On Monday we had our weekly meeting. The first thing we talked about were some Areas of Focus for Sour Flour.
Areas of Focus:
1. Increase involvement of members
2. Increasing skill level of bakers
3. Getting more members
4. Simplifying bread making process
5. Producing better bread
The purpose of writing these down was to begin to keep track of what our energy should go towards. If each of these areas improves, we will be headed in the right direction.
Next we talked about certain Projects that needed to be worked on. The idea is that each of these contributes in one way or another to a one or more of the Areas of Focus.
Projects:
1. Ficticious Business Name and other legal issues
2. create training video
3. get business cards
4. production management database and program
5. plan “1000 Loaf” party
6. distribute information about Bagel Monday
7. get bakers to commit to baking bread
8. plan training sessions at other locations
9. write about baking techniques
10. setup RSS of different Bread Blogs
11. get back into Bread Baker’s Apprentice
12. plan baking field trip
13. Get library card
One topic of discussion was the upcoming Eat Real Festival happening in Oakland. The Sexy Soup Cart has invited us to bring bread, and we have quite a large order to fill. There are estimates that as many as 850 people will want bread from us, so really we should be trying to bake as much as we can. We will be coming up with a baking schedule for Friday and Saturday so that we are ready to distribute the bread Saturday afternoon.
We also talked about the issue of finance. The costs are fairly low right now, but they are beginning to add up. As we continue to grow, we will need to explore fund raising ideas and the possibility of getting grants. We are also selling bread baking kits, but ideally we would like to keep everything free for those who want it. It will be necessary to estimate costs for different plans, and then write up proposals to get the money.
Finally, we talked about the meeting structure in general. It was determined that at the beginning of each meeting, we would recap the last meeting. We would then review our Action Items and Projects, and add or remove any as necessary. Meeting minutes would be taken, which would be shared online. We still don’t have the exact format of everything, but we will continue to mold the process until it works for us.
The Action Items that we gave out were:
* Send email to let people know we exist, free bread, and free bread training.
* Send email request for Eat Real Fest volunteers.
* Send email to ask who wants to go on a bakery field trip
* Create and get business cards
* Clipboard with email sign-ups for Eat Real Fest
I was responsible for the first 3 items, and have already gotten response about the Eat Real. I am still working on drafting an email to send out to everyone explaining Sour Flour, and should have that soon. Once I get my schedule a bit more in order, I will be sending out a message to see who would like to go on a field trip to a bakery.
Ren has already designed the business cards, and Anh-Thu is working with her to get them created before the Eat Real Fest on Saturday. Anh-Thu is also in charge of dealing with our signups for the Eat Real Fest.
Let me know if you would like to help out with anything relating to Sour Flour. Our next meeting will be next Monday, August 31st; let me know if you would like to join in.