• Attendees: Nathan, Paul, David, Gail, Brian, Camy
  • Welcome new board members
  • Financial Report – David
    • As of Saturday 1/20/23, we have $3,108.49 in the checking account and $4,579.56 in savings
    • Nathan has the debit card and it’s in Frank’s name – First Citizen’s Bank, will need a letter from the Secretary to put David and Nathan on it, get Nathan on the signature card, too
  • Membership report – Nathan on behalf of Catie
    • Renewals, brand new members, etc.
      • Anyone who paid before November in 2022 will need to pay again for 2023
      • 14 have renewed so far this month, currently 37 paid up members, had 112 at end of the year last year
      • Currently a lot of members who have not renewed yet for 2023 – David will include in the next Beeline
      • Logon to website (use forgot password if needed) and pay there by CC or select by check and bring to meeting
      • Need a third option in membership question (be a mentor or need a mentor – need a neither option) – same for swarm list and hives. Nathan will update the form.
    • Membership software – Nathan
      • Initial cost was $133.50 (purchased on sale)
      • If we want continued support on going is $198.50 (unless a special arises) – not required in order to get future support, security patches are included with current software – we will not purchase continued support for now
      • Motion raised by David to reimburse Nathan, Gail seconds, all vote yes
  • Planning for 2023
    • Meetings – Speakers? Topics?
      • Alan Woods on Monday
      • Nick Naeger – WSU – Fungi and Bees (Nathan reached out) – he could do it as a Zoom on Mondays, could meet in person if we swapped our meeting day
      • Many clubs in 2023 have gone to a hybrid method – in person and Zoom
        • Anyone can attend on Zoom
        • Encourage new people to come in person, but not required
        • We want to invest in a non-profit Zoom account for the club
        • Like the idea of being able to record the meeting, for archives and for members who miss it (available via login)
        • Gail motion for buying a Zoom account for the club, David seconded, all vote yes
          • Nathan will purchase a Zoom account
        • David reached out to David Muehleisen – teaches pollination at Evergreen
        • Kevin Mills might be a good speaker
    • Library – Accessibility? Budget for new books?
      • Lynn continuing as librarian, hard to access the books because she lives in Elma – Nathan doesn’t mind hosting the books in a locked bookcase at Swantown Inn available to members to sign out
      • PDF on website of all the books in the library, all topics, even kid-friendly ones
      • Brian idea to categorize the books in the list by kid-friendly, beginner, expert, etc.
      • Nathan idea to set a budget amount that goes to buying more books each year
      • Paul idea to check out a book online and come pick it up (currently email to Lynn and she’ll bring it to the meeting)
      • Gather some data before setting a budget amount – how many books do we have (~100?)? What did Lynn spend on them last year? Nathan will send Lynn an email before Monday’s meeting.
    • Education – Levels? Costs?
      • Gail and Margaret have an Apprenticeship class set for February 8th – $15 for class and $10 optional for certificate
      • Nathan suggested increasing the class cost to $50 – all agree – 20 students max
      • Nathan suggested offering a 1-day intro class – give new beekeepers the basics before they go out and spend money on new hives – here are your options for hives, pros and cons based on what your goals are
        • Set at key points in the year – run 2-4 times a year – 2 weeks before apprenticeship class in Spring and Fall, middle of Summer and Winter
        • $10 per person
        • Put together a slide show and anyone could teach it
        • Paul is doing an intro to beekeeping class at Coastal Farm Supply (in the old ShopKo)
          • Coastal and Tractor supply have bee packages this year
      • Paul Education update –
        • WSBA Master group is working on the new Masters program with WSU, journeyman class book should be done next week (this group has a paid lobbyist in the Capitol Building, they have a conference, a honey tasting contest at each county fair and state fair this year)
        • Working on the Journeyman book for WA Master Beekeepers right now (our Apprenticeship class is the WMB class)
        • We can communicate to members that we will be offering a journeyman path in the next couple months
        • Leg gave money to WSU and WSBA to come up with a better program for beekeeping and inspection
    • Demonstration hives – Move to fairgrounds?
      • Someone donated a couple homemade top bar hives
      • Nathan has a couple empty hives
      • Paul will look at them
      • Tabled for now
    • Equipment Lending – What is needed? What is not? Budget? Equipment is all at Swantown Inn now and Nathan is managing requests.
      • Discuss possibility of selling used hives to members, no use in storing indefinitely. Discuss.
        • Hives are unused and leftover from the airport, where we no longer keep bees
        • Not full systems, missing components like bottom boards, all 10 frame, about 6-8 hives worth
        • Gail to offer to apprenticeship class
      • Need budget to get more equipment – extractor is missing, uncapping tray is missing – really good value as a member to have that equipment available
        • Hand crank extractor better for equipment library, attach a clutch to use a drill to crank!
  • New business
    • Club Apiary – Mayor of Tenino has offered a property/parcel of land in Tenino
      • David went there, rough gravel road to get there, fence around it, near the water tower, not much open space, no traffic that goes by, not ideal
      • Paul talked to Allan Woods – exit 88 in Rochester has the Veteran’s Collective (old chicken farm for veterans), Allan brought in 36 hives, building a meeting room down there for training, pollinator garden, talked about OBA having an Apiary there as well and he was open to it, maybe bring some of the veterans into OBA
      • Nathan will decline Tenino location for now
    • Anything from the floor?
      • David brought up honey sales at the Steamboat Island Farmer’s Market – starts up in April, they invited us back
        • Buy from the club at $6 and sell at $10 per pound in a standard jar, must be filled and labeled, pure honey (no mixtures), club will add a club sticker to the back
          • Consider an option to bottle the honey as a club, buy standard jars in bulk
        • Reach out to members that club is willing to buy honey – add to upcoming Beeline
          • How much club honey do we want to buy? Last year sold about 15 in one day
        • Need volunteers to staff the market
      • Fair – July 26-31st – Paul already volunteered OBA to be part of it – board asked if the bee club will be part of the Ag exhibit, which requires that we put economic data out there (how much does beekeeping help WA economy? pollination, jobs, etc.) as a display, need a sign that calls out as “Ag exhibit”
        • Paul is already working on the data
      • Nathan suggests a budget for advertising
        • branded table cloth for 6-ft table (already have the table)
        • already have a nice, yellow canopy
        • A-frame signs for meetings and events
        • 2-sided rack cards
      • Paul suggests budget process – establish budget for the year with 4 new buckets – equipment, advertising, education, library
        • Nathan motion for $500 per year per each of the 4 buckets = $2,000 total – all vote yes
        • David will establish the budgets
      • Paul will take over the Beeline in March
        • Send Paul items to include by 15th of previous month
        • Try to have the articles and content on the website as well