Board Meeting Minutes April, 2023

Pierce County Beekeeping Association Board Meeting Minutes

Thursday, April 27th, 2023

Meeting Time: 6:58 pm to 8:33 pm

 

Those in attendance include: Mary Dempsey, Sherri Thomas, Katie Marler, SR Balukoff, and Natasha Balukoff

 

~ Meeting opened at 6:58 pm by Mary Dempsey, seconded by Kathleen & Katie

 

Last Meeting Minutes:

~ Minutes from the last meeting still need to be posted.

 

Old Business:

~ Michael, who is an accountant, is interested in taking over for Sherri as treasurer. Mary is going to pass on his contact information to Sherri and she will plan a meeting with Michael. Hopefully he can come to the next meeting.

 

Treasurer Report:

~ Sherri had the 2020 and 2022 years ready for audit. She handed the folders off to Natasha who, with Kathleen, will be performing the audit. 2021 had been handed off already for audit and she never received them back.

 

~ Sherri will be getting petty cash for Monday’s Fundraiser and auction.

 

~ Mary gave us a spreadsheet with the financial information from the Spring Fair. We did very well with honey sales despite the poor weather. After subtracting expenses, the club made $2,797. (The spreadsheet is included with the meeting minutes.)

 

~ Kathleen suggested we donate honey to the WSU liaison.

 

 

Apiary Update:

~ Kathleen picked up 2 new nucs from Robbin’s. She installed them with help from other club members, using it as a learning experience for new beekeepers.

 

~ Sherri asked about treatment for the nucs and the new packages. There was discussion about treatment options. Kathleen would like some different options to be able to use this as a teaching moment. Katie has some Apiguard, Kathleen has Oxalic Acid for vaporization, and Kathleen said she can get Oxalic acid dribble from Alisa. In the end it was decided, due timing for treatment, that Kathleen and Katie would treat the nucs on Sunday, the 30th, with VOA.

 

~ Kathleen is working on a binder for the apiary that will contain sign in sheets, along with liability waivers, that will contain the name of the keeper, the date, and what hives they cared for, and which tasks were performed. It will also include hive inspection sheets.

 

~ Kathleen will be picking up four packages and two queens from Alisa Shorey on Sunday at 9am. She will install them with club members who want to learn how to do that. She will be using all 3 methods for installing packages.The plan is to split two of the packages and install the spare queens in those hives. If this is not possible, the two extra queens will be auctioned off at the fundraiser.

 

~ Apiary days will be the third Saturday of the month, Kathleen said she still needs to solidify a time with Tania. The hives #1 & #2 in the apiary will be used for OSU Journeyman students. They will be the first to start on apiary days with Tania teaching. After their learning time, the new beekeepers will show and the OSU students will teach them what they learned on other hives. The last four hives in the apiary are for honey production.

 

~ Katie said she is willing to have a weekday apiary day. After some discussion about the survey results, Katie picked Fridays at 1:30. She picked the first Friday so that someone is in the apiary bi-weekly.

 

~ Scott has volunteered to be the Apiary Shed Manager. Kathleen gave Scott the OK to build some stairs and purchase another rack for the shed.

 

Pollinator Land Plants:

~ There hasn't been too much movement on this yet. SR met someone who suggested we talk to the Pierce County Conservation District about the Pollinator Garden. SR grabbed a pamphlet. The Conservation people offer to help plan, plant, and apply for local grants to help pay for the garden. Kathleen said she would call tomorrow to see if they would be interested in helping us. Their contact information is: (253) 845-9770 & piercecd.org .

 

Plant Sale & Sustainability Booth update:

~ Katie said things are ready and she will have two helpers on Saturday. Since she will have the help, she may take people who come to the sale and show them where our apiary is and let them look from the outside of the fence. Katie has some plants she purchased from a friend and hopes they will see at the Master Gardener Plant sale this weekend along with the one hundred thirty-eight jars of honey left from the fair. Though Mary said she could get more jars of honey for her.

 

Neighborhood Team Leaders:

~ Katie came up with a map and subdivided it into areas. Everyone agreed with her copying it and putting it out so members could see which area they were in. Katie has a roster with the beginner beekeepers on it and they are divided into the corresponding areas on the map. Kathleen told her where she could find the list of members in Google Drive and Katie said the map was there as well. Katie will work on finding leaders for each area.

 

Banners and boxes for fairs:

~ Mary would like to put together a tub for supplies for the fairs so all someone has to do is grab the tub. Sherri suggested having two. One for core supplies and another for extra, if they are needed. Everyone agreed that this was a good idea. Natasha mentioned she had been thinking about a similar tub idea but for teaching. Mary said she would work on the fair tubs and asked Natasha to make one for teaching, she agreed.

 

~ Speaking of teaching, Sherri said she could get the board the verbiage that our insurance uses to come up with liability waivers.

 

~ Mary said she wanted to order a couple of new banners for the club that were the kind on rollers. They are retractable and sit on a stand so you don't have to hang them from something. She is waiting until they go on sale again for around $80. The board agreed that the club could use these. Kathleen has been working on a new logo, “The Local Bee Life Line”, and will update and audit the design of the banners. Kathleen also brought business cards, to which everyone agreed.

 

Silent Auction / Speaker:

~ Mary said everything is in place and pretty much ready for the auction. She has volunteers that will help her Monday morning with set up. She plans on moving tables to the edges of the room and setting up chairs in the middle like an auditorium for the time when the Doctor is speaking. There was discussion about thanking the Doctor by providing him with dinner. After discussion it was decided that they would take him to the Powerhouse restaurant if he is available.

 

 

End of August speaker:

~ Danny Nigera will be speaking at the second meeting in August on the 28th. He will be speaking about the ten years of research he did at Green River College on overwintering and disease, and the small hive beetle in Western Washington.

 

Next Board Meeting:

~ The next board meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 24th at 6pm at Sherri’s house. Thank you Sherri, as always, for graciously hosting us!

 

Meeting Adjourned: 8:33 pm

~ Kathleen made a motion for the meeting to be adjourned- Katie and SR seconded.