Sorry it's been so long, but unfortunately there's not much to report. As of now we're sort of starting from scratch. Here's the link to the 2010-2011 NJ Legislator Roster: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/roster.asp

Now that I'm done with the holiday craziness I'm going to be composing a letter during this coming week. I'm also going to enclose the petition signatures (unfortunately, Artifice.com no longer prints these petitions out, so I'll just be printing them myself. After numerous calls and e-mails and getting nowhere, this will be the best I can do with the petition. Next time - if it comes to that - I'll use a service that isn't free and hopefully that will guarantee better customer service.) That leads me to my next point - we need to raise a bit of money to take this task to the next level. The mailings are going to cost a bit of money between the petition pages and other information I'd like to enclose (information which Kelley Masters of TX was kind enough to share with me to help get the point across to the reps how positive such a law would be to our state).

I'd also like to take a page from Kelley's book and use her idea for raising funds to defray costs by looking into fundraising companies to print up t-shirts, bags, keychains, etc. to sell online. These would also benefit our cause by advertising the proposed bill/law we'd like to see passed in NJ. According to my husband, this isn't necessary - he's willing to spend a couple of hundred dollars of our own money on this endeavor, but just in case it comes down to it and we need some extra money to fund this project, I'd like to know if there would be an interest in items for sale before I look into it, so please let me know right now if you'd be willing to purchase any of the aforementioned (e-mail me at [email protected]). Thanks.

Right now this is about all I have. Once I have a sample letter composed, I'll let everyone know, but it will be close to what we've already written in the older posts on this site and on Meetup.com (NJ Cake Decorator Club), so if you'd like to start writing to your reps now, please feel free to go ahead and do so. Remember, you can write to the Senator and Assemblypeople not only in your district, but to those in the other 39 districts as well and the more letters they get, the more seriously they'll take this.

Thanks again for all your support. If we want this lto actually become a reality we need to work for it! Let's get this done NOW!!!

-Grace DeStefano
New Jersey
aka Sugar_Plum_Fairy[/url]

Thanks for the update! I'm willing to help anyway I can. I'm a cake blogger (www.pieceofcakedecorating.com) so if you plan on selling anything let me know...I can post about it and hopefully raise a little extra money. I would consider setting up a PayPal donation fund. Personally I would be willing to donate money and know that 100% of it would be going to the cause instead of buying a t-shirt. Although it does make sense when trying to spread the word.

In fact, why wait, I'm going to start trying to collect donations on my blog today. I really think a lot of my readers will want to help and there is no reason you should have to pay for everything yourself. I'll let you know how it goes.

I agree with rosequeen with the idea of just donating money. I'm a NJ hopeful and would be more than happy to donate. Just let me know what to do!

Edited to add: In fact I'll go to the blog right now to donate.

Huge thanks to everyone working on this.

I've written the post. Spread the word and pass out the link.

http://www.pieceofcakedecorating.com/2011/01/nj-home-bakers-law-aka-cottage-food-law.html

Thanks for reading!

I all for it! Let me know how I can help. I'll spread the link to anyone I can.

I'm curious as to why this was moved to the Lounge? This topic is of general interest, I don't think there's any reason to restrict it to members only.

Grace has finished writing the letter for us to send to our representatives. You can find the letter and more here...

http://www.pieceofcakedecorating.com/2011/01/write-our-government-for-nj-cottage.html

I just found the petition while doin a search on how to start a home bakery in NJ. My signature was 1159, so is that petition no longer valid? I posted the link to my Facebook to generate more signatures.

I'm sure any signatures we can get will help. Right now a bill was proposed to Committee and we are trying to let as many legislators know that we support the bill. For more information on how to do that go here... http://www.pieceofcakedecorating.com/2011/03/great-news-nj-cottage-food-law-update.html.

Have your friends write too!

Here is the link to the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=109736749672 This page has all the updated information. Grace is doing a GREAT job with pushing this along and keeping us updated! Thank you, Grace!!

For what it's worth, I've found that I get much more benefit from the power of social interaction with a "Page" that people can Like, instead of a Group that they have to join. With the page, updates are posted in their news feed. With a group, you actively have to visit that group's page to see updates. Just a thought!

I agree with Kelley, the FB pages are much better than the groups! The posts in the pages show up on your newsfeed. Thanks for starting the new page, Grace.

I didn't know there was a twitter, too! Great job, Grace!

Thanks, Suzanne! Glad you're happy with it. If you know anybody you can refer there and get to write a note or make a call, please encourage him/her. Thanks.