Dear Members,
Attitude of Gratitude Career & Education Fair, Wednesday, November 20, 2019 Noon- 4:00p.m. Quality Inn of Oneonta
We are excited to partner with Oneonta Job Corps Academy and CDO Workforce for an Attitude of Gratitude Career & Education Fair this Wednesday Novemebr 20, 2019 Noon-4:00p.m. at the Quality Innn in Oneonta. Veterans Welcomed. Please see attached flyer for information.
Last Call to Reserve your Seat at the 20th Annual Small Business Banquet “Ignite the Fire of Entreprenrial Spirit” Thursday, November 21, 2019 5:5p.m. at Otesaga Resort Hotel (Details attached on reservation info)
Source Otsego – WhatsGood, New Vendor Sign Up
With the holiday season fast approaching, customers are looking for where they can purchase great local products to serve at gatherings or to give as gifts. The Source Otsego-WhatsGood online farmers market is a great way to make the connection with those customers.
Cornell Cooperative Extension – Schoharie and Otsego Counties, has partnered with WhatsGood, to provide an online marketing opportunity. The WhatsGood website allows customers to learn more about your business, browse your available products, place orders, and make payments online. The customer then picks up their order at one of the drop-sites you have selected to utilize.
There are a number of drop-site options loaded into the website for you to choose from. If you are a vendor at the Cooperstown or Oneonta Farmers’ Markets, you can use your booth as a pick-up site for your online customers.
We are also partnering with four organizations around Otsego County which have agreed to host drop-sites for a 10-week pilot program on Thursdays from October 17th to December 19th. These project partners provide access to a tremendous number of new customers, and you don’t need to spend the day at a market to reach them. You assemble the orders at your farm, deliver them to the drop-site(s), return home, and back to farming. The best part is, everything is paid for before you leave the farm. Please note: The pick-up date for the week of Thanksgiving will be Tuesday, November, 26.
Our four partner drop-sites are:
- The Arc Otsego Day Services Building at 63 Lower River St., Oneonta.
Farmers can drop off product 8 AM-12 PM and customers can pick up orders 1-6 PM.
- The Clark Sports Center, 124 County Hwy 52, Cooperstown.
Farmers can drop off product 7 AM-12 PM and customers can pick up orders 12-8 PM.
- Pathfinder Village, 3 Chenango Rd., Edmeston.
Farmers can drop off product 8 AM-12 PM and customers can pick up orders 12-5 PM.
For now, if the vendor has product that needs to be kept cool at these three drop-sites, the vendor will need to leave the product at the drop site in their own ice chest or individual insulated containers. The Clark Sports Center would like the coolers to be removed by the vendors by Saturday night. As participation in this program grows, we will work to get refrigeration units on site at each location.
- Richfield Springs Food Co-op, 96 Main Street, Richfield Springs. This facility has refrigeration available. Farmers can drop off product in the morning between 9-12 and customers can pick up their orders from 12-1 PM.
VERY IMPORTANT! Each vendor must package each individual customer’s order in a bag or box with the customer’s name clearly written, and a phone number for that customer if you have that available. We are trying to make this process as easy as possible on our drop-site partners who are volunteering their time to make this project a success.
To participate in the Source Otsego-WhatsGood online farmers’ market, simply:
- Sign up for WhatsGood. This is the portal through which you as a vendor will manage your profile, product offering, and customer orders. Vendors, please complete this sign-up process from a computer.
- Add your payment account, business info, products, and inventory to your WhatsGood profile.
You will find a short info packet at this link: WhatsGood Vendor Account Set-up Guide . This will show you what you need to know to sign up.
Make sure you have completed setting up your account and listing the products you want to sell through this program. You cannot select any drop-sites until you have successfully set up a bank account on the website.
Choose the drop-sites you would like to utilize during this pilot phase. The customers cannot find you, nor your products, until you choose a drop-site to sell through. REMEMBER, vendors decide which drop-sites to serve, including your farmers’ market booth, and only choose those drop-sites for your individual account. The customers shopping on the WhatsGood website can only buy from you at the drop-sites you have selected.
