Each year, a representative of the Maine Association of Agricultural Fairs (MAAF) visits Common Ground to see what kind of show we are putting on, and to make sure we are living up to certain standards. It certainly seems that we're doing lots of things right.
At the January 1999 MAAF Meeting, Common Ground Country Fair won an award for the "Most Improved Small Fair." MAAF presented that award to us in recognition of the tremendous strides we had made in opening the new Common Ground Education Center in Unity. After this past year's Fair, we earned more praise from MAAF, scoring a "Very Good" overall rating -- the best a Fair can get.
Howard Chick, who carried out the MAAF evaluation this year, commended MOFGA on its well-planned buildings and outstanding grounds layout.
"Common Ground Fair projects an outstanding display of farming and rural living by the demonstrations offered," Mr. Chick reported. "During my visit, I heard comments from fairgoers who didn't have experience as organic farmers and gardeners. Many said, 'Hey, we need to try some gardening and food production.'"
Mr. Chick highlighted the Children's Area and general programming for young visitors to the Fair, and noted a great opportunity to spread the organic farming message statewide.
MOFGA will continue to strive for excellence in its educational programs at the Common Ground Country Fair, and at each of its events throughout the year.
In January, Fair folks met in the Exhibition Hall to talk about ways of improving the overall Fair Volunteer Program. Meeting participants discussed scheduling problems, ensuring that we have adequate volunteer numbers for all shifts each day of the Fair, developing registration and communication strategies, mentoring young and new volunteers, and many other topics.
This was the first of several planning sessions that will take place as we prepare for the 2000 Fair. Anyone who is interested in joining the Volunteer Planning Committee, should contact the Fair office at PO Box 170, Unity, ME 04988. Phone: 207-568-4142. Email: cgcf@mofga.org
Many of you are hard at work planning your gardens for the upcoming growing season. If you anticipate having extra space in any of your plots, why not fill it with veggies for the Common Kitchen? Volunteers at the Fair have eaten very well during the first two years in Unity, and the sustenance has come largely from MOFGA's organic farmers and gardeners. Please join the club. Swarms of hungry volunteers will greatly appreciate it!
Coordinators of the Agricultural Demonstrations at the Fair are starting to plan this year's schedule. If you have a particular farming and gardening skill that you would like to share with fairgoers, please let us know. We are always looking for new and different topics. Also, if you know of people who have valuable knowledge or expertise relating to organic farming in Maine and would like to speak at the Fair, please encourage them to contact us. We are wide open to suggestions. Thanks.
We solved lots of big problems for our second Fair in Unity, but there still is room for improvement. One of the challenges that we have highlighted for this year is providing lots more seating and eating facilities. We would greatly appreciate your help in building picnic tables and benches. We plan to have a work weekend sometime in the summer to construct some of the tables and benches. Please call us at 568-4142 to let us know if you would like to join us. If you have some basic carpentry skills and would like to help but live too far from Unity to attend the work weekend, please consider building a simple bench that you could bring with you to the Fair next September. Thanks for any help that you can give!