Vol. 04, No. 3 December 2007

Minnesota Chapter Newsletter

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Minnesota State Rep./Alternates/Secretary/Treasurer

Joe Bushnell / Ginni Cormack / Cheryl Ridd
14263 Aspen Ave NE / 1933 Whispering Lane SE / 1605 Ninth Avenue SE
Prior Lake, MN 55372 / Eyota, MN 55934-3609 / Rochester, MN 55904
612-597-0330 / 507-282-4265 / 507-282-8725
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A Message from your State Rep

Hello everyone out there in “cake land”. It seems forever since we’ve been together, then it seems like yesterday that we were together in Omaha and also our Fall Day of Sharing. What a great time we had at both!

As I mentioned at our recent Day of Sharing, it was so good to see so many of you at our ICES convention “in the Heartland”. Again I want to say what a great job our show directors, (Linda Fontana & Kathy Fry) did and each of you that volunteered throughout the convention. THANKS to all of you!

FOCUS….”From Hill to Heel” was our theme for the Fall Day of Sharing. For a better understanding for those that were not able to be with us, our DOS was held at AftonAlps Ski Resort, (with many hills). In my shopping I found a cake plate that was the perfect center piece. It was a cake plate elevated by three high heel shoes. I made two shoes from chocolate, (one red the other white) that were on the plate, with gumpaste flowers in them. The table favors were smaller shoes made of gumpaste in different colors, which each guest got to take home with them. There were also gumpaste roses in small vases on the tables, which our first timers got to take home with them. SPEAKING OF FIRST TIMERS…..we had SIX first timers at our DOS. What a great time we all had!!!

Welcome and thanks for joining us:

Britany Bergren / OstegoTamara Anderson / St. Paul (which we met at convention)

Marie Porter / PrincetonThea Farrington / Owatonna

Rebecca Brown / West Salem, WIIna Bernard / Bloomington

I would like to thank our demonstrators that so ably shared their talents with us.

LeeAnn Hagel– Demonstrated a variety ofCold Porcelain Flowers and did a fabulous job. I had to give her a hard time as she enjoyed demonstrating so much, I ask if she thought she was the only demonstrator for the day. As always, time goes so fast and we certainly had time to listen and watch LeeAnn as she shared her ability to create sugar art that day. THANKS LeeAnn!

Ginni Cormack– Demonstrated Frozen Buttercream transfers. Ginni did a great job as well as she used several fall colors in Buttercream to make a large fall leaf for the cake she brought. THANKS Ginni!

Joe Bushnell– Demonstrated making truffles in polycarbonate magnetic molds, using chocolate transfer sheets and textured sheets. He did an amazing job, entertaining while he demonstrated…..(OH…that’s me!)…. 

BREAKING NEWS…

We had our chapter business meeting discussing old and new business. As I stated in the last newsletter, I had some very exciting news to share with you.

At our Spring DOS, I mentioned we were looking for someone to help us with a website for the MN Chapter of ICES. One of our members, Peg Tucker “volunteered” her husband to work with me. She “informed” Lonnie of her suggestion and I contacted him. We had several discussions; in addition got together to take a look at what he had to propose for a website. During the business meeting, I did a presentation on what Lonnie had done to create a website for us.

With an overwhelming vote it was agreed on to move forward with the website that Lonnie was working on. The website is now live…CHECK IT OUT….MINNESOTA IS ON THE WEB!!!..... 

In working with Lonnie it was decided that we should own both “.org & .com”. This protects us against someone purchasing the mnices.com domain and causing issues with our website. Lonnie was VERY generous in creating the website and has agreed to work with us on keeping it updated. We’ve also purchased a 5 year contract on the website domain and a 4 year contract on web hosting for the site.

Continue to go out to the website for updates. I am working on getting more pictures in the photo gallery from the last 4 events we’ve had in addition to other changes / updates.

Thanks,

Joe

URGENT! Updated Information Needed!

If you have a new Postal or Email address, please send the NEW address Joe Bushnell, MN State Representative, as soon as possible. Emailing of the MN ICES newsletters helps to decrease postage costs. You will also need to inform Gayle McMillan, ICES Membership Coordinator, of any changes in order to continue with uninterrupted delivery of your ICES newsletters and membership expiration notices.

Dates to remember:

March 7 – 9, 2008 / ICES Midyear meeting, Pheasant Run Resort & Spa - St. Charles, IL
July 17 – 20, 2008 / ICES Convention, Orlando, FL
July 30 – Aug 2, 2009 / ICES Convention, Pheasant Run Resort & Spa - St. Charles, IL

Special Thanks again to our 2007 Fall Day of Sharing Sponsors……

(the door prizes just kept coming….everyone went home with something)

Ginni Cormack

Dixie Bettini – Dixie’s Icings

Sugar Craft

Chef Rubber

Lonnie Cato

Sheila Brooks / Cake Craft Shoppe

Nicholas Lodge / Scott Ewing / ISAC

Joe Bushnell

I also want to thank my “personal staff” for joining me prior to start time for the Day of Sharing. As members came through the door, they begin to ask, is there something that I can do? I began to delegate responsibilities and the empty room turned into a beautifully decorated room. THANKS for your willingness to be involved and help make the day more colorful and eventful.

SPECIAL THANKS to Monica Augustine that offered and arranged for use of the Chalet at AftonAlps for our Fall Day of Sharing. Monica also arranged for the wonderful noon meal we had through a catering service. EXCELLENT JOB Monica!