Wilson County Beekeepers

Meeting Minutes – Monday, 2 November 2015

A group of 83 members, guests, and visitors attended the monthly meeting of the Wilson County Beekeepers on November 2 with President Carey Mitchell overseeing the meeting.

The October 5 meeting minutes were approved.

Old Business Discussed:

• TBA Conference was October 9 and 10. You can still register at the door. We had three take advantage of the TBA scholarships and three from Wilson County. Six went unclaimed.
• Fred Dawson recapped the board meeting with these notes:
• Key to the board meeting was the election of new officers: President Jim Garrison, Vice President Mike Coulter, Secretary Danny Scott, Treasurer Petra Mitchell and Middle TN Regional VP Jeff Herrel
• Key topic was the Pollinator Stewardship Council and the TBA’s $5,000 donation to the continued effort to support their mission to defend managed and native pollinators is vital to a sustainable and affordable food supply from the adverse impact of pesticides.
• There was discussion of the extremely low return on investment in the hive grant program . Since there is less than 15% of hive grantees that remain beekeepers and the equipment given to them cannot be used by anyone else. This was debated heavily and will continue to be challenged and debated.
• Also of note Petra was elected by the TBA directors as a Life time member
• Fred also recapped the Conference
• The conference was highlighted by keynote speaker Jennifer Berry with “keeping bees alive”.
• In addition well known and educational speakers Dr. Clarence Collison, and Kent Williams added their own take on bees and queens from the scientific to the entertaining instructions of Kent.
• There was no loss for topics for every beekeeper regardless of experience and topics were set for beginner, intermediate and advance beekeepers.
• Beekeeping is all about improving your knowledge thru reading and conferences.   Regardless of your experience it is a very economical way of advancing your knowledge at a very reasonable rate in a short 2 days. Make plans to attend next year.
• Fred made a motion that WCBA donate to Pollinator Stewardship Council in the amount of $250.00. Ricky Underhill and Philip Chapman accepted the nomination with membership voting for. Margaret Cantrell amended the motion that we increase the donation to $500.00 with Philip Chapman seconding the amendment. Membership unanimously voted to send Pollinator Stewardship Council a one-time $500.00 donation. Fred did say that this will probably come up again next year for review.
• Speaker schedule for 2016 has been completed. Petra has a copy. New membership books will be out in January.
• The Short Course was held Tuesday-Thursday, October 27-29. Carey thanked Jimmy Cunningham, Fred Dawson, WT Nolen, Leonard Walker, JD Vantrease and Mark Goodrich who came out to talk with new beekeepers. We had 35 (including 3 young) potential beekeepers attend the three-night event.
• After a long delay, we finally have inspector badges from Mike Studer.
• There are two books (Mating Biology of Honey Bees and Safe to Chew: An Anthology) that WCBA is donating to each of the libraries. Watertown has already been delivered. Greg Tomerlin volunteered to deliver to Lebanon while Kelcie Meador will deliver to Mt. Juliet.

New Business Discussed:

• Several members completed the recent Inspector Class at Ellington. These names will be included in the membership book
• Carey passed out the Christmas Charities ballots for members to select ONE charity that we will support at Christmas. The one that comes in second will be our charity for the June 2016 picnic.
• Christmas Dinner was discussed…it will be the SECOND Monday, December 14. The club is providing the turkey and ham, coffee and soft drinks. Each family is asked to bring a covered dish and a dessert. Volunteers were asked to bring sweet tea, unsweet tea, rolls and butter and Julie Harper and Jake Balentine volunteered to bake a turkey each. Membership also agreed to do an ornament exchange ($5.00 limit)
• Carey announced that it is election time and anyone interested in taking a position was to speak up. As no one had an interest the Slate of Officers was:
• President: Carey Mitchell
• Vice President: Fred Dawson
• Secretary/Treasurer: Petra Mitchell
• Directors: Fred Dawson, Carey Mitchell, Candice Thompson
• Alternate Directors: Margaret Cantrell, Chuck Grogan, and David Thompson

Kelcie Meador agreed to stay on as librarian and Greg Tomerlin will continue to do our newsletter.

Fred’s To Do List:

• Check stores—60 pounds needed…

   —What emergency feeding method will you use?

• Next year’s plans

   —Equipment needed
—Bee packages or nucs
—Splits
—Whatever you decide to do next year, begin reading now to implement the plan

• Read—-Read—–Read

The evening’s program was Natural Beekeeping by Trevor Qualls from Bon Aqua Springs Apiaries.

Announcements:

• Next meeting, Monday, December 14—Christmas Dinner
• December Charity—Wounded Warrior Project
• June 2016 Charity (picnic)—New Leash on Life

Carey and Fred handed out door prizes, with winners being: Philip Chapman, Caryn Crowston, Sheila Ferguson, Greg Tomerlin, Chuck Grogan, WT Nolen, Michelle Dickson, David Elliott, and Billy Springer.

Meeting adjourned around 8:36 for refreshments and fellowship.

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Respectfully submitted: Petra Mitchell, Secretary/Treasurer
Wilson County Beekeepers Association
November 4, 2015.

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