Source attachment: 2011_10_14_MSBA Minutes.doc
Executive Board Meeting Minutes
October 14, 2011 7:00pm
Room 4112 of the Plant Sciences Building
Department of Entomology of the University of Maryland, College Park
Attendees:
Meme Thomas
Janet Bardzik
Linda Thompson
Jody King
Wayne Esais
Robert Crouse
Steve McDaniel
David Morris
Toni Burnham
Cheryl Evry
Paul Dill
Jerry Fischer
By Phone:
Jon Bealer
Call to Order – MSBA President, Paul Dill – 7:14pm
Minutes of Last Meeting unanimously accepted.
Reports by the Officers
Treasurer - Robert Crouse
MD Farm Bureau Annual Meeting, 2 Delegates, for week of Dec 4 to 6 at Ocean City. - -
Paul Dill and Marc Hoffman are MSBA’s selected delegates to attend if they can make it. If not, they will report to the board and an alternate delegate will be assigned.
Motion unanimously passed during May Board Meeting to send ABF $100 per year from now on.
Renew dues to EAS for how much ($50 or $100)?
Motion passed to send EAS $100 per year from now forward. This supports EAS at the “State Association” level of Membership ($50) with a $50 donation added.
Honey Show at MSBA Fall Meeting
Ribbons have been ordered and cash prizes will be awarded as in the past.
Secretary - Cheryl Evry
Archivist as separate position from Secretary?
Tabled for a future meeting.
Vice-President – Toni Burnham
Propose to make "an industry request" to MDA (a requirement for them to take action) to allow online registration of beehives, donations to the state apiary inspectors fund, and links to all local club websites. This would help MDA, all Maryland beekeepers and clubs, and MSBA as our
Baltimore Honey will present msba with a 1000.00 check to use for this request to get this up and going live online no later than 2012 springs registrations.
Meme Thomas spoke of the value of registering hives to protect these bees and others from AFB and Africanized Bees. She noted that there would be great value in the MDA maintaining online databases for beekeepers.
It was discussed that MSBA could suggest that MDA charge a small fee to register colonies to assist with funding for apiary inspections.
Jerry Fischer said that the MDA cannot charge such a fee unless approved by legislature. Also, the MDA is already developing online registration.
Motion made and passed for MSBA to write a letter to MDA in favor of online registration; and also ask for a link on the MDA site to the MSBA site so that beekeepers could be encouraged to join MSBA. (Note that once MDA has online registration, there will also be a link on the MSBA website to the MDA colony registration site.)
Motion made and passed for MSBA to start accepting online registrations using PayPal (which charges a 3% fee) as soon as the MSBA website is able to handle these transactions. Also the MSBA website shall be registered officially to MSBA.
The old MSBA website, HYPERLINK "http://www.MSBEEA.org" www.MSBEEA.org, shall be stripped of all content. The only remaining item shall be a link to the new MSBA website, HYPERLINK "https://www.mdbeekeepers.org" www.mdbeekeepers.org.
Since MDA cannot be “paid” to develop the online registration by a specific time, Meme will go back to Baltimore Honey and explain that the donation check could not be presented for that specific purpose.
Programs
November Meeting: Nov 12, 2011 - Maryland Department of Agriculture, 50 Harry S Truman Parkway, Annapolis, MD.
Beeline Editor - Toni Burnham
Volunteers are needed to help with newsletter!! You don't have to be an expert writer, just willing to write or edit! Contact Toni at toni@tonitoni.org !
Continuing Business
Honey Festival Report: Steve McDaniel
Festival very successful. Spreadsheet will be emailed separately.
Motion proposed and passed to give BUMBA half of the proceeds (.5 x $396.46) as a donation, in recognition of their large contribution to the success of the Festival.
Motion made and carried to give Steve McDaniel the $40 from the sale involving a lack of payment, if he can collect it.
Motion to get more MSBA flyers printed tabled.
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ETO chamber progress - Toni Burnham
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MSBA Website Committee Re-Launch! - Toni Burnham
Website being worked on using WordPress.
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Report from Janet Bardzik, our EAS director, on MSBA offering to jointly sponsor EAS if it is held in the DC area in 2013: At EAS Rhode Island, it was decided that EAS 2013 would be in Philadelphia, and that for 2014 we would try to move the meeting south since 4 of last 5 (2009-2013) will have been mid atlantic / northeast.
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Do we have nominees for ABF delegates? Maryland may select two delegates for ABF events.
No delegates have been selected or have volunteered to be selected for the ABF events.
