2006 Annual Conference

May 9 - 11, 2006 Portland, Oregon

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Wednesday was an incredibly full day with speakers, the HSMG Annual Meeting and a Networking Cocktail Hour sponsored by Wholesale Supplies Plus. And, of course, throughout the day there were raffle and door prizes announced!

Wednesday

Rob Brown from The Lebermuth Company, spoke about natural flavor chemicals, the new alternative to essential oils or synthetics. Kevin Dunn, our industry soap chemistry specialist discussed Saponifications Values, what they are, why they are what they are and how to measure them for yourself. Irene Linauer gave a demonstration of her beautiful soap gems using Melt & Pour soaps. And that was before lunch!

Annual Meeting

Lunch and the following two hours were filled with the HSMG Annual Membership Meeting. It went very smoothly and a lot was accomplished:

• The President, Marie Gale, briefed the membership on the current strategy plan, including what is planned for the coming two years and what has already been accomplished.
• The Board of Directors made a motion to create a Certification Program for soapmakers to be researched and created and submitted to the membership for final approval in 2007. The motion passed, with many members subsequently commenting on the benefits of such a certification program and expressing their excitement about how it might work.
• Elections were held, with Jackie Thompson, Leigh O'Donnell and Robert Kishtok each being elected to a two year term as members of the Board of Directors.
• Five changes to the Bylaws were approved by the membership. In essence, these established an Advisory Board, created a new Membership Committe for membership recruitment and retention, removed the Audit Committee and put alternative financial review processes in place and clarified the procedure should an existing Board member be elected President.
• Rob Brown (The Lebermuth Company, Inc.), Catherine Failor (Milky Way Molds) and Mike Lawson (Columbus Foods / Soaper's Choice) were awarded the status of Honorary Lifetime Member for their long-time contributions to the HSMG.

Volunteers - Our Heros!

After the annual meeting and a break (with even more food!) Casey Kellar spoke on getting your products to market and Jackie Thompson spoke about forumulating your soap recipe (and using INS values to do so. Then it was dinner followed by a great networking cocktail hour sponsored by Wholesale Supplies Plus.

All during the conference the Conference Ground Crew (all volunteers) were there - helping out, stamping Certificates of Attendance, manning the HSMG tables, running for the speakers and generally doing what needed to be done. Wearing their yellow "Conference Staff" shirts they were easily visible all the time.

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