20 DECEMBER 2010 MINUTES
INCLUDING YEAR-END REPORTS
Members and Visitors met at 7:00 pm at the Oglethorpe County Farm Bureau on Monday, 20 December 2010. It was a joint Monthly Business Meeting and the 2010 Annual Business Meeting. Officers gave a summary of the club's activities and progress in 2010. These are included at the end of this page.

BUSINESS MEETING

1) Call to Order:
The Business Meeting was called to order by Chairperson Agatha Coggins at 7:07 pm.

2) Reading of the Minutes of the Preceding Business Meeting:
The minutes of the 15 November 2010 Business Meeting were distributed and read by Communications Chairperson Carol Williamson for Secretary Glenn Galau who was out of state. They were approved with corrections.

3) Treasurer's Report:
Treasurer Louise 'Doc' Spears gave the Treasurer's Report for the last month through the beginning of the present meeting. The previous balance at the beginning of the meeting on 15 November 2010 was $ 1,363.78. There were no deposits or expenses for the last month. This leaves a present balance of $ 1,363.78. The Treasurer's Report was approved as read.

4) Officer and Committee Reports:
2010 Annual Reports were distributed, read by the Officers, and discussed. These reports are included at the end of this page.

OCBC member Duncan Gannon read highlights from the 2010 Technology Report prepared by Web master Glenn Galau. Members seemed impressed and were very complimentary about the Web site and thankful for Glenn's hard work to make it one of the best bee club Web sites they have seen.

Louise 'Doc' Spears gave the Treasurer's 2010 Annual Report. Annual Income totaled $ 2,836.05. Annual Expenses totaled $ 1,665.80. Current available balance is $ 1,363.78. Thank you 'Doc' for writing and depositing those checks and keeping up with the figures!

Carol Williamson read the Communications Report for 2010. She focused on media exposure for the Club. The Club printed business cards. Members participated in 2 major festivals and attended GPA's fall meeting where they won 3 awards for their honey. Articles appeared in the Oglethorpe Echo about collecting wild bees, winning honey awards, and educating the children about beekeeping and bees at the Oglethorpe County Primary School's Heritage Day. Not an easy job and we thank Carol for her sucess in this and the other roles she plays for the Club.

Vice-Chairperson Betty Ward read her Annual Report on the Programs for 2010. There was a wide variety of programs covering beekeeping laws, honey - how to show it and how to use it for health and well-being, putting together hives, bee therapy, bee removal, bee research at the UGA Bee Lab, making wax candles, choosing bee plants, how to get children interested in beekeeping, and lastly we enjoyed eating the honey of our labor as we cooked dishes with it for our Harvest dinner. Thank you Betty for your tireless efforts to find speakers for our meetings!

Agatha Coggins gave an overview that recapped many of the previously-mentioned activities and thanked everyone for their help in making 2010 a successful year for OCBC. She mentioned that we were able to add one more certified beekeeper to the roster of the state certified beekeepers - way to go Wanda O'Callaghan! Agatha also stated that six of our members have joined the Georgia Beekeepers Association. We have established a presence at the state level. Thank you Agatha; a not-so-gentle task master, for important role in what we have done!

5) Old Business: None

6) Unfinished Business:
As he mentioned at last month's meeting, Patrick Phelps would like the Club members to have a indoor beekeeping workshop designed for new beekeepers. Patrick felt the workshop should be held soon to be of the most help to people who should soon be ordering their bees and beekeeping equipment. Betty Ward said some day we should be able to do what Dan Harris and Bill Owens do - teach beekeeping classes. Carol Willliamson said she had not done anything to arrange such an event, because Betty had been ill. She would contact the Oglethorpe Library to see if we could use the meeting room for a workshop. She would be in touch with Patrick and Betty about what she finds out. Patrick, Carol and Betty are on the beekeeping workshop committee.

7) New Business: None

8) Adjournment:
The Business Meeting was adjourned at 8:31 pm.

