North American Maple Syrup Council in MA.

[mapleman3]

Hey Fellow sugarers... Mass is hosting the NAMSC/IMSI Anual meeting/workshop/tradeshow in Oct 08 Fri the 24th - Mon the 27th
put OCT 08 on your calendars for this 4day event, there will be alot happening with the trade show/workshops/tours etc. Nice that its in New England this time so folks out this way can make it.

So get me your ideas and or tell me you would like a part in helping out !! That would be great!!

any comments welcome
also anyone out there wanting to be in the trade show let me know and I will forward your info to the guys taking care of that part... I Know The Maple Guys will be there !!

[ziggy]

I got an idea, get the price back down to where it should be! I would love to start going to the meetings again but the price has just gotten to far out of line. I have organized tours like this myself before and I know it is very hard to have a event in a hotel or banquet facility cheeply. But we really don't need all the fancy stuff, just simple good food, a nice tour and a great learning experiance.

[mapleman3]

Hello Traders, Mass Maple Producers association has been hard at work planning the 4 day event. We have put information in the maple digest and hopefully something gets in the maple news, Registrations will be going out to those who have been in the past to meetings around the country, and vendors and MFG's are also getting packets sent to them.

Looks like we will have some great tech sessions, workshops and tours. along with a huge trade show. come for one day, come for all the days.

As soon as we have the schedule set in stone I will post it here with all the registration info.

I will say the food will be awesome, we picked out the menus last week, tonight we will be working more on tours and such. Mass is excited about hosting this this year and we believe in where the conference is (Umass Amherst) is a days drive from a huge percentage of sugarers in the northeast!!
Again any questions or suggestions PM me or email outhouse685@charter.net

Ziggy, We would love to keep cost down for everyone and we are trying hard, but you need a place that can hold 250-300 along with the trade show, seminars, workshops.. and also facilities for sugarers from around the country to stay... and don't forget feeding everyone!,,, it's best to keep everything in one spot to keep it enjoyable and easy to go from event to event.... also we need buses to get you guys to all the great tour stops such as sugarhouses ,hillside plastics to see where your maple jugs are made... a super sawmill ect.

[TapME]

Do you have the dates for the conference. Thanks

[mapleman3]

Yes its october 24th-27th 2008. I have much more info just need to type it up hopefully in the next day

[Valley View Sugarhouse]

Jim,
Are you going to join us up here in VT for our Maplerama??? July 24-26th

http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmaple/

Andy

[mapleman3]

The 2008 North American Maple Syrup Council and
International Maple Syrup Institute meetings


Something for everyone


The Massachusetts Maple Producers Association is delighted to host this years NAMSC and IMSI meetings, to be held Friday October 24th through Monday October 27th in Amherst, Massachusetts. The annual meetings will be held at the University of Massachusetts Campus Center Hotel and Conference Center at the University of Massachusetts. There will be numerous events; demonstrations, producer workshops and technical sessions, equipment displays and tours to interest everyone involved in maple, whether you tap a few backyard trees or make many thousands of gallons of maple syrup.

Amherst, located about 20 minutes from the intersection of the Massachusetts Turnpike and I-91 in western Massachusetts, is easily reached by car, train or airplane. U-Mass is 45 minutes drive from Bradley International Airport (Hartford/Springfield) in Connecticut, and a two or three hour drive from most all of New England. A short days drive from Maine, western New York, Pennsylvania, and southern Canada will get you to Amherst. Over 90% of the maple producers in the world live within a days drive of Massachusetts, so chances are you’re not too far away, and you should plan to attend. There will be producers attending from all 12 major maple states and 4 provinces of Canada.

This meeting is a great opportunity to learn, meet, mingle, have some fun, and see the latest products for the maple industry. Additionally, the many technical presentations, and reports from the latest cutting-edge maple research will most certainly be a benefit to your maple business. Technical presenters will cover the newest maple research from the University of Vermont, Cornell University, Centre Acer in Canada and other places. The IMSI sponsored Maple Grading School will be held at the University of Massachusetts in conjunction with these meetings, on Thursday and Friday October 23rd and 24th.

Friday October 24th will be the opening of the trade show, the Maple Specialists meeting, and the NAMSC Directors meeting, followed by a buffet supper. Saturday October 25th will start the NAMSC general business sessions, and some technical sessions. There will be a companion’s tour to a butterfly conservatory, a guided tour of Historic Old Deerfield, a guided tour of the Amherst College natural History Museum, and a visit to a large candle making and retail facility. This place has many good ideas about direct marketing to the public that we can all learn from. Lunch for the companion’s tour will be in a local sugarhouse.

