California State Beekeepers Association Board of Directors Meeting May 15, 2015, Harvest Hall, Modesto, CA DRAFT MINUTES The meeting was called to order at 9:18 a.m. The minutes of the January 23, 2015, Board meeting were accepted. The financial statements were accepted. The correspondence was circulated. OLD BUSINESS 2015 Convention (rates) The Board decided to leave all admission, meal and Exhibit Hall charges at the same levels as last year. Brad is working on sponsorships instead. He hired a blues band for after the Annual Banquet, which is sponsored by CanAm Apiaries, and Jackie is sponsoring limited-time free drinks. Because of this, the Banquet will start at 6 instead of 7. Brad is working with the hotel on other lunch opportunities, including box lunches and shuttles to restaurants. Elina suggested saving schedule time by using a lightening round for a set of speakers allowed 5 minutes each. Speakers will be asked to send their own bios. Patti will make speaker introduction cards; Carlen will see to getting the bios on our website. Mann Lake will sponsor a President s Reception Dinner and an afternoon tour of their facility, so the pre-convention Board meeting will be Monday morning. Sec/Treas pay raise The Board voted to raise Secretarial Services by $2500 per annum, effective next fiscal year. Presentation of awards for thwarting bee theft Bob Miller and Brad Pankratz presented thankyou certificates and Board-authorized $1,000.00 checks to Dre Castano and Vincent Perez, the two gentlemen responsible for apprehending Orin Johnson s bee thief. Carlen will send a thank-you letter to the Stanislaus County District Attorney s Office and will try to get this information into the Modesto Bee newspaper. : 2016 Convention - Dion and his wife will visit the three finalists in site selection: Crown Plaza, Mission Bay Hilton, and Kona Kai, all in San Diego, with room rates from $129 to $139. Since Mission Bay has no restaurants close by, Dion will see if they have a shuttle service. Honey Bee Health Coalition involvement? Gene noted that this group, started by the Clinton Foundation, has been around about a year. Since the beekeepers already there are doing a good job, the ABF and the AHPA are both members, and the cost of participating is estimated at $2,000, the Board s consensus was to not be in the Coalition. B.I.T. program involvement? Brad could not get a speaker from the agency. Non-towed vehicles of GVW as low as 10,000 pounds will be newly subject to BIT paperwork, including annual medical physicals for drivers. The Farm Bureau is working on a response and the Board wants to support them. Carlen was to get the Farm Bureau s information and email it to our membership after checking with Roger. The good news on transportation is that beekeepers are currently exempt from hours-of-service rests on national level regulations. We may need to write a letter about this too, though. NEW BUSINESS group. CDFA ad hoc bee health working group report Jackie and Gene were on a conference call of this Publicity Chairperson proposal(s) No proposals have been received. Carlen will ask Mark Looker of the Almond Board s media group to suggest a pay level, based on Carlen s wish list. Several possible candidates were suggested. CSBA Speakers Bureau Mark Looker spoke about the Almond Board s bee-related media outreach and mentioned their Media Training Program and their Speakers Bureau. One principle is Many platforms, one message, another is Targeted print and electronic handouts with The Message. He noted that a reporter s request for an interview does not mean that the requestee must be the interviewee. Find out what they want, and find someone to get back to them. The Almond Board wants to work with us on media training, which runs from 9:00 a.m. to noon on one day and is free. In general, Mark said to be authentic when speaking to media representatives. We might do a breakout session at convention, by invitation, for such training. Carlen will try to get a list of folks interested in such training by emailing the membership.
