Next Meeting, February 3rd at 7 pm

at the Purdue Extension Office 802 N Apple St., Greenfield

Please review information in this newsletter, a lot of exciting news.

January 26, 2014

Hoosier Harvest Council News

February Regular Meeting Announcement:

Welcome to 2014, hope you are surviving the cold weather, on the plus side we should have less insects this year and the emerald ash bore larvae is hopefully being killed by the cold temperatures. We are looking forward to an exciting year with HHC and hope you will stick with us to help this organization grow stronger.

Our next meeting is on Monday, February 3rd at 7 pm.

It will be held at the Purdue Extension Office at 802 N Apple St, Greenfield IN 46140.

Our meetings are generally held on the 1st Monday of every month at 7 pm.

Agenda:

Call to order
Approve meeting minutes and treasurer report.
Pitch-in and networking time to get to know the new officers and other members.
Discuss plans for farm tours for 2014- if you want to host or help out on a farm we need to know. We have several farms interested, we anticipate having at least 2 dates.
Speaker - Joanie Fitzwater - to discuss downtown Greenfield revitalization.
Membership drive
Web Site updates - need pictures and new information from members.
Discuss plans and topics for future meetings - take input from the organizational meeting news

Organizational Meeting News

The officers met on Tuesday, January 21st - please review information below regarding the organization.

What is Hoosier Harvest Council - clarified purpose - the group is open to all farmers/producers regardless growing practices to support for networking, education and sharing of ideas to increase awareness of local foods and products and support buying local.

Business Entity/Banking - Vicki Fair is our new treasurer. Information at Greenfield Banking Company has been updated. Vicki and R.C. McDanel are co-signers on the account. We are not an official 501c3 - that is tabled at this time. Vicki will take care of updating contact information with the secretary of state. By-laws update is on hold so that we can make the meetings more informative.

Buy Fresh Buy LocalŽ- FoodRoutes.org - we are current with BFBL. They are in the process of getting a new coordinator on board. They expect invoices to go out in February. They had not sent any end of the year documents. Members who meet the BFBL criteria can use the BFBL graphics including point of purchase cards, include graphics on brochures and web site.

Web Site - Hoosier Harvest Council - Barb Smith met with Kyle Turpin and reviewed how to update and what the capabilities of our new web site are. It has a great potential to showcase our organization. Pictures, video's, product lists, applications can be added to your individual page. We have a page for recipe's. There is a How To section that can include blogs. Our membership applications are now on-line. The By-laws section is password protected - as the by-laws are out of date and not ready for public view. We will have newsletters posted on the site and much more. We expect to use a future meeting to have Kyle show some of the ins and outs of the web site. We still have 3 hours of training left with him.

Facebook and Twitter - Barb Smith started a new Facebook page for Hoosier Harvest Council so please like the page and share it with others so we can get our past supporters to like our new page. She will have a new Twitter account started before our next meeting.

Directory - we plan on publishing a new directory in the spring. If you want included your membership must be paid by April 1st. We want it ready before regular market season begins and before farm tours. We may do fewer copies and use other means to guide customers to our members.

Meetings - we want the monthly meetings to be informative and to draw interest so that you will want to attend. We need member input on what topics you would like to see. We really want to increase the communication this year. Feel free to give any feedback or suggestions.

Such as Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, etc)
Food Safety
Farmers Markets - what you can sell at a market, what permits/documentation do vendors needs, insurance, etc.. We do not run markets but would be willing to assist market masters in how to run a good market. We would like to have our market masters attend our March meeting. We would love to sign up more markets.
Farm Tours - sharing of ideas

Membership - feel free to fill out a new membership application just to be sure we have everyone's up to date information. Fees can be sent in to the extension office: Purdue Extension -Hancock County, Hoosier Harvest Council, 802 N Apple St., Greenfield IN 46140. Any media (pictures, videos, applications, etc) can be emailed to barbjsmithrn@gmail.com. Click here to access application.

January 2014 Meeting Minutes

January, 13 2014

Attendance: Randy Kemerly, Gary Borgmann, Gary Mithoefer, Marvin & Jeniece Miller, Chris Baggott, Earl & Barb Smith, R.C. McDanel, Greg Ash, Randy Litten, and Roy Ballard.

Pitch-In Dinner was enjoyed by all prior to the meeting.

December Regular Meeting minutes were approved as presented.

Treasurer's Report - Randy Kemerly passed out accounting of the past year's transactions leaving a balance of $2,272.22. Report was approved as presented.

Deposit will be made of all of the renewals received to date - 19 prior to the meeting and more received during the meeting. Check signed to Kyle Turpin for the final payment for the new web-site.

Election of officers: Ballots were sent out with the invoices. All offices were unopposed.

New officers are:

President: R.C. McDanel - Glacier Rock Farm

Vice President: Chris Baggott - Tyner Pond Farm

Secretary: Barb Smith

Treasurer: Vicki Fair - Fair Farms and Produce

(Vicki was unable to attend the meeting due to work, will pay invoice when transferring checking account to R.C. McDanel and Vicki Fair as co-signers on the account)

Randy reviewed accomplishments of the past year:

New web site- up and running but still needs some improvements
HHC is now a recognized business with the Secretary of State with its own EIN number and is no longer operating as a "Doing Business As"
By-Laws - have been worked on but have not been approved by the membership. Randy stated he spent several hours working on them and the group is free to use what he started.

Chris Baggott recognized the leadership for the accomplishments they made. It was a learning experience for them in realizing what they could and could not accomplish of their lofty goals they had when they took office. He stated the organization is better than it was a year ago and we can build on what they accomplished.

Buy Fresh Buy LocalŽ - has again changed coordinators. No information has been received from Foodroutes.org since the change in coordinators, including the normal end of the year document requirements and invoice.

Meeting was turned over to R.C. McDanel and general discussion of transition to new officers.

R.C. and Vicki will meet at Greenfield Banking with Randy Kemerly to change account over. Gary Borgmann will go in later to have his name removed as co-signer as he is not available at the same time the others can meet.
Barb Smith will get with Kyle Turpin to get access to web site and learn how to work with new web site.
Gary Borgmann gave access to Constant Contact Email Marketing to Barb Smith.
FaceBook Page - Randy Kemerly was to give administrator access to Barb Smith, but found out he no longer had access to the page. Randy Kemerly and Chris Baggott are to get with Jonathan Lawler to get access to the account.
Farm Tours - several members are interested in resuming farm tours and are willing to be hosts. Will discuss more fully at our next meeting.

Roy Ballard ended the meeting with announcement of some upcoming programs:

Indiana Horticulture Congress January 21-23,
Small Farms Conference in Danville on Feb 20-22
Facebook Training on January 25^that 10 am
Drug Toss on January 25th from 10 am-2 pm.

Submitted by

Barb Smith, Secretary