Kona Coffee Farmers Association
Board of Directors meeting
KCFA BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING— Thursday, March 21, 2019
CTAHR, Kainaliu
The Kona Coffee Farmers Association’s mission is to promote and protect Kona farmers’ economic interests in 100% Kona coffee, to protect the Kona coffee heritage, and to seek greater legal protection of the Kona coffee name.
CALL TO ORDER— 2:30 pm
Suzanne Shriner, president, Arturo Ballar X, Colehour Bondera x, Bruce Corker X, Kay Dixon X, Chet Gardiner , Jeanne Kapela x, Jim Monk x, Armando Rodrequiz
Cecelia Smith x, Sandra Scarr x Suzanne Shriner x, Tari Sparks, Karen Zulkowski x
GENERAL
Board protocol Suzanne
Roberts rules of order followed. Be respectful and raise hand. Pros and cons respected. Keep on topic and stay on track. We have many issues going on including the lawsuit and testimony Hopefully is big change ahead. Let’s move forward keeping in mind that we all want what is best for coffee farmers.
Consent Agenda – (5 min)
Approval of January and February Minutes
Approval of Membership Applications
Acceptance of Committee Reports
Tom Lawson will be moving to mainland and leaving board. Thank you for your help.
Motion to accept consent agenda by Jim and second Kay Motion accepted
Treasurer’s Report – Jim (5 min)
P and L sent We have been doing well this month.
Committee Assignments and Tasks– Suzanne (10 min)
Committee assignments passed around by Suzanne. Please have all committees submit report monthly. Jim asks why some items such as newsletter and finance committee are on the list. They are different. Suzanne says it is for us to transition year to year. Finance, newsletter, and tech gone as committee but will activities
Kay suggests PR/Marketing and social/fundraising merged.
NEW BUSINESS
Executive session Bruce update HB 144 went to Senate and was heard by ag committee. Hawaii coffee company and blenders testified against the bill. Hawaii department of agriculture went with blenders and cited 2006 study. Bruce read study and this is not what it said. They recommended putting money aside for a 2-3 year study. Senate didn’t decide but voted today.
Bill was apparently gutted and will be posted tonight Bill goes to WAM and they will decide if goes on or stalled.
Suzanne asks what we should do. Bruce recommends we talk to house side and go to CPH and say we are outraged. Kay wonders about why HDOA doesn’t help us. Perhaps we need to go to governor and make noise. Suzanne would like us to increase our PR. We aren’t getting it out that farmers need help Bruce feels we need to get newsletter to more people. We need to understand that cherry farmers that sell to processors that sell to blenders won’t support us.
Suzanne said Scott Enright hired by Kona Hills
Bruce update Kona Hills Wonders what they are doing as it has been quiet. Recommend sending another freedom of information paperwork in. They may be asking people to bring in 100 trees to get under the limit.
Coffee Certification and Supply Chain (5 minutes) – Suzanne
Need a way to track green coffee tree to cup. There are companies that do this. We could try this with coffee. Ad Hoc committee Jean, Arturo and Sandra.
Survey to Members (5 minutes) – Suzanne
Questions to growers and membership
What do they want from us?
Fedex Discount for KCFA (2 minutes) – Suzanne
Should be able to offer members. Jean will talk to Fedex about getting a discount.
OLD BUSINESS
Expo (10 minutes) – Karen
Is March 30 Explanation of volunteer stations and marketing/advertising.
Slow Foods (5 minutes) – Colehour
Booth space set up. Need to make it a PR event and get people to donate green coffee Need 80-100 lbs of coffee If board could donate 5-10 lbs Kay does roasting and she and Colehour do cupping July 20-21
HANO Workshop (5 minutes) – Cea
Hawaii association of non-profits (HANO) Look at our mission and ethics. Cea sent information out to board. Cea recommends we do a session
Adding Cupping to KCFA (10 minutes) – Jean
Jean recommends us setting up a program. We could add the notes in the website. Would be a value added benefit. Multiple ideas for other education as well by Arturo.
Coffee Thank you to Bruce Corker, Rancho Aloha for this month’s coffee
Adjourned 4:35
Committee Reports
Treasurer’s Report
February is the month the Association gears up for the Exposition, which is being held March 30th this year. We received a donation from the Hawaii Community Federal Credit Union of $1,000 to support the Expo! We all need to thank them for that support!
Of course, our expenses started to ramp up with expenditures for the Expo. Rental of the Expo space and the renting of a bouncy kids’ game were the main Event Supplies. In addition, we have paid for insurance for the event.
This month we also paid our annual dues to OriGin of $581.21 (it’s an odd amount because they bill us in Swiss Francs). Our other expenses were the normal ones.
On the income side, membership dues continue to come in and we have had a steady sale of merchandise during February.
Our balance sheet looks good with sufficient funds available to pay our bills and look to funding future events. As usual, your Association has few bills to be paid – we pay promptly so accrue few unpaid amounts, except for the GET tax amount which is paid quarterly or semi-annually.
Web Committee Report
Although it is so slow, the website is being re-done in the background. May have more to report by Thursday.
Sent out Member emails, posted on Facebook: EXPO info (3), March 2019 Independent Voice, and Help Needed for HB144 (3)
Helped with Membership Renewal questions, etc.
Newsletter Committee
Chose a new KCFA T-shirt design and shirts are being made at West Hawaii Screen Printers.