Sunday October 26th will continue the technical sessions in the morning, followed by IMSI and NAMSC business sessions in the afternoon. As an alternative to the business meetings, there will be producer workshops on gift basket marketing, the use of GPS in the sugarbush, animal damage control in the sugarbush, and managing tour groups in your sugarhouse.

Monday October 25th is the Massachusetts Tour day. This all day tour will include a visit to Hillside Plastics, home of the Sugarhill Jug. Here we will witness the making of maple syrup jugs and see some new efficiency innovations in this industry that help keep down the cost of containers. The tour will visit a local computerized sawmill that was recently rebuilt (after a fire) as a working mill and educational center all combined. Another stop will be a local community kitchen where anyone with an idea and a recipe can rent time and commercial kitchen equipment to make their value added food product. This stop will include a presentation on taking your value-added product to market. We will visit local sugarhouses for a tour and for lunch. Other tour stops are being planned as well. The Massachusetts Tour Day will be capped off with the annual banquet and awards presentations on Monday night. Be sure to enter your best syrup of 2008 for the international maple syrup contest, and also enter photographs for the annual photo contest.

The nearby towns of Amherst, Northampton and Springfield offer many other attractions, as do the lovely villages of the Berkshire foothills. Please plan on joining many of your fellow maple producers at this special meeting this fall.

To obtain a full registration and information packet including details on all planned events, please contact:

Bill Markham
NAMSC Registrations
Box 67
Glendale, MA 01229
413-298-3473
Email: bill_markham55@yahoo.com

For specific answers to your questions bout the NAMSC meeting, contact the Mass Maple Association at: info@massmaple.org


I can also be reached by PM or email outhouse685@charter.net

[mapleman3]

Andy, I do believe I will go Fri nite/sat with my wife, we will hopefully hit the festivities and tours on Sat.

[super sappy]

I turn 40 on the 26 th of october. I alwayse wanted Hot Tuna to come to my house and play my 40 th. But it sounds like fun. I think I will try to make it.-ss

[brookledge]

Jim
Are you polishing your new rig up to be included on the tour?
Do you know who is part of the tour?
I'd imagine Williams and Boisvert but was wondering if you knew
keith

[mapleman3]

Sorry Keith I haven't been on.... Yes Joes place and possibly Goulds, Also trying to get Williams as a lunch stop.

Things are moving along... Everything was collated and is going out to membership and vendors and past Namsc Participants. If you need a registration email info@massmaple.org.

Also anyone interested in the Summer Picnic it's at Leon Ripely's in Granville/Blandford on July 27th. Yes there will be tours with that also. Again contact info@massmaple.org

I will post more info if anyone is interested.. it will be a great day of food and tours.

[brookledge]

I got my mailing. I can't make the summer picnic but I'm tyring to figure out what my schedule will be for the NAMSC to try to help out.
Keith

[mapleman3]

The Picnic was good, food was good, sorry we couldn't see ya there.

Right now I'm looking for someone to do a workshop on having group tours at their sugarhouse such as school groups and such, Unfortunately I lost the person who possibly was to do it.
what have you done to prepare your place, any legal things....what type of things do you do for them, handouts, demonstrations etc. looking at about an hour with question and answer time in that hour. can be informal not a tech session, just what you do at your sugarhouse that can help others maybe do the same?
Anyone???

[mapleman3]

Less than a month away for the conf/trade show/Namsc meeting, don't forget to make your plans to be at it in October, Registrations are still taking place, you can go the the start of this thread or this months Maple News has a Registration form and info on it.

We'll see you there !

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

I'm thinking the same idea as ziggy- The price is so far out in space(around $400) that it will keep 75% of those that would like to attend-away. Granted the cost of the rental on a hall/place would be the biggie on $ and the Buses are some $ too/But $100 would be the tops i would pay to attend one of those meetings. Cost to feed someone= probably about $5 in food and $50ea to cook it up.

Price's are just not realistic in my book/Heck if someone wants to sit down and pick my brain for maple knowledge=I'd do it for $125 a day and i'll even sponsor the Chinese buffet after = Cheaper///But i doubt you'll learn anything for me anyways-I'm totally maple brain dead :) :) :) :) .

[mapleman3]

I know, I wish it was a TON cheaper, but thats how it always is with this type of shindig, we tried to keep the cost down but with everything it would have made the association broke.

You can just go for certain things or day by day.

