MINUTES September 8, 2003

Present – Jeanne Koons, Jennifer Betancourt, Eric Rector, Debbie Hahn, Cathe Morrill, Scott Gardner, Caitlin Hunter, Claire Mikolayanus, Carolyn Godfry, Perry Ells Farm

Food Festival Update –
Promotion – Festival leaflets were passed out by Judy Gardner of MOFGA. Many present took copies for handing out to the public and placing at key locations. Judy or Eric will mail more leaflets to restaurants, food businesses and food writers. Perry Ells offered to email press contacts to Judy Gardner of MOFGA. Eric Rector reported expenses to date in planning the event. 1,000 promotional inserts were placed in the Maine Restaurant Association’s publication that has been mailed out. There was also an article in the MOFGA Common Ground Fair book.

Vendors- also discussed was what to charge vendors at the event. Eric recommended $20.00. This will be payable to MOFGA and the total will be split 50/50 between the Guild and MOFGA.

Schedule of events/demonstrations/displays - Schedule ideas were:
Cathe Morrill of State of Maine Cheese will demonstrate how to make Casa Blanca. Kris Horten of Horten’s in the Public Market will give a talk on Cheese Pairings. Debbie Hahn will demonstrate semi-hard, cooked, pressed cheese making similar to a Tomme. There will be a panel discussion on the Technical Aspects of becoming a cheesemaker. Panelists to include are Gary Andersen of Coop EXT, Glen Meheuren and Audrey Slattery of the Maine Dairy Office, Russell Libby of MOFGA, Anne Bossi of Sunset Acres and Scott Gardner of 1797 Farm. Eric Healy could demonstrate how to make mozzarella cheese. Outside there will be demonstrations of cow, goat and sheep milking and animal care. Perry and Charlie Hopkins will do the sheep and goat respectively. Claire said she would contact Spencer Aitel about the cow milking demonstration.

Judy will contact Kris Horton, Lily Lupine and Fern, and Market Basket to recruit presenters for Cheese pairings.

Eric volunteered to work on getting some people to add a formal presentation on Animal Husbandry for the dairy farmer. Perhaps Diane Schivera or Polly Shyka.

Judy said she would put the schedule together and create a handout for the day of the Festival and for inserting into publications.

Caitlin mentioned that Jane Morasco has been working on the historical display on cheesemaking in Maine.
Perry said she would try to find someone to do a butter making demonstration.

Festival T-shirts – Claire presented her research on getting t-shirts printed for the festival. Liberty Graphics was the chosen printer. Colors chosen were off-white and sea foam blue. The Guild logo will be printed in navy ink on both colors of shirts. The cost for a 100-shirt order is: $4 (off-white) and $5.50 (sea foam) each for non-organic cotton. And $6 and $8 for organic cotton. This price includes materials and labor. Non-organic cotton was chosen. All present agreed on a $10 price tag for selling the shirts. They will be sold at the Guild table at the Festival.

Guild Information table - Jeanne Koons and Claire Mikolayanus will staff the Guild table. They will take memberships and money for t-shirts as well as passing out literature. Caitlin volunteered to get the Guild information together, i.e. membership form/leaflet on the Guild. It was mentioned by Perry that the Guild would need a cash box and petty cash for the festival. To sell t-shirts and memberships. Scott Gardner, as treasurer was volunteered for the task.
Cathe Morrill said she would get extra issues of Downeast Magazine feature article on Maine cheeses that ran earlier this year. These would be at the Guild table.

Organizational meeting – It was mentioned that there will be a festival meeting at MOFGA on October 8th at 1pm to plan out the event. If anyone from the Guild wants to go they would be welcome. Judy Gardner stated that she would create a floor plan for the day including assigning vendor tables, etc.

Festival Set-up – Saturday from 10am – 4pm the MOFGA Education Center building will be open. Sunday, the day of the event, the building will be open at 8am.

Guild Membership
Caitlin mentioned that there are many membership lists circulating and this should be corrected. It was agreed that Perry would be the one source for all Guild members, active/paid and inactive/not paid. If anyone has a member to add or updates on email addresses or physical addresses, etc. please contact Perry (Ellsfarm@aol.com or 785-2118). All Guild postal service mail gets sent “care of” State of Maine Cheese. Perry is the database.

Cheese Workshop
A cheesemaking workshop will be held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, November 4, 5 and 6, 2003. The workshop will be taught by Peter Dixon of Vermont. It will be limited to 20 participants and will be held at the State of Maine Cheese Co.

Caitlin mentioned that Cathe Bliss of Scotland was a possibility for a late winter workshop. Caitlin will try to find her whereabouts this Fall.

A motion was made by Caitlin that the State of Maine Cheese Co. staff does not have to pay the November workshop fee. Debbie Hahn seconded the motion.

Guild Brochure & Website
Caitlin has been working on a brochure that lists general information on the Guild and a list of cheesemakers. She will work on the brochure with Gabe McPhail and Jennifer Pierce for artwork and website respectively. Only paid members get a listing in the brochure and on the website. Jennifer Pierce will be sending forms to individual farms/cheesemakers to collect information for the Guild website.

Board Members
Scott Gardner opened a discussion on board vacancies and elections. There is a Board vacancy perhaps due to Patricia Spinney’s illness. Perry said she would contact Patricia to learn of her interest. Claire has stated her interest on filling the vacancy. It was decided that Anne Bossi, as Guild Secretary, would carry out a special mailing for board ratifications.





Noteworthy…

The Guild welcomes new member Carolyn Godfry. Thanks for the dues Carolyn! She lives in Oakland, Maine and is an aspiring cheesemaker.

Thanks Jennifer Bettancourt for producing the Guild’s first ever newsletter “Cheese Pairings.” If you are a member and did not receive a copy, pick one up at the Guild’s table at the Food Festival.

CORRECTION to the Guild Survey results that were printed in the newsletter: Question 7. Number of pounds of milk processed by Maine cheesemakers in 2002 (data was from 11 licensed cheesemakers, 2 did not report) – correct answer is 2,235,630 lbs of milk or roughly 279,454 gallons. The number 1,585,630 lbs. and 198,204 were incorrect.

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