Vermont Maple Sugar Makers' Association



BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING MINUTESZoom Conference OnlineMay 20, 2020Board Members present: Jenna Baird, Mark Bigelow, James Buck, Arnold Coombs, Sam Cutting, Jeff Disorda, Dave Folino, Jason Gagne, Mark Isselhardt, Dave Mance, Emma Marvin, Jason McFarland, Paul Palmer, Arnie Piper, Reid Richardson, Kerry Sedutto, Ted Young, Donna YoungGuests present: Dr. Tim Perkins, Pam Green, Mike ChristianStaff present: Allison Hope, Cory Ayotte, David Tremblay Motions:Dave Mance made a motion to approve the January 8, 2020 minutes as amended, seconded by Kerry. The motion was approved by all.Arnold Coombs made a motion to approve the Treasurer’s report, seconded by Dave Mance. The motion was approved by all. Sam Cutting made a motion to move the Board into executive session to discuss personnel matters. The motion was seconded by Arnold Coombs and passed unanimously. Dave Mance motioned to move the Board out of executive session with a second from Arnie Piper. The vote passed unanimously. Arnie moved to approve the annual meeting concept as presented and Dave Mance seconded. All Board members voted in favor of the motion. James Buck made a motion to accept the position statement on tapping in Green Mountain National Forest as written, seconded by Arnie Piper. After discussion, the Board voted 14-1 to approve the motion, with Donna Young voting no.James Buck made a motion that we move forward with the Nominating Committee’s slate of officers, seconded by Arnold Coombs. All Board members were in favor. Dave Mance made a motion that we make Pam Green the Vermont delegate to the IMSI, seconded by Mark Bigelow. All Board members voted in favor of the motion.Dave Mance made a motion that the slate of candidates recommended by the Nominating Committee receive a positive vote to become officers for the next year. Arnold Coombs seconded the motion and all Board members voted in favor.Arnold Coombs made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Dave Mance. All Board members voted in favor of the motion.The meeting was called to order by Chair Emma Marvin at 9:06 AMReview of Minutes of January 8, 2020Ted Young recommended an amendment to the minutes regarding the wording Board elections and a draft policy. Page 1 of the minutes, under motion 6, was updated from “Mark Bigelow motioned to have a pilot trial for the draft Policy Book for unincorporated districts and to let incorporated districts take course as is” to “Mark Bigelow motioned to have a pilot trial for the draft Policy Book for unrepresented districts and to let represented districts take course as is.” Page 5 of the minutes under the “New Business” section and reflecting the motion was similarly amended. Arnie noted that the Policy Book needs to be updated to reflect a more formalized election process along with flexibility for the diversity among the different county processes. After the Windham County trial process (occurring currently), a draft policy will be shared with the Board.Dave Mance made a motion to approve the January 8, 2020 minutes as amended, seconded by Kerry. The motion was approved by all.Treasurer’s ReportMark Bigelow reviewed the FY2019 year end financial results and the 12/31/19 balance sheet (in comparison to FY2018). Mark and Allison reviewed with the Board the FY20 ytd financials through February, along with the written narrative shared with the Board prior to the meeting. Dave Folino asked a question about the details of the Association’s fixed assets. Mark Bigelow noted that the fixed assets are mostly depreciated at this point and he last reviewed the list in detail during the audit. Allison will share a list with the Board.Arnold Coombs made a motion to approve the Treasurer’s report, seconded by Dave Mance. The motion was approved by all.Big E Contingency PlansAllison and Mike shared that they have been meeting since January to review needs for the Big E this year, as well as how to be ready for the event, should it go forward, without pre-spending more than needed to be ready.Mike Christian shared his concerns about soliciting volunteers for the VMSMA booth at the Big E this year, and for the Big E in general. There is general uncertainty about how the Big E venue can provide a safe environment for gathering. Both the Big E and Vermont’s Agency of Agriculture have continued to indicate that they’re still moving forward with planning for the event to occur. A vendor meeting is expected to occur (in a virtual format) in mid to late June.Sam Cutting shared his experience with the work done by the Champlain Valley Expo staff and Board. A discussion ensued among Board members about whether or not to participate this year. Dave Folino made a motion that VMSMA not participate in the Big E in 2020. Further discussion ensued about financial scenarios – if sales and attendance are low this year, it may well cost the Association money to attend (rather than contributing a significant net profit). Board members voiced support for the motion; however, a decision was delayed until at least the June Big E vendors’ meeting that the Agency will be coordinating and the motion was