How To Organize A Regional Clip Collection

Overview

In October 2007, 162 boxes containing approximately 2332 lbs of fiber arrived (via a livestock trailer) at the national AFCNA fiber collection site in Mora New Mexico. Two AOBA affiliates, Calpaca and SOJAA, provided the "seed money" to cover the initial expenses.

NOTE: to lower costs in 2008 a freight company will be used to move palletized boxes to the collections site.

Ideas for Organizing a Regional Clip Collection

• There are advantages to obtaining affiliate support or sponsorship.
  • Access to members
  • Volunteer base
  • Seed money
  • Communication chain
• Organizing the event can be done by an individual, team, or committee
• Ideas for success
  • Start planning and organizing months in advance and get "the word out" early
    • If sponsored by an affiliate use the affiliate newsletter and meetings to promote the event
  • The most successful way of communicating seems to be the telephone…emails are often not read
  • Challenge members to contact/recruit other members to increase participation
  • Use smaller regional collections sites to gather the fiber to take to a larger or final collection site
  • Continually communicate

Steps for Success

These steps aren't necessarily listed in a particular order. However, some will naturally fall in order by nature of the activity.

• Select an individual/team/committee to organize the collection
• Seek affiliate support and/or sponsorship
• Investigate the cost of shipping boxes from your geographic area to New Mexico.
  • Locate a freight company that will consolidate the fiber boxes with other freight being shipped to the same area (Mora, New Mexico)
    • estimate how many boxes you will collect and determine how much you are going to charge participants per fleece for transport
• Decide where your collections sites will be located (shows, member ranches, etc)
• Decide who is going to pick up the fiber from the collections sites
  • If collecting from more than one show or location, a location must be designated to use for storage of the fiber until it is transported to New Mexico.

Planning for Success

The following details are necessary for a successful regional clip collection.

• First and foremost, a dedicated and committed group of volunteers
• Establishing lines of communication for guidelines, notifications and updates
• Plan the process for collecting and keeping records of the contributions
  • Develop a form for recording ranch name, AFCNA member #, number of boxes, number of fleeces per box, weight of each box, and any money collected
• If collecting at a regional show:
  • establish times the trailer or collection site will be open to accept contributions and post them on the outside of the trailer or near the collection site. It is highly recommended that if the fiber is not going into a trailer, it is collected in a secure spot.
  • schedule volunteers to work the shifts associated with the times the collection sites will be open
    • it works best if there are two volunteers…one to weigh the boxes and one to record the details
• Follow the AFCNA guidelines (on the AFCNA website) for completing the paperwork and preparing the boxes for shipping