Special meeting and updates

Hi Farmers and friends,

At our regular January 3rd meeting we had a great energetic meeting with many new people as well as regulars.
Those who were in attendance:  Brent Mullis, Billi Barker, Daniel & Moira McGarry, Judith Stephens, Fred Sherburne, Jason Abbott-Dallamora, Mia Abbott, Jesse Abbott-Dallamora, Roger Brown, Dave Pearson, Grace Lommel, Judy Wilbur Craig, Sue Watson

In old business Roger caught us up on the Construction of the Fossa Store.  The outside is looking fabulous!!!!

The contractors will be done within a few weeks and then OUR WORK can begin on the inside, but we need $$$.  We talked a lot about fund raising,  writing more grants and how we can raise money for the inside.  We will be able to volunteer and hire our own people once the contractors are done and the CDBG grant phase is over.

Fundraiser Ideas tossed around were:
--  a dinner/dance at the new school; maybe in March.  Billi Barker had LOTS of ideas on how to do that and Fred is checking with the new school to make sure we could hold it there.
-- Fred Sherburne is donating a whole beef to conduct a Beef Raffle ... Thanks Fred!  I contacted another organization that holds these type of raffles and they have made a few thousand dollars.  So we will be raffle (2) sides of (1) beef.
--  Daniel McGarry of Abbot offered to build and donate a Chicken Coop to raffle .... holy chickens, that is nice of him and his wife Moira!

We also talked about starting a buying club (of some sort) and why not start it sooner than later.  We don't really need to be open in the to start selling your products.  I have talked with Marada Cook and hope to have someone from Crown of Maine come and talk to us about what we need to do to make that happen.

Financial:  Dave explained where we stand with the CDBG Grant financially, because we coming to a close of that grant.

New Business:
Sue Watson from Heart of Maine (HOM) talked about grants, applications & about pertinent upcoming farm workshops and also  Heart of Maine’s plan to help the Dexter Farm Project.
She talked about HOM's 2011 Summary of Goals, Objectives & Project Strategies and how that includes Dexter Community Farm Project.  

Some of the things discussed where the need for workshops such as business planning, insurances.  We talked about the need of a workshop such as NexLevel to help build business plans for individual farms but also for how it will help with their relationship with the Fossa marketplace.  One of the barriers for many of the start up farmers is the cost of the course.  We are working on finding funding and scholarships for those who may need them to attend this type of workshop.

I will keep you updated, BUT what type of workshops would you benefit from?  I hope to put together an Insurance workshop soon for what kind of liability insurance you need to sell to the store and other places.
We scheduled a special meeting for Tuesday, January 18th at 7 PM at the Council Chambers.  BUT, we are supposed to get bad weather tomorrow night. IF we do, we will have the meeting at our regular meeting on February 1st, same time, same place....
We were holding it to come up with new ideas on fund raising and continue on the dinner and the Raffles.

Recently we have had 2 news stories written about us.  One from Grace Lommel of SVWeekly and the other from Diana Bowley of Bangor Daily News.  Both are posted here on our blog below.  I have also taken pictures of the building as recent as Friday.  You can find see those on the blog as well.

I know I have forgotten other stuff talked about but.......

As always, call me if you have any questions, ideas and thoughts.
Judy