OWC 2023 Annual Meeting

OWC members met on June 10 at the Kinton Grange near Scholls, OR for our Annual Meeting. Neil Schroeder and other Co-op members reported on Co-op activities during our last fiscal year.
 
Firewood Sales
Sales of firewood bundles continues as our primary product line. The Co-op is seeking new members interested to bundle firewood so that we may meet increased demand.
 
Equipment Sales
Neil described the types of equipment and the success we have had selling through the Logrite and Supersplit distributorships.  He showed and demonstrated the new ergonomic handle that OWC has designed for the Supersplit machines. 
 
Bough Sales
During the winter holiday season from Oct. to Dec., we once again sold fresh evergreen boughs to florists and individual customers in the Portland and Salem area. We also had significant sales to out of state buyers.
 
Oregon Heartwood
Oregon Heartwood is a spinoff from OWC that is also selling “goods from the Oregon woods”.  Members are utilizing their woodworking skills and crafting beautiful wood items for sale. See some of their work at OregonHeartwood.com.
 
Canopy Essential Oils
Canopy was a division of OWC that was sold to individual members a few years ago.  They reported that the distillation of conifers for essential oils is going well.  Approximately 2/3 of the oils go to businesses that use them in the manufacture of their beauty products, with the remainder going to sales to the public. 
 
Truffle Hunting
Marilyn Richen reported on an opportunity for OWC members to consider truffle hunting on their properties.  Marilyn and Tammy have demonstrated how their dogs do an amazing job of locating truffles in woodland areas.  She is looking to possibly expand this avenue of the OWC income stream.
 
Business Meeting
Members present voted to approve the proposed amendments to the Co-op Bylaws related to the distribution of profits from product sales. They also voted to elect Mike Barnes to the Board for a three-year term.
 
Speaker on the Private Forest Accord
Taylor Johnson of the Oregon Dept. of Forestry, Forest Grove office, gave a detailed description of why and how the Accord came about, the impact on the small woodland owner and the required paperwork for logging on our properties as of January, 2024.
 
Equipment Demonstrations
After lunch, there were demonstrations of splitting and wrapping firewood, as well as promoting the OWC firewood business for added income for OWC members. The Logrite tools and Supersplit were featured.