CSBA speakers at Sonoma club in October Brad will do it, but needs the requesting email. New Apiary Site Availability Management The Board s consensus was to mass email potential apiary sites and let the members respond on a first-come, first-serve basis, but to also emphasize the need to know and abide by our BMPs, so a website link to the BMPs needs to be included. Since the contacts from the CCLT meeting resulted from John Miller s effort, he will be thanked in that email. A note will also be appended as follows: You are interviewing for a job when you contact these land trusts: prepare accordingly. USDA ARS bee lab at U.C. Davis? The USDA s Western Region, based in Albany California, asked to meet and talked about this lab. There s already money budgeted for 2016, based on existing facilities at U.C. Davis. The USDA s Western Region, based in Albany California, distributed the following announcement: The USDA Agricultural Research Service will establish a new base-funded Pollinator Health Research laboratory at the Western Regional Research Center. This research project is currently funded at $1.3M per year. The bulk of the research will be conducted at the WRRC's worksite co-located with the University of California s Davis campus, building on the synergy with the Honey and Pollination Center and the Department of Entomology and Nematology at UC-Davis. ARS invites input from stakeholders as to specific research topics this project should address in the next 5 years. FY2015 funding will be used for establishing laboratory space for 2 senior research scientists and 3 support staff. We expect to fill these five research positions by March 2016. Please contact Dr. Howard Zhang, Center Director, WRRC, 510-559-5600 or Howard.Zhang@ars.usda.gov for further information or discussion. According to Dr. Elina Nino, there was to be a meeting on 5/20/15 to decide where to put trailers for the lab. A new facility may be built later; there will not be any attempt to remodel existing space. U.C. Davis s Dr. Mike Parella has pushed for this location over Shafter, which is now out of consideration. Buy ed material for kids, from NHB? The Board s consensus was that a couple hundred dollars from the Education budget will get buy enough such materials from the NHB. Subsidy for Bee Girl at Convention? Sarah Red-Laird, the Bee Girl, has a venue 10 minutes from our hotel for an evening event to try to encourage mentorship on starting bee businesses; besides the program, attendees can eat, drink beer, and listen to music. She would like the CSBA to donate $1,150.00 for setup, food and a band. Some beekeepers have said they ll do it if we don t. The separate venue is because Wednesday evening entails space and schedule conflicts at the hotel, besides which the venue is being donated. Since Sarah is already promoting us, and we re not doing special admission rates for her group, the Board approved giving her $600 for this event. CSBA at CCLT event in Sac, 10/9/15? CCLT s Kelly Velasco said the lowest sponsorship level is $1,000.00 for this event at Sacramento s Railroad Museum. The program is dinner, drinks, and networking with people from California and even nationwide. Land trusts are keen to have bees, and that the benefit of bees to native forage is a huge selling point. Some issues to be aware of are access, security, public interaction, and effects on cattle and native bees. They are into land restoration, and bees help with this. Some trusts don t even require apiary rent payments. Considering this event to be a huge opportunity, the Board approved $1000 to participate. Brad will go, as will either Steve or John. CSBA comment on exemption from AD 1026? Beekeepers have to fill out this new conservation form by 6/1/15 to be eligible for any governmental assistance programs. The Board s consensus was that it is too late to comment; beekeepers should just fill out the form. Update on CAPCA Gene has attended three CAPCA meetings since January. They now have a Bee Task Force, but they want peer-reviewed studies that back up the Almond Board s BMPs. The Board saw no additional means to get CAPCA to attend to us. It was noted that new products are being more closely scrutinized but getting old ones labels changed will take lots longer, and that beekeepers need to be legal in using miticides. Beekeeperss need to report taking bees out of almonds Stanislaus County had a problem where bee-departure notices were not sent in, so sprayers and growers had to make a lot of useless calls. We will probably discuss this subject at our annual meeting with the County Ag Commissioners group. AGENCY REPORTS American Honey Producers Assn. Darren Cox and Tim Tucker are in D.C. on bee issues right now. Calif. Specialty Crops Council They met in February, and Gene at that meeting stressed the use of Almond Board BMPs in other crops, especially stone fruits. Their Crop Tour will happen again this July, and Gene will do the bee talk again.
