General Meeting Minutes June 2023

Pierce County Beekeepers Association General Meeting Minutes from Monday, June 5th, 2023

Meeting time: 7:06 pm to 8:05 pm

Mary Dempsey (Club President) Called the meeting to order at 7:06 pm

Welcome Introduction:

Mary Dempsey introduced herself and shared information about herself.
She is the PCBA President.
She lives in South Hill \ Puyallup.
She is retired from nursing.
She has been a beekeeper for 7 years.
She has 14 hives in 5 apiaries.

Business:

Fundraisers: Mary talked about the net profits from the fundraising efforts for the club. The Spring fair raised $2,797, the Silent Auction raised $1,627.49, the Master Gardener Plant Sale raised $376.08, and the Point Defiance Garden Festival raised $497.49 for a grand total of $5,298.06.
Kathleen was called up to share the apiary update. Kathleen talked about the second site that is being set up to be able to do queen rearing next year. There were 2 nucs and 4 packages that were purchased for the learning apiary. Apiary days will be as follows: the 1st Friday of the month will be taught by Katie Marler and the 3rd Saturday will be taught by Kathleen. Kathleen talked briefly about the goal of creating a sustainable apiary. One that has hives that survive the winter. Two swarms were added to the learning apiary by Katie and one split was performed by Kathleen. The biggest challenge for our learning apiary will be treatments to keep the mite numbers down. She then talked about everyone following apiary guidelines and making sure everything is being recorded in the binder that was put in the apiary shed. She asked everyone to log and record their activities so everyone knows when and what was done to which hives.
Mary talked about the search to find someone who has experience writing grants. She has found someone who has experience and is willing to do this for the club. We just need to find the grants. If anyone knows of any grants or how to find them to please come talk to her or get into contact with her.
We need volunteers for the Pierce County fair and the State Fair. These fairs ar4e strictly educational and have no honey sales. Jeanie then spoke up and encouraged new people to feel free to come out and volunteer. She learns so much working with other club members with more experience at the fair.
There will be no meeting in July because we have the annual picnic on Saturday, July 22nd. The club provides the meat and everything but side dishes. Jeanie shared that the picnic area is the first right by the Allmendinger Center and the time is 11am to 4pm.
Tonight we will have community groups for the rest of the meeting time.

Questions:

Mary opened up the floor for questions:

The first question was if there was landscaping equipment in the apiary shed to clean up the overgrowth of trees and weeds. The answer was no, there is no equipment and you need to bring your own tools. We are working on getting equipment for the grounds and treatment of the apiary.
The second question was when is the Pierce County Fair. The fair is on the 2nd weekend of August. It’s August 10th - 13th, 2023. The State Fair is September 1st through the 28th.

Wrap up:

After the questions, Kathleen broke everyone into area community groups.
Hospitality was performed by Jeanie, Eileen, and Jim.

Meeting adjourned at 8:05pm.