SNPDC Minutes 10-20-08

SNPDC Minutes 10-20-08

The meeting began at 7:10 P.M. Eastern Time on Monday, October 20, 2008.

Attendees were Holli Cox, Christine Perala Gardiner, Peggy Broz, Susan Simonton, Donna Rudd, and Claudia Raessler. Ann Mayes was on only briefly.

Claudia had just come back from the New York Sheep and Wool Festival and was able to report that it was a huge success. The crowd was estimated at about 40,000 over two days, so the aisles were packed at all times. Our booth received a healthy number of visitors, ranging from people who knew nothing about alpacas, to high-end knitters, to spinners. They handed out a number of baggies with suri roving and with business cards directing people to farms that donated fiber for the roving. Claudia thought it worked very well to have a couple of suris on hand and then show people the fiber, roving, spun yarn, and end products – they could see the whole process, and they could see the difference between a suri and a huacaya (which was in the next booth over). Claudia suggested that for next year, if we have spinning mentors again that are not suri owners, that we have a “pre-call” to bring everyone up to speed on the animals, the difference between the two breed fibers, etc. This time around, some of the spinners were not able to answer such questions on their own. Claudia also mentioned that there was a strong interest from visitors in purchasing goods and thought we should consider this for next year. As we had previously had in-depth discussions about this and decided for the time being to act strictly as an educational booth, this topic was tabled. However, it is one that should be re-visited in the future.

We discussed putting together educational sorting classes for the membership. Donna Rudd offered up the idea of doing a seminar in conjunction with the seminars on classing animals. The overall thought from the committee was that this was a good idea and that it would be worthwhile to link the concept of classing with the concept of commercial fiber production. In expectation of this discussion, Liz Vahlkamp contacted Susan Tellez (who is heading up the effort to put a classing system in place) about this topic prior to the meeting, and Susan is supportive of this concept, which was mentioned at this meeting. The idea was tossed out that perhaps the SNPDC members could each host one of these seminars, given the geographic diversity within our committee. Additionally, because Mary Lou Clingan’s trip to Peru was financially supported by the SN, we discussed the possibility of having her lead the sorting portion of this seminar. The committee was generally supportive of this. The discussion was concluded with Liz volunteering to get back with Susan Tellez and get more details about the classing seminars so we could co-ordinate going forward.

We discussed the idea of an on-line library for the membership. Two committee members, Donna Rudd and Susan Simonton, both have a good deal of research materials gathered, and each volunteered to put their lists together and gather additional information that is available in the public domain. This information will be put on the on-line library once it is organized. Susan is going to also contact Bill Vonderhaar of the SN Research Committee to talk with him about making this library a joint effort. We will also have other articles in the library re: practical aspects of fiber.

We talked about how we want to fold in the processors (mills and co-ops) to our efforts and eventually give them an in-depth survey to complete which Donna Rudd has put together. It was decided that Peggy Broz would call each of the processors on our list and ask them if we could have their e-mail address so that we could send them articles and other information that we are using to educate the membership.

Holli Cox updated everyone on the blog. Everyone was encouraged to write topics for the blog. It was decided that Holli would gather the information from everyone for the first couple of months and post it. After a couple of months, we will review and then decide if we want all SNPDC members to have access to write directly. We also decided that it would be OK to post things more frequently than once a month.

Susan Simonton gave an update on the pattern initiative. We are going to start with three, basic patterns using 100% suri fiber. The patterns will be for hats and scarves and will be geared towards alpaca farm stores. These are patterns that are in the public domain, but Susan will adjust them for suri, write out the patterns, and we will secure photos and offer them in three different colors each.

Everyone was given a homework assignment to read the Fibre Harvesting Code of Practice from both Canada and Australia. This will be an important initiative for us – putting together such a code of practice for the U.S. We will discuss this topic further at the next meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 P.M. Eastern Time.

