Meeting Held at Days Inn in Barre. 2/7/09:
1. Club finances and memberships.
The club appears to be solvent, at least for another
year. We now have 48 members and growing. We get bigger every year, just like our pumpkins :-).
2. How do we raise more funds?
Our main source of income is the seed auction which has
been declining year to year, mainly due to the sheer number of seed auctions now being held. It's getting tougher
and tougher every year to obtain quality and highly sought after seeds. So if anyone has any other ideas
on how to raise some funds they will be entertained. Maybe business sponsorships, display their banners at our
events?
3. 2009 Club events:
- GPC weigh-off at Sam Mazza's. Mazza's treats us very well and would like to make our
weigh-off an annual event at their Farmstand. No one objected to this as it is a nice set up for us. They
provide the forklift and operator, they have a pavillion in case it rains, and they cover us under their Insurance
policy for the day, which can be a big expense if we had to purchase event insurance ourselves. Mazza also promotes
our event with radio adds. So you really can't beat that. Kevin mentioned some clubs spend over
$5,000 hosting their weigh-offs, Mazza covers all that expense for us so we will embark on a long term committment
to them.
- Club BBQ and Patch Tour. TBD, any volunteers?
- Regatta ; was a great event and well attended, if the Chamber of Commerce is
willing we'll do it again. Like our weigh-off this event doesn't really cost us money, since proceeds go to charity
and SD Ireland donated the services of a front loader and operator. Question came up, who can enter?
Some folks ask if they could enter their own pumpkin. We discussed and thought that if someone collected enough
(amount TBD) for the charities that we would allow them to enter. We suspect we'll have more enteries
than last year (7). Also as a way to raise money, we may offer "pumpkin rides", though it's unclear if this becomes Club
money or charity money.
4. Question and answers - panel discussion.
Kevin, Mark, John and Wilbur took any and all questions. This
was a very informative discussion and sorry for those that missed it but I can't possible list all the questions and answers
here, you'll have to attend next year :-)
5. Open Forum
- Club hats, shirts, bumper/window stickers : we're looking for some suppliers.
Eric and Chris agreed to investigate some of their contacts.
- Club acknowledgements : many thanks to many people for all their work and dedication through
out the year. John Young for organizing the Regatta, Kevin Companion for soliciting seeds for the seed auction and along
with John organizing the weigh-off. To those that helped out at the weigh-off, Dan and Holly Boyce, Wilbur Horton,
Huey and Wendy Cadieux and others. Thanks to Dan for putting together the awesome Newsletter. Thanks
to Dan/Holly and Huey/Wendy for putting together and mailing the seed packets. Thanks to Terry Keim for keeping the
website updated. Thanks to John Young for running the seed auction.
- Southern VT weigh-off : this was discussed, there are some issues to contend with. If
the southern growers want to organize one they are more than welcome to do so, however it can't be a VGVGA sanctioned event,
mainly due to insurance reasons.
- Regional Advisory Board : it was decided that since the club is getting larger we should form
an advisory board to discuss issues and help decide future events . The intent of the board would be to cover
the state/club in an equateable fashion, the five member board will be made up of Kevin Companion and John Young representing
Northern VT growers, Wilbur Horton representing the Southeastern growers, Mark Breznick representing the Southwestern growers
and Mike Strange representing our international contindency. Thanks guys for taking on this role.
The meeting was ended with a terrific powerpoint presentation of the year 2008 in review by John Young.
Real nice, thanks John.
