Grangeville Farmers' Market

Local Produce, Crafts, Food, Art, and Music
Saturday Mornings At Heritage Square
Open June 7th through Oct 4th, Rain or Shine

~~~

Meeting Minutes & Notes

6/17/8 No Secretary

Mark resigned as Secretary due to an inhuman workload with some other stuff. So the org's minutes and email may lighten up for a bit until we can find someone else to pick up the pen.

Is that a pen in your hand?

5/23/8 Meeting

The May 23rd meeting was called to order by Market Manager & President Julie Graham Worthington. All officers except for the Development Liaison were present. 3 additional vendors were present.

Mike Asker came by and clarified some of the details of our insurance policy.

We reviewed the 2008 map of the market space. Vendors who get their applications in earlier may receive preferential treatment.

We discussed plans for our free Vendor Orientation on Sat May 31st, 9-11 am at The Gallery. Suzanne and Renee will lead this event that will help vendors prepare for the 2008 season.

The season starts in 2 weeks on June 7th at 8 am in Heritage Square. See the website for more info: http://www.grangevillefarmersmarket.org

5/9/8 Meeting

The May 9th meeting was called to order by Market Manager & President Julie Graham Worthington. All officers except for the Development Liaison were present.

Julie gave some samples of the new canvas bags to the volunteers. The shopping bags are beautiful and will be on sale at the market, while supplies last.

We discussed plans for our free Vendor Orientation on Sat May 31st, 9-11 am at The Gallery. Please encourage past and prospective vendors to attend in order to get to know everybody, share ideas, and learn more about the state tax and health department rules.

We are looking forward to assisting the Grangeville Horizons folks putting on the Community Yard Sale. Their event will coincide with the opening of the 2008 Farmers' Market season on June 7th (Rain or Shine). The city wide yard sale is not a market event, but we will have free maps and information available at our Info table.

Renee has done a lot of research into a street banner and she will continue to look for a good deal with Holly. The billboard (up by Pioneer Park) has been ordered and Liz's artwork for it is beautiful. We discussed insurance some more, Suzanne will follow up.

We will continue meeting weekly throughout the season, Fridays at noon at The Gallery.

4/20/8 Notes

Thanks to the amazing gem that is Liz Clark we can enjoy the initial artwork for the billboard and sandwich boards.

4/4/8 Meeting

The April 4th meeting was called to order by Market Manager & President Julie Graham-Worthington, all officers were present.

April is "Vendors Wanted" month. Get out and let people know that for $10 per Saturday (or less) they can sell their extra local produce at the farmers' market. Have them contact Suzanne at (208) 315-1924 or Renée at (208) 839-2395 with questions about vendor rules and your application.

The big vendor's social in May is now being called the "orientation for new and returning vendors" and has been rescheduled for Sat 5/31, 9-11 am at The Gallery. This is an opportunity for past and prospective vendors to share ideas, learn more about the market operations, and get help with sales tax paperwork. It'll be fun and informative, and there will be coffee.

The new policies have been drafted and are being reviewed by the management team and the local Health Department. They will be up this week at http://www.grangevillefarmersmarket.org.

The survey went well and we are grateful to Vie, the businesses who helped us, and the individuals that took the time to participate. A summary of the results will be available at the orientation on 5/31.

Suzanne really wants a day with pony rides.

Our next meeting is 5/2, noon at The Gallery. Management meetings will become weekly, starting with this next meeting. Everyone is invited to attend.

~ Mark

3/28/8 Meeting

The March 28th meeting was called to order by Market Manager & President Julie Graham-Worthington, all officers except for the Vice President & Development Liaison were present.

We reviewed the success of the 3/15 business development workshops. The turnout was great and folks from all over the area came to learn about developing their markets and market businesses. The local health department did a fine job of explaining the new rules and training us as safe food handlers.

Based on what we learned at the workshops we are updating our policies and procedures for the new season. We expect to have the 2008 rules document up on the site within the next 2 weeks.

We discussed our insurance for 2009, since we have to pay it this September. One suggestion was to put out a donation box with an explanation of the coverage so that vendors can easily contribute and help with the insurance that helps them.

We are going to do some "Vendors Wanted" advertising over the next month. We want to encourage folks to think about becoming vendors and making some extra money selling what they produce at the farmers' market. We will host a big vendor's social on 5/10, in the morning somewhere (TBA). More info coming as it develops.

We would like to find a student intern to help this season. We are all volunteers and could use some help on some Saturdays. If you know of a community minded student that wants to get involved with the market please have them contact Julie.

Our next management meeting is scheduled for Fri, April 4th, noon at The Gallery. As always, everyone is invited to attend.

~ Mark

2/29/8 Meeting

The February 29th meeting was called to order by Market Manager & President Julie Graham-Worthington, all officers except for the Vice President & Development Liaison were present.

The free workshops on 3/15 are being designed to help both potential and existing market vendors. The morning Food Safety and Food Handler Certification course will be lead by folks from the local and Moscow offices of the Idaho Health Department. Don updated the website with details about the upcoming workshops.

We agreed that we want to approach the Grangeville Master Gardeners and invite them to have a booth at the market. We will have an officer attending Horizons' Business Development Group's monthly breakfast meetings (2nd Tue, 7am, Oscars). We reviewed and approved some new vendors. Julie asked that we continue to direct ideas for entertainment and music to Kelly (983-0308). We discussed ideas for banners and flags for the street. The consensus was that we have a lot of confidence in Liz Clark and Julie will pass along our ideas to her for an estimate. We approved the purchase of a canopy, table and 4 chairs. We discussed attending the Riggins Farmers' Market planning meeting on the 17th at 4pm at The Confluence in Riggins, we will try to find a representative to attend.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Fri, March 14th, noon at The Gallery, the day before the seminars. As always, everyone is invited to attend.

