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Season's Greetings From Your ANA Board |
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Your Agritourism Networking Association will soon complete another successful year. The economy has caused some blips, for instance with school field trips slightly down. Reports are that we have pretty much weathered fewer visitors to our farms in some cases, but an uptick in agritourism revenue in other places. Our vineyards and wineries seem to be doing well. We look forward to a better year in 2010!
Plans are moving at a fast clip for the 4th Annual ANA Winter Conference. The festivities begin Thursday evening, February 18 at the City Hotel and Bistro in Greenville with a wine and snack reception. All of our ANA member wineries and potential new vineyard members have been invited to send some of their most popular wine for tasting by the attendees who arrive on Thursday. City Hotel will provide a full breakfast at no cost to guests Friday morning, with a low cost for those arriving Friday morning for breakfast.
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Tourism, Marketing and Global Branding, Lynn Minges, will bring the keynote address, “Marketing Rural Tourism in North Carolina.” Secretary Minges has a long history as a tourism professional, and has encouraged her tourism team to work with our agritourism farmers and the Agritourism Office. The ‘VisitNC’ website hosts many agritourism farm sites.
The opening business session and keynote address will be in Salons II & III. Following the keynote address, conference participants will have eight superb workshops all day Friday, February 19, from which to choose, with an entertaining presentation by Andrew Gillis, Gillis Hill Farms, at lunch.
We hope that you will attend the conference – our first in eastern North Carolina.
Get those registration forms in by Monday, February 1 and avoid a late fee! The Conference registration form is available on the Agritourism Office website, www.ncagr.gov/agritourism. See the article below on innovations at this year’s Conference!
What a Lineup of Speakers and Panelists! |
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| 8-9 am | Welcoming Remarks, Commissioner Steve Troxler (invited) |
| Business Meeting and Election of 2010 Board of Directors | |
| 9:15 - 9:45 am | Keynote Address, Secretary Lynn Minges |
| 9:45 - 10 am | Network, Visit Exhibitors and Vendors, Check Out |
| 10 - 10:50 am | Successful Agricultural Business Marketing Strategies |
| Stacy Tomas and Samantha Rich, NCSU, Moderators |
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Milton Ganyard, Ganyard Hill Farm |
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| Sheila Suggs-Little, Grapefull Sisters Vineyard | |
| John & Tina Gross, Gross Farms | |
| Planning for Success | |
| Annette Dunlap, NCDA&CS, Agribusiness Development | |
| 11 - 11:30 am | Network, Visit Exhibitors and Vendors, Check Out |
| 11:30 am - 12:15 pm | Lunch – Salons II & III |
| 12:15 - 12:45 pm | Lunchtime Entertainment, Andrew Gillis, Gillis Hill Farms |
| 1 - 1:50 pm | Storytelling Workshop – How to Tell Your Farm Story |
| Robbie Lewis, Lewis Farm | |
| Wayne and Riely Woosley, Woosley Farm | |
| Grassroots Gumption: Persuasion and Public Policy | |
| Annette Dunlap, NCDA&CS, Agribusiness Development | |
| 2 - 2:20 pm | Network, Visit Exhibitors and Vendors |
| 2:30 - 3:20 pm | Successful Sales – Agritourism Farm Shops and Stores |
| Mary Vollmer, Vollmer Farm | |
| James Sharp, Deans Farm Market | |
| Vineyards, Christmas Tree Farms & Pick-Your-Own – What Flies or Flops | |
| David Fussell, Duplin Winery | |
| Willie Justice, Justice Farm | |
| David Brock, Brock’s Berries & Produce Farm | |
| 3:30 - 4:20 pm | Agritourism Farms – What Flies or Flops |
| Kathleen Kesselring, Amazing Acres | |
| John Peterson, Hubb’s Corn Maze | |
| David Ferrell, Green Acres | |
| Successful Agricultural Business Marketing Strategies | |
| (See 10 – 10:50 am listing) | |
| 4:30 - 4:50 pm | Wrap-up, Evaluation Collection and Adjourn |
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| Edible Piedmont, a magazine distributed statewide, features an ad paid for by ANA in its quarterly issue. Two more ads will be in the next two magazines. | |
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Farm Brochure Contest
You will have a chance to "strut your (brochure) stuff" in our first ever ANA Conference Farm Brochure contest! Let other members see what you use to bring visitors to your farm.
Bring your farm or winery/vineyard brochure and enter our contest for “Most Admired Farm Brochure.” A display table will be in Salon I. The winner will be recognized at the final session and have bragging rights to the most popular, well-done brochure.
At registration, attendees will be given three tickets with which to vote during the day. Tickets may be used in any combination, and members are strongly urged to vote only their tickets! Trading or selling of tickets is frowned upon.
Bucket Raffle for Farm Youth Scholarships
This year, for the first time, ANA will have a “Bucket Raffle” to raise money for a youth scholarship program to encourage the younger generation to stay on the family farm, diversifying into such areas as agritourism, niche markets and other areas. The raffle will provide seed money for the project. Details about the scholarship program will be developed by the 2010 Board of Directors.
Members are requested to bring farm/winery gifts for the raffle. Winners will be announced during the networking breaks, at lunch and at the final session, with perhaps BIG prizes saved for the very end. You have to be present to win. Tickets will be available for purchase at registration.
Vendors and Exhibitors in Salon I
Members and other agritourism supporters are invited to read the letter and fill out the application on www.ncagr.gov/agritourism. Members can exhibit without cost. We have confirmation from the Rural Center, Rural Advancement Foundation International (funder), and the DOT Highway Signage Office, and more are expected. Sponsorships are encouraged!
| 2010 Officers and District Directors | |
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| The following ANA members have volunteered to serve ANA in 2010. | |
| Officers | |
| President | Andrew Gillis, presently SC Dist. Dir. |
| Vice President | Vicki Sundberg, presently Secretary |
| Treasurer | Lea Thompson, presently Treasurer |
| Secretary | Open |
| District Directors | |
| Northeast Dist. Dir. | Open – 2 positions |
| Southeast Dist. Dir | Jack Moye, new to the Board |
| Amy Moye, new to the Board | |
| North Central | Sam Thompson, presently Dist. Dir. |
| Dave Pullin, new to the Board | |
| South Central | Open – 2 positions |
| West Central | Reba McInnis, presently Dist. Dir. |
Loch Hoffman, presently Dist. Dir. |
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| West | Bill Young, presently Dist. Dir. |
| Barbara Harrell, presently Dist. Dir. | |
Nominations for any office or district position will be accepted by any Board member or the Executive Director until the business session. At that time the final slate of officers will be voted on by the attendees. After officers are elected, districts needing directors will caucus to elect their directors and announce those results to the membership. Members may volunteer/nominate themselves.
Board members attend at least two board meetings: one during the year, and one the evening before the next year’s conference. All ANA members may attend Board meetings. The Board meeting at this year’s conference will be held in Salon III at the City Hotel at 8:00 pm Thursday, February 18. If you are interested in being an officer or becoming a district director, attending the Board meeting may be a way to assess you decision. Don’t be shy!
Executive Director Glass to Hold Agritourism Association
Workshop at NAFDMA
Martha Glass, manager of the NCDA&CS Agritourism Office and Executive Director of ANA, will hold a one-hour workshop at the 2010 meeting of the North American Farmers Direct Marketing and Agritourism Association on how to start a statewide agritourism organization and how to incorporate the rural trails concept into statewide tourism development. The international meeting, with close to one thousand people expected, will be held in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in early February. It draws farmers and rural tourism professionals from the United States, Canada and Great Britain. She will prepare a written report for the Conference notebook.
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