9) Submitted by Carol Williamson, Communications Chairperson
Approved with modifications during the Business Meeting of 17 January 2011.
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Chairperson Report for 2010
Agatha Coggins, Chairperson
20 December 2010

The following OCBC activities have created excitement, learning, education, and fun: Established a presence at the State level: Six members of our club are now members of the Georgia Beekeepeers Association. Attendance at the Fall Conference was both exciting and educational. We were able to share OCBC business cards with other participants from across the State and because of our web page we are now included on the Georgia Beekeepers Association website that informs others of our presence in Oglethorpe County. In addition, three of our members won prizes at the State Honey competition. This was quite a feat considering all three were new beekeepers.

We created a web site which is professional, informational, colorful and includes a photo gallery. All visitors to the site comment on its attractiveness and overall appeal.

Creation of business cards, which was a collaborative effort, allow all of us to be proud carriers.

Doubling our membership roll is a tremendous feat.

Creating new beekeepers has been an exciting achievement.

Educating the general public, not only with our participation at festivals and the Oglethorpe Fresh Farmers Market, but also at the Oglethorpe County Primary School were we exposed 485 children to the world of bees.

Establishment of workshops with knowledgeable professionals allowed learning opportunities for all who attended.

Establishment of positive public relations with non beekeepers to bring and share awareness of the world of bees, highlighting their importantance in our ecosystem.

Added one more Certified Beekeeper to the roster of State Certified Beekeepers, Wanda O'Callaghan.

Establishment of cooperative efforts to assist one another.

Received grant from the Georgia Beekeepers Association. I think all members of the Oglethorpe County Bee Club should be proud of their achievements. I look forward to our continued expansion and the wonderfull adventures we will have next year.
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Treasurer's Report for 2010
Doc Spears, Treasurer
20 December 2011

For the Period 01 January 2010 to 20 December 2010


Membership Count: 14

Financial Report:
 
Starting Cash On Hand from 2009:193.53
 
2010 Income:
 Grants250.00
 Donations8.00
 Honey Sales2,398.05
 Membership Dues180.00
 Total Income+ 2,836.05
 
2010 Expenses:
 Honey Purchased1,090.00
 Website Cost142.80
 Festival Event Fees30.00
 Speakers Fees215.00
 Business Cards128.00
 Total Expenses-  1,665.80
 
2010 Net Income+ 1,170.25
 
Cash On Hand at end of 2010:1,363.78
 
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Programs Report for 2010
Betty Ward, Program Chairperson
20 December 2011

The following lists the dates, topics, and speakers at the 2010 Monthly Meetings. Please see the 2010 Meetings page for more details.

 
18 JanHoneybees and Your Good HealthPaul Smith
15 FebPutting Hives TogetherJ. Keith Fielder
15 MarHoney, Not just a SweetnerCyndi Ball
16 AprBeekeeping Laws of GeorgiaBill Owens
17 MayMember Stories and QuestionsMembers
21 Jun
 		Remarkable Bee Photos, Hive Management, Bee Removal
and Venom Therapy		Deborah Sasser
Charles Lynn
19 JulHow to make Rolled Beeswax CandlesBecky Collins
19 Aug
 		How to enter your Honey and Honey Crafts in Honey Shows
 		Virginia Webb
Carl Webb
20 Sep
 		Getting Kids involved in Beekeeping
Coverd Dish Dinner featuring Honey Recipies		Lena Franklin
Granddaughter Samantha
18 OctResearch at the UGA Bee Lab and its ApplicationsJennifer Berry
15 NovHarvest Dinner and Bee PlantsGlenn Galau
20 DecFirst Annual Business Meeting, Annual ReportsOfficers
 
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Communications Report for 2010
Carol Williamson, Communications Chairperson
20 December 2011

Announcements of the Club's upcoming monthly meetings were listed in the Upcoming Section of The Oglethorpe Echo and sent by email to about 200 individuals.

The Club attended the Winterille Marigold Festival for outreach and to sell honey for the Club on 15 May.

In early June, the Club began selling honey for the Club at the Oglethorpe Fresh Farmers Market in Lexington. It continued selling into the fall until all the honey was sold.

Our Junior Club member placed second for his beekeeping demonstration at the Georgia 4-H District Project Achievement contest. The Club recognized his achievement and honored him with a special Club Certificate.

An article entitled "Club Members help Bees get Home" ran in The Oglethorpe Echo on 17 June.

Club stationary with it's letterhead was color laser copied and given to the Club secretary.

In early September, the Club had 1000 business cards printed.

