Maka Si Tomni (Surround The Universe)

Heifer Potluck Meeting Minutes Thursday, August 21, 2008

Present:  Judith, Erik, Lars, Laura, Nathan, Max, Melanie, Karen, Melody, Evie, Isaac, Ann

Thanks to Karen for hosting the potluck and to Ann for facilitating and taking notes.

***Introductions were done as we had new people joining us tonight.

Business news:

1. Evergreen State Fair is happening in Monroe now, volunteer if you can (contact Eliza).
2. Sept 6th will be the Seattle Tilth Harvest Fair at the Good Shepherd Center.  Erik’s family will be manning the booth but if there are any new volunteers that would like to pair up with experienced folks this would be a good opportunity for training.
3. Sept 13th will be the Edmonds Green Festival.  The booth is fully staffed but again if anyone new would like to pair with experienced folks let Eliza know.
4. Next Potluck is at Mary’s in Shoreline on Sept 15th at 6:30 pm.  More information coming via emails.
5. Heifer 101 will be held on Oct 11th (Saturday) in the REI building.  It will be an introductory course meant for volunteers and others interested in what Heifer does.  The curriculum will include core competency and planning for this next year.  The goal is to further our competency and introduce Heifer to others interested in volunteering.
6. There will not be a Hunger Banquet this year.  It was decided that the time would be better spent building our volunteer base.
7. Upcoming opportunities will include alternate gift fairs.
8. We’re also working on “Menu for the Future” from the NW Earth Institute.  Class will begin Oct 13th and go for 6 or 7 Tuesdays.

Questions that Isaac responded to:

1. What’s new:  new school curriculum.  The Read to Feed program will be a component of a larger program rather than a stand alone.  The larger program will also include “Get It” which is designed for Middle School kids.  It is envisioned that in the future there will be programs for Elementary/Middle school, Junior high, High school and college levels.  Two new videos are also coming out.
2. Tougher questions: how do we handle questions from folks who are totally against sending animals (ie goats) because of the impact on the land?  Isaac mentioned that the animals are “zero grazing” and that King Grass and Elephant Grass are being planted to serve as the food supply for these animals.  Second tough question was regarding how much money went to support the building of Heifer’s new HQ.  Isaac replied that the funds for this building were all earmarked and raised separately.

New Information from Isaac:

1. Sue Bergman retired, there is a new person (male) in her place and at this point decisions are still in process about where support will go.
2. Heifer goals:  planning is done for 5 year increments but initiatives are set annually.  The strategic plan is set for an increase in fund raising this year of 15%.  (Note that we’ve had an increase of about 10-15% annually for the past 12 years but this year things have plateaued because of the economic situation.  There was lots of discussion about making people who have money aware of the need.  Heifer continues to avoid government grants as much as possible.  We are different than many charities because up to 98% of our funds come from the community level (there is some money from USAID in Nepal and Rwanda but USAID has demands for reporting progress that doesn’t jive well with Heifer’s way of doing things and so this has been challenging).
3. Christmas Kiosks are not likely to be done this year, there were lots of glitches in making them work properly.
4. There is a new volunteer internet database that will retain the names of people who do what, online trainings and sample presentations will be available with this.  It is still a work in progress.
5. Isaak discussed the Bill Gates grants for the Dairy program in Eastern Africa. He also talked about Umbrella projects such as the Food Sovereignty and Biodiversity project in Southern Honduras that is working with 10 different NGO’s as well as single projects where as many as 2300 families are helped (Ecuador, Nepal, China).