Kona Coffee Farmers Association
Board of Directors meeting
KCFA BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING—MONDAY,
Yano Hall, Kealakekua
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— 3:00 pm
Suzanne Shriner, president, Arturo Ballar, Colehour Bondera X, Bruce Corker X, Kay Dixon X, Chet Gardiner X, Jeanne Kapela, Jim Monk X, Armando Rodrequiz Cecelia Smith X, Sandra Scarr X, Suzanne Shriner X, Tari Sparks X, Karen Zulkowski X
GENERAL
Consent Agenda – (5 min)
Approval of April Minutes
Approval of Membership Applications
Acceptance of Committee Reports
Bruce asks if we could ask new member Brandon asking about % of income from coffee on his farm, as by-laws require 51% of coffee income to be from their farm. Will defer on membership until next month. Sandra made motion to defer consent agenda to next month and Kay seconded. Consent agenda deferred.
Treasurer’s Report – Jim (5 min)
Jim will complete P and L for expo and send out. Bruce made a motion to approve March report and Tari seconded.
April is not available yet. Approval of treasurer report deferred.
NEW BUSINESS
Hawaii on the Hill (10 minutes) – Discussion and Vote
Kay led discussion. Bruce says we should do a $700 table and meet with staffers. Kay feels if HCC is there we need to go. Bruce will be setting up a legislative committee meeting and will send out invitations. Sandra feels we should maximize meetings with staff in Honolulu. Artur would prefer locally spent. Jim questions why we learned about this so late. Kay talked to organizers and they said we could get a table. They have no one else representing the big island. This will be a high-profile event, and this will give this more credibility. Tari feels we have been ignored by the federal government and if we don’t have someone there it could be interpreted as lack of caring. Suzanne feels the issues are a state problem. Bruce feels we do have a state issue and they do not protect us. But our 4 federal representatives will be in DC are going to be there and we need to take them a message that we need help to pressure the state of Hawaii. Chet says we should look at chamber to join and we get a discount on the table. Chet sees this as part of PR. Sandra doesn’t feel we need to go to Washington to see them. Colehour not as simple as just to meet with representatives. It is to give face at the table to represent the farmers. Is not either – or on state vs. federal. We should take advantage of the opportunities. Bruce to Sandra’s point It is important to be involved. Jim take away at federal level they don’t enforce rules. We have failed to achieve the 51% rule. So, we aren’t there at the state level. Suzanne calls for a vote on Kay’s motion to go at the $700 level for 2 attendees. Motion carries. Suzanne will fill out the application form.
Legislative Platform for Congress (15 minutes) –
Bruce- would like the committee to meet to provide ideas on how to proceed in 2020 including this event. Suzanne asks that the KCFA can agree on it. Bruce feels the legislative committee makes the decision. Suzanne wants us to have by in by the board.
Kay suggests message that Kona blends are not supporting Hawaii coffee. Ned to make it a truth in labeling. Bruce if we can get one on board to help change views in Hawaii, we can make a difference. The 10% is an embarrassment to Hawaii and we need them to help us.
Jim doesn’t see where we have a federal platform. Bruce FDA has authority over labeling We have talked to them about deceptive labeling. Coffee labels is not high on the list. We could say that the federal representative could ask FDA push issue.
Bruce to have soon-. perhaps third Monday..
Executive Session (10 minutes) – Bruce / Sandra
Sandra Letter form Luke Meisner. Has lawsuit about dumping low cost Brazilian coffee in US Bruce and Sandra talked to him about import issue. KCFA issues were discussed. Bruce- Listened to pitch on what they could do but they really couldn’t help us. We then talked about AFIS and green coffee importation. We had sent him a letter we had received. We suggested there was a potential CBB lawsuit. Meisner’s firm doesn’t take cases like this. They had 3 reasons why they aren’t interested. Will talk to Tamara Brown to look for potential law firms. May be able to get Earth Justice involved as they take high profile cases. Bruce will ask if they are interested. Suzanne will pull the data. Center for Food safety may also be interested. Colehour will the contact information to Bruce.
OLD BUSINESS
Slow Foods (5 minutes) – Kay/Colehour
2020 Events (5 minutes) – Cea/Suzanne
Kay checked and we are on the vendor list Collected 91 lbs of donated coffee to roast. Needs all coffee donations by June 5. .
We need to look at the events we want to do in 2020 so we can do budgeting. Please give events to Suzanne
Green Coffee Grade Standards (5 minutes) – Suzanne Have not heard back on a response to our letter.
Coffee Certification and Supply Chain (5 minutes) – Suzanne Block chain concept. Moving forward on coffee scanning. Looking at demo project. If it goes forward we would receive some income. Starting with green and then going to roasted.
Budget must be done in July so we need to start thinking about it. Jim is gone from June until July. .Budget is based on physical year.
Coffee Thank you to Jim Monk for this month’s coffee.
Adjourned 4:05
Committee Reports
Membership Report.
Date: 05/5/19 – 6:00am
Counts:
Active Voting Members 202 – NC
Associate Members 24 – Down 1
Supporting Business Members 15 – NC
Total Membership: 241 – Down 1
Voting: Brandon Walker & Lisa Gouveia ($45) - Bay View Farm – Cptn Cook
Renewals-Voting: Mark Dubay
Reported as Expired: Sandra Nikaitani, Amy Tuner, Anita Kelleher