Five members of the club attended the Georgia Beekeeper Association's fall meeting on 17 and 18 September at Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain GA.
Three of its members, Betty, Wanda and Carol, won ribbons at the State Honey Show during the meeting.

The Club received a grant from the Georgia Beekeeper Association for club start-up in the amount of $ 250 on 16 September at its Board of Directors meeting.

A photo of the honey winners along with a lengthy outline about them and the Club receiving the grant from the Georgia Beekeeper Association ran in The Oglethorpe Echo on 11 November. The Club attended Mule Day near Washington on 9 October for outreach and to sell honey for the club.

A photo and outline of Agatha Coggins giving a beekeeping demonstration at Heritage Day at the Oglethorpe County Elementary School ran in The Oglethorpe Echo on 11 November. Nearly 600 people heard Agatha's talk on beekeeping.

Beekeeper Bob Binnie was voted the Club's first Honorary Member. The Club hopes to present Bob with the award in early 2011.

The Club provided refreshments at the Eastern Piedmont Beekeepers Association's December meeting.
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Website Report for 2010
Glenn Galau, Webmaster
20 December 2010

The website, ocbeeclub.org, has been up since mid March 2010.

The cost is about $70 a year when purchased in two-year increments. Unlimited storage; unlimited bandwidth; automatic backup; lots of addons available free or for a modest extra fee. I recommend the webhost, Startlogic.com. We are an affiliate of the host and will receive $100 for anyone who establishes an account with that host after following a link to it near the bottom of the left sidebar. None have yet done so, but if you know of anyone in need of a host, suggest that they establish an account with Startlogic.com through our website.

Utilities that are not yet exploited, but of possible interest: several blog clients; several shopping carts, MySQL interface to relational SQL databases. There may be a shopping cart with a no-fee gateway (credit card-processing organization) for very small e-commerce site such as we might become.

The site is viewable in the same form by the most recent versions of all of the major browsers: Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer. That is a no mean feat. Its resolution is about 1024 pixels in the horizontal dimension, a resolution available to approximately 85% of the world's machines. The size of the content portion of each page is about 800 pixels in the horizontal dimension, a resolution available to virtually all of the world's machines.

Navigation follows best practices: internal links to a page are inactivated when on that page; links opening in a new page/new tab are indicated as such. Expanding left side-bar menus provide subject-specific menus. A site map needs to be installed. Search of the website function is through a free Google Custom Search, but at the cost of a few ads returned by it at the top of search results.

There are at present about 30 static (hard coded in html) pages comprising the website. I do not use an interface or editing program to construct or modify their contents. Modification is done by editing the html document directly. This is an inefficiency, but within my competence.

At present there are 14 Photo Albums with 290 image pages which are created on the fly when requested by a browser. Performance might be improved by the program creating equivalent html-encoded static versions of each photo-containing page. The Photo Gallery runs under a free, php server-side-based ZenPhoto.com utility. The format of the pages it creates has been heavily edited so that they appear seamlessly as part of the website proper.

The site is deliberately tech poor to handle the widest audience and those with slower connections. However, the result is a rather flat appearance. Any effects in its pages are accomplished only with javascript, which is enabled in at least 90% of the world's browsers. Visual features and backgrounds are usually htm encoded rather than with images. Any images are usually reduced to a native size of about twice the dimensions of the browser-presented size to allow the fastest download and browser processing speeds while preserving most of the information in the image for those who know how to recover it.

Content is still only of the 2010 calendar year. There are about six months of the later part of 2009 to be added. So far it has been composed and edited only by myself. There is need of an additional writer. There are several topics waiting to be created by someone with the interest and expertise. Its listing of equipment and bee suppliers is still incomplete. Member bios could be added. Member businesses could be added. Sales of honey and other products through the website could be added, but that requires someone responsible for shipping the items. Major improvements include moving the 200+ mailing list from gmail to ocbeeclub.org.

Does anyone look at it? There are about 3-5 visitors per day, looking collectively at about 18 pages per day which require about 160 requests to the server to satisfy. There is a modest amount of traffic resulting from fairly specific queries to search engines (persons who know we exist but do not know or have not bookmarked the domain name).
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Modified 24 July 2011 by Glenn Galau   |   Web Design by Glenn Galau

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