Legislative Committee Report
KCFA Bills
HB144 (51% and label ID of origins of contents)—Passed out of House AG and CPC Committees and sent from the House to the Senate. Jim Monk, Suzanne Shriner and Bruce Corker testified on March 18 in support of the bill before the Senate Agriculture & Environment Committee. The Blenders, KCC members and Blender restaurant customers (e.g., 7 Eleven and McDonalds) testified in opposition. The committee deferred “decision making” until March 20. A fuller report will be given at the Board meeting. [NOTE: Disappointingly, the HDOA has clearly sided with the Blenders and suggests a $100,000 taskforce review as a delay tactic.] To see the HDOA testimony, the 91 supporting testimonies, and the 63 in opposition go to https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/Session2019/Testimony/HB144_HD1_TESTIMONY_AEN_03-18-19_.PDF
HB143 (Ready to Drink coffee labeling)--Passed out of the House Ag Committee on 1/30, but Rep. Takumi, Chair of CPC Committee, refused to schedule a hearing. The bill is dead for this Session.
HCA Bills
SB869 (Mandatory Certification)--Passed out of Senate Ag on 2/1 with amendments; Senate CPH originally scheduled the bill for a hearing, but later struck the hearing date. The bill is dead for this Session.
HB909 (False Labeling)—adds “roasted coffee” to the Class C felony offense for false labeling of geographic origin, but also adds false labeling of grade standards to the offense. Unclear and troubling because there are no grade standards for roasted coffee—or cherry or parchment. Passed out of the House Ag Committee on 1/30 with amendments, but was not scheduled for a hearing before CPC/JUD and has died for this Session.
SB895 (False Labeling)—adds “roasted coffee” to green, cherry and parchment to the offense of false origin labeling of Hawaii-grown coffee. Unlike HB909 it does not add false labeling of grade standards to the offense. The bill has passed through the Senate and was passed by the House Agriculture Committee on 3/15/19, and has been sent to CPC/JUD for consideration.
Organic Committee Report,
No meetings had recently. Largest concern is attracting more certified organic members. Towards this end, we continue to work towards a State (HDOA) level means in order to permit an exception for organic producers of a control for little fire ants. With the change in Chair of HDOA, this process is slowed. An educational event will be put together in coming months in order to offer an overview on organic Kona coffee and some production basics. Finally, we should have a formal KCFA Organic Committee meeting, and would like to know who is interested in participating in such a meeting in late February? Please let me know ([email protected]).
Membership:
Counts (1/10/10):
Active Voting Members 196 – Down 5
Associate Members 25 – NC
Supporting Business Members 19 – NC
Total Membership: 240 – Down 5
New Members
Voting: Eric Kim, Kona Haven Farms, Captain Cook, Masaru Hanazawa, Mauka Meadows Coffee Farm
Renewals
Voting:
Christine Coleman, Randall Phillips & Atsumi Hara ($45), George & Lynn Peavy ($45), Doug Murphy, Gurujan Dourson, Dale Kabei & Gretchen Watson-Kabei ($45), Kem Loong, Kodo Miyaoka, Jack Miller, Eugene & Susan Dursin ($45), Don Davis, Viola Noyola * Gary Bianco ($45), Tim Reh, Michael & Janelle Gomes ($45)
Associates:
Mary Lou Moss, Jolani Shrinski
Business:
Reported as Expired:
Kurt Thornburg, Justin Olson, Kodo Miyaoka, Charlie King, Christine Coleman, Gurujan Dourson, Braden Smith, Jeffrey Olsen, Bob Perry, Steve Rowe, Jack Miller, Avery Kramer, Dean Busching, Howard Hill, Michelle Giroux, Carmen Gray, Chuck Moss, Bob Barrett, Alice Caddow
Membership Committee: Retention of members I’m crafting this in response to Jim Monk’s excellent questions in his email of 3/16/19 regarding our membership numbers.
First a Mea Culpa. I’m a good technologist and have developed a process that allows me to quickly and easily deal with the mechanics of membership renewals, etc. Alas, as I’ve admitted before, I’m a "phone-a-phobe" and would rather go to the dentist for a root canal than make "cold calls" on a telephone.
So the best first answer to Jim's questions is that "someone" should make the calls to those whose memberships automatically terminate without renewal to remind them to renew and, if they decide not to, diplomatically ask them “Why?”
I COULD add emailing contact information for “lapsed members” to a committee of volunteer(s) delegated to make those calls to my normal membership workload. Outside of Dec-Feb the numbers of lapses are usually quite low.
Jim asked, “There are a bunch of farmers who belong to the KCC. Why not contact them with a well thought out email suggesting we might be better representation for them?”
We could begin that process with a short, quick series of meetings among board members and interested KCFA members to discuss the more global details around what we are offering/doing, who and what we represent and what more we should be doing.
It would also be nice if we could find ways to energize more of our members to directly participate in the organization and its planning processes and events.
Jim again, “I would ask for an organized thought process about membership. How can we expand it? What do we need to do to make it worth the while of potential new members? Are we doing things "wrong" and losing members.”
Of course, other than being entirely ignorant and needy for information about everything coffee when I bought my farm 5 years ago and as a professional performer for over 58 years, my basic bias from the beginning of my involvement with KCFA has been toward “Fun” and “Entertainment”.
We could work on a calendar with a sufficient number of regularly scheduled network building, planning and SOCIAL events to provide more of the fun part. Of course, this would require a larger number of people coming forward to do the work and handle the logistics of these "added" events...the classic "Chicken/Egg" problem that exists.
