Tate's Interview with Maddie

1. Why should someone join NOFA? (i.e. what are the benefits?)

Benefits of NOFA-VT membership include:

• NOFA Vermont Winter Conference—Members save $15 per day for our annual three-day conference
  
• NOFA Summer Conference—Members receive a 20% discount on registration for the annual regional conference in MA 
  
• On-Farm & Other Educational Workshops—Members save $5-$10 per workshop throughout the year
  
• Classified & Calendar Listings—Members receive free classifieds and events listings on our website
  
• Other—Free listing on our apprentice/farm worker web page
  

Members also get subscriptions to several NOFA publications, including: 

• NOFA Notes—NOFA Vermont’s quarterly seasonal newsletter, chock-full of Vermont farming and gardening information, local foods resources, opinion pieces, analysis of public policy initiatives, recipes, and event listings.
  
• The Natural Farmer—a Northeast regional quarterly newspaper covering news of the organic movement nationally and internationally, and featuring stories about farmers from New England, New York, and New Jersey.
  
• Vermont Organic Farm and Food Directory—NOFA Vermont’s annual guide to the certified organic food producers in Vermont including where to find farm stands, CSAs, and farmers markets.  Certified organic farmers and processors receive a free listing.
  
• Monthly e-newsletter—providing current information, policy updates, and farming and gardening advice.

 

2. How does NOFA currently work to increase membership?

We have been somewhat increasing the number/type of outreach events we participate in, as well as working harder to push membership and encourage people to join when we host our own on-farm workshops and social events throughout the summer. Once we have a dedicated membership coordinator position (starting April 1) we also plan to consistently send membership invites to people who contacts us through various programs and outreach. 

3. Who is your current target audience? What demographic makes up current members?

Current members of NOFA-VT are primarily farmers, gardeners, homesteaders, food/farming activists and local food lovers. This has generally been our target audience, but we know we're not currently reaching all people in VT who fall into one or more of these categories. 

4. What specifically is your team looking to us for help with? 

I don't have all of the background on what you've discussed with Kim (and maybe others here at NOFA) but from my perspective, we would love helpthinking of creative ways to expand our reach beyond those who are already aware of/involved with NOFA. How can we grow our membership base andfurther engage/involve those who are already part of our community?

5. Would you consider developing unpaid internship positions to continue any efforts we may begin to establish? 

Yes!

6. What is NOFA's story? How can we better tell it? 

From our website (you may have seen this):

NOFA Vermont was founded in Putney in 1971, making it one of the oldest organic farming associations in the United States. Today, we are proud to have 1200 members throughout the state and to certify close to 600 farms and processors to the USDA National Organic Program standards. We are passionate about increasing the acreage of certified organic land in Vermont while also increasing the access of local organic food to all Vermonters.

All our programs strive to meet these goals, whether it involves working with schools to bring local foods into the cafeteria or providing business planning services to farmers to ensure their businesses stay viable. Whether you are a Vermonter who gardens, farms, eats local food, or enjoys our rural communities, NOFA Vermont welcomes you!

Our Mission—The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont is a nonprofit association of farmers, gardeners, and consumers working to promote an economically viable and ecologically sound Vermont food system for the benefit of current and future generations.

​As far as telling it better - that's what we would love your help with! We do so many things here that it's sometimes hard to focus in and give a great "elevator pitch" without trying to say too much. We need to learn how to tell our story in a way that engages and inspires people to want to be part of what we're doing, whether that means becoming a member, donating, volunteering, or coming to our events.​

Shea's Interview with Abbie Nelson

1.     What are some ways in the past you have tried to increase membership and were those strategies successful?

 Workshops, annual winter conference, tabling at various events in the state

2.     In what ways do you engage with your current members? How would you like them to become more involved with NOFA?

 E-news, newsletter, Facebook. We need to engage them in issues and in their regions

3.     How would you like us to tell NOFA’s story? Blogging? Interviews? 

 We need more stories—whether these are available through blogging or via the newsletter

4.     NOFA encompasses a wide variety of the Vermont farming community, is there a specific aspect of NOFA that you want us to focus on more than others? 

 We just need to rotate between all of our programs: farmer services, farm to institution, direct markets and food access, education

5.     We noticed that your organization doesn’t use Instagram as a social media platform, do you think creating one/using social media in general will help tell NOFA’s story?

No idea, I don’t use Instagram.

2/6 Meeting

1) DATE:
2/6/2017

2) MEETING TIME
(beginning and ending):
7:30-8:00

3) LOCATION:
Kalkin Hall

4) CAT MEMBERS PRESENT: (include CAT group selfie)
Shea, Niki, Tate (see below)

5) CAT MEMBER ROLES (W suggests switching these roles for each meeting):

A) FACILITATOR (1 person) - "steers" conversation and runs meeting --> Shea
B) NOTE KEEPER/PUBLISHER (1 person) - records and publishes notes at CAT blog --> Tate
C) TIME KEEPER (1 person) - sets meeting length of time and watches clock --> Niki
D) AGENDA CREATOR (1 person) - writes out and shares agenda with CAT just prior to meeting 

6) CAT WORK UPDATE:

A) What CAT tasks have you accomplished to date? (use previous minutes)

• Initial Interview with Kim 
• Discussed possible projects
• Established 2 deliverables 

B) What immediate and long-term CAT tasks lie ahead for the week, and who will execute?

