6:30 President, Doug Galloway gave the invocation and started the meeting
Officers’ reports were curtailed this evening as we had a very full agenda. The officers are meeting after the full group meeting and will make reports at the February meeting. Note that the new board has taken office as of January 1. Officers for 2019 are:
President – Doug Galloway
Vice President / Education – Tracey Carriker
Program Chair – Mickey Hollar
Treasurer – Julia Brown
Secretary – Sara Kennedy
Old Business:
We will be holding our “Beginning Beekeeper Workshop”, Feb. 16, 21 & 23. The written test will be March 21 before the regular meeting. The practical will be June 22, weather permitting, with June 29 as the rain date. Volunteers are needed on Feb 16 and 23 to help our new beekeepers both during these two educations sessions, and also as mentors.
We will be practicing “Cluster Mentoring” with those beginning beekeepers interested in participating. Cluster Mentoring involves a group of 4-6 new beekeepers for each mentor, with regular visits of the whole group to each person’s beeyard. We need volunteer mentors — you can learn more by attending the Saturday sessions.
Saturday sessions will be at the Lenoir Library, room 6, while Feb. 21 will be at the Blue Ridge Energy Community Room.
New Business:
Edwin Miller gave a small bag of poppy seeds to each attendee, and held a contest to guess the number of seeds in the bag. Congratulations to Kelly Blankenship for correctly guessing 5,000. Kelly received a feeder board.
Doug Vinson, NCSBA 1st Vice President, spoke about our involvement with the Summer Conference in Hickory, August 8-10. We are co-hosting this conference along with Catawba Valley, and we need volunteers to help run it.
Doug is looking for 25-30 volunteers, plus a volunteer coordinator. Volunteers are needed for tasks including registration, vendor set-up and tear-down, managing door prizes, assisting with workshops (including the Born & Bred workshop), and helping with the dinner. Volunteers can be compensated with free registration in exchange for a reasonable number of hours.
Additionally, the conference is in need of bees for the apiary, and may be able to pay for this.
There may or may not be a silent auction; if there is, we as a club have committed to putting together a basket to auction.
Doug can be reached at (828) 244-4321 or [email protected].
6:50 Doug Galloway introduced our Guest Speaker, Karen Speer, who talked about “Turning Your Hobby Into a Small Business”.
PDFs of her slides and resources from her talk are available on her website, https://www.sweetbetsyfarm.com/small-business. Main points from her talk included the importance of setting goals and planning, focusing on what you want your business to be, and seeking out professional assistance on business aspects such as taxes, insurance, and financial management.
Ongoing:
GAP initiative.
VOLUNTEERS EDUCATION: Tracey Carriker, Linda Moretz (when available), Doug Galloway, Mack Whiteside, Amy Burchette, Aziz Bootwala, Edwin Miller, Scott Barlow, Patrick Muldoon, Bud Faw, Danny & Mary Jaynes, Sara Kennedy, Jeffrey Smith wants to accompany someone first time. ANYONE THAT WOULD LIKE TO BE ADDED PLEASE LET SARA KENNEDY KNOW.
Mickey Hollar is in charge of refreshments and needs folks to volunteer during the year to pick a month to bring some goodies for our meetings.
7:50 pm Meeting adjourned. Our next meeting is Thursday, February 21, 2019 at 6:30 pm, here in the Community Room of Blue Ridge Electric. Our speaker will be Danny Jaynes and our Beginning Beekeepers are invited to attend.
Attendance January: 38
Minutes by Sara Kennedy, Secretary
Upcoming Events:
2019 Chapter Meetings/Tentative Schedule of Speakers
Feb 21: Danny Jaynes / Beginning Beekeeping Workshop (Blue Ridge Electric Community Room)
Mar 21: George McAllister (Lenoir Library, room #6)
Apr 18: Dr. James Nieland / Chiropractor Beekeeper Back Health (Blue Ridge Electric Community Room)
May 16: Bryan Fisher / Splits
June 20: Dr. Bill Herring / Anaphylactic Shock
July 25: TBD (Reminder: Due to the Eastern Apiculture Society Meeting from July 15 -19, 2019, the July 2019 meeting will be moved back a week to Thursday, July 25, 2019.)
Aug 15: Annual Picnic
Sept 19: Emily Trescot / Wax Comb and Candles
Oct 17: Robert Smith / How to Build Affordable Woodenware/Sizes
Nov 21: Debbie Mitchell
Dec 19: Annual Christmas Dinner
Caldwell County Beekeepers Class 2019
Feb 16, 9:15 – 5 (Lenoir Library, room #6)
Feb 21, 6:30 pm – 8:30 (Blue Ridge Electric Community Room)
Feb 23, 9:30 – 3:30 (Lenoir Library, room #6)
Written Test March 21, 5 pm (Lenoir Library, room #2)
Practical Test April 13
Future Conference Meeting
Spring 2019 Joint NCSBA and SCBA Meeting, March 1 & 2 in Monroe NC.
Summer 2019 NCSBA Meeting, August 8-10 in Hickory.