Newsletters help increase mushroom Awareness.

First of all, I would like to thank the American Mushroom Institute and Mushrooms Canada for the opportunity to showcase the Council's program at the North American Mushroom Conference in San Diego. As always, the affair was handled with a great degree of professionalism and aplomb. Jim Angelucci and the various industry volunteers that helped steer the program content are to be applauded for their time and input. Laura, Sara and Kim--thank you.

What the Council presented at the conference was a summary of the "surround sound" effort being employed to give the industry the best opportunity to reach and influence its targeted consumer--Melissa. While several techniques focused directly on reaching Melissa--where she lives, commutes, works, shops and eats--several activities are aimed at the trade, which in turn helps to reach and influence Melissa's purchase decisions.

This month we would like to invite you to visit http://www.mushroomcouncil.org to read and forward or print copies of the retail and foodservice newsletters to your sales contacts. While the Council distributes these newsletters to its list of retailers and foodservice professionals, we are sure you have personal contacts that can extend the reach and influence further. The more we can all do, collectively, to get people to think mushrooms, the more likely we are to break through the clutter.

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And by the way, for those of you looking for recipes or a more consumer friendly Web site, please note that the Council operates two: http://www.mushroomcouncil.org which is a research/industry/trade site and http://www.mushroominfo.com which is a consumer/recipe based site. We are working on both sites but they are up and full of good information. If you cannot find what you are looking for on one site, check the other. If you still can't find what you need, call the Council office for help, 408/432-7210.

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Bart Minor

Mushroom Council President

bart@mushroomcouncil.com

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