7/25/11 Minutes

·          3 goals have been met!

·         City council meeting scheduled for Monday aug 15^th 6pm at City Hall

·         Annette met with Marjie Pettis City manager who sees no opposition, resolution page to be done and ready for the meeting.  Once resolution is passed it is law for members of the city hall, they will be committed to buying ft coffee, sugar etc to take the place of whatever products they used before.  This also includes city programs like the after school programs, which would be a great place to do a  ft presentation to the local kids.

·         She would like to get the rotary involved with certifying at the artisan level

·         Would it be a good idea to have the Paul Rice video from Fair Trade USA to play at meeting?

·         Progress for getting businesses and organizations to switch to serving ft coffee at their meetings/establishments:

                Dry Creek Kitchen uses local coffee, switching not an option

                Bellezza serves bean affair coffee, not sure if what they serve if ft but look into

                Relish already uses and always serves coffee at their meetings

                Copperfields is willing to switch over once they are capable, it is a goal

                John Holt let us know that the rotary meets at Costeaux  who provides whatever    refreshments he knows the owner well and would like to talk to him about considering serving ft coffee..

                Waiting on responses from a couple more organizations

·         Gretchen is headed to the first Fair Trade Towns national conference in Philadelphia in September to represent Fair Trade Healdsburg!  Any questions or specific information you would like from fellow towns or fair trade towns experts please get them to Gretchen!

·         Check out the blurb for Fair Trade Healdsburg in the tribune under Chris Loves community corner

·         No answer from the questions that were sent out to established fair trade towns as of yet.  Except Taos, NM  !  I got a response from them during the meeting!  A lot of the steps they took are the same was what we’re doing currently.  Although they did mention getting a small budget allocation to support the ft community once it was appointed by the mayor, sounds worth looking into as well as fundraisers.

·         Goals after resolutions is passed is to:

                 Regularly present information and videos to the public to educate, at the raven or the high school “black box” theater/presentation room.

                Plan a day to feature businesses that carry ft products, serving coffee/chocolate and highlight them, during October (fair trade month)

·         Before City council meeting shall we all meet to prepare and unite J , 5pm?

·         Goals to complete before next steering committee meeting, contact the Raven, Black Box and Farmers Market.

·         Next meeting TBD

We received our "Retail Outreach" badge!

We completed our second goal and have received our "Retail Outreach" badge!  The Fair Trade Towns USA criteria is to demonstrate that a range of products are available at local stores, cafes and restaurants.  We now have nine businesses in Healdsburg, that carry "certified" Fair Trade products include: The Bean Affair, Big John's Market, Cafe' Gratitude, Copperfields Books, Earth Buddha, One World Fair Trade, Safeway, Shelton's Natural Foods Market and Toy B Ville, with more to come. (see our "Where to find Fair Trade products in Healdsburg" link). 

Next Meeting!

Will be at El Sombrero.  6 pm Monday the 25th.  We are really making progress! 

Reach out to Retailers!

The second step towards achieving the Fair Trade Towns USA criteria is to demonstrate that a range of products are available at local stores, cafes and restaurants.  We now have nine businesses in Healdsburg, including retail stores, cafe's and grocery stores that carry "certified" Fair Trade products (see our "Where to find Fair Trade products in Healdsburg" link).  We have just submitted for approval our info to receive our "Retail Outreach" badge!

Some love from Healdsburg Patch!

Local Group Seeks to Make Healdsburg a Fair Trade Town!

Fair Trade Healdsburg Minutes 6/27/11

-Goal 2 is just about completed.  A number of merchant surveys were completed and we now have a list compiled of all the stores that carry FT products to plug into google maps.  Once Chamber is involved this list can be given to them to post on their site if possible.

-Next step is to reach out to churches and community organizations, educate, gain support and get them to switch over to using/serving FT products.  Steve and Krystalynn have already connected with some and are coming up with a brochure/handout for easier more concise viewing.  Kim will contact about serving coffee (or tea/hot cocoa/ choc)  at churches with info table for members .

- Everyone to come up with list of questions for other established FT towns. Email to Kim who will compile and split up cities so we can contact and gather useful info (like how they gained community support, chamber support, how they marketed, etc)

-Steve viewed webinar on engaging churches, great notes. Webinar available online to view on fair trade USA website.

-Steve also reviewed meeting with Mayor Tom Chambers.  Packet was reviewed, interest expressed, no problems foreseen.  Next step is to get on the city council meetings agenda.

-Thanks to Herb Lieberman for attending and sharing his thoughts and expertise.

-Thanks to Ann Carranza from The Healdsburg Patch. She will be posting info about Fair Trade Healdsburg on the online community new site.  Also will do follow ups.  Healdsburg.patch.com

-Perhaps as another way to reach out to businesses and promote the ones carrying Ft products we should have a day where we set up a table with Ft info and serve chocolate.  Businesses need to be contacted about that. 

Next meeting 2 weeks?  We did not discuss.  I’ll keep everyone posted!  J