We're preparing early this year for the second time SIBA will set up at Aurora Farmers Fair. Garry Reeves blazed the trail for us last year... manning the booth mostly by himself just to see what it would take to run the booth so that he could report back to the club in hopes of getting others involved. A few of us showed up to help including Shannon and Shanna Tschenne, John Miller and myself. I enjoyed stopping up and working at the fair. It was nice running in to friends and family, and other people who have been thinking about starting a bee hive.
John Miller just stopped over after securing a double booth for us this year. We'll have plenty of room to sell honey, and set up the observation hive. Now, we hope to get some other SIBA members together to help man it. It's local, it's familiar, and we can provide not only a great service to our community, but allow those of you who have been wanting to sell their honey a great venue while you watch the fair. It should be reasonable for most of us to have honey in bottles in time. The Fair is October 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th. The booth will be set up and broken down for us. All we have to do is show up, run it, and leave when we are done. Yes, the booth will have electric. Who's in?
Take a look at the days and shifts available below, and then complete the form to claim your spot, or tell us how you can help! You can sell your honey or products.... or just come to help and have some fun!
We've broken the shifts down based on the hours the fair is open. While we show the suggested number of people for each shift, it's flexible. Tell us what you are interested in. There's no problems with people breaking shifts into smaller segments amongst themselves. At the booth, we sell honey and bee-related products containing bee gathered product (propolis, pollen, wax and honey), casually talk about bees around the observation hive, and take money for honey sales. Details about how we will handle honey sales is below.
Set-up is Wed. Oct. 4: The booth will be set up for us! We will move in between 2pm and 4pm on Wed. After 4pm on Wed., it will start to get busy and tighter to move in. The Fair starts at 5pm. Big thanks to Bob Menkhaus who has offered to drop off and pick up a gang box for us to lock up product in.
Wed. Oct. 4: 5pm-10:30pm
This is a single, 4-hour shift (3-4 people)
- Paul Lageman (Setup) Wed. Oct. 4 and shift 5pm-10:30pm
- Need 1 or 2 more people
Thurs. Oct. 5: 5pm-10:30pm
This is a single, 4-hour shift (3-4 people)
- Brian Laker (5-10:30pm)
- Need 1 or 2 more people
Fri. Oct. 6: 1pm-11pm - Two shifts.
Shift 1: 1-5pm (IS FULL)
- Patricia Seevers (1-5pm)
- Karen Ferguson (1-5pm)
- Andy Wiggam (1-5pm)
- Room for one more person
Shift 2: 5pm-11pm
- Mike Detmer (5-11pm)
- Need 2 or 3 more people
Sat. Oct. 7: 9am-11pm (front row seat for parade in the morning!) Three shifts.
Shift 1: 9am-1pm
- Garry Reeves (9am-1pm)
- Sheila Fletcher (9am-1pm)
- Need 1 or 2 more people
Shift 2: 1-5pm
- Joanna Zembrodt (1-5pm)
- Dave Rieman (1-5pm)
- Need 1 or 2 more people
Shift 3: 5-11pm
- Danielle Hornberger (5-11pm)
- John Hornberger (5-11pm)
- Still need 1-2 people
John Miller will be the banker. He will be around for opening and close each day to collect money and offer instruction.
We need help with set-up and tear-down. It is nothing too ornery... simply tables to set up and break down. Jason Morgan is making some honey display shelves that we didn't have last year.
If you would like to sell your honey (or anything) at the fair, here is how it works. First, we use this pricing model for honey and products. Download this, print it out, and add the inventory you plan to bring.
The model takes an accurate "going" rate and then marks it up about 20% in order to cover the costs of the booth and other expenses. So for example, an $8/lb. bottle of honey would sell for $10.
ALL inventory is checked in ahead of time. Jason Morgan and John Miller will take your name and full inventory of any products you plan to sell at the fair. We'll then apply price tags to each item so they can be sold by anyone working the booth. Money is collected each day and held by John Miller. No one will need to worry about taking cash home. You can expect to get the fair market rate for all of your products and it will be paid back to you after reconciliation after the fair. Long story short, it will be no more difficult to sell things than it is at a farmers market.
We'd really love to solidify our worker roster and products to be sold BEFORE day one of the fair. This will make things run smooth. It was a great time last year, and it allowed us to really dial in and think about how it can work this year. If you are interested, complete the form below, and we'll plan to talk and make updates at each meeting prior to the fair.
Here's Garry's update from last year, and the honey sales were phenomenal.
Enjoy some others pics from the SIBA booth at the 2016 Aurora Farmers Fair
2 Responses