• Each CAT member has to complete their interview with an additional NOFA member
• this will help us further develop our goals 

C) What was the most CHALLENGING element re: the past week's CAT work?

• Establishing concrete projects
• Having a clear, concise dialogue 
• Combining our skills and ideas with their goals 

D) What was the most REWARDING element re: about the past week's CAT work?

• Creating new ideas
• Seeing Kim's excitement surrounding the projects

E) What is your CAT doing really well right now?

• Communicating well with one another
• Working together
• Establishing common goals for the project
• Assigning roles

F) What is your CAT needing to work on right now?

• Clarity of deadlines
• second interviews 

Tonight's Interview

1. What are some ways in the past you have tried to increase membership and were those strategies successful?

1. What would you have changed?

Membership has been flat for the past 10 years. I’ve been here for two years and tried being aggressive with gathering new members. A main issue is that we keep talking to the same audience. We need a creative way to reach new target audiences with a compelling message.

2.  In what ways do you engage with your current members? How would you like them to become more involved with NOFA?

Events and newsletters one on one communication The newsletter both online and print is the biggest way they engage members, mostly print rather than online. The online version sounded hard to find...

3. How would you like us to tell NOFA’s story? Blogging? Interviews?

Blog posts, profile stories on farmers, blog posts highlighting why people are members

4. If blogging is an approach you’d like us to use, would it make sense for members to be able to post their stories and ideas on the blog as well in order to increase their engagement with NOFA?

Only NOFA is blogging so far but it would be great if members shared their stories like a forum.

5. NOFA encompasses a wide variety of the Vermont farming community, is there a specific aspect of NOFA that you want us to focus on more than others?

Local, organic food and why organic food is worth the extra cost

6. Your Winter Conference is coming up and you mentioned you want help promoting that; what is the main purpose of this conference and what platforms do you think would most effectively spread the word while considering your audience? I.e. online, in publications, social media, etc.

The conference will have many workshops about healthy living, farming techniques, and will include highly regarded guest speakers. There are printed phamphlets being distributed and posters hanging around town. Information regarding the conference can also be found on the website.

7. We noticed that your organization doesn’t use Instagram as a social media platform, do you think creating one/using social media in general will help tell NOFA’s story?

We found out NOFA does have an Instagram-but it is not linked on their website. Kim agrees that people like us would be very helpful running the social media accounts. She would like us to create lists of tips/strategies that will improve their social media platforms. She doesn’t seem very open to the idea of us actually running the social media platforms because she is worried we will not have the correct content to do so.

8. We’ve noticed that NOFA is involved with many different programs, such as Farm to Consumer, Farm to School, Community Food Access, etc. Is there a specific program that you feel is most important for us to help you work on/raise awareness for during our partnership?

Abby Nelson is in charge of our Farm to Institution and Farm to School Programs. She would be a great person to talk to. She’s working on a new project to increase maple syrup into schools while decreasing sugar. This would include connecting local maple syrup producers to schools across Vermont.

2) Deliverable #1:

Communications asset report -- currently NOFA has a website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, sends out a quarterly e-newsletter, a printed newsletter, and has a staff blog.

What they’re missing is a strong social media presence, and blog entries from members.

By March we will have a full communications asset report of NOFA.

Deliverable #2:

Analyze the annual impact report and design a clear and effective infographic to better represent the information. Another task we discussed is the possibility of improving NOFA’s social media presence.

3) Interviews for 2/6:

Shea - Abbie Nelson, farm to school & farm to institution

Niki - Erin Buckwalter, food access & direct markets

Tate - Maddie Monty, policy & membership

Bari - Enid Wonnacott, executive director

Questions for NOFA

1. What are some ways in the past you have tried to increase membership and were those strategies successful?
1. What would you have changed?

2. In what ways do you engage with your current members? How would you like them to become more involved with NOFA?

3. How would you like us to tell NOFA’s story? Blogging? Interviews?

4. If blogging is an approach you’d like us to use, would it make sense for members to be able to post their stories and ideas on the blog as well in order to increase their engagement with NOFA?

5. NOFA encompasses a wide variety of the Vermont farming community, is there a specific aspect of NOFA that you want us to focus on more than others?

6. Your Winter Conference is coming up and you mentioned you want help promoting that; what is the main purpose of this conference and what platforms do you think would most effectively spread the word while considering your audience? I.e. online, in publications, social media, etc.

7. We noticed that your organization doesn’t use Instagram as a social media platform, do you think creating one/using social media in general will help tell NOFA’s story?

8. We’ve noticed that NOFA is involved with many different programs, such as Farm to Consumer, Farm to School, Community Food Access, etc. Is there a specific program that you feel is most important for us to help you work on/raise awareness for during our partnership?