withdrawn. The Board agreed to meet in June, after Allison runs some financial scenarios, to further discuss.Executive SessionSam Cutting made a motion to move the Board into executive session to discuss personnel matters. The motion was seconded by Arnold Coombs and passed unanimously. The Board moved into executive session at 10:09am. Dave Mance motioned to move the Board out of executive session with a second from Arnie Piper. The vote passed unanimously, and the Board moved out of executive session at 10:47am. Update on 2020 ProductionWindsor County – Reid noted that most sugar makers had a record crop and the weather was pretty perfect.Windham County – Arnold said that, on average, sugar makers had lower sugar content but average to above average production.Rutland County – Jenna shared that it was a good year for sugar makers, despite the low sugar content.Orleans County – Donna said she didn’t hear a lot about low sugar content; for a lot of sugar makers the year ended early, but most had a good year for production.Lamoille County – Arnie said Lamoille had the same experiences as Donna noted for Orleans. It was the shortest April in a while, but a great March pretty much made up for it. Sugar content was about normal.Franklin County – Jason Gagne shared that production was average to above average with lower sugar content. A lot of great amber was made this year, with not as much golden.Chittenden County – Paul noted that the quality was good with high production; some mentioned they were making darker syrup than normal.Caledonia County – Jason McFarland said that it was an average year for sugar content with March being a big month. Things slowed down a bit in mid-April and most had an average to above average year.Bennington County – Dave Mance said they made dark syrup early this season, and the syrup got lighter as the season progressed.Addison County – Dave Folino shared that it was an average to record year. In the higher elevations, sugar makers did really well and lower elevations were about average (probably worse near the lake). The sugar content was average this year.Industry Feedback – Industry members shared that there was a lot of syrup made this season – a good crop with good quality. The weather seems to have made up for any issues with low sugar content. Syrup seems to have skewed toward amber this season.IMSI – Pam Green shared that the IMSI has heard that U.S. sugar makers had average to record crops this year. They think the NASS reports are going to come in around 65 million pounds in the U.S. Connecticut and Massachusetts had short seasons, but still got an average crop with good quality. Canadian producers also made a lot of syrup of good quality; their biggest challenge was grading and not being able to do that work in person.Proctor and UVM Extension UpdatesDr. Perkins shared that Proctor’s maple season started at the end of February and ran through the first week in April, about 6 weeks. They made about 3,500 gallons of syrup, or about 7.5 pounds per tap which was about 14% above normal. The crew at Proctor boiled 8 times during the season.Most projects at Proctor are continuations from prior years, so the essential crew continued to work on those onsite and others worked from home starting in March. They have a variety of projects in process such as: evaporation and time efficiency in the sugar house; they finished up a 3 year project on tapping depth; and looking at whether to tap in straight or at a slight angle and it turns out it makes no difference. Followed up on research on one tap vs two taps, but in red maple. Abby is also working on yield as it relates to the size of the tree, mostly focusing on red maple but using sugar maple as a control. And they had a student project monitoring pressures and temperatures in trees under vacuum. They’re evaluating new spout designs and there are several new resources out there for sugar makers – , the Proctor YouTube videos and the UVM Ext websites all have quite a bit of new information in the past year or so. This summer, they’ll work on an expansion of about 1,000 taps, focusing on the difference between red maple and sugar maple. They’ll be looking at yields and when does sap turn buddy as well as chemistry or flavor differences in red maple and sugar maples. Proctor is also resetting several of research areas for next year for new studies that are starting – open to suggestions for areas people would like to know about. Proctor submitted an ACER proposal for the 2020 season. The proposal is focused mainly on producer education – online courses for maple producers using a lot of resources Proctor has created over the past couple of years and the NAMSC producer’s manual. The focus will be on BMPs for maple sap production, processing into syrup, and food and personal safety.At the University level, there’s a new incoming dean who started on May 17th, but won’t be here for another month or so. VMSMA should send a welcome letter expressing thoughts on UVM’s maple research and programs to make sure maple is on her radar.Jean Harvey was the interim dean for last two years and will be continuing as associate dean in charge of farms; it’s unclear