LISTSERV - NEWFARMERNET Archives

I'm writing in my new capacity as liaison for the UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture to the Vermont New Farmer Network. Though Allen Matthews and Deb Heleba will continue to be actively involved with the network and new farmer initiatives, I'll be picking up the role of coordinating NFN communications and meetings that Allen has been doing for the past several years. As many of you know, Allen recently has been up to his ears with farm viability project work, and Deb Heleba is preparing for her maternity leave (July-October ). I'm very excited to be joining Allen and Deb in working with you all.

Our next meeting (set by those who attended the last meeting) is tentatively scheduled for June 22, from 12:30-2 pm. If there's interest in coming together for an in-person meeting to catch up and begin to map out the next phase of network activities, we could hold it either at the Berlin or Burlington Extension office. Either way, the Center for Sustainable Agriculture will provide lunch for all who attend. Now that the Resource Guide is done, it seems like a good time to update each other on upcoming activities and initiatives, and to begin discussing next steps for the network.

Please let me know by June 14 if you will be able to attend a meeting on June 22, and which location you prefer. In the meantime, it would be helpful to me if you would send along any ideas you have for agenda items. If June 22 isn't feasible for enough people, my suggestion would be that until we can get together, we use email to provide updates and brainstorm ideas for next steps.

Which leads me to my last piece of new information. With Deb and Allen's help, I've established the new NEWFARMERNET list serv to facilitate communication between network members. For those of you who aren't familiar with list servs, one of the advantages over using address books is that an address change only needs to be entered once -- instead of having everybody needing to update their address books. So, please use the list serv instead of your address book in the future.