Inland & Coastal Meetup ~ Nuts and Bolts Organizational Meeting

Present: Ana Victoria, Donna, Karen, Anna Hope, Kami, Kate, Katie, April, Mike, Beth, Leslie ( notes )

AGENDA: Housekeeping items, Chapters, Resource Guide, Guild Finances, Mobile Clinic, Announcements

Gratitude was expressed for and to all the members of the guild and volunteer efforts and great deal of time that has been brought to the MHG this year.

We started with a discussion about our Mission/Vision Statement and a process called The Lean Change Canvas. This mission statement was put together when we applied for the Grant this year. The purpose to discuss the Mission and Vision Statement and discuss the Lean Change Canvas to see if we want to add or change any of or Vision or Mission Statement. We will let this simmer and discuss again at a future meeting.

We want to set goals for 2019 ~ Financial and Structural.

Below is the definition and discussion that followed:

Mission of the Mendocino County Herb Guild is to gather as farmers, medicine makers and community members to create Full-Circle Herbalism. Full-Circle Herbalism benefits the community through regenerative cultivation and wild-crafting of herbs, intentional medicine-making and herb-exchanges, conscious herbal education and the development of accessible apothecaries and clinics so that healing plant medicine can be available to all who need it.
A Vision Statement focuses on tomorrow and what an organization wants to ultimately become. A Mission Statement focuses on today and what an organization does to achieve it.
The first is a statement of vision. It provides a destination for the organization. Next is a statement of mission. This is a guiding light of how to get to the destination.

VISION- Big picture of what you want to achieve
MISSION-general statement of how you will achieve the vision. The mission statement is an action statement that usually begins with the work “to”. A companion statement often created with the vision and mission is statement of core values
CORE VALUES- define the organization in terms of the principles and values the leaders will follow in carrying out the activities of the organization.
STRATEGIES- are one or more ways to use the mission statement in order to achieve the vision statement.
GOALS- these are general statements of what needs to be accomplished to implement a strategy
ACTION PLANS- these are specific implementation plans of how you will achieve an objective

LEAN CHANGE CANVAS DISCUSSION

1. Value Propositions- What problems are we helping to solve? What value are we creating for Mendocino County?

access to herbs, locally grown medicine, everything sustainably harvested, economic growth, outlet for medicine makers, alternative to western medicine, educated clients, access to basic health care, affordable healthcare, preservation of herbal traditions, land regeneration, connection to nature, preservation of seeds

2. Targets/ Who are we serving ?

ourselves, Herbalists, underserved populations, people in crisis, 1st Nations people/indigenous people, low income/homeless, future generations, students, the Earth, people who need healing, elders, plants, animals/wildlife, people who want to reconnect with nature, people who buy Vitality tonic, farmers, health conscious people, people with expendable income, open minded people, people seeking alternatives

3. Channels/ Pathways /Strategies

Channels- students, educations, social media, classrooms, email list, meetings, marketing
Pathways- Vitality tonic, farmers market, social media, email list, out reach in stores, events in community, radio
Strategies- Low income/crisis, mobile clinic, word of mouth, allies-fire department, farmers market, hand bills

4. Partners

Farmers, retail stores, community members, medicine makers, practitioners, teachers, members/sponsors, nature, supporters, volunteers, donators

5. Relationships

Consistency, reliability, quality control, communication, accurate intelligent information, integrity, honesty, trust, reliability, accessibility to products, compassion, inclusiveness, respect, understanding, patience, reciprocity with Earth, sustainable, local products.

6. Revenue Streams

Donations: volunteer time, ingredients, medicine, membership, sponsorship, fundraisers, sales: tonics, merchandise, drinks, grants, classes, events, fundraiser

CHAPTERS

Questions discussed: Do the Inland and Coastal Chapters have the same goals/vision? How do we deal with the financial structure we have? Do the financial needs by either chapter need to be approved or not? By whom? How do we decide on anything- Like names of products or merchandise? What are the clearest communications channels between both Chapters? Who are the point people? Email?
Karin discussed the history of the MCHG. She sent an email to Donna and said lets meet. There had been a group called the Mendocino Herb Association for about 5 years but it petered out and after a while Karin and Donna decided to call 2 meetings due to the distance so at first met in both locations. Inlands first pod was the study group. Coast first pod was the clinical homeless street project. After 2 years Coastal has expanded to a clinic in Ft Bragg to educate, cultivate, develop a resource guide and do some emergency medicine making ..
Donna thanks everyone for their Labors of Love.. says the community feedback is very happy and supportive of MCHG
The original set up is a whole county wide organization with 2 chapters. At this point we are still in agreement and want to continue this way.
We had to fill out paperwork so stated persons were quickly nominated for officers of the group. President: Donna, Secretary: Ana Victoria, Treasurer: Anna Hope and Karin. Short discussion about whether we want to continue with these officers or have an election to change.
MCHG is an unincorporated association. We have a business license and a fictions name and an environmental health permit submitted to the county.
AnaVictoria discussed Herbalist without Borders operating structure and its benefits
Discussed what is working between the two Chapters .. how we are connected, how much we want to be integrated, the distance issue to attend each others meetings, and of significance how much permission must we get from the other group to take actions on projects.. and how do we best do that?
Discussed formation of a Council with 5-7 members. Consensus voting, Budget approvals, etc. VS. need for a Board of Directors.
BOD- insurance, voting, bylaws.. it is getting clearer that there needs to be a small group of people designated to make some of the critical decisions for the group. There are templates available online to look at for bylaws for both Council and BOD
Money issues discussed: where monies go for farmers markets, events, individual fundraisers, memberships.
How do the Chapters best help each other? How do we not dilute, fragment, be divisive if we talk about each group separately?
Basically the logistics and distance in the county is the biggest issue. It is noted that at some point we may have more chapters, like Covelo or Laytonville or Ukiah, Redwood Valley.. so the MCHG is in the process of tackling said topics as it was reclassified we want to be a unified group defined by Mendocino County. We want to keep this group as a Mendocino County Herb Guild.
Decided to have biannual meetings held together at the coast and inland.
This money topic needs more discussion – should we incentives fundraising for each chapter? What is fair?

