The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About02-22-2013 (2) ., > � � �4�a��'( �".,,,�,.�,,� n�.�� --� T� ?__�`-- : R�,...•��. •F� Auburn International Farmers Market Advisory Board Meeting Minutes Friday, February 22, 2013 Auburn City Hall Annex Room #1 - 3:00 pm Mission Statement: The mission of the AIFM is to provide a forum for the purchase of a variety of healthy and locaily grown products to area residents, a convenient marketplace for local farmers and artisans, and a vibrant gathering place for the community to enjoy downtown Auburn. I. Call to Order The meeting was called to order by Trudy Ginther at 3:15 pm. Advisory Board Members present: Trudy Ginther, Margaret Greenslit, Ronnie Roberts and Linda Morris. Advisory board members absent: Christian McLendon (unexcused), Trenity Walker (excused) and Mark Wayne (excused). City Staff present: Market Manager Joanne Macnab. Two guests: Karen Kinney - Executive Director, WA State Farmers Market Association Scott Pondelick -Auburn citizen II. Minutes Linda Morris moved to approve January 2013 minutes, Margaret Greenslit seconds. III. Guest Speaker— Karen Kinney, Executive Director WFMA � Kudos to the group for how AIFM has thrived! Complimented Joanne Macnab on how the AIFM has applied the concepts and information that is shared at the retreat. E.g. Mission statement on all materials. Overview of WSFMA: The WSFMA is a Non-Profit with a membership of 112 farmers markets in 80 cities in Washington State. There are currently about 160 farmers markets in the state of WA. The WSFMA was founded in 1968 as an umbrella organization to obtain insurance coverage. The WSFMA sponsors an annual conference to share and disseminate important information and classes. 1 . They are expanding the services they provide and have a presence in Olympia to advocate for hunger, sustainable farming, and ecology. They provide advocacy for the WIC Program and Senior Nutrition Program. They work on legislative issues: Bill 5674 to expand the pilot program for Beer and wine sampling to be available in farmers markets. Currently the bill has moved to the Rules Committee, and they are "cautiously optimistic°. They are partnering with the Washington State Farmers Market Coalition which is a USDA grant program and in 2013 this gives farmers markets an automatic membership. Grant is working on expanding food access to more markets. IV. Market Manager Report — Joanne Macnab Mission Statement has been added to Board Agenda and will be on all market materials. The AIFM Advisory Board and volunteers should never lose site of the of the mission of the market. Joanne and Trudy attended the 2013 WA State Farmer's Market Association Annual Conference held at the Heathman Lodge in Vancouver, WA. At the WSFMA Awards Ceremony, the winners were: Advocate of the Year Ellen Gray — Executive Director of WA Sustainable Food and Farming Network Farmer of the Year Front Porch Farm - Spokane WA area Farmer's Market Manager of the Year Ballard Farmers Market— managed by the Seattle Farmers Market Association Farmer's Market of the Year The Wallingford Farmer's Market AIFM received the Second Edition copy of the WSFMA Manual and a new management Toolkit. It contains lots of valuable forms, information and resources. A variety of classes were offered including updates to Farmers Market Nutrition Program, market promotions, a review on the pilot wine sample program, and how to evaluate special events. Grants Awarded: We were awarded our KCD grant request for $20,000 for marketing and promotion for the 2013 season. We were also awarded the $2,000 grant request from the City of Auburn Arts Commission to feature our talented artists for our 2013 season. Met with Diane Saar on February 6, 2013 to continue the poster program at Auburn High School for the 2013 season, and she expects 20-30 entries. The graphics design class has a field trip scheduled to the Pike Place Market in April. Mariana Rubio (the current year artist) and her family have been invited to attend opening ceremonies, where she will be introduced by her teacher as this year's winner. � . � City of Auburn Facilities has finished cleaning out the Sound Transit storage room and there is now a locking door to keep our market supplies, equipment, and merchandise protected. A 2013 welcoming letter, Vendor Application and Rules and Regulations were mailed to 57 vendors and we currently have 7 vendors signed up for the 2013 season. All of our marketing materials— baseball caps, t- shirts, 2 pocket aprons, and 4"pulp board coasters have arrived and our first Volunteer meeting is scheduled for March 14, 2013. Joanne showed us samples of all the promotional items that will be for sale this year. All permits for the Department of Health have been applied for, and Sound Transit has been contacted to renew our agreement with requests to occupy the bus lane. Requests have also been made for right-of-way use permit which closes B Street between W Main and A Street and allows use of the kiss and ride lot. Met with Mr. Hal Meng, a Master Food Preserver. He will do 2-3 canning demos. In June he will feature traditional jam, both canning and freezer jam, using market supplied berries. On August 5, the beginning of National Farmers Market Week, he will feature canned and plckled beans. Mr. Meng will be paid using the KCD grant funds. The non-profit, Shadow Lake Nature Preserve attended the market twice in 2012 and has requested to attend again this season. They are partners with KCD. We will not charge them for their booth. In return, they have offered to give us a tour of the Preserve. The Preserve is 92 acres surrounding Shadow Lake that is under protection. This preserves rare and valuable habitat including a 5,000 year old peat bog. Anyone interested in attending, RSVP to Joanne Macnab. The WSFMA received 2 grants which allowed them to expand their staff to 1.5 full time employees. It provides funding for the conference and funding for the organization to provide selling end marketing display support. They also are working on a high priority promotional program to expand EBT cards. V. Council Representative Report— No Council report VI. Correspondence/Public Input- No Public Input VII. Old Business - No old business VIII. New Business WSFMA Annual Conference Trudy shared her experience from the WSFMA conference. She shared that her favorite speaker was Gary Stephenson. His topic was "What to Expect as a Farmers Market Grows". The main theme of his talk was that if there is consistent quality good management, the market will sustain itself. We now have an experienced successful Market Manager that we want to support in order for the AIFM to continue to grow. ; t , �. Compensation for Market Manager This brought up a group discussion of how to increase compensation for Joanne Macnab, our current Market Manager. The group learned that Joanne has been offered an opportunity to become employed by another city as Market Manager where there is increased compensation and benefits Auburn has had 3 successful years with Joanne leading the AIFM. Her current position with the City of Auburn, Market Manager for the Auburn International Farmer's Market. is a part time contractor, with no benefits. Her compensation may have been competitive in 2009, but there has not been any increase in the budget for her compensation since then. Ronnie made a motion to find a way to renegotiate the contract to get Joanne a competitive pay package and have benefits as part of the package; and/or increase compensation to cover benefits so she can purchase them on her own. Margaret seconded the motion. IX Input/ Board Recommendations Ronnie sent a letter to the board to address the fong term growth for the market. His letter stated that the board should consider changing the venue to the new city center in order to bring traffic to the downtown core. He also suggested a change in the day of the week to support the other downtown businesses. There is planned new construction, and in 3-5 years, that will bring high rise apartment living with lots of new shoppers. The key to market growth is visibility and A Street gets 26.000 cars a day. Margaret suggested theme months that correspond with the fruits and vegetables in I season. E.g. June could be strawberry month and have food demos to correspond with the months feature. Linda created a Volunteer flyer and has distributed it to a GRCC Business Professor who had sent it to 3 organizations on the GRCC Campus. She offered it to others. Scott Pondelick shared that he would also distribute the flyer since he works with some veteran organizations. X. Adjournment Ronnie moved to adjourn and Margaret seconded it. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:45 pm. Approved this / Day of > S , 201,� ; c / . - % , � / if��<-J� \ ..�'!(/I � e �-Trudy Ginther, Chai'��