T R E E. Getting Ready!!!! A L K

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1 T R E E T Getting Ready!!!! Published for the members of the Georgia Christmas Tree Association September 2018 A L K

2 What s Inside. President s Report Executive Officer Report Tree decorating trends Cash Flow Our meeting and where will be in 2019? New members Trees on a car Trees for Troops Toys 4 Tots on your farm Officers of GACTA

3 President s Report September 2018 Greetings, The annual Georgia Christmas Tree Association meeting in August was a huge success. It was a great learning experience and was well put together. Many thanks to Linda Wilson, Matthew Gay, our host farm, Sleepy Hollow, and the speakers and vendors. All the hard work and effort is much appreciated. Sleepy Hollow farm made us all feel at home and successfully showed us their uniqueness that makes them sought after by their customers. Seeing how each different Christmas tree farm in Georgia provides that special tree and those special memories is Dewayne and my favorite part of the annual meeting. We don t have to be the same as everybody else. We can do what suits us and our customers. Now, for a brief introduction: My husband, Dewayne and I, along with our children, Sydney, Shelby, Derrick, Sarah, Dallas, and Sterling have all worked together to make Days of Creation Christmas Tree Farm a special place to make memories. Fortunately, and unfortunately, all our little Herrins have grown up and have successfully flown from the Herrin s Nest. Dewayne and I are adjusting to this change. It is exciting and a little scary to embrace. We are again trying to figure out what we want to be when we grow up. Our family has been selling Christmas trees since Compared to some of our members, we are just babies in this business. I chuckle when a customer looks around at our farm and asks what it takes to grow Christmas trees, because at the time they are experiencing the best part of the Christmas tree year cutting a tree! When our customer faces are lit up with smiles and laughing with their loved ones as they forget for a little while just how hectic the Christmas season is, and focus on making memories as they search for the perfect Christmas tree. We found out pretty quickly that growing a good Christmas tree is hard work. In fact, our children were very excited about having a Christmas tree farm, until they realized they were part of the labor force. We have many experiences that go under the category of How Not To Grow Christmas Trees. The membership in the Georgia Christmas Tree Association has helped us reduce those oops! GACTA continues to provide ways to help make the members more successful. The new growers seminar, the annual meetings, articles in Tree Talk, participation in the National Christmas Tree Association, the introduction to vendors, and the GACTA website are just some of the ways GACTA helps us to Keep It Real! And, let s not forget the opportunities through Trees for Troops and Toys for Tots to let us make Christmas even more special. I m looking forward to serving you. I hope your Christmas season is enjoyable as well as successful and that you don t forget the real Reason for the Season. Respectfully, Sheryl Herrin

4 Thank you to all our vendors that make this publication possible! Georgia Christmas Tree Association

5 Greetings from Hawkinsville. I don t know if we re trimming, mowing, topping or fertilizing this week so I decided it was a good time just to enjoy the pool and read a book that only lasted a few hours. The guilt was getting to me so here I am doing Tree Talk because it s in the wonderful (best invention ever) air conditioning. We had a wonderful meeting at Sleepy Hollow Tree Farm. The whole family is involved in the business of making people smile and surprising them with fun adventures. Of course we will be building a new slide just like theirs (another project..thanks Perry) and thinking about how we could do something like their extra venues. Having kids and son-in-laws to help make a big difference. They are very fortunate to be able to share this as a family. What a great place for the grands to grow up. We had several new members come to the meeting. It was a great place to talk and learn from the experiences of all our past mistakes. We heard from speakers that covered a variety of subjects and then after lunch we did speed speakers in rotating table in ten minute increments. We had 5 speakers in an hour and got to ask questions too. Matthew Gay was honored for his service as our President for the past two years. Sheryl Herrin is stepping in as President and Nathan Bottoms is moving up as President-elect. Mathew thanked Dave Taylor for the incredible job he did hosting a new grower s seminar last spring. Matthew said he would host it next spring. Probably in April. Feels like we are turning the corner and headed for the finish line in December once again. I hope everyone has a profitable, joyous season. Respectfully, Linda Wilson Executive Director

