Orono Farmers' Market |
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Minutes From:Orono Farmers’ Market Annual Meeting January 14, 2012 In attendance: Hanne Tierney – Cornerstone Farm, Clayton Carter – Fail Better Farm, Delmar Leveque – Mildel Farm, Perly and Caty Fraizer – Lobster Shack, Everett Worcester- Worcester’s Wild Blueberries, James Champbell- Irish Daisy Bakery, Caitlin Hunter- Appleton Creamery, Bich Nga Burrill- Far East Cuisine, Joan Morrison- Farm visit coordinator, Linda Bowden – High Lonesome Acres, Ken Lamson-New Beat Farm, Jason Gavitt and Tom Roberts – Snakeroot Organic Farm, Donna and Abraham Mionis- Daily Bread, Linda McBrine – Vine and Branch Farm, Rachel Katz- Smith Farm, Kathryn Meade Coulombe – Grassland Farm, Mark Guzzi –Peacemeal Farm, and John Barnstein- Maine-ly Poultry. Market Manager Report: Mark reported for both Saturday and Tuesday markets: He says that it was a successful season, that some vendors had very good attendance and some had very poor attendance. Tuesday high light was that it was very wet on the grass once the university was back in session and thus there were difficulties with trucks getting stuck in mud on lawn. This was reported by Mark to the University official. Mark informed us that the schoodic symposium is taking place in July and August 2012 and would take up ½ of the steam plant lot. There will not be construction on Tuesdays or Saturdays to allow for market to take place. Once the market moved downtown there was a significant amount of parking issues particularly in October. Mark has spoken with many downtown businesses and most are in support of the market being downtown, a few felt the market being downtown was detrimental to their business, but they all felt that there were parking issues. Linda discusses the possibility of the parking lot behind Asa Adam’s school in Orono for a potential market location. Mark feels it is a possibility but there isn’t much parking, so thus not his first choice. Mark points out how lucky Orono Farmers’ Market is to have had so little location problems over the years. John suggest alternative of Market buying land to create a permanent market location with a hoop house for winter market. Tom suggest this is moved to new business. Tom asks if there were any members who attended zero markets. Mark unsure of answer, but suspects that Sunkhaze may have not come to market. Discussion followed about having a attendance record reinstated. Mark agrees that with help he will record attendance. Mark announces a serious effort to start a market in Bangor. There will be a meeting this coming Tuesday the 17 of January at the city hall Winter Market report given by John Barnstein. John reports that the Christmas eve market had 9 vendors in attendance and that it was slower than normal. He also reports that winter market is generally good and he would like to see it move to an indoor location. John complimented the customers for their devotion to the winter market. Treasure’s Report Jen not present so no report available – she has contacted Mark and believes a report will be available for the February steering committee meeting. Farm Visit Report – presented by Joan Morrison (JM) Farms inspected:
Farms that will be inspected in 2012: Mildel Farm, Peacemeal Farm, Schartner Farm, Snakeroot Farm, Sunny Acres Farm., Wickett Farm, Worcesters Wild Blueberries, Evermay Nursery. Reports filed and available through Joan Officers: Everett makes motion to accept slate of officers, Tom seconds Elected unanimously as follows:
Opening and closing dates: Suggested: Summer: Sat - Open May 5, 2012 Close Nov 17, 2012 Tues- Open June 19, 2012 Close Oct 30, 2012
Hanne makes motion to accept, Clayton 2nds, unanimously accepted Location of market revisited: Discussion about when to move downtown Linda reports that she has a decrease in business once we move downtown Tom points out that the port-a-potties are not available in Nov at the steam plant lot. Mark reports that we use 40 of the 120 parking spaces in the downtown lot John comments how the downtown businesses are justified in their concern over our use of parking, as they are paying rent and or taxes etc to run their business and we don’t pay anything. Hanne adds that she has been trying to promote the small businesses on the weekly facebook posts. Mark reports from discussion with the city police that the downtown employees take up 60 of the 120 spots on weekend evenings. John wants to get along with local business and find a creative way to increase parking Show of hand of who prefers downtown – all but three prefer, one does not prefer, 2 are indifferent Hanne makes a motion to be downtown from homecoming to commencement. Tom seconds it. Unanimous minus 1; motion passes Brochures: Tom would like to go back to smaller paper for brochure. He would like everyone to submit by April 1st both a short description (about 4 lines or 50 words) for the brochure and a long description for the website. Brochure contains filler content (info, tips, etc); Mark asks that Tom email us brochure filler sections for the group to discuss and give feedback to Tom. Caty- requests the hours of the winter market be added to the brochure. Sign: Sign committee from last year was : Hanne, Mark, and John – not much done! John had a volunteer that never followed through. Mark would like to deal with it asap Mark feels a customer named Stash will work on a sign design John asks Mark to get something by the Feb meeting; if not then we will discuss a different path Proper tent anchoring: Tom reports there were many moments this past year that could have been major problems but as a market we were lucky. He points out that 95% of the time you don’t need weights, but 5% of the time you really need weights and there isn’t time to set them up in those moments. Mark reminds membership that the majority of the problems are when you take the weights off to take down your tent, so please be attentive the entire time including disassembling of your tent. Clayton points out that the rules already require vendors to anchor their tents. Late Application Policy Mark say it is up to the steering committee to enforce Everett feels like the market is too lax on the enforcement of the policy John feels like it is the same offenders every year Everett feels as though there should be a strict deadline and a fine of 100 dollars should be charged if you miss deadline Tom makes a motion to increase the late fee from $50 to $100 effective 2013 for the late applications and /or dues. Everett seconds it. Discussion for increase fee followed: Vote 10 in favor, 2 opposed, 2 abstain. Motion passes Maine Federation of Farmers Markets (MFFM): Mark reports: Anne Saggese wrote and received a grant to revitalize MFFM MFFM is requesting pledges, our market pledged $250 last year. There is an annual meeting for MFFM at the farmers’ Market Convention on Jan 28th. The Mission of MFFM in short is to support Farmers markets throughout the state via websites, conferences, trainings, and market out reach. Everett makes a motion that we pay the pledge we made last year of $250. Tom seconds the motion vote: unanimous = yes motion passes Hanne makes a motion that we pledge and pay another $340 ($10 / vendor to be paid from market account) for 2012. Tom seconds the motion. Vote: 13 in favor, 1 opposed, 1 abstain, Motion passes Tom points out that the entire Grant is available for all to read at www.MFFM.org End of market Gleaning Report: Tom reads following prepared document: How did gleaning go for you?
In 2011 the Orono Farmers' Market was the first farmers' market to work with the Maine Cooperative Extension to develop an “End-of-Market Gleaning” pilot program. The workings of the program is described in detail in the brochure. The brochure also includes the results of this year's gleaning: 6 food pantries and homeless shelters gleaned a total of 3,178 pounds of food gathered from 19 of the market’s 32 members. All market members who participated should have already received a thank-you letter including the total gleaned from their stand, along with a monetary value of that contribution that can be used for tax purposes. Everyone involved on the receiving side was delighted with the program, as was Kate Garland from Penobscot Extension who worked with me to develop this program, but who could not make it to this meeting today. Now that the Orono Farmers' Market has helped with this pilot program, Extension's hope (and mine) is to have the program replicated at other farmers' markets statewide, prompted by each market's request to their local Extension staff. Some initial thoughts: First of all, it should be clearly understood by everyone today---and to everyone set up at the market--- that not every market member is going to have products to donate, and even those that do will not have something to donate at the end of every market day. This is perfectly fine with the gleaners and they are aware that this will be the situation. This means that once a donation is made to the gleaners, there is no expectation or requirement to donate again or regularly. Altho non-perishables may be donated, the target is for gleaning items of a highly perishable nature, items that food pantries have difficulty obtaining from their regular institutional sources. At least two market member have indicated that on many market days they had more items to donate than were gleaned by the gleaners. At least one gleaner reported they felt intimidated by the manner of refusal from some market members. Since gleaners are often volunteers recruited by Extension or the food pantry, and they know they are asking for donations for items that were being offered for sale a few minutes earlier, they may feel a bit sheepish about doing so. To make the process go more smoothly for market members and gleaners, there is a section called “Important Tips” in the brochure. Feedback from Orono market members today will allow the program to work better for everyone, so please make suggestions and comments. You can also talk to me about end-of-market gleaning at any time. Specifically, what I'd like to have us discuss today is: • How did gleaning go for market members? Did it function well for everyone? Were there any problems? • What do members think of the program? Complaints? Suggestions for improvement? • How did we each handle gleaners? How did we tell gleaners what was available? Did any of us have more to donate to gleaners than the gleaners took?
