MINUTES MAINE CHEESE GUILD ANNUAL MEETING
November 8, 2004 @ State of Maine Cheese Co.

Present: Caitlin Hunter, Scott Gardner, Jessica Very (Smiling Hill Farm), Eric Rector, Mark Whitney, Deb Hahn, Heidi Klingelhofer, Cathe Morrill, Jane Marasco , Jean Koons, Beth Whitman, Gary Anderson, Anne Bossi

Next Meeting: Christmas Party @ Pineland, December 13th starting at 11:00. Lunch will be pot luck at noon followed by a tour of Pineland. Bring specialty cheeses and meats and bread to share. In case of bad weather, we will cancel.

Nominations for Board Members: Unfortunately because written notices were not sent out in time, we couldn't vote for Board members at this meeting. However, we made nominations to fill positions for the 3 Board members whose terms have expired: Pat Spinney, Marj Lupien and Scott Gardner.

The nominations are as follows: Scott Gardner, Eric Rector, Marj Lupien and Heidi Klingelhofer. Voting on these folks as well as write-ins will take place at our Jan meeting at the Augusta Trade Show.

Discussion about Cheese Festival 2004: Positive things: Good weather Good graphics: modern, clean, good colors It was good PR for Maine cheesemakers and the Guild Sold "lots of raffle tickets" (80-90), but this was also seen as a negative because we should have sold more. The goats and calf were very popular No cost to us Large crowds

Negatives: Large crowds (too large for the space); long lines so no time for people to stop and talk or shop. Many didn't know that we were upstairs (poor signage). PPM vendors doing cheese pairings, etc didn't use any Maine cheeses or send people upstairs We didn't sell much cheese; sold more in Unity than here Despite Caitlin's specific request to split them up, goat cheese makers were placed next to each other We started working with PPM on this very early (Feb), but they didn't follow through early Workshops were not well attended, probably due to the difficulty of getting to the site due to crowds. Also times of the workshops weren't published. Loudspeakers ineffective Vermont cheese sampling going on caused much confusion!

Cheese Festival 2005: Festival Committee: Caitlin, Heidi, Cathe, Eric Locations: We had previously decided on the mid-coast region for 2005. Caitlin has contacted Samoset Resort in Rockport and they have an opening for Oct 15. She is waiting to hear about facilities and cost. Other possible locations are Union Fairgrounds (Perry is checking on this), Pineland ($750/day for 1 banquet room), the Farmhouse Conference Center in Rockport (Cathe will check on this) and MOFGA in Unity ($400/day), though one problem with that is that we lose a lot of Portland people.

Ideas: It could be a 2 day event, with day 2 being tours of local vineyards and dairies. Charge an entrance fee which would include free workshops and a raffle ticket for a cheese basket. Do advance sales of combination raffle/entrance tickets. We could do that individually at Farmers Markets, etc. Eric pointed out that when you give tickets to stores to sell it's often hard to collect the money, but if each of us took responsibility for 1 or 2 stores, it might work out. We should work in partnership with Maine winemakers. Offer a preview for chefs, restaurants, buyers.

2005 Meeting Dates (all are 10:00-2:00 unless otherwise noted) January 11 - at Agricultural Trade Show. Business meeting, including voting for Board members will be from 10:00-11:00 (to accommodate other meetings). There will be a presentation in the afternoon, time and subject to be announced. Feb 21- Dept of Agriculture, Augusta (see the testing lab & meet the inspectors; also election of officers) April 4 - Appleton Creamery (kids promised) May 16 - Food Lab at UMO, Orono June 27 - Monroe Cheese Studio (Eric Rector) in Monroe Aug 8 - Perry Ells farm in Union? Sept 26 - Smiling Hill? Oct 15-16 Cheese Festival Nov 7 - Annual Meeting at State of Maine Co., Rockport Dec 12 - Christmas Party, location TBA

Shelley Doak, Director of the Division of Animal Health and Industry for the Maine Dept of Ag joined us to explain her proposal to revise the Farm Cheese Law.

She opened by explaining a bit about the legislative process. In brief, "Legislators write the laws. The Dept of Ag works with them to develop rules and regulations. The process is open to the public and the Dept of Ag invites discussion about this rule-making."

The "Farm Cheese" Law as it now stands talks about the processing, ie, the milk used must come from that farm and be processed in a double boiler, etc. Shelley wants to repeal this law and its accompanying rules and incorporate these into the larger cheesemaking law. She would repeal the definition of "Farm Cheese" so that all products are considered "cheese". The Dept of Ag doesn't want to dictate how cheese is made or where the milk comes from. It will all, of course, be under state inspection. We are very fortunate that The Maine Dept of Ag strongly supports and wants to continue to allow non-pasteurized products as long as they are labeled "heat treated, not pasteurized". She will be proposing these edits to the legislators. She will also write up something for the next newsletter, and let us know about hearings.

In response to a request, Shelley will explore the possibilities for state testing of butterfat and protein for goat and sheep milk and will let us know at our Feb meeting at the Dept of Ag.

Holiday Sampler: The Guild will buy cheese from participating Maine cheesemakers, and assemble the samplers. These will be sold for resale in 2 and 3 lb packages to participating vendors for approx $30, with a suggested retail price of $55-60. Each pkg will include one 4-8 oz cheese & a brochure from each cheesemaker as near as possible. There will be 2 packaging dates at State of Maine Cheese: Nov 15 and Dec 6. Caitlin will handle the press releases. Caitlin and Cathe will explore the possibility of ordering wooden boxes printed with the MCG logo for 2005 Samplers.

Harvest Grant Caitlin reported that the $5000 we received is the max that they award; quite an honor! So far ir has covered the costs for the poster and will pay for the Ag Trade Show display as well as a more colorful Guild flyer.

Caitlin mentioned applying to the Stephen King Foundation which supports community based, grass-roots organizations and could help with our library, website, office supplies, etc. She will also look into grants for training.

Tax Exempt Status, Scott: We have received our IRS tax exempt status, retroactive to 5/03, which saves us about $1000 in taxes for this year. Thanks Scott! We have to pay sales tax for stuff we buy for MCG but don't have to collect it when we sell t shirts, posters, etc.

Margaret Morris Cheesemaking Workshop March 18 & 19, 2005 St. Paulin cheese (possibly others) and discussion of cultures and affinage. Cost

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