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Officer Nominating Committee Report – Beth Passavant
Nomination Update:
County VPs 17 yes
Open positions:
Fairfax, Va.,
Queen Anne Co
Prince George's Co.
Jody King, Carroll County, yes if he can't find someone else to take it at local meeting Wed pm next week.
Mike DeWald, Harford Co, yes/TBD if Dennis Hertzod, probably next president of Susquehanna group, doesn't want it.
No response to date:
Hop Cassidy, Garrett Co
Dr. Neil Lewis, Montgomery Co
Elizabeth Baer, Talbot Co
Mark Gibson, Washington Co
Jerry Fischer will give Beth Hop Cassidy’s information.
Paul Dill will check on Talbot county.
11/09/2011 Update from Beth:
Montgomery
I have talked to Jim Fraiser, we will talk again on Thursday. Montgomery Co meeting Wed pm when he will run this by the Board/membership, maybe they want someone else. If OK with them he is in.
Prince George's County: Nothing (I'm thinking that either Toni or Linda had someone in mind)
Fairfax: nothing
Harford: I have left a message with Mike Dewald, and am fuzzy about whether I have talked to him before and whether he was checking with the organization or not.
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MSBA Participation in State Honey Bill – Toni Burnham
The issue of the Md. Honey law has risen again. Rep. Kathy Afzali, last year's sponsor, is asking the beekeepers to come up with an acceptable definition of honey for submission in the upcoming session in 2012. There should be some kind of MSBA involvement or review.
Jerry Fischer has provided the following list of names of persons that do process or at least sell a lot of honey during the year throughout the state:
Ora Hays - Lloyd Snyder - Edward Yoder - Jim Roberts - Lori Titus - Mildred Thomas
It would be good for MSBA to contact these people to get their input on the proposed language in the law.
David Morris went over the proposed MD Honey Standard Definition at length. This document has since been submitted to Representative Afzali and included in the current issue of the MSBA Beeline.
New Business
Nominations and choosing the winner of the George Imirie "Excellence in Beekeeping Education" Award. – Jody King
Nominations and choosing the winner of the Free State Citizenship Award.
(Criteria : In recognition of beekeepers who made outstanding contributions to Maryland beekeeping.) – Jody King
Winners were chosen, and the awards will be given at the November 12th Members meeting.
Ideas for the Future of MSBA: To Serve Beekeepers: Beth Passavant (see Appendix A)
Display Unit for possible use by MSBA: Cheryl Evry
9:48pm – Meeting Adjourned
Proposed Date for Next Meeting:
January 20, 2011
Appendix A
Ideas/focus for next year
I know that the agenda is really full, but I stepped out a bit with the my letter to the Board asking for ideas to help us create a focus for the coming year or how we can become more relevant to the local organizations.
Beth,Here are some projects that we might be able to take on as an organization to help highlight the power and benefit of having a State-wide organization, and perhaps differentiate our role from that of the local organizations:- developing and publishing a standard curriculum for Short courses – this could include lesson plans, teaching aids, presentations, maybe even multi-media- developing a framework for ongoing education (post Short course) – this could be considered preparation, or a feeder system for a Master Beekeeper program; it could provide the foundation for standard curriculum, materials etc in the same vein as the item above; it could help local clubs stimulate their members, spark interest and a desire to delve into other beekeeping-related topics – for example this could include queen-rearing, nuc-production, production of pollen, bee venom, propolis etc.These are both absolutely in keeping with our 501c3 education mandate – on a different tack, another project to promote beekeeping in MD could be more political – lobbying in Annapolis to persuade townships and communities in our State not to adopt anti-beekeeping laws and regulations. Jon Bealer
One thing that would be nice to see is an outreach effort from MSBA to the local associations. The local clubs that are hours away don't really see the value of being part of the State association. One suggestion I think would show that MSBA would be of value is to cover the cost of judging at local fairs or Ag Expose. MSBA could provide a list of qualified judges and help to cover the cost for travel. We could get consistent judging throughout the state and a rotation of different people. AT the very least, a list of qualified judges would be nice to provide for the local associations.
Here are some of my barely formed ideas.
1. Forum for Beekeeping Educators, Invite all of those who teach beekeeeping for beginners and advanced to get together for a day to review their curriculum and brainstorm on creating a blueprint for everyone.
2. Forum/refresher course for Honey Judges to develop consistency in judging standards
Maryland State Beekeepers Assoc, Inc.
Dedicated to beekeeping in Maryland since 1908
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