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In This Issue ...
- WF&FSA Floral Distribution Conference
- 2018 Board Elections
- 2018 WFE Survey
- 2017 Fun 'N Sun Videos & Photos
- Local Farmer Donates Thousands of Pink Gerbera Daisies
- Featured New Member of the Month
- Transportation Updates
- New Members
Going Social ...
Members, please follow us on Instagram @CalifFlowers and hashtag #CalFlowers. Watch for event or news-specific hashtags. And we welcome your photos! Please share with Michael LoBue at [email protected].
SAVE THE DATE:
2018 AIFD National Symposium "Discover"
June 30 - July 4
Washington D.C.
CalFlowers News
Our goal is to communicate on a monthly basis with the membership and interested parties about recent past and upcoming events, program updates, and general information about how CalFlowers is engaging in the industry on behalf of the membership.
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WF&FSA Floral Distribution Conference in Miami, FL
The Wholesale Florist and Florist Supplier Association (WF&FSA) held their annual Floral Distribution Conference in Miami on October 18th - 20th. Once again, CalFlowers had the pleasure of attending, exhibiting and hosting a hospitality suite at this year's conference.
Darenda Garbarz, President of Designs by Darenda, did another over-the-top job decorating our table-top exhibit and the CalFlowers hospitality suite.
In addtion to CalFlowers' staff, Chris Johnson and Michael LoBue, the following board members were also present to represent the membership: Frank Biddle, Mike Mooney and Robert Kitayama. Below, Robert works the room at the hospitality suite. If you look closely you should be able to identify: JD Lecuona and Manuel Tobón (DeliFlor); Mike Mellano, Sheritis Terriquez (FedEx), Santiago Cock-Rada (Liberty Blooms and out-going President of WF&FSA), and Sophia Romero (Memorial Day Flowers Foundation), among many others.
We would like to extend our deepest appreciation to the following grower members who sent flowers for the table-top exhibit and the hospitality suite:
CallaCo, CamFlor Inc., Dramm & Echter, Inc., Eufloria Flowers, Glad-A-Way Gardens, Inc., Green Valley Floral, Holland America Flowers LLC, Joseph & Sons, Inc., Kendall Farms, Kitayama Bros. Inc., Myriad Flowers International Inc., O&J Growers, Pyramid Flowers Inc., Rainbow Protea, and The Sun Valley Group.
You did us proud. Thanks!
2018 Board Elections
Ballots were sent to the primary representatives of Floral Members on October 30th. There are four (4) candidates presented on the ballot. Floral members may cast up to four (4) votes, but not more than one per candidate; write-ins are also welcome. Balloting closes on Friday, December 1st. The candidates, all incumbents, are:
- Joost Bongaerts – Florabundance
- Mike Franzoia – California Flower Shippers
- Robert Kitayama – Kitayama Brothers
- Marc Robinson – Delaware Valley Floral Group
If you are a primary representative of a Floral Member and have not received a ballot, or you have questions about this ballot, please contact Michael LoBue ([email protected]) right away.
2018 WFE Survey
The 2018 World Floral Expo will take place on March 20 - 22, 2018 in Chicago, (Rosemont). We are reaching out to you now to determine your level of interest in the World Floral Expo show in 2018. This offer extends to ALL CalFlowers members, including our almost 400 members outside of California.
The 2018 WFE Survey was sent out last week and again this week. If you have not received it and would like to participate in the survey, please contact Monnaie Pepin at [email protected]. We are asking that all surveys be done by Tuesday, November 21st.
Fun 'N Sun Photos and Videos
There were several hundreds of pictures that captured the beauty and activities of the 2017 Fun ‘N Sun Convention. These are available for download or for purchase on hardcopy media and other products. Also there are 7 short videos (about 3 minutes each) of floral designers talking about designing with California product. You can view them or even set up links to the videos. We hope you enjoy!
Click Here to view the photo book
Click Here to view the videos
Local Flower Farm Donates Thousands of Pink Gerbera Daisies
On Saturday, November 18th, during the Susan G. Komen San Diego 3-Day, Dramm & Echter, a locally owned flower farm in Encinitas, CA, will hand out beautiful, pink Gerbera daisies to thousands of Komen San Diego 3-Day participants. According to Amber Livingston, Susan G. Komen 3-Day Specialist, “The Susan G. Komen San Diego 3-Day is a 60-mile, three-day journey of support, hope and encouragement for those who want to end breast cancer forever. The Komen 3-Day values the generosity of companies like Dramm & Echter and their support in our mission.”
This will be the 9th year that Dramm & Echter has provided the floral donation to event participants. “The Susan G. Komen San Diego 3-Day is a way of bringing the community together to support those who have dealt with cancer’s devastation. As a local flower farm, we are honored to show our support by sharing symbolic pink flowers with each participant as they reach the midway point on their amazing journey. Our team takes pride in growing beautiful flowers and remains committed to supporting our local community,” said owner, Bob Echter.
Click Here to read the full article.
Featured New Member of the Month
Via Flora
Via Flora started as a local wedding floral design business in 2014,  supplying and training customers to create their own wedding reception flowers. It has since evolved into an online retail presence and now serves a nation wide customer base of DIY enthusiasts to style their own wedding, anniversary, or dinner party events.
Via Flora offers fresh materials, primarily wedding favorites such as fresh garlands and succulents, as well as a curated selection of stylish containers and vases and online trainings to its customer to be able realize their ideas.
Click Here to learn more about Via Flora's business.
Transportation
- As the New Year approaches, our transportation carriers typically have rate changes that will take effect in January. We wanted to let members know to expect an email in December with summaries outlining these changes for 2018. These new program updates will also be available on our website when finalized.
- We wanted to pass on to members some across-the-board temporary changes FedEx has in store for all shippers during the 2017 Holiday Shipping period. From Nov 20, 2017 through Dec 24, 2017, FedEx will increase their Holiday surcharges for Express and Ground. Please visit www.fedex.com/us/shipping-rates/surcharges-and-fees.html for all the details.
- For those members using FedEx who expect to ship large volumes over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, we strongly encourage daily communication with your local FedEx operations terminal. FedEx will be very busy during this time, so effective communication regarding expected shipping volumes will be critical. Thank you.
- Just a reminder that GSO does offer 3rd Party Billing; it just needs to be set up in advance with GSO. There are a couple of ways to do it so we would recommend shippers contact GSO directly and let them know you want to set-up a remote (3rd party) shipper. They can take it from there and explain how it can work. If you have any questions, please contact Chris Johnson directly at [email protected].
NOTE: Transportation Rate information and documents are viewable/downloadable (as PDFs) on the CalFlowers Members Only site. Please note that these documents are considered sensitive material and are available to the primary contacts for Ag Buddy, Associate Floral, Associate Grower, and Floral members only.
To access the Members Only site, simply login using the Member Login button in the top-right corner of our website.
Click here if you don't know or don't remember your username and/or password. This document will help you login.
New Members
In October 2017, we were pleased to welcome the following new CalFlowers members:
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