KCFA BOD Meeting
April 16,2013
CTAHR Office, Kainaliu
Call to Order by at 4:01 PM
Present: T. Butler, A. Kelleher, B. Corker, M. Moss, C. Smith, L. Hanna, C. Coleman and K. Schweickhard
Aloha coffee provided by Paradise Found Farm/Tom Butler
Motion to approve March, 2013 minutes was made by B. Corker and seconded by L.Hanna. Motion passed.
Motion to approve Treasurer’s Report was made by M. Moss and seconded by L. Hanna. Motion passed.
Guests/New Member introduction: Ryan Tsutsui who works with Andrea at CTAHR.
A motion was made by B. Corker that future Coffee Talks and Seminars suggest a $10 donation by non KCFA members when the event is held at Yano Hall. If it is farm located a $10 charge will be required by nonmembers with the offer that it can go toward a membership fee. The motion was seconded by K.Schweickhard. Motion passed.
A motion was made by K. Schweickhard that KCFA share its PO Box and the cost thereof with the HFUU. The motion was seconded by M. Moss and was passed.
OLD BUSINESS
Strategic Planning - L. Hanna
It was decided that further discussion on the how to of Planning be handled by email.
NEW BUSINESS
A motion was made by L. Hanna that Suzanne Shriner and Chuck Moss transcribe a Certificate of Origin Form to be used by KCFA, as a trade organization, to certify coffee for export for member farms including a $25 fee for each shipment.. Details to be worked out as we organize. ML Moss seconded the motion. Motion passed.
L. Hanna made a motion that KCFA donate $750 to help establish a scholarship fund with the Kamehameha Schools West Hawaii Association of Teachers and Parents. The motion was seconded by M. Moss. Motion passed.
STANDING COMMITTES
Membership/Volunteers- L.HannaReport of members who have renewed or joined KCFAMarch 17, 2013 to April 17, 2013
Name City Voting Associate Supporting business N-New R-Renewal
Gurujan Dourson San Diego CA X N
Tom Belcastro HI X R
Chet Thaker Rockville MD X N
Larry Ford Captain Cook, HI X R
Isaac Gillette Holualoa, HI X R
Totals 4 1 2N 3R
Current members 244 37 46
Sincerely, Louise Hanna
Pest & Disease- B.Smith
Alert to all Farmers in TMK 8-4, if you have not yet signed up with Pepe Miranda for the free CBB Combat supplies, call 443-7100 NOW! If you are serious about farming, don't let this opportunity slip away.Thanks very much to Suzanne Shriner for her educational workshop with CTAHR on the Thirty Tree method for assessing CBB damage which was held on April 11, 2013.
PR/Newsletter- A. Kelleher
Placed an Ad for the Coffee Blossom Banquet in the Kohala Chamber 15 on the 15th email blast to 1000 addresses
Craig's List under Events, renew twice a week.
WHT ad three days, black and white
WHT "About Town" text about banquet
Facebook done for the banquet
I have been trying to place on the Events calendar of Big Island Now website but have not been able to get a response from the contact person
Would like to brainstorm a bit about Acura vehicle Kona coffee color and what we can do with it.
Hawaii247 upcoming events.
Downloading and learning new credit card app on my IPAD for KCFA use.
Education/Grants
Covered under Pest and Disease
Finance- K. Schweickhard
Received by all Board Members
Fundraising/Social Events – M.Moss
This year the donations seemed to come in easier than in the past. Either KCFA is being recognized as a force within the community, they feel sorry for us, the economy is better or they know we are thankful. I do call the donors and thank them when we receive a donation. It just didn’t seem that we had to do any begging this year. If they don’t want to donate – NEXT.
We did get some new donors. BEI, Images of Hawaii/kCharlene Meyers, Ace Hardware, Gallery of Great Things, Manila Extract Designs, The Spoon Shop, Mrs. Barry’s Cookies & Annie’s Island Fresh Burgers. Also several of our own farmer members used their resources and donated to the silent auction.
This week I am finalizing pick up of donated items for the Kona Coffee Blossom Banquet.
I Sent an e-mail to everyone that bought their tickets through the website last year (& a few others) inviting them to the banquet this year– sent 47.