~ Mark

1/18/8 Meeting

The January 18th meeting was called to order by Market Manager & President Julie Graham-Worthington, all officers except for the Vice President were present.

Founder & Development Liaison Deanna English discussed plans for the upcoming seminar with the USDA and UI. It will be oriented towards potential vendors and held Sat, Feb 16th from 9-4 at The Gallery Details coming soon.

We had several guests at today's meeting including Vito Palazzolo from the Idaho Public Health Department. Treasurer Suzanne is coordinating with Mr. Palazzolo to organize vendor education seminars and to help understand state safety requirements. This "Food Safety Seminar" is tentatively scheduled for Sat, Mar 15th.

Julie showed us the very nice check we received from Sterling Savings Bank. We are very grateful to Beryl and the bank for their support of our effort and the community in general. There was also some discussion about additional grant opportunities that we will pursue.

We are grateful that Kelly accepted an invitation to become our interim music/entertainment coordinator. We are very pleased to have Kelly join the team. Secretary Mark will update the flier to reflect the new music coordination info.

Julie presented the idea of having a board up at the market that would display information about what else was going on around town that day. Specials at restaurants, other events, that kind of thing. Good food for thought.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Fri, Feb 8th [UPDATE: Rescheduled for 2/29], noon at The Gallery. As always, everyone is welcome to attend.

~ Mark

12/14/7 Meeting

The December 14th meeting was called to order by Market Manager & President Julie Graham-Worthington, all officers were present.

The Grangeville City Council has generously allowed us to use Heritage Square for the entire 2008 season. We confirmed that the season will start June 8th and run all Saturdays through Oct 4th, from 8 to noon, excluding Border Days weekend. The 2008 flier is on the website at www.grangevillefarmersmarket.org and the new vendor application will be added by webmaster Don Fletcher by the next meeting.

Treasurer Suzanne Acton reported the financials. We have about $250. We will also be receiving a grant from Sterling Savings bank so we will be able to help with getting bathrooms in Heritage Square, have permanent signs and a banner made, purchase our own canopy, as well as other improvements which we prioritized. We are grateful to Rachel Young and Jane Spencer of Grangeville Arts for helping us with this grant.

Founder & Development Liaison Deanna English is putting together some vendor education programs that will be offered as workshops in early February. We will have firm details and dates at the next meeting.

We decided that the organization will continue to structure itself as a candidate for 501(c)(3) status, possibly going so far as to file articles of incorporation with the state of Idaho. But we will not apply to the IRS this season, electing to wait and see if we can come under the filing that is currently being pursued by the Grangeville Horizons organization.

Hanna Young asked to resign as Vice-President of the Grangeville Farmers Market due to her expanding motherhood and Horizons commitments. Julie reluctantly accepted Hanna's resignation. We are very grateful for all the work and time Hanna invested to get the market on its feet and it is hard to let her go. But we are very pleased that our friend Renee Farmer, a founding member and successful market vendor, will be the Vice President of the organization for the 2008 season.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Friday Jan 18th, noon at The Gallery. All are welcome to attend.

~ Mark

10/12/7 End of 2007 Season Meeting

Present: Julie (Chair), Suzanne (Treasurer), Mark (Secretary), Judy (Vendor), Renee (Vendor), and Vie (Vendor)

Under Julie's leadership we discussed the positives and negatives of the past season, selected dates and times for next year, outlined pricing, identified some action items, and discussed suggestions.

Positives: The music was very popular. The timing of the music was good (towards the end of the market). Vendors like the organization. We all liked the circular flow created by having some booths in the middle. The central booths also improved the visual appeal. The rooster was a big hit. Vendors were good about leaving the best parking for customers. We had some very happy vendors. The biggest positive of all was probably the warm reception from the community.

Negatives: Bathrooms are the big problem, (Irwin Drugs saved us). We could also clean up the look of the info booth, it got very cluttered. Julie suggested a vertical board to hold community fliers and we liked that idea. The tax forms are still a little confusing for some. The appropriateness of a particular vendor's wares is dubious.

2008 Season: The planning meetings will start on March 21st and run monthly (same time and place I assume). The market will reopen on June 7th 2008 and run weekly except for skipping (not on) Border Days. After much discussion it was concluded that market hours for 2008 will be 8-noon (4 hrs).

Vendor Rates (probably): The fixed rates are $128 for the season, or $36 for 4 weeks, or $10 per market. The percentage of sales option is 10% of sales. Vendors are encouraged to "buddy up" and share their booth spaces if they are not going to be there regularly.

Action Items & Suggestions:

  • City Council meeting in November to discuss availability of Heritage Square for the season (Julie, Suzanne, Mark?).
  • Follow up with Sterling for any days we get bumped. (?)
  • Keep an eye on not burning out the organizers or regular vendors. (all)
  • At least 2 paid organizers should be present at each market.
  • Need to beef up the Jury process (Jury Committee)
  • Enhance "New Vendor Package" and update documentation in general (?)
  • The idea of demonstrations was well received. Cooking mostly, showing use of foods.
  • Eventually offering vendor samples at a common table.
  • Everybody liked the Van Noys selling off the truck.

Is there anything else that anyone wants to add? Oh, Lorie at the paper now has the little red logo so she can use that to get started.

~ Mark