Minutes General Meeting 21 November, 2009

Minutes PNPA General Meeting 21 November, 2009 Houston Senior’s Centre

Meeting called to order 7:15

In Attendance:
Megan D’Arcy, Chair                                           Anita Trenerry
    Shirley & Lance Hamblin                                  Larry Wiwcharuk
   Marlene Thimer                                                 Brian Atherton
   Alfred Horning                                                    Alan Miles
   Robin Hawes                                                    Betty Lavalee
Apologies:   Bill Miller, Bob Murray

Introduction of the Board

Overview of the history and objectives of the Association

Megan briefly covered ongoing topics

Registration is in the works, fee is $100, name approval is done (fee $30)
Membership in CCIPPA – as soon as possible
Bank account – temporary one opened until registration is completed, then Marlene will re-do it as a society account.
Docking station in Smithers – will need a new location
Docking station is Burns Lake is at Alfred’s farm – directions/map available.
Megan got a small lot permit this year, and she described some of her experiences with this process

Anita reported on the web-site possibilities

Les has set up a temporary web-site at www3.telus.net/pnpa – this one is free, and we could just use it, but it does not come up on any searches, so use might be limited.
Cost of a larger web-site would be $23/year for the domain name and $3.95/month for a basic site of up to 4 GB, unlimited visitors, a forum or a blog (which would require user names and passwords to post anything). Les is willing to manage this site, but not to do the large amount of upkeep needed on a forum.
It was decided to go with the second option, providing a blog space, a calendar for events and kill dates/sites, and any information on available products and/or services.

Shirley gave some explanations of the regulations involved in processing and on marketing boards (separate ones for eggs, chickens, and turkeys) – it was noted that the marketing board process is up for review next year.

Alfred gave an interesting presentation on his experiences in the first year as a Class C processor, complete with pictures of the operation, an overview of his visit to the large Hutterite processing plant, and schematics for the proposed new Class B MPU.
It was explained that a Class C is only for personal-use meat and sales either from farm-gate or at the farmer’s market (need an authorization letter from Northern Health Authority). A Class B processing unit will allow resale of products – i.e. sale of poultry to the Sausage Factory or restaurants. An inspector is present at all kill operations; he/she inspects the live birds and oversees the processing. At the present time, the inspectors are paid with government funding – this may change within the next few years, which may result in a return to a Class C production.

Requirements for a docking station are:

potable water,
a gravel pad,
100 amp power supply,
good access road (not dirt),
covered receiving area,
docking station licence held by the landowner,
not next to a poultry production area (100m away?),
grey water disposal,
waste product disposal.

All birds will have to be present at the specified time for inspection. Transport methods were “interesting” this year – this may be an opportunity for some enterprising person to provide a transport service.

The turnout for the meeting was a little disappointing – many reasons were given, including other obligations and events, and travel in the winter. It was decided to hold general membership meetings in each community over the next few months, but to hold off over Christmas, as it is a busy time for all. We will hold a meeting in Smithers January 14, location to be decided at a later date.

An article on our efforts will be in the Small Farm Canada magazine January issue.

Meeting adjourned 9:04