Wow! Great Show. We had a lot of fun and I want to Thank Everyone.
I did want to thank each of you personally and managed to get quite a few phone calls in but if I have not spoken with you, know that I am truly thankful for everyone’s help. This show was a success in it’s enthusiastic atmosphere and great attendance. It could not have happened without each and every one of you. Thank You!
I would like feedback from you all on how we can improve the show for next time and am saving these notes for the next show. Feel free to let me know what you think. We want to know. I’ve listed the Thank You’s by Job because it takes a lot of different activities to put this event on. The Show process started in December and is wrapping up now in late March. Thank you everyone for making this such a wonderful event!
Thank you to All who helped on…
Creation of the Show Poster – spring-show-flier
Publicity – to media contacts, Ciscoe’s Show, putting posters up, and All You who put the info up on the web in chat groups, calendars of other organizations, & distributed fliers around town.
Signs – There were lots of complements about well posted signage and directions to the site!
Show coordination and planning – This took onsite evaluations of use of space, planning for sales, activities, and numbers of people that might attend, running errands, picking up materials, floor plans, thinking thru the process of a show, preparing literature for handouts, where to get rootstock and scion wood, labels, everything…. Reak
Collection of Scion Wood at WWFRF – and storage of it all!
CUH Staff – help with layout, planning, and parking
Set Up Saturday–set up of the rootstock and scion wood areas, labels
Set Up on Sunday 8-10 – Assisting vendors with setting up their booths, signs up around the CUH, parking for volunteers/vendors.
Parking – All day long and we had full parking lots!
Cashiers– the accounting for all the sales is no easy task and this crew was adaptable beyond call. We have useful info now on what sold and how people heard about the show.
Info Tables – These folks answered questions tirelessly all day. Thanks!
Scion wood– This is a huge draw for people to see the scion wood tables and all the varieties of fruit that are possible to graft up and grow yourself!
Rootstock – The foundation of a great fruit tree. We ran out of rootstock for the first time ever! We took orders on the spot and delivered the orders last week. Thinking on our feet to keep people’s interest in grafting alive and well!
Grafting– This is a wonderful event to watch and learn from the experts here. People were in line for this service and it is very important.
Tool Sharpening– People really appreciated the service and tools were in line all day to be sharpened and cleaned up for a busy spring of work.
Movers – There are the folks that counted heads and kept the trash recycled and made sure it was all working smoothly. Thank you!
Lectures –An intensive session of 2 lectures going at a time. Quite the juggling event with 14 lectures in all! This was offered free this year and the topics could have used a lot more time. The job was covered with competence and our experts were diverse and knowledgable.
Memberships /Info table–The people that worked this table were experts on STFS! Long time members with a lot of experience on past STFS activities and a knowledge of what STFS can offer. Thanks.
Maggot Barrier Sales – Very important to our being able to put on this event is the sales of the maggot barriers. Home gardeners appreciate being able to buy these in person and skip the shipping costs.
Dept of Literature –Our literature is up to date and in demand. I hear that so much was purchased that we are needing to order a lot of new material! I’m excited to see what we will be getting next.
Mason Bee Info – Our native pollinators, so important to the garden in our cool wet springs before Honey Bees are out. There were lots of questions to get answered about keeping our mason bees safe and healthy.
Insect Info – A host of pests and beneficials to look out for in the garden keep this booth very busy with questions from attendees. Thank you for answering our questions!
Educational Booths -by the Friends of Piper Orchard, Chinook Compost Tea, About Chestnuts, City Fruit, PlantAmnesty, Seattle Tilth, WWFRF, Peninsula Fruit Club, South Sound Fruit Club. Thank you everyone for taking the time to set up an education display and answer all our questions. You made the event very worth attending for many people. Thank you!
Composting & Recycling – We were able to recycle and compost a huge amount! Our team is evaluating the event for even better ‘green’ times in the future. Thank you greenies!
Food Vendors – Our espresso drinks and ‘Got Soup? meals were delightful. Being able to sit in the sun on the pation was incredible too!
Break Down– Putting away all the toys and cleaning up those grafting chips came at the close of the show. We were all so happy with how it went that it seemed like a breeze. Thank you all of you who stayed and helped from beginning to end. You are all wonderful.
After Show Grafting/Rootstock Orders – We had quite a few orders to produce and distribute after the show. All done now!
Accounting Wrap Up of Show – Finally, end of March. Thank you for the wrap up of the finances and help putting everything back into storage!