The next meeting of the Canon Co-op is this Sunday, Sept 20, at 4 pm.  It will be held at the home of Paula and Marvin at 625 N. Raynolds.  We will be touring their garden and hearing about the lessons they learned this growing season.  Judy will also show us highlights of the Co-op website.  And if there are any artists out there, we need your help painting faces on some pumpkins & squash.  The potluck theme is “Garden Harvest.”

The Strategic Planning Meeting went on as planned last Saturday.  Marshall Hopkins was there to help with some marketing ideas.  His wife, Darlene, gives workshops on healthy living and eating for no charge, so we may ask her to come give that workshop to us in the near future.  We talked about setting up a bulletin board on the website to post “deals” on bulk items, sending flyers to churches, schools, and other organizations to promote our membership (Kieran will work on a flyer), Helene is going to call the Health Department to find out rules for resale and repackaging of bulk items, Mike is going to investigate sources of honey, pork, cheese and rabbit.  Goals of the Co-op were discussed:  education, bulk buying, distribution, eating healthy and local, and cost effectiveness.  We discussed buying items on a limited basis to distribute to members instead of asking members what they want (which doesn’t seem to get much feedback). This is one idea we decided to implement and we will be buying local raw honey.  Price will be around $5.50/pint, and $10.00/quart for members–let us know if you would like some.  Larger quantities are available on request.  We will also be getting some bulk flour (unbleached white) from Vitamin Cottage–if you are interested let us know.  Don’t know the price, yet, but we will repackage into any size you wish.

The Co-op is going to have a Strategic Planning Meeting. This will be a workshop on August 22, at Aardwolf Alpacas.
http://www.aardwolfalpacas.com.

Start time will be 8:30 am—coffee and pastries will be provided.   If you would like to bring something to share for breakfast you are welcome to.  The meeting should only take a couple hours, so we will not be having a potluck for lunch.  There will be a couple of individuals there that are versed in marketing, so we plan to accomplish our goal. If you can, please plan to attend.