Tom also hands out brochure to membership – brochure available @ http://mffm.org/End-of-Market_Geaning.pdf John is supportive of pantries, he reports that he donates extra wings but felt that the gleaners were not prepared with coolers etc. John was frustrated because gleaners didn’t always check with him before leaving market. Delmar- had concerns about how honest the program was but now feels that it is legitimate and will donate more next year. Mark did not have much confidence gleaners were prepared as far as packaging and knowledge of the volume that they needed. Linda and Donna both express they want the gleaners to come at one but not earlier. Rachel mentioned that she liked it when the gleaners came around and mentioned that they were there and then returned to collect products. Tom discussed how there was a need for the gleaners to learn the volume for the pantry. He would show them a crate and state that they could take any or all of the products in the crate. The gleaned food went to six pantries and was worth over $5000. Email addresses: Please notify Tom and Clayton if your email address changes Newsletter: Caitlin agrees to continue with the newsletter. But states that people must email her news and pictures etc for use in newsletters Maine Farmers’ Market Convention: This years dates are Jan 27th and 28 , 2012. MFFM meeting to follow after lunch on Saturday Hanne makes a motion for the market to pay for 2 delegates to attend the convention every year. Linda seconds the motion. Vote: Unanimous in favor – motion passes EBT: Hanne makes a motion that the market develops an EBT system, Tom seconds the motion. Vote : Passes; to be discussed at Feb meeting Land revisited: Hanne makes a motion to do out reach about looking for land. Rachel seconds the motion. Some discussion about using the word “considering” when discussing this in the newsletter . Vote : unanimous yes- motion passes
New Products: Mark applies for Organic apples from leased orchard. Hanne makes motion to accept, Rachel seconds motion Vote: 11 in favor, 2 opposed , motion passes Rachel applies for Grass-fed Beef- Hanne makes motion to accept. Clayton seconds motion. Vote: 11 in favor, 1 abstain, motion passes Hanne apples for pasture raised chicken. Rachel makes motion to accept and Donna seconds motion. Vote: 9 in favor and 1 opposed, motion passes. Rachel would like to continue going to Tuesday market but she had Tangled Oak's spot and they might need it back. All agreed this needs to be addressed by August. Donna applies to attend Saturday market. Linda makes motion to accept, and Hanne seconds motion. Vote: Unanimous in favor motion passes Provisional Members that are reapplying: New Beat Farm – reapplying and adding Wreaths and herb and veggie seedlings Hanne made a motion to accept their new products and make them permanent members and Rachel seconded the motion. Vote passed unanimously Irish Daisy- reapplying and adding cake mixes and fudge Hanne made motion to accept as permanent members and Donna seconded the motion. Vote unanimously passed Hanne made motion to accept the cake mix to be added. Donna seconded the motion. Vote unanimously rejected. Discussion that Fudge was already covered in their application under baked goods, no need to be added.
Note that steering committee meeting will be held at Bear Brew on the second Sat in Feb. Meeting adjourned Submitted by Hanne Tierney 1/19/12
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