American Beekeeping Federation Tim Tucker visited legislative offices in D.C. on Tuesday, and attended the pollinator health hearings on Wednesday, when there was some sparring between the EPA and the USDA. The ABF and the AHPA sent a joint letter to Congress to increase ARS funding by $7,000,000. The 2016 ABF Convention will be in Jacksonville; in 2017 they plan a joint convention with the AHPA in Sacramento or Galveston. Funding is still being raised for the Apimondia bid to be presented in South Korea this September. The NHB gave $20,000, and Dave Mendes gave a lot; we re working on Paramount and also accepting individual donations. We should know by next week if we re in the top 5 bids. The International Committee will probably review Minneapolis on-site this July. PAm Meg Ribotto is no longer on staff; they are trying to fill a Director of Pollination Programs position instead. PAm got 13 proposals for Varroa research, and have $160,000 funding for these, $60,0000 of which Brian and Lyle Johnson provided. More donations are probably coming. COMMITTEE REPORTS African Honey Bee Nathan Amboy reported that a member met a guy who raised bees in Africa. It s a challenge, but the Africans get great results. Bob Sugar suggested we get a presentation at our Convention. Bee Times Meg Ribotto submitted the following report: The CSBA Bee Times e-newsletter is produced 6x a year by Your Email Ally. CSBA received the 2014 Constant Contact All Star Award. The award is given annually to the top 10% of Constant Contacts International customer base for their achievements in using online marketing tools to engage and drive success for their organization. To date, there are 301 Bee Times subscribers. The open-rate of the February 2015 issue was 50%. The open-rate of the April 2015 issue was 46.6%.These open-rates are well above the average open-rate of 11% for non-profit member organizations! Committee updates continue to be readily forthcoming from the President, Research, Legislative, and Public Lands Committees, Project Apis m. and Affiliated Bee Clubs. There are over 20 advertisers who promote their businesses in the Bee Times. We have received positive feedback from subscribers. The next Bee Times issue will be in June. Convention - Amanda Wooten is in charge of apparel sales. Brad will direct Mike Harrel to coordinate with Susan Bunch on the Program Guide. Brad s Convention Theme is Bee there for the Capitol buzz! Legislative - Jackie referred to her report in the April BEE TIMES, which follows: On April 1 st, Governor Brown and leadership from both houses and parties unveiled a new round of emergency drought legislation. The plan was adopted by both houses and appropriated a little over $1 billion, authorized the Governor to adopt emergency regulations, and made statutory changes aimed at accelerating the award and allocation of these funds. The proposal created an office to help disproportionately impacted communities address water challenges. The Governor s Executive Order required a mandatory 25 percent overall cutback in water use by cities and towns, and did not include farms. This order was considered drastic and aimed at affecting the Californians who have been resisting the recommendations to conserve water when asked by the Governor back in January 2014 to cut by 20 percent. Unfortunately, the state reservoirs are said to contain about a year s worth of water, and there is very little snowfall to replenish the overwhelming need the state has for water. The state government will also produce billboards, radio messages, and signs to aid in spreading the word about conserving water. In recent weeks, the entire agricultural industry in California and its dependence on water has been under attack in the news, and in particular the focus has been on almonds and their dependency on a whole gallon of water per nut. In the midst of this negative attention, there is some good news: the highlighting of the significant role the almond industry plays in California s contribution to the global economy, and the fact that this is entirely dependent on beekeeping! http://ca.gov/drought/ has additional information on the state s measures to address the drought. On the issue of access to public lands, our advocates at Platinum Advisors are diligently working with the staff at the Department of Fish and Wildlife to address the technical implementation of AB 2185 (Eggman). This legislation, which Governor Brown signed into law last fall, encourages beekeeping on wildlife lands the department manages when those lands land-use plans must be developed or amended. AB 1259 (Levine) has recently been introduced, at our lobbyist s request, to clarify the law and ensure that, due to the unique nature of
