Member Information

COBA Board Information

March 12, 2012 Meeting Minutes

Old Business

1. OSBA will be reinstating and sponsoring the honey contest and show at the Ohio State Fair (the last 8 days of the fair). Jim Thompson will be the Chair. 150 feet of space will be allocated next to DeSalle. A contract will be signed to sell vendor space, which will defray the cost of the honey show.. Vendor space will cost $50 per space per day. COBA is being notified so that we can participate if we want to. There will be bleachers with two scheduled “show” events per day.
   This will not compete with the Farm Bureau Educational Exhibit at the Ohio State Fair, which will also continue.
   Potential themes for the exhibit were discussed, such as beekeeping over the years or famous Ohio beekeepers.
2. April 18 Meeting. Joe Kowaleski, EAS Master Beekeeper will present on building up spring packages and overwintering nucs. He is a nationally known speaker. Scholarship students will also make their presentations. If time allows, there will be a presentation on the Ohio Queen Initiative.
3. Discussion of re-structuring the meetings to permit a question and answer session prior to the official start of the meeting. Perhaps survey the new bee school members to determine their interest. On a trial basis, Dwight will be present to answer questions from new beekeepers from 5:00 on at the April meeting. Roundtable will be presented on early swarms.
4. Bee Yard.
   Fun in the Bee Yard will begin on Wednesday April 4 with putting together equipment and getting started. Rod Pritchard and Kim Flippen are co-chairing. We need to identify equipment and mark it (some OSBA equipment, clearly marked, is also at the bee yard). Rod and a committee will do this. Bee yard will purchase 4 packages, and some equipment which can be put together as practice for the new beekeepers. We will need to purchase an additional 100 deep and medium frames. A syllabus will be developed. There will be 6 hives, four new ones and 2 established hives. Estimated time of arrival for new bee packages is April 6.
   
   The other bees will be moved out of the bee yard by April 1, provided that there will be enough pollinators for OSU Watterman Farm. (5-6 hives were promised by COBA).
   
   COBA currently has 7 10-frame hives and 3 8-frame hives in the bee yard (not counting nucs). These all overwintered. There will be sufficient support for the OSBA queen project from existing hives, which will need 3 hives. These will be delivered to Dana Stahlman.
   
   There will also be 3 hives delivered to Franklin Park Conservatory for master's in bee yard group.
   
   The bee hive belonging to Sherry's son Jason will be moved (Barb B will take care of this).
   
   The remaining hives and bee yard nucs will go to Rod for generating nucs and making splits. These will be sold, with profit going to the club. The goal is developing a stable population of nucs. Goal is $4000 of profit as a revenue source to compensate for bee yard expenses.
   
   Feed for package bees will be included in the bee yard budget.
5. Queen availability: The queens from last year will be evaluated. There needs to be a more systematic way to get feedback when queens are sold. Perhaps we need to give a questionnaire when a queen is sold. The questionnaire should have objective questions. Board members will develop a questionnaire.
6. This year, Masters in the bee yard will meet at Franklin Park Conservatory, or at Rod Pritchard's place when working on nucs. Masters in the bee yard will meet on Saturday afternoon (alternating Franklin Park Conservatory with Rod's place). Exact time and agenda to be determined.
7. March 13, Barb and Dwight will take samples of bees to determine presence of Nosema.
8. Pancake breakfast May 12, location and time are the same. 8:30 to 11:00. Plant swap will be handled at the same time.
9. Finance and budget issues.
   • Wooster bus trip. Bills/receipts not yet in.
   • Sue will go to Barry and do audit in the next week or two, and plug numbers into Quick Books. Budgets have all been submitted.
   • School income not all yet received.
   • Recorded $4625 for Bee School receipts. Currently $9,531 in bank account.
   • Nothing received from feds regarding reinstatement of non profit status.
10. Scott purchased a P.A.system, then needed to return it because it couldn't be mounted. He is still working on this, doing research, with Samson being one of the primary vendors. Scott distributed a flier about a Samson model, but this will cost more than $300 (estimated $400). Board approved the purchase of the recommended model for amplification, wireless mic, and stand for a cost up to $500.
11. Chadwick Arboretum Plant Sale booth. 10 Feet of space needed. Will do for free since this is informational. We are not a vendor. Gail will contact the chairperson about this. Dan will recruit volunteers for this if it is a go.
12. Excellent feedback on the Oakland Park Nursery Fair. The club thanks Denny Lamb for his effort to man a booth for the fair. We would like to do this every year. The Oakland staff treated us well. They provided a contribution of $100 for our club.
13. Committee reports.
    Education committee: COBA will provide a booth on the Scioto mile every Wednesday in June July and August, during the family fun fair.
    Dan needs more volunteers.
14. Agenda for next membership meeting needs to include recruitment of new members to man these booths. Need to get fresh members to do these things. Spot people in Fun in the Bee Yard and recruit people.
    Reminder: Public service is a requirement for Masters in the Bee Yard.
15. Brian Farmer. Wrote a letter to all county commissioners to NOT support the local bee inspection program. It is suggested that COBA write a letter to all 88 of the county commissioners in support of the local bee inspection program.
    Terry's new email: cobapresident@hotmail.com
16. Membership retention issues:
    Suggestions:

    1. question and answer prior to meeting
    2. get folks involved on committees

    What is the optimal size to grow the club?
    What is the retention of bee school members:? Why do they stop coming?
    Suggestion: survey members; speakers; structure of meeting; advertising
    There are 500 current members, counting the current bee class.
17. Motion to send COBA members a mailout (to all prior members) to request attendance and dues. Include some questions in the trifold. Board approved a motion to do the mailing.
18. Good new resource: Steve Shepherd, Sue Colby, The new Era of Beekeeping
19. Web site: Need updating of the Web Site to current information. Information needs to be submitted to the Web Master for posting. Please also inform Web master when things are outdated.
20. Denny has agreed to co-chair the Scholarship Committee and become the adult advisor of the youth group. COBA Brood is the name. Denny will agree to a background check and COBA will pay for the fee. Denny has requested information from other clubs about youth programs. Wednesdays at same time as fun in the bee yard. COBA will allocate a hive for the COBA Brood youth group.