If you want to set up a drop-site different from those currently available, including your own farm, please contact William Araujo, will@sourcewhatsgood.com. William works with WhatsGood to support our vendors in this project.
If you have questions or problems with signing up, please contact William Araujo, or me, Jim Barber jrb248@cornell.edu phone: 607-547-2536 xt.227
This is a unique, cost-free opportunity to generate more exposure for your business. Your product is already sold and packaged when it leaves the farm and it is free for you to participate. There are no signup, transaction or credit card fees, for the vendors selling through WhatsGood.
If you know other vendors who may be interested in joining this project, please encourage them to sign-up! This online market will be available to a lot of potential customers.
SQSPCA announces revised goals for SHELTER US campaign
Donors rise to the challenge as final project plans begin to take shape
COOPERSTOWN, NY – When the Susquehanna Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SQSPCA) launched its SHELTER US Campaign in the fall of 2018, the organization based preliminary fundraising estimates of $2-3 million on renovations to the current shelter facilities.
Since that time, the SQSPCA Board of Directors determined that due to the condition of the existing buildings and their presence in a flood plain upgrades to the facility were not feasible as originally planned. They decided to relocate to a property on State Route 28 better suited to the organization’s needs, not far from the current site.
To accommodate this move – including property purchase, demolition, asbestos abatement, and site preparation – the price tag to design and construct a new, state-of-the-art animal shelter, thrift store and campus will be nearer the $5 million mark. Today, spurred by back-to-back successful matching foundation grants, the SQSPCA has raised just over $3 million toward the project.
“We are incredibly grateful for all of the business, community and foundation support we have received thus far,” said SQSPCA Executive Director Stacie Haynes. “The campaign continues to gain momentum, and support for the new shelter continues to grow.”
The new facilities will improve the daily lives of sheltered dogs and cats by better conforming to guidelines established by the Association of Shelter Veterinarians. Upgraded features will include two entrances separating incoming animals from visitors and animals leaving for their new homes, a sterile surgery suite with safe recovery area, a fresh air ventilation system to benefit visitors as well as animals under shelter care, and parking that is more convenient.
Last week’s flash flood event further underscored the need for the new shelter.
“On October 26, Five Star Subaru and the ASPCA sponsored a fee waived adoption event during which we adopted out 48 animals. The following Friday, one of our buildings where animals were being housed was flooded with nearly a foot of water,” Haynes explained.
“Fortunately, thanks to the Five Star Subaru/ASPCA event, we were able to rescue those animals from the flooded area and move them to the main kennel, which was safe and dry. If not for that adoption event, we would have found ourselves in an even more precarious situation. We continue to seek support from our friends and neighbors to help with our SHELTER US campaign.
“The need is now,” Haynes said.
Haynes pointed out that, although affiliated with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, it is important to note that the Susquehanna SPCA is a private, independent nonprofit organization that receives no funds from the ASPCA.
“And while we are proud to partner with Otsego County and work with a number of its municipalities, we have received no monetary support from the county to date for this project or toward operating expenses,” Haynes clarified.
The SHELTER US Capital Campaign Committee, chaired by Cooperstown resident and former Susquehanna SPCA Board member Anne Keith, will continue to work with the SQSPCA Board of Directors and staff to secure the funds necessary to reach the revised $5 million target.
“Multi-year pledges over the coming years continue to be especially important in meeting our funding needs,” Haynes added. “The goal at this point is to maximize our fundraising in an effort to avoid incurring any significant debt.”
Naming opportunities are available for gifts at levels from $5,000 to $1,000,000, including dog runs, catios, dog walking trails, surgical suite with recovery room and the campus itself. To request an information packet, call Haynes at (607) 547-8111, extension 101.
In operation since 1917, the Susquehanna SPCA is a 501c3 nonprofit organization committed to caring for homeless, surrendered, and seized companion animals and finding them loving, forever homes. For more information or to donate, visit www.sqspca.org
The Farmers’ Museum Opens Its Doors on Thanksgiving Weekend
Thanksgiving at The Farm
Friday and Saturday, November 29–30 • 10:00 am–4:00 pm
Admission is by donation. All dollar amounts welcome.