beekeeping, the department may authorize the temporary placement of bee hives on public lands through written agreements that are not to be subjected to competitive bidding. We hope that this technical issue can be resolved through the administrative process, but this legislation may be ultimately needed to ensure certainty and more foraging opportunities on public lands for our industry in the future. Assembly Member Marc Levine is the Chair of the Natural Resources Committee; the bill was heard on April 28 th. We want to be livestock, but we don t want to go out to bid for apiary sites on public land. One agency listened, but we ll have to wait and see what others do. Holly wants to do legislation to increase bee-theft penalties. The Board s consensus was that she should do so. Marketing Troy is doing the survey for the Convention packet. Membership Mike noted that the Orange County club is putting our membership brochure in their newmember packets; we ll have to print more. Parliamentarian - Dr. Elina Nino talked to CAPCA in December and didn t get booed off stage; in fact she got a request for further contact. Carlen will send her a copy of Roberts Rules of Order. Research Alan said research is progressing as weather conditions allow. Davis is going well. Bob suggested we set our funding goal for next year so Elina has it for doing RFPs by the end of July. The Board approved a 2016 Research Budget of $100,000, to be increased or decreased as appropriate for proposals, and with Varroa as the primary research target. Rewards - Bob Miller had an attempted hive theft in San Luis Obispo, but the thief dropped the hive and got stung a lot, leaving the hive where he dropped it. Law enforcement is after this thief! Chip s Bees lost 37 pallets of bees stolen at I5 and Highway 12. Website Carlen reported facilitating basic site maintenance. CLUB REPORTS Beekeepers Assn So. Calif. Their new V.P. is Sean Crowley. California Bee Breeders Brad reported that Buzz Landon is still President, and Jerry Hightower is V.P. The Butte County crime unit reported trying to increase efforts to catch bee thieves, as there were a lot of such thefts (20+ reports) last year with no charges pressed. The local Director of UPS talked about queen shipments. Brad has had no queen shipping issues with UPS this year. The Bee Breeders next meeting will be in October. Delta Bee Club Terry noted a great Februay meeting, when Elina spoke. In March, Gene and John Miller spoke on, respectively, Apimondia and BMPs. April saw a presentation by Wendy Mather on Varroa, and the May meeting featured a round table discussion, which worked well for the many new members. The club will meet in June, but not in July. Gilroy Beekeepers - Elections were held. Beginning, intermediate, and advanced beekeeping classes are scheduled for this spring. A queen-rearing group has been formed, and a package order has commenced. Orange County Beekeepers New officers include President Rob Stone, V.P. Christine Ferrian, Treasurer Lisa Hamm, and Secretary Rich Heryford. Events included a February meeting featuring Jerry Hayes, a March meeting with presentation by Jeremy Rose, and an April meeting on bee package installation and care. Sacramento Area Beekeepers Bob Sugar reported that 160 members meet at the U.C. Coop Extension Auditorium collocated with the Sacramento County Ag Commissioner s office. Wendy Mather spoke in March about MiteAway Quick Strips, and Tim Chapman in April presented on Beekeeping in the Central African Republic. The May program will be a queen bee panel discussion of: 1) How to tell if a colony is queen right, 2) Marking queens, 3) The value of broodless periods, 4) What is a good brood pattern, 5) Introducing a queen, and 6) Supercedure vs. swarm cells vs. both. All classes scheduled to-date are complete. An Intermediate Beekeeping class with Serge Labesque is set for May, and one with Randy Oliver is scheduled for June. SABA held a Beekeeping Open House on March 29; they will also have an information booth at the Roseville DIY and Garden Tour on 5/16, and will participate in the Sacramento County Fair on 5/21-5/24. July 10-26 will see them helping staff the CSBA booth at the California State Fair; August 1 is Harvest Day with the Sacramento County Master Gardeners at the Fair Oaks Horticultural Center, where SABA will have an information booth and distribute National Honey Board recipes. The club will also help stuff attendee bags for the CSBA Convention. Santa Clara Valley Beekeepers - Elections were held. A two-year planning process for speakers and events has been put in place. Newsletter publishing resumed. Their package order has commenced. Alan Henninger spoke there late last year. Wayne prompted the club to give $2.000 to the CSBA for bee research.
Santa Maria Valley Beekeepers They have disbanded. The next Board meeting will be in San Diego, California, on 11 September at 9:00 a.m., exact location TBA. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 2:55 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Carlen Jupe, Secretary/Treasurer