What's up in the Alpaca Fiber Co-op

New Clip Collection Point

AFCNA is pleased to announce our new business relationship with Tapetas de Lana in New Mexico, who will be serving as our new clip collection and sort point. Tapetes de Lana is a non-profit organization designed to promote cottage industry and rural lifestyles and their goals and approach to business fits well with ours. Carla Gomez, the executive director at Tapetes de Lana, likes to say that there's only room for cooperation in rural America. Together with Tapetes de Lana, AFCNA is pursuing state and federal funding for sorter training and to make the transition a smooth one. For more information on Tapetes de Lana, visit their website at http://www.tapetesdelana.com/.

Clip Collection Now Open!

Yes, we are finally accepting the 2005 clip! If you're interesed in participating this year, send your clip to:
AFCNA c/o
Tapetes de Lana
Junction 518 & Highway 434
Mora, NM 87732

Transport forms and labels can be found on this website at xxx
A clip collection letter will be going out by email and US post the first week of June.

The 2004 Clip

Because of our need to end our business relationship with Sonora, we'll sort the 2004 fiber at our new collection point. If you sent your 2004 fiber dry and in good condition, it will have been safe in storage and will be accounted for with this year's sort. More information on this is available in the President's Message in this Newsletter.

The North American Alpaca Mark

As we begin to work with and promote your fiber specifically, the cooperative is in the process of obtaining a trademark to identify fiber and products made with North American Alpaca. Once the registration process is complete this mark will be available for licensing to producers and manufacturers using North American alpaca and meeting certain quality standards. Stay tuned for more information about this exciting intiative.

Call for Articles

We want to make the AFCNA Newsletter a valuable source of information. We need you to contribute. We are particularly interested in short articles pertaining to fiber production topics, alpaca history, or the history of cooperatives in general. If you have an article that you would like to have considered for inclusion, please contact John Merrell

Member Information Update

It is important for us to keep our database of member information as current as possible. Please contact the AFCNA office if you have changed address, phone number or email. Please ask other members that you know to do the same.