6 OAK POND NURSERY, LLC Growers of Leyand Cypress, Murray Cypress Thuja Green Giant, Yoshino, Cryptomeria and we are also Growing Radicans Cryptomeria Available in liners (3 inch pots) 1 and 3 gallon sizes Allen Etheridge (home) 3795 Travelers Rest Rd Newton, GA (cell)

7 Wilson Ridgeway Bullington Brewer Grant Wirht Raulston Jim Smith Moss Byron Lakeview Kinsey West Roberts Thaxton Worthington Allgood Jordan Beck West Berry Herrin Moss Maddox Hambrick Duggan Grieser Zipperer Lovell Bramlette Webster Gilbert Crawford DeWeese Watson Fraser Knoll Frazier Coker McGrath Taylor 7 Gs Busbin McKeen Smith Jr Malcolm Beavers Maanum Palmer Bottoms Thompson Riner Wernick These are people that have Rahm Senkbeil paid dues for 2018 DiGirolamo Coppage Bosshardt Shorter Gay Slaughter Butler Stephens Crawford

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9 Cash Flow - Year to Date 1/1/2018 through 9/7/2018 Category 1/1/2018-9/7/2018 INFLOWS Dues 2, Meeting Income 2, Sales Ads 2, TOTAL INFLOWS 7, OUTFLOWS Ad Sales Commission antivirus Bookkeeping 2, Computer And Printers 2, Corporation Registration State Efile Tax 4.99 Gifts Meeting Expense organization fees Phones Postage Software Supplies tip nacta program 1, Tree Talk Editor Tree Talk Expenses Website TOTAL OUTFLOWS 10, OVERALL TOTAL -2, note: Association had to purchase a new computer

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11 Every Child Deserves a Little Christmas. Due to loss of Toys R Us the Toys For Tots program will need as much support as possible this upcoming year. The national program provided support to 45 local Georgia communities and over 400,000 Georgia children last year. We have a 97:03 operational expense ratio meaning that 97 cents of every dollar goes directly to purchasing toys and only 3 cents goes to paying expenses. One of the best of any charity in the entire country. Getting involved shows support for our military, helps local children, and is conducted during one of the most special times of the year, the Christmas holidays! Please note: The farms that participated in the past have all decided to come back each year since. Contact A.T. Wilson in order to get involved. atwilson@withhonorllc.com

12 Fashionable Stores Predict top Trend for 2018 will be the Rainbow Christmas Tree John Lewis, a high end department store with locations throughout England, predicts the biggest trend of Christmas 2018 will be the Rainbow Christmas tree which they are also predicting will be a definite hit on social media. You can create the exact look by graduating a spectrum of different colored balls from the top to the bottom of the tree, keeping in mind that the base will need a great number of balls to fill in. They think that the rainbow trend is set to filter thru Christmas this year. You should be seeing it on Social media such as Pinterest

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14 Sleepy Hollow Christmas Tree Farm 2019 meeting will be at Days of Creation Farm Jesup, GA (date TBA) Stranger Things (Netflix) films On their farm. This is the cabin for all you fans. Dewayne and Sheryl Herrin teach us how to propagate our own trees.

15 Christmas Tree Industry Votes to Continue National Research and Promotion Program On July 19, the U S Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that the US producers and importers of Christmas trees voted to continue their federal research and promotion program. In a referendum held by USDA s Agricultural Marketing Service, May 1 thru May 31, 51 percent of those voting favored continuation of the program. I am pleased that the work of the Promotion Board will continue, commented CPTB chairman Jim Rocks.