Called thru the M’s people I knew from our membership list. Plan to finish the rest of the list soon.
Putting up banquet banner in Kailua-Kona on Monday
In the process of printing the silent bid sheets
Sent an e-mail to auctioneer and DJ reminding them of the banquet this coming Saturday.
Coordinating with Hotel on finalizing banquet arrangements
Putting up flyers at Sheraton, Kona Royal Resort & King Kam Hotel
I need 4 people to bring 6 oz of ground coffee to the meeting Tuesday so we can provide 100% Kona coffee to our banquet attendees.
Respectfully submitted, ML
Geographic Identities- C.Bondera
No report as C. Bondera was out of town.
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Legislative Committee Report -Bruce Corker
HB353 (Emergency CBB Research and Farmer Assistance)—This bill—seeking to have the State of Hawaii treat the CBB Emergency as “AN EMERGENCY”—is still alive in the Legislature. That is the case in large part because of the many written and in-person testimonies of KCFA members. However, HB353 has followed a tortured path through the Legislature. Whether it will be enacted, and in what form, is very much up in the air.Background:
(1) HB353 was sponsored by Kona Representative Nicole Lowen to provide $500,000 for emergency CBB research by the Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center (“PBARC”, a USDA agency based in Hilo) and $330,000 for CBB assistance to farmers in FY2013-14—and another $500,000 for emergency CBB research by PBARC in FY 2014-15.
(2) The House Finance Committee stripped out all emergency research funding and a significant part of farmer assistance funding in “HD1”.
(3) The Senate Agriculture Committee then restored the “Original HB353” and sent the bill to the Senate Ways and Means Committee (“WAM”).
(4) WAM ignored unanimous written testimony submitted to it by farmers, processors, blenders and others in support of the original bill’s provisions and passed a very different bill (“SD2”). In “SD2” all appropriations were changed to blanks (for "discussion purposes"); research monies were taken from PBARC and directed to the HDOA; the farmer assistance monies were taken from the CBB Task Force and directed to UH; and none of the monies would be spent unless “matched” from other sources. We do not know who met in the backroom with Ways and Means Committee members and influenced the language of “SD2”.
(5) On April 11 the House announced its disagreement with “SD2” which means that the bill will go to a conference committee—with uncertainty as to what may emerge from the Senate/House conference committee.
Prospects: We hope that Hawaii County legislators Nicole Lowen, Denny Coffman, and/or Russell Ruderman may be assigned to the conference committee and will be in a position to seek restoration of the provisions of the “Original HB 353”. Whatever the final outcome, the legislative history of HB353 has been disappointing—and far from transparent. “SD2” was adopted by WAM at the last minute without public notice and with none of the new provisions available for the public to testify on.
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-HFUU Liaison- David Case
Hawaii Farmers Union United Liaison, David Case, reported that the Union's Kona Chapter Board held their second monthly meeting on April 15 where they approved four committees and their chairs to focus the Union's efforts in Kona: Steve Sakala, Vice-President and Legislative Committee Chair; Hazel Beck, Education Committee Chair; Kurt Schweickhard, Treasurer and Membership Chair; David Case, President and Cooperatives Committee Chair. David also reported briefly on the 11th Annual Body & Soil Conference he attended as a representative of the Kona Chapter held April 11 to 13 on Maui.
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Website- C. Smith
Some statistics- we average over 5000 hits per month and it seems our Board Of Directors page is near the top of the list after the <Home> page, followed by the current Newsletter and Coffee Borer items. We get at least 300 spams a day, most of which are removed by our $5/month software but at least 10 or so, per day need to be deleted. Clever spammers. Our Coffee Berry Borer Forum is active with a few dedicated users. I have not kept up with the Classifieds because of time. Could use a volunteer there.
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Administration- C. Smith
FYI-Printer Costs- Because our toner ink is expensive, I wanted to explain that for the Blossom Banquet alone, we print almost 1000 sheets (250 sheets are printed on both sides, so that is 500 out of the almost 1000) with our trusty printer. EXPO is another event that uses toner-ink. That’s where the money goes.
Meeting was adjourned at 5:45 PM
Minutes by T. Butler, Sec.
