Pam McClellan brought 20 years of valuable business experience with her when she was employed by JPL back in 2002. She has progressed from a part-timer to Resource Development (RD) Coordinator, reporting to CR &M's Assistant Director, Kathy Lussier. Pam plays a critical role in JPL's search for, receiving, and processing external funds, as well as other responsibilities. One of her assets is she realizes "the devil is in the details". Pam handles every situation with a quiet confidence that can derail stress and does it with the charm of a lovely Southern lady.
What duties does your title, Resource Development (RD) Coordinator, include?
As RD Coordinator I am responsible for the library’s efforts to identify and acquire external funding, in-kind resources, equipment, materials, etc. via local, state, federal or private sources. I am a resource for other JPL departments—Youth Services and Outreach, Facilities, Support Services, Public Services and Administration. This involves grants, donors, and sponsorships. I track and report on the status of our funding efforts by providing monthly reports to JPL Finance, CR&M, Collection Development, the Board of Library Trustees and Mayor’s Office Gift Disclosures. I also work with program staff to identify opportunities, write proposals, and ensure grant compliance for each grant-funded program awarded to JPL. I represent the library as the “grants person” when coordinating the required documentation and approvals with the City’s Grants Compliance Office and Grants Administrator. All of JPL’s LSTA and State Aid grants must be approved through a defined, time-sensitive process, including inclusion in the City’s annual budgeting process. Each grant-funded program has a schedule of interim and final reports that must be adhered to as part of the grant agreement. I work with individual JPL program managers to get the reports completed on time and in the proper formats and address the evaluation criteria set up by the grantor. One of the joys of the funding process is establishing great partnerships with funders and the community. Our ongoing relationships with the Florida Humanities Council (Prime Time Family Reading Time Program), Poets House (Poetry in the Branches, Language of Conservation, and Poetic Voices of the Muslim World), and ALA Public Programs (Bookshelf grants, traveling exhibits, Smart Investing, etc.) are among our most successful and long-standing. Beside grants, the RD Office ensures that all in-kind and cash donations are properly documented and donors acknowledged. Donors are now acknowledged in JPL’s Annual Report and significant donations are highlighted in other library publications. I also volunteered for the annual United Way Campaign for three years and enjoyed working with administration and staffs to raise funds.
What did you do professionally for JPL before becoming the Resource Development (RD) Coordinator?
Before becoming the RD Coordinator in July 2005, I worked in a variety of public service positions at Regency Square and Northwest (now Olga L. Bradham and Etta L. Brooks) branches. I began my career at JPL in 2002 working part-time in the evenings at Regency. I lived in the Regency service area and saw Pam Thompson, one of my former high school teachers. (I had not seen her in years and she looked fantastic!) Pam told me what a great career she had as a librarian after she left teaching, and I credit her for my serious consideration of JPL when I changed careers in 2002. I have worked for JPL as a library page, clerk, librarian trainee, Sunday-only staff, and Human Services Planner I, prior to my current position as Human Services Planner II.
What prior experience did you garner that has held you in good stead at JPL?
I came to JPL from the world of sales and marketing. I graduated from the University of Florida with a Journalism & Communications degree and landed a Management Trainee position with Atlantic National Bank (now Wells Fargo). After a year of writing/editing for the Atlantic Banker employee magazine, etc., I began my 20 year career with Southern Bell Marketing, including their various divisions—BellSouth, AT&T Communications, American Transtech, Matrixx Marketing and Convergys Corporation. I managed business client accounts throughout Northeast Florida and once served as the local AT&T account executive for Prudential Insurance Company and Johnson & Johnson national account teams. I started as a Southern Bell Service Consultant and retired as a Convergys Director for Service Implementation. I had excellent training and many experiences working with customers, teams, administrators and marketing folks in Jacksonville, Atlanta, Cincinnati, and New Jersey that more than prepared me for my Resource Development duties. I have authored many sales proposals, marketing plans, expense reports and account management presentations. I have also held Florida realtor and Florida insurance agent licenses and was a certified Department of Children and Families foster care counselor.
Working in JPL’s Community Relations & Marketing Department, how does your job relate to the rest of CR&M?
The current CR&M Department evolved from the Partnerships & Communications Department established by Director Gubbin in 2005. Now, as then, my role was to research, identify and write compelling grant proposals to obtain external funding and resources for JPL. By year-end 2005, the job expanded to include writing acknowledgement letters to library donors. At that time, donations were handled by the Library Foundation and JPL Finance. Over the years, Resource Development has included revising and managing the JPL Gifts and Contributions process, and several times I have acted as the Adult Programs Manager when vacancies and hiring freezes occurred. I have always worked closely with Youth Services and Adult Programs staffs as many of the grant-funded programs fall into these areas. Now CR&M’s focus is more on communications and promotions as programs and outreach have moved entirely to public service. My journalism education, background in marketing, and public service experience enable me to support the CR&M team by contributing to e-News and the Annual Report, proofing and editing releases, reports and other JPL publications, and sharing status updates on grant-funded programs and donor activity.
Tell us something about yourself that most of us would not know.
I was born in Jacksonville and was one of the last babies born at historic Brewster’s Hospital. I am the oldest of three children and we grew up on military bases around the U.S. I have lived in Miami, Seattle, New Jersey, Chicago, Colorado and Munich, Germany where I started kindergarten. After military service, my dad, Eric Edwards, Sr., worked for the City as an aide to Mayor Tanzler. By Executive Order #49 he was appointed and confirmed by City Council as the City’s first Affirmative Action Officer for the general government in 1973.
This is not my first City job. At age 16, I worked for the Supervisor of Elections Office as a summer student file clerk downtown at the Duval County Courthouse; a little boring, but I did get paid. I’m basically a country girl at heart and an amateur genealogist. When I retire (for the second time), I plan to garden, quilt, trace family trees and spend time with my husband, Jerry, the kids, and our adorable grandsons, Eliot, 3, and Aiden, 7 months.
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