2013 Final Wisconsin Farm Technology Days Report

2013 Final Wisconsin Farm Technology Days Report Barron County Family Living Committee Sub – committee: Cookbook

Sub-Committee Overview Responsible for all aspects of publishing cookbook

Sub-Committee Responsibilities Appoint committee co-chairs, historian & photos Ideas for ways to get recipes Setting up g-mail account for recipes Sent a thank you to all submitting recipes Sending out bids and make recommendation for printer Work with printer on ink color, cover, dividers and binder Decide on pictures & history to be included on the dividers Decide on a name for the cookbook Typing and proofing recipes Work with printer to set up timeline for cookbook Promoting and marketing the cookbook

Committee Structure Subcommittee within the Family Living Committee Co-chairs to contact: Kaye Leaman, Tel no. 715-949-1175 – Cell No. 715-790-1947 [email protected] Linda Thuftin, Tel no. 715-357-3481 – Cell No. 715-418-1205. [email protected] Historian and Photos: Carol Moen, Tel no. 715-458-2821 – Cell No. 715-458-6133 [email protected] Budget

Cookbook budget $20,000.00 As cookbooks were sold the money was deposited in the General Account

Timeline

Two years prior to event: Attended opening ceremonies 2011 Marathon County FTD show Attended 2011 WIFTD training meeting in Plover Sent out bids for printer & selected The Printery in Rice Lake Decided on ink color and binding for cookbook Historian worked on photos and history for dividers and front and back cover Collected recipes, typed and proofed, decided on January 2012 as deadline for recipes Selected members of the Family Living Committee and the community to help with the proofing We had three different proofs before sending copy to printer. Family Living Committee members plus some community members did proofing under supervision of sub-committee. One year prior to event: Time Line for 1st printing March 2, 2012 – Deadline for getting copy to Printer May 4, 2012 – First proof available from the Printer May 18, 2012 – Edits from first proof due back to Printer May 25, 2012 – Second proof will be available June 1, 2012 – Final proof will be available June 1, 2012 – One half of the cost due printer July 8, 2012 – Project will be complete and cookbooks will be available (1500) July 8, 2012 – Balance of printing cost due Printer July 16h, 2012 – (Monday before Outagamie Show) Arrived to help if needed and to observe and ask questions. July 17, 2012 – Attended opening ceremonies, had a cookbook to show and to hand out order blanks July 18-22nd – Sold first cookbooks at Barron County Fair. July 19, 2012 – Marketing: Vendors (44) throughout Barron County set up to sell our cookbooks Cookbooks were sold at all Fairs, Festivals, and Church Events August 24, 2012 – received 2nd order of 1500 cookbooks December 10, 2012 – received 3rd order of 1500 cookbooks December 1, 2012 – Attended WIFTD training at Plover 2013 - Year of Event: May 29, 2013 – Attended Media Day, Promoting Cookbook (Gave out food samples from recipes in our Book) Talked with Media, gave interviews to radio station. June 27, 2013 – received 4th order (Partial, enough for show, balance after show) July 9-11, 2013 Barron Co. FTD show July 12 thru Sept. 30, 2013: All vendors advised that we would not be selling any more cookbooks after September 30, 2013. If they wanted to buy the cookbooks up front they could sell after that date and keep the money. At the Show A schedule was set up for two people to work a four hour shift. We had two shifts per day and a total of 12 volunteers for the 3 day show. They sold cookbooks, gave directions, and helped in any way they could. At the end of the day, the money was balanced and a cookbook sub-committee member and Family Living chair deposited the money at Barron Co. Headquarters.

Equipment Needed Equipment for the cookbook booth was ordered through Family Living representative to Executive committee. Two 8 ft. Skirted tables and two pallets were used in our area. One pallet to stack our cookbook boxes on and the other one to place packages that were in our “hold” area and would be picked up before closing that day. Entertainers in the Family Living Tent also used one of our tables to sell Cd’s, books etc. after their show. Our booth had tall royal blue curtains in back and half curtains on the sides. Two chairs were brought by a committee member. We also had a calculator and cash box.

Volunteers Click here to enter text.

Additional thoughts for a successful Farm Technology Days show

The process of selling cookbooks at Farm Technology Days went very smoothly. Everyone showed up for their shift on time. Besides selling cookbooks our volunteers manned the hold area for packages. Twenty four people took advantage of this service. Our volunteers gave directions and answered questions to people stopping at our booth. Everyone seemed to enjoy the time spent there. Some of the volunteers had not met the person they worked with until the day of the event. Meeting new people and renewing friendships from the past was enjoyed by all.

Things we could have done differently with the cookbook Decide on a certain number of recipes and stick with that number. We could have advertised more in the newspaper for the submission of recipes and given a strict deadline. This would have prevented the change of format for our cookbook from a single column listing the ingredients for recipes to two and sometimes three column s. The recipes were typed up with no abbreviations and then changed to many abbreviations. This was done to accommodate the great number of recipes we received towards the end of our deadline. We wanted to hold our cost down and not go to the next size binder and extra pages that it would involve.

Check in to using the Extension office computers earlier. This would have allowed us to have several people typing recipes and making the changes that the proofers wanted done. The first three months the recipes were typed on a computer in our co-chairs home, then proofed by FLC members at the courthouse and returned to co-chairs home again to make changes and then re-proofed. This was cumbersome because it involved moving folders of recipes back and forth for each proof.