Lightly Toasted

I couldn’t have been happier when Nancy (lovingly Nan) called to tell me that she joined the Follette International Library Resources. It was a long sequel of events that led her to meet Chuck Follett, at Follett International in McHenry, Illnois. Nan’s primary reason to get in touch with Chuck was to see if some help be available from Follett Library for her Rotary International project in Dhanbad, India. Nan is also the president of Maysville Rotary, in North Carolina, USA. Subsequent weeks that followed led to an exciting trip to Chicago to get inducted to the Follette resources and the workings of the group. Even though she has put up an entry about her jottings of the Follettes and pics on her flickr I thought this needed a worthy mention. Educating the future, gratis, without seeking any in return is a very noble and worthy call and seen far and few between in this day and age. In fact its reaching out beyond ones social scene and cultural peripheries — that in itself is a call very few can answer. Well done Nan! Very proud of you!

To better understand Nan’s role and what Follette does I thought the following would help.

What made you think of Follette? Why did you choose Follette library?

First of all, I use all Follett products myself in the library at school. It is like a one stop shopping for librarians. They represent over 5,000 publishers, they help with collection development, they process the books (barcodes), and they sell the automation software as well.

I chose them because I use them and when I called Chuck Follett about helping our Rotary project in India he was anxious to help. Plus, they were interested in the India market and as I have a lot of contacts he wanted to help pay for my trip in return for marketing research. I declined his offer but instead told him I would do the research and if he was pleased with my report would be interested in working for Follett in the international market. I returned with about 10 pages of information for them and he turned me over to Zack Colandrea who is VP of International Sales for Asia and the Pacific. Zack hired me on the spot.

What is Follette about what do they do?

It is like a one stop shopping for librarians. They represent over 5,000 publishers, they help with collection development, the process the books (barcodes) and they sell the automation software as well. There are 3 companies in the corporation. Follett Library Resources sells books only, Follett Software develops and sells the automation software, and Follett Educational Resources buys and sells used textbooks.

Where do you see yourself with Follette in time and what kind of work?

I want the children in India to have the same resources as the rest of the world. It is becoming big business in India to start schools that claim to teach like schools in the west which they do actually. I want to make sure that ALL children in India get that chance. Plus, eventually I want to have video conferencing centers set up there and around the world to put children in touch with other children spreading tolerance and world peace.

I want to grow the terriortory in India for Follett because I feel Follett has the most to offer the schools there. The quality of the products is 1^st class and the support is even better. In 5 years I envision Follett sales teams in place all over India.