[mapleman3]

It's Here, starts today, Trade show opens at 3pm(free) come see the major manufacturers, come for a meet and greet, if you want to stay and eat there is a buffet that you can pay for if your not registered, I'm sure it won't be much$$
Chris and Kim from our own Mapletrader will be there with some of their products, Chris is also doing a bottling workshop tomorrow.

Umass Amherst, Campus center, Lower floor Auditorium. you can park at the parking garage or around campus.

Hope to see you there.

[Clan Delaney]

So, 2 months ago Jim asks me if I want to do a little presentation at this conference to discuss GPS, it's possibilities in maple sugaring, and recreational use. I could have sworn he said Mass Maple. Turns out that NAMSC is a little bigger than just Mass.... I've been sweating bullets over how I could possibly talk about anything maple to a group of people who've been doing it for generations when I've only been doing it for a few years.

But I worry too much. I had a great time, met some great people (I believe I was introduced to one of the Maple Guys), and completely independent, non-biased people who may or may not be my wife said I gave a pretty good presentation as well.

I got a chance to walk around the trade show as well, complete with bib to keep the drooling under control. A rep from Leader taught me what a flue pan is, and the difference between and drop flue and raised flue. I pulled my current Christmas wish list out of my wallet, tore it up, and started a new one.

And finally, (and strangely), during my presentation my wife ran into a woman who's also a student in a knitting class she teaches, and that woman's husband went to school with, and played on a Little League Team with my wife's father. (Cue "It's a Small, Small World. But in a cute reminiscent way, not the creepy Disney ride way.)

Thanks for the opportunity, Jim! Had a blast!

[mapleman3]

Patrick, great job today you did it like a pro! You met Chris -founder of the Mapletrader.com a legend!! An Icon !! Hehe. I enjoyed listening to your presentation!! Great graphics too!! We'll be in touch! Thanks thanks thanks for doing it!!

[Clan Delaney]

Patrick, great job today you did it like a pro! You met Chris -founder of the Mapletrader.com a legend!! An Icon !! Hehe. I enjoyed listening to your presentation!! Great graphics too!! We'll be in touch! Thanks thanks thanks for doing it!!

Oh no no no, don't you start...

[Cardigan99]

Clan,

Are you gonna let us in on the GPS idea? Do you plot the location of each tree and put a sort of regression line thru them to determine where to run your mains?

[Clan Delaney]

Clan,

Are you gonna let us in on the GPS idea? Do you plot the location of each tree and put a sort of regression line thru them to determine where to run your mains?

Jim actually did mark all the trees in one of his new sugarbushes and we found that there was an obvious trend to their placement. For about an extra 175 feet of mainline (from what he thought he'd use) he could run right through the densest stands of trees and save on running a lot of branch tubing.

[mapleman3]

The nice thing about the GPS is marking it out initially, I did go to every tree but it doesn't need to be done that way, start finish and a few points in between on your mainline and laterals is all you need.

Pat made a overlay of my trees on google earth, it does show that I could change the route of where my mainline goes. I will look into that.
The last guy who had this bush ran it like I marked out, so i will need to go there before ordering tubing to see if it will work.

If some of you are interested, Pat and i will start a thread in sugarbush management for GPS

it's a great way to mark problems out in the bush and send someone out to the specific line you need repaired, or for yourself later. also mark tanks, boosters, trees that don't provide, or even an area that will be your next thinning project. all this can be transfered on a map for you .



On another note. Next years NAMSC/IMSI Meeting/trade show etc. will be in Bar Harbor Maine. around Oct 22nd. They are already doing a great job planning and I know I will be going. It will be nice to go and observe instead of running around taking care of this and that. All in all it went super smooth, everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves and I was happy the syrup I entered into the contest came through with an "excellent" ribbon... it didn't place but at least it wasn't in the "rejected "pile !!! thats an award for me as it is!!
Somebody else here on the trader did win a prize.. we'll divulge that as soon as we talk with the winners

Also, Chris, The Mapleguy!! did a great job on his bottleing /tips and tricks workshop.... like a real Pro!! Thanks Chris for the interesting workshop... I see a future in presentations for you!!!

[mapleman3]

Ok I can now blab the news ;)

Chris (The Maple Guys) took 3rd place for his dark A syrup in the NAMSC Syrup contest.. about 30+ samples of various grades were entered... many rejected for off flavor, density, color clarity... But Chris's syrup got him another syrup award for his excellence !

Great Job Chris and congrats.

I will try to get the list of all the winners posted here as soon as I can get the results on paper from the banquet.