Let's Legalize Oklahoma-Calling All Okies!!!!
Decorating By suz3 Updated 9 Apr 2011 , 1:53am by bake-aholic
I just heard from my state representative and he will be filing the legislation in December to legalize home bakers in OK. He said everyone can start calling their state respresentatives and senators to develop relationships with them on this issue. That way when the bill starts the process, it will not be new information to the legislators.
Let's do this
The state representative in my part of Tulsa is Jeannie McDaniel. She's a nice lady, very communicative with her constituents. I'll drop her an email today!
I'm calling too!!!
Who is your representative that we can refer our representatives to for more information of what exactly we are asking for
Also do you have any information on the proposal itself as to what the qualifications the home bakers would have to meet before they can become legal.
My representative wrote me back!!! She's awesome.
Jennifer do you know of any legislation that is going to be proposed? New legislation is drafted in the fall and then prepared and introduced when session begins in February of each year. Im not familiar with your challenges and welcome any information you can provide on challenges you face and perhaps ideas on how it might work easier in other states. Maybe we could meet later in Sept.?
My response to her:
Jeannie,
I am stay at home mother and an amateur cake decorator, making cakes for family and friends. Currently, home bakers are not allowed to sell their goods, so Im only able to do cakes for fun and for free. I was told in an online cake makers forum by a fellow Okie that her representative was planning to introduce legislation at the end of this year. There is currently no process by which we can be licensed or inspected. Bakers are required to use a commercial kitchen only.
The website I am a member of (CakeCentral.com) has the attached Excel spreadsheet showing which states license home bakers. I dont know how accurate the spreadsheet is, but there are a lot of website links on it that may provide more information.
Being that Oklahoma is the home of the internationally renowned Oklahoma Sugar Arts Show, I think implementing a process by which people like myself could get involved in cake making and baking, without fear of violating the law, is a very good thing.
Thanks for your response! Id be glad to meet with you or help out in any way.
SUZ,
Could you give us the name of who will be introducing the legislation, so we can fill our people in. Thanks so much!
jo
The name of my representative is Eric Proctor. He was going to get a friend from the opposite party to help with the bill so it will be supported by Dem and Rep. I don't have the other name but can get it if you need it.
Suz,
Thanks for the info. Lets try to keep this bumped to the front page for a while. I know there are other okies out there who might be interested.
jo
We will need all the help we can get. I know there have to be more okie bakers than I have recieved responses from. I'm hoping they saw the post and just didn't respond. Let's hear from you OKLAHOMA!!!!
i've been lurking for a few days, but had to sign up when i read this section! i have been thinking of getting into the cake decorating business, but was discouraged by the no home bakery law here, so figured why bother? if we could get some legislation in our corner, that would help. what do we need to tell our representative exactly. i need some help with the wordage because i am soooo new to all this. thanks in advance for any help.
Welcome aboard! Right now the only thing we need to do is let our representatives know that a bill will be introduced in December by Eric Proctor (my rep). so it won't be new info to them. I think it might be helpful to let them know that home bakers will be inspected and licensed and inspected by the health dept. Also home bakers will pay sales tax on all sales. In this difficult economic time it will be a win-win.
Letme know if you need to know anything else and I will let you know if I know anything new.
Susan
thank you, susan, for the welcome and the info. i will definitely pursue this. i love this site. julie
p.s. technical question--i can't get the time right on my messages. what's up with that?
p.s. technical question--i can't get the time right on my messages. what's up with that?
Go to "profile" on the left, scroll down near the bottom. There's a setting for your time zone. We're GMT - 6 hours.
thanks for responding--i finally looked up greenwich mean time on another site to figure out what time zone i'm in. i thought we (okla) are gmt -5 now and -6 when we go off daylight savings time. did i get it backwards? julie
Just to make sure everyone knows how to get ahold of their representative, I found the following info.-Capitalconnect.com/oklahoma/. This should get you the information you need to let your representatives, senators etc know your feelings about legalizing home bakers in OK.
Just want to remind everyone how important it is to call or email our representatives to let them know about this bill and the need to legalize OKLAHOMA!!!!
Will do!!!! I'll be spreading the word to my non CC friends as well. Thank you so much for the info!
Tell your friends, neighbors, co-workers and anyone else you can think of to let their representatives know WE WANT THIS BILL PASSED!!!!
does anyone think it would be appropriate to email kerry vincent and ask her for her support with this issue? i found an address on the oklahomasugarartists.com [email protected]. given what she has accomplished here in oklahoma with the yearly wedding cake competition in tulsa, her opinion/request might carry some weight also. opinions, please?
It sure wouldn't hurt to ask, I'm thinking. All she can say is no. But if she says yes Bonus for us.
Went to the state capitol today with my state representative. He had a bill signed into law and asked me to come and watch. I got so excited thinking that possibly that will soon be OUR bill getting signed. Just reminding all okies to let their representative know about the bill.
I heard from Senator Inhofe today. He said that he thought our proposal had merits and that he could see where it could be beneficial. He said that he would consider supporting it if the bill goes to the senate. YEAH!!!!
Yay!!!! I'm sooo glad someone is doing something about this!! I know Eric well, so I'm very happy to hear that he is proposing this legislation! My uncle is a Representative, so I know a lot of the Reps, well. I will be talking to all of them!!!!! lol
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