(Visitors may donate whatever dollar amount they wish to enter the museum during Thanksgiving at The Farm.)
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Walk off your holiday meal with a stroll through The Farmers' Museum’s 1840s country village as the museum opens its doors on the Friday and Saturday following Thanksgiving Day (November 29 and 30 from 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.) for Thanksgiving at The Farm. The museum is the perfect setting to spend time with family and friends over the holiday weekend. You’ll find a traditional mid 19th–century Thanksgiving dinner prepared over the open hearth at the Lippitt Farmhouse and blacksmiths forging cooking utensils throughout the day inside the Peleg Field Blacksmith Shop. Be sure to pick up a printed recipe to take home in the Middlefield Print Shop. Make a stop at Bump Tavern for coffee or hot cocoa and a traditional dessert. If you still have an appetite, enjoy a snack at the museum’s Crossroads Café. Admission is by donation. All dollar amounts are welcome.
Bring the entire family! Kids can catch a glimpse of the heritage-breed turkeys, visit the farm animals, ride the Empire State Carousel, or just enjoy a relaxing walk around the museum's 19th-century country village.
Find beautiful holiday items and greeting cards at The Farmers' Museum Store as well as interesting items based on the history and culture of New York and rural America. At Todd’s General Store, find items from our region’s past that you can’t find anywhere else. Starting November 29, the main museum store is open daily for holiday shopping from 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. through December 24.
Double your fun with a visit to Fenimore Art Museum – just across the road – with several exhibitions on view including the popular Heroines of Abstract Expressionism and Otsego On Ice: Histories of Wintertime Sport, both on view through December 31.
The Farmers' Museum is located at 5775 State Hwy 80, Cooperstown, NY. For more information, visit FarmersMuseum.org.
Keeping Good Talent in Oneonta: Local IT/Marketing Firm Offers Student Loan Assistance as an Employee Benefit
ONEONTA, NY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019 – Local IT, Web and Marketing agency Directive has added another perk for its employees as it continues its efforts to enrich the area’s workforce. Beyond health insurance, retirement plans, and other benefits already in place, Directive has begun to offer student loan assistance for its employees to help pay off their student loans.
Offering assistance with educational loan repayments has become a more tantalizing perk for many new entries to the workforce, with the average graduate of the class of 2017 owing almost $40,000. Total student loan debt in the United States is around $1.53 trillion dollars, with New York alone seeing a student loan balance of $73.5 billion among 2.2 million borrowers.
Most companies have not yet adopted this benefit – according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, only 4 percent of employers offer it – although this number is growing due to the mutual benefits that can be seen from such a program. Another study, conducted by Cornell University, the Stanford Center on Longevity, and Fidelity Investments, revealed that 98 percent of 9,000 working individuals surveyed had felt stress in the past three months. For 33 percent of these respondents, that stress came from paying off debt.
Directive employee Courtenay Chambers echoed these findings. When asked about Directive’s new program, Chambers said, “I think it is a huge weight they are lifting off of us.”
By reaching this milestone, there is the hope that Directive will be able to better entice and retain the talents of those graduating from the local colleges and keep them in the area, helping to improve the Oneonta community for the long term.
Chambers went on to say, “I think it will encourage young professionals to seek a career here. I personally feel like I am valuable to this company because there’s a willingness to help us out in a more personal way.”
Another employee, Ken Echard, added that the program is extremely helpful. As Echard put it, “It allows me to focus less on being in debt for the rest of my life and more on the other wants and needs in life that also cost money – a car, your family, a house someday.”
CEO Chris Chase had this to say about the new program: “The student loan assistance program is a real milestone for us and something we have wanted to implement for a long time. We are always striving to make our workplace an inviting place to be employed, with this new program we are now able to make an additional impact on our team members’ personal lives and financial wellbeing.”
Directive has been operating in the area for over 26 years, ensuring that businesses remain productive, protected and growing through their business solutions. Those interested in working there can visit jobs.directive.com to apply.
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