whether or not this includes Proctor. And Chuck Ross recently announced he’s stepping down as well, so there will be a new UVM Extension director at some point over the next year. The Board discussed sending a thank you letter to Chuck for his support of maple over the years.Mark shared a brief update on the January maple conferences. Attendance was down a little bit and was not unique – there were reduced numbers in Addison County and in similar events in other states. After reviewing evaluations, it was encouraging to note that many were first time attendees. It was also encouraging to have the Agency of Ag send Kyle Harris to do hydrometer testing at all three conferences in Vermont – he tested over 140 hydrometers and sugar makers really appreciated that service. Successful in recording presentations at the maple conferences – have 16 full length presentations on the extension site and it doesn’t get a lot of traffic. It seems like an opportunity to encourage people to check these things out. Evaluations also asked about how far did you drive today and how far would you be willing to drive – pretty common answer, people were willing to drive an hour or hour and a half. There’s def some appetite for a single conference and that people are willing to drive a certain distance. The issue in VT is where you could actually get a group together that would be centrally located enough to make it work. Mark UVM Ext put in an ACER grant proposal with Chris Lindgren from UVM Extension’s farm business viability program. The proposal has two main topics – syrup quality and understanding the economics of a sap only business. They’re hoping to update the maple syrup quality control manual that for many years was an Agency of Ag publication – tips and tricks for maintaining high quality syrup production. The proposal also includes designing a permanent color kit that represents the new grades. This would mean working with a commercial enterprise to get some consulting advice and design specifications on a permanent grade kit that would be less expensive than the Lovibond kit. They also included funds to produce more and different off flavor kits. Probably will find out the first or second week of September if the grant proposals were successful.Mark is part of an FY18 ACER grant with Mark Canella which has added resources on . They’ve added an updated sugarbush lease agreement with a guide and a lease template. He’s also working right now with Abby and the Chair of UVM’s Forest Dept on a forestry calculation tool – plug in your forest inventory data and get some sense of what a particular parcel may yield in terms of sap production.Mark did the Vermont Maple Bulletin again – one or two posts a week about syrup production in Vermont. He’s also been adding to the “Vermont Maple Minute” project – generally a two minute audio file that covers all parts of syrup production. These audio files are available online; ideally folks could contact their local radio station and have them run them. The goal is to keep maple in people’s minds year-round. Mark has the scripts as well if people want to record their own.Annual Meeting Concept/Set DateEmma asked for a motion to approve the concept included in the Board packet. Arnie moved to approve the annual meeting concept as presented and Dave Mance seconded. All Board members voted in favor of the motion. Arnie noted that we have a 45 day warning notice in the By-Laws so the soonest we could have the meeting would be after July 4th. Allison will send a poll to Board members to find a date that most Board members could attend.Tapping in Green Mountain National ForestBoard members received a policy recommendation with their packets. Dave Mance shared that this came from the request in December from a Rutland County sugar maker that wanted to tap on national forest land. He came to the Association looking for help in lobbying the forest service to allow tapping. We decided that we didn’t have a policy and so that one would be appropriate. He and Dave Folino went back and forth on several ideas and then shared it with the Industry Committee. What they shared with the Board is a “middle ground” between the ideas of the different groups. James Buck made a motion to accept the position statement on tapping in Green Mountain National Forest as written, seconded by Arnie Piper. The Board had a discussion about the scenarios that could present themselves in terms of scale and adjoining properties, whether or not it’s the Association’s role to control taps (vs. promoting maple), and how leases get approved. Board members wanted to make sure that we’re not encouraging industrial sugar making on national forests. Mark Isselhardt pointed out that the restrictions in current permits really limit the big operations. You need to be able to remove lines when forest management activities are due – not sure anyone is going to invest in a huge tubing system with the potential that they’ll have to take it down. Others noted that the permits also don’t allow for permanent structures. After discussion, the Board voted 14-1 to approve the motion, with Donna Young voting no.Staff ReportsReports sharing updates on Association