends groups. During June, there were several Zoom drop-in hours scheduled for Friends to chat with Lily Grant, the special projects coordinator at TRL.

“The meetings Lily Grant is hosting are new this year,” Anna Lisa Rasmussen, communications and media coordinator, shared via email. “There are several online meetings scheduled in June to get the conversation going with plans to settle into a more regular schedule as the year goes on. These meetings are a chance for Friends to connect with TRL as a district and with one another.”

Additionally, the TRL Friends Newsletter mentioned that a brand-new TRL Friends of the Library Handbook, which cover topics such as fundraising and advocacy, is in development. And was mentioned during the recent Q&A with Board of Trustee Dustin Loup on June 10 at the Montesano Library, the Friends Policy and Procedures is being updated.

Tania Remmers, the East Grays Harbor district manager, also shared that changes were coming to the Montesano Library.

“We have a whole new unit range of shelving that was installed, and we’re still waiting on a couple of shelves to finish up,” said Remmers. “We’re going to increase the large print section upstairs. When we move the large print section off of where it currently is, that whole wall is going to become Friends of the Library book sale, and we’re going to put it all, hopefully get all the book sale items up there.”

In an earlier conversation regarding the shelving and moving the book sale to a more prominent location in the library, which currently is in the hallway by the restrooms, Pomeroy said, “The lady who takes care of those books for us is very excited about that. That’ll be wonderful, [and] it’s easier to keep things nice and neat and clean when you have lots of light.”

And to the question of whether this is one small step toward rebuilding trust within TRL, Pomeroy said, “I think so. As we see them make changes in a positive way, it would be good.”

As the Q&A with Loup wrapped up, Hepp quipped of, “Are we going to be serving refreshments if the Board comes our way again?” to which Loup replied, “I would love to have some cookies.”