The Team at Ellen Miller Group

A team filled with veterans . . .

Besides Ellen Miller herself, other team members include Patricia H. Fisher, Jim Connor and Hoober & Associates.

P. Fisher & Associates

P. Fisher & Associates know that libraries are in business to serve customers. They believe understanding customers and giving them what they want are the keys to effective customer-service organizations. Libraries, which are dependent upon government funding, must also convince elected officials and taxpayers that they areÊserving the public effectively. Pat and her associates work with clients and their governance boards to help them develop advocacy and marketing and public relations plans, with messages that will resonate with their chosen target markets.

P. Fisher & Associates' principal, Pat Fisher, has more than 15 years of experience in marketing, public relations and library advocacy. She has provided marketing consulting services to state libraries, library associations and libraries. Prior to starting her consulting firm, Pat worked for Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) as a product and marketing manager.

Pat has been involved with libraries since 1989. She is a former trustee with the Baltimore County Public Library and a past president of the Association for Library Trustees and Advocates (ALTA). In 2002, she chaired the Legislative Assembly for ALA's Committee on Legislation. She has served as a board member for the Foundation for Baltimore County Public Library. Pat also serves on the board of the Citizens for Maryland Libraries. She has been a speaker, keynoter and/or preconference speaker at numerous library conferences.

Pat is a 2006 candidate for the Master of Library Science degree at the College of Information Studies, University of Maryland. She also holds a master's in business from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in sociology from Morgan State University. Go to her Web site.

Jim Connor

Jim Connor brings 40+ years of experience in community leadership and organization management. His business experience includes Chamber of Commerce executive in both local and the U.S. Chamber and as a former newspaper publisher. He served as a trustee for the Jefferson County, Colorado, Public Library. Jim received the 2005 ALTA Trustee Citation. He has worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Jim Connor has worked extensively with rural and small city library boards. His new DVD, Trustee Responsibilities and Self-Evaluation Guide, is available at trusteecollege@msn.com. With Pat Fisher and Ellen Miller, he co-authored Effective Governance for Rural Libraries

In addition, Hoober & Associates produces a variety of internal and external marketing materials, from direct mail, newsletters and annual reports to catalogs, marketing brochures and Web sites — including this one. Check out our Web site.

Clients come to Hoober & Associates for a wide range of public relations and marketing communications services.

The firm, founded nearly two decades ago by Scott Hoober (right), has done a great deal of crisis planning and crisis communications, including service as spokesman for a big city police department, a student transportation firm following a fatal accident — and the insurance industry following major natural catastrophes. They have assisted Ellen Miller Group with activities of the Kansas Rural Water Association, the Water Services Department of Kansas City, Missouri, and a number of engineering firms and other clients.

In addition, Hoober & Associates produces a variety of internal and external marketing materials, from direct mail, newsletters and annual reports to catalogs, marketing brochures and Web sites — including this one. Check out our Web site.