First Book University (FBU), our training program for Advisory Boards, headed to the land of country music and the Blue Ridge Mountains for the summer session on July 11 and 12. Believe it or not, there is currently no First Book Advisory Board in Nashville.

In an effort to start a new Board, there was an First Book 101 introduction session at the Borders Books & Music in Nashville. The session was well-attended by employees from First Book’s partners SunTrust Mortgage and Borders, as well as members of the community, including the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville, the Nashville Predators, and Vanderbilt University.

If you live in the Nashville area and are interested in getting involved, there is a meeting set to get First Book-Nashville up and running on Tuesday, August 7th at 4:00 pm at the United Way.

Next, First Book staff drove from Nashville to the eastern part of the state for an FBU Seminar at Tusculum College, hosted by First Book-Greeneville/Greene County. For anyone planning on making that drive, just a reminder that Nashville is in Central Time and Greene is in Eastern Time. Yes, we learned the hard way.

Members from Advisory Boards in Knoxville, Greater Kingsport, Eastern State Tennessee University, and Greeneville/Greene County enjoyed meeting each other and sharing ideas over appetizers and PowerPoint presentations. Fourteen Advisory Board members attended the session.

At the gathering, First Book-Greater Kingsport was recognized with an award for their innovative ideas that have streamlined the processing of donations for the entire Advisory Board network. As well, Brian Bills, SunTrust Mortgage loan officer and Fundraising Chair of First Book-Knoxville, received a First Book Hero Award (in absentia) for his outstanding assistance in raising funds for the Board.