16 Hey, ya got it on backwards! Clearing up consumer misinformation by Paul Illingworth This past selling season, I noticed a great number of customers loading their trees on the top of the car and putting it on backward with the top of the tree toward the front of the vehicles and the cut trunk at the back. I guess they figured that a Christmas tree is like the tip of a rocket and putting it on the vehicles this way makes aerodynamic sense. But why were there so many customers making this mistake this year? Watching TV one night I got my answer. There was a very popular car ad that ran on TV last year that showed two cars racing through the city with Christmas trees on the top of the cards and they were backward. Of course, by the end of the ad neither tree had any needles left on them. As I became aware of this situation I started noticing that many ads and drawings of trees on top of cars show the tip of the tree facing the front of car. See for yourself. Go to Google and type in Christmas tree on top of a car. Most of the drawings have the tree on backwards. I tried to correct as many as possible but I m sure many went down the road with needles and branches flapping in the wind. So this year I made a diagram to post around my farm with the correct way to carry it home.

17 Welcome to our newest members Charles Clements family Lafayette, GA Ed and Anita Mullis Dublin, GA Austin Henderson

18 G.A.C.T.A. Trees for Troops 2018 Can you believe it s almost Christmas? We ve all been out in the hot fields working hard to get our trees ready for the coming sale season. It s also time to begin thinking about Trees for Troops. Our Association took the lead in this program back in 2005 when Coy Dilahunty and Cecil Hess took it upon themselves to visit as many farms as they could and hauled over 200 trees to Fort Stewart near Columbus, Ga. Much has changed since those days. Fed Ex came on board in 2006 to begin the pickup and de- livery of trees. Our Association has never failed to deliver less than 500 trees per year to bases of Christmas Spirit Foundation and Fed Ex choice. Last year s efforts brought over 800 trees to bases all over the South. We are working on collection points from our farmer s listings. This year we have put together volunteer locations: at Greenbriar Creek Christmas Trees Farm (50 trees), Evergreen Christmas Tree Farm (150 trees), Bottoms Christmas Tree Farm (75 trees), Berry s Christmas Tree Farm (50 trees), Raulston Acres Christmas Tree Farm (30 trees), Minter s Christmas Tree Farm (100 trees) and 7 G s Farm (100 trees). We have a couple of other farms we are working with as well, not confirmed at this time. Fed Ex / CSF have agreed to pick up as few as 25 trees at collection points. If you have an interest in adding trees to the current collection sites please call on the above farms to volunteer a few trees. If you would like to be a collection site, please give me a call and I will set you up. We have requested that all our collection points be placed on pick up dates for the first week in December. The exact date and delivery point for the trees will be made by Fed Ex / CSF and communicated to each collection. This is a truly rewarding program to all involved. You are providing a Christmas tree to active military families that may not be able to afford one during the Christmas season. These families have given their time to serve our county. Let s give something back to them to show our appreciation. Please visit to see the national overview from Christmas Spirit Foundation. On this page you can link the toolkit where a wealth of information to help you can be found, When you sign up with me I can get banners, posters, postcards and special tags for your advertising use.

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20 Annual Meeting Schedule for Georgia Christmas Tree Association 2018 Sleepy Hollow Christmas Tree Farm Perry and Maureen Deweese 2019 Days of Creation Christmas Tree Farm Dewayne and Sheryl Herrin Gs Christmas Tree Farm Greg, Jennie and Liza Smith

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22 President, Sheryl Herrin, Waycross Hwy, Jessup, GA 31545, Past President, Matthew Gay Tobacco Rd, Augusta, GA 30906, President Elect, Nathan Bottoms, John Burruss Rd, Cumming, GA 30043, Executive Director, Linda Wilson Cordele Hwy, Hawkinsville, GA 31036, National Director, Chuck Berry 185 McCord St., Covington, GA Northern Director 1, Walter Lee Old Bishop Rd., Bishop, GA Northern Director 2, Chase Berry McCord St. Covington, GA 30014, Central Director 1, Greg Smith Old Kings Bridge Rd, Nicholson, GA Central Director 2, Denise Thompson Prospect Rd., Lawrenceville, GA 30043, Southern Director 1 (vacated by Nathan Bottoms to be filled) Webmaster. Jim Butler, 3850 Hwy 81 W, Hampton, GA 30228, webmaster@gacta.com Tree Talk Editor/ Advertising Sales Linda Wilson tree Georgia Christmas Tree Association Officers