Welcome all Suri Network Members

On behalf of the SNPDC, I want to welcome everyone to our blog site. We hope that you will follow our progress as we support the membership in its effort to create a full-fledged livestock model and improve our own breeding programs in the process. While our role will be only one piece of the puzzle, we hope to educate, inform, and support our members' efforts to create a high-end market niche for U.S. suri fiber, as well as, create a better connection between our members breeding goals and finished fiber products.



To that end, we started off the 2009 Suri Year (a Suri Year begins with the start of the SN Symposium!) with two new additions to the committee - Susan Simonton of Little Gidding Farm Alpacas, and Donna Rudd of Canada who is a certified sorter, spinner, and fiber artist. These two individuals compliment our existing team of Christine Perala-Gardiner of Suri Futures, Holli Cox of Hidden Hilltop Alpaca Ranch, Ann Mayes of Alpacas d'Auxvasse, Peggy Broz of Peg's Palm Beach Alpacas, Claudia Raessler of Royal River Alpacas, and me - Liz Vahlkamp, Salt River Alpacas. Additionally, Eric Morti, who had co-chaired the SNPDC with me in 2008 became a SN Board member and is now the liaison to our committee.



With our new team in place, we have taken on a number of initiatives which we hope to move forward simultaneously:



Donna Rudd is heading up our efforts to create a "best practices" code for preparation and processing of suri fiber to create a high quality, consistent product that end users can rely upon. Her efforts will include educating the membership about proper preparation of fiber before sending it off to either a mill or a co-op. And working with the co-ops and mills to create a consistent method of processing.



Susan Simonton is heading up our effort to provide suri patterns for knitting and weaving. None exist today, but if we are to compete within the commercial yarn industry, we must have patterns! We also hope these patterns will serve to educate you, the membership, and in turn, improve your breeding program. If you have a better connection between the fiber your animals produce and the end purpose, you will be able to better develop long-term breeding goals for high quality fiber.



Ann Mayes and I (Liz Vahlkamp) are heading up the effort to secure booth space at several high traffic fiber festivals around the country. These festivals will have a "drop in and spin" theme and will cater to the fiber artist and hobbyist who can spread the word about suri and its great features. Through the use of "spinning mentors" on hand in the booth, we will ensure visitors have a positive experience and come away wanting more! To this end, those of you who are interested in selling fiber and roving can donate fiber to us and we will put your name on a specific SN website page. Visitors to the booth will be directed, via a business card, to that site and may contact you for more fiber.



Christine Perala-Gardiner is heading up our effort to create a certified organic plan, giving farms the opportunity to market organic fiber. This is a growth industry and one with which we need to stay in tune!



Holli Cox is heading up our blog effort as well as acting as a liaison to the SN Research Committee and the SN's efforts towards EPD standards. All of us are connected in our efforts to move the fiber industry forward through improved breeding goals, and it is important that we all stay in touch.



Claudia Raessler, hopefully, will sit on the the AOBA Fiber Committee as well as the SNPDC so that we can stay in touch with our brethren and hopefully move down the fiber industry path together.



Peggy Broz is backing up the team by supporting all of us in our efforts to move the suri industry forward!



First up, our first fiber festival is the Spin-Off Autumn Retreat (SOAR) sponsored by Interweave Press from Oct. 9 to Oct. 11. This is a high-powered retreat where advanced spinners come to learn more about spinning and try new fibers. We are going to have some high-powered spinning mentors there to match the audience, so hope it is a success! The following weekend - Oct. 18-19, we will be in Rhinebeck, NY at the NY Sheep and Wool Festival. We have several SN members that will be helping us with the booth and want to thank them for coming out to the event. An estimated 30,000 people will pass through this festival...so it's big!



We will use the blog to keep everyone informed of the progress and results of our various initiatives and hope to see everyone coming back on a regular basis!



Thanks for your interest and welcome aboard!

Liz Vahlkamp, Salt River Alpacas
Chairperson, SNPDC