FARMERS MARKET

Thank you to Anna Hope and the others that have dedicated so much of their own time to help the MCHG have a presence at the inland Farmers market in Willits
For the 2 farmers markets jan 24 and 31 we need speakers to spend about 15-20 minutes sharing information with the public. Karen volunteered <~ get back to Donna on this

KEY QUESTIONS FOR BOTH CHAPTERS TO DISCUSS

Do we want to switch to the Credit Union for ease of accounting- we can have separate accounting at the CU
Do we want to create an inland/coastal Council? To help look at our business structure? For the LLC and how it goes forward? Duties?
Liability insurance issues? What issues are there? How would we handle a potential big liability issue. As an unincorporated LLC .. the officers take the liability.
Should we invest in a document scanner?
Do we want to be under W.E.L.L.? pros and cons
Council or BOD creation/duties/who wants to be on it?
Ideally how is money allowed to the the chapters? How is it being done now?
What are the current and projected expenses?
What is a chapter event vs a guild event? Define
What is the criteria for a MCHG sponsored event vs a chapter event?
What is the best or most effective communication channel between the groups?
Do we want each chapter to have autonomous money accounts or unite all money?
What are exceptions of each chapter for themselves and for each other?
How do we create and keep unity between chapters?
What is best strategy for individual chapters to make budget proposals?
What is the difference between a council and a board of directors?

RESOURCE GUIDE FOR HERBAL EXCHANGE

Discussion about need for more help to make this happen, how to get the word out to people in the community that we are developing a resource guide for people who want to grow herbs for the medicine makers and for the herbalist that need and want more herb.
Agreed we want to go forward
Quinn and Leslie want more help to make it happen
Cultivate Wellness has offered space at their clinic to do a monthly herb exchange
Idea to develop a digital copy of people who grow and want herbs and put a TAB on the website.

FINANCES

Anna Hope discussed the income/balance sheet used at Farmers Market
Guild is purchasing the big items
Need to ask for permission to make purchase/get reimbursed.. must be pre approved
Receipts must be submitted ASAP within 2 weeks.
All items need receipts
Discussed giving mileage reimbursements for certain events $0.14 a mile.. must be pre-approved
Discussed consignment products at Farmers market. There is a form that must be filled out a week prior to product going on the table. Those products remain in inventory whether sold or not.
Want to change to money distribution for consignment products. Maker-65%, Table person- 20%, Herb Guild -15% after fees for table etc..
Prepared food and drinks- profit after costs/ table fee & sales tax PayPal fees then Table-20% , Guild 80%
Inventory and consignment for for events was discussed .
Getting paid monthly is the standard now for consignments sold at FM table and the inventory will be kept for clearest tracking /must plan ahead and submit form to get into inventory at least a week ahead – Anna Hope is contact person
Discussed need for Volunteer Appreciation as some people are putting in a great deal of time and energy. SUPER HELPERS
Super helpers defined by 100+ hours.. perks given : membership covered, merchandise at cost
Work Trade- 2.5 hours Perks _TBD
Stipends _ TBD

RV DISCUSSION

Discussed the various issues- liability, finances, logistics between groups, registration, repair, etc and decided that the group isn’t quite ready for this and that we should develop a RV pod to keep the discussion up as all want to have a Mobile Clinic. Next step another meeting about this including Coastal and Inland groups.. Kati will be lead of the Pod

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Vicki taking over the newsletter.. she needs content.. like photos and articles

Leslie will add minutes to the newsletter
FEB 9 Winter Abundance Event – Donna would like some people to go with her <~ contact Donna
FEB 17 Farmers Convergence – they want 2 speakers from MCHG _ contact Ana

NEXT MEETINGS: Jan 22 inland, Jan 27 Coastal. Set meeting date for both groups to meet together to carry on discussions on Feb 3 1:00-3;00 at 298 Seminary Ave in Ukiah. We will set up a video call conference for this too if you cannot attend.