work since the last Board meeting, the meeting re: the Agency of Ag’s retail inspections and the Sugarhouse Certification Program were all shared in writing in advance of the meeting. To save on time, these items were briefly reviewed and then time was left for any questions on the reports. Dave asked if folks would try out the latest version of the certification program on their sugarhouses and give him feedback. Emma reminded folks that if they had questions after the meeting, to reach out to staff or Board members.Election of OfficersDave Mance shared that the Nominating Committee met remotely. All members of the Executive Committee agreed to serve another term, so the Nominating Committee accepted and is proposing that the current Executive Committee being the slate of candidates to be voted on at the Annual Meeting for the next year. James Buck made a motion that we move forward with the Nominating Committee’s slate of officers, seconded by Arnold Coombs. All Board members were in favor.IMSI Update & RepresentationBeyond her earlier update, Pam shared that the IMSI has created a template for writing letters of support with considerations for how to avoid conflicts of interest. They’re waiting on getting Canadian updates on labeling as they were dealing with added sugar and labeling issues just like the U.S. They’re still reaching out on the lead issue, as all smaller producers are supposed to come into compliance by October of this year. Canada has done a lot of education and training for producers to bring people into compliance. Most producers in Canada have signed forms saying they meet the guideline. In the U.S. many packers are requiring a form to be signed. NAMSC/IMSI conference in Wisconsin was cancelled this year. In October, IMSI will either meet in person or online or a combination of both. They have been exploring options for their annual October meetings and Annual General Meeting. The NAMSC meeting format of traveling throughout the maple world doesn’t really fit the IMSI’s membership needs. IMSI is committed to the Oct 2021 NAMSC convention in Niagara Falls, but this will be their last joint convention. They’re sending a letter out to members explaining the reasons and facts behind the decisions and also sharing ideas about plans going forward and asking for feedback.IMSI is currently working on a website update that is focused on a comprehensive list of links to inform and help direct members of the media and maple community about all aspects of maple. They’re also monitoring the FDA and their initiative to modernize food standards. Also, they’re continuing to work on a joint maple standard with U.S. and Canada. IMSI is working with AC Neilson who submitted a proposal for a market overview. This would give the industry knowledge of how maple performs vs competing categories in the U.S. and Canada. The Normandy group has been presenting information to IMSI on the development and evaluation of marketing tools – tools that could be used to reach new consumers and markets. The Normandy Group has also been working with IMSI and the NY State Producers’ Association to build out an ACER grant to evaluate opportunities and development strategies to increase consumer awareness and usage of pure maple.Pam asked folks to be in touch with her or anyone on the executive team with any questions.Emma recommended that the Board reappoint Pam to continue to serve as the VMSMA representative to the IMSI. Dave Mance made a motion that we make Pam Green the Vermont delegate to the IMSI, seconded by Mark Bigelow. All Board members voted in favor of the motion. Emma thanked Pam for being willing to continue to serve and for serving in the capacity she does now at IMSI.Other BusinessEmma asked if Ted wanted to continue the discussion about county elections from earlier in the meeting. Ted agreed that we could wait and see how the Windham County elections went and revisit the topic at the next meeting.Ted asked if we had elected officers in the “election of officers” section of the agenda; the By Laws indicate that the Board approves these. The Board revisited this item and Emma asked if the Board would like to make a motion to approve the slate presented earlier:Emma Marvin, ChairArnie Piper, Vice ChairMark Bigelow, TreasurerDave Mance, SecretaryJason Gagne, At Large MemberDave Mance made a motion that the slate of candidates recommended by the Nominating Committee receive a positive vote to become officers for the next year. Arnold Coombs seconded the motion and all Board members voted in favor.Emma asked if Board members would prefer more frequent Board meetings, rather than less frequent and longer Board meetings. She was envisioning about 1.5 hours per month vs. 3.5 hours every three months. She asked members to consider and follow up via email to her and Allison with thoughts and feedback. Based on what we receive for feedback, we’ll send out a note about when our next meeting will be.Arnold Coombs made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Dave Mance. All Board members voted in favor of the motion. The meeting adjourned at 12:08pm. ................
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