Kona Coffee Farmers Association
Monthly Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
February 20, 2008, CTAHR Conference Room, Kainaliu
Board of Directors Meeting Called to Order by President – 4:05pm
Board Members Present
Bruce Corker - President, John McClure - Vice President, Suzanne Kustusch - Secretary, Deb Sims - Treasurer, Colehour Bondera, Nancy Griffith, Mary Lou Moss, Kathy Wood, Sandra Scarr and Sandy Masterson. Joanie Rowe absent with apologies, on Mainland.
Coffee Provided for Board of Directors Meeting
Coffee compliments of Suzanne Kustusch, Lei’s Beans 100% Kona Coffee.
Next month - Sandy Masterson, Pau Hana Estate.
Introduce New Members and Guests
None were present.
Review Minutes of Board of Directors Meeting on January 16, 2008 as written by Secretary Suzanne Kustusch
Sandy Masterson moved to approve Minutes as written, Kathy Wood seconded the motion. 10 ayes, 0 nays, motion carried, Minutes approved.
Review Treasurers Report as presented by Treasurer Deb Sims
Treasurer reports that the Net Income YTD is $3,137.00 and the current Bank Balance is $14,878.00. Kathy Wood moved to accept Treasurer’s Report as presented. Mary Lou Moss seconded the motion. 10 ayes, 0 nays, motion carried, Treasurer’s Report approved.
Deb Sims moved to remove the names of the prior account signers from the Credit Union's list of signers and to add Treasurer Deb Sims and President Bruce Corker as the new signers. Colehour Bondera seconded the Motion.
10 ayes, 0 nays, Motion carried.
2008 Committee Chairpersons - President Bruce Corker
Bruce introduced the new Committee Chairpersons. He thanked them for volunteering and encouraged them to recruit Committee Members. The 2008 Committee Chairpersons are:
Website - Mark Shultise
Education - John McClure and Ken Sheppard
Fund Raising - Mary Lou Moss and Kathy Wood
PR/Promotions - Cea Smith and
Newsletter Sub-Committee - Christine Sheppard
HDOA Liaison - Nancy Griffith
Membership - Joanie Rowe and Colehour Bondera
Estate - Joanie Rowe
Legislative - Bruce Corker
Grants - Sandra Scarr
Social - Lisa Corker
Committee Reports
Website Committee Report: Mark Shultise
Chairperson absent with apologies. Report read by Secretary. Mark reports that website continues to run fine. He has taken down the coffee and coffee t-shirts for lack of supply. Mary Lou will contact Mark to add the new coffee colored T-shirts to the website.
Education Committee Report:
Co-Chairpersons John McClure and Ken Sheppard
Successful pruning workshop held on January 26th at Henry Williams’ farm, thanks go to Henry and to Bob Smith and all those volunteers who helped to make it happen.
A coffee drying and storage workshop, a requested repeat, with handouts, for those who missed the last one, will be held:
Where: CTAHR offices (opposite Aloha Theater in Kainaliu)
When: Sat, February 23rd, registration and coffee 8 am, workshop 8:30 to noon
Register with: John McClure at [email protected] 808-328-9290
Fee: Free to KCFA members, $10 for non-members.
(Note the $10 fee may be applied to the $25 KCFA membership.)
The workshop will be presented by Ken Sheppard and Chuck Moss.
John is planning farm tours to compare processing methods He has 20 sign-ups for farm-touring, some requesting dates in March and April. He will try to accommodate them all.
Ken is working with Virginia to do a coffee tasting/cupping related to various processing methods, tentatively set for Saturday April 5th at CTAHR. This should be very interesting as it will look at any taste variations of the same batch of coffee wet processed and dried by different methods/protocols. Ken is looking for 20 cuppers to taste the coffee at this function.
John and Ken will form a sub-committee to help new farmers get started. They will work with Joanie to get the names of the new members, to send out a welcome packet with helpful information and the names of farmers who can help with various areas of coffee farming.
Fund Raising Committee Report:
Co-Chairpersons Mary Lou Moss and Kathy Wood
Upcoming Fundraising events:
March 8 Brew Fest
King Kam Hotel
Set up at 1 p.m.
Event 2-6 p.m.
Volunteers – Nancy Griffith, Bob Trubell, Tony Ambut & Kathy Gedeon
March 15 Pua Plantasia
Sheraton Keauhou
Set up 7:30 a.m.
Event 8-2 p.m.
Volunteers – Bev White, Mo Snell, Kathy Rement & ML
March 29 Aloha Hawaiian Nights
Kailua-Kona Pier
Volunteers – Joanie Rowe and Lisa Corker
Chairpersons thank all volunteers!
Mary Lou is going down to Alii Drive on Monday, Feb 25, to sell KCFA coffee & logo merchandise. She asked for volunteers to assist.
The new coffee colored T-shirts for both men, $18.00, and women, $15.00 are now in and for sale. The new Bumper Stickers are also here.
The Committee is working on producing a Kona Coffee Calendar Girls calendar. Mary Lou Moss asked for Board permission to use up to $5,000.00 to produce 1000 calendars. She plans to sell them for $8.00 to $12.00 per calendar. Borders bookstore has agreed to take 40 and various Board members agreed to take dozens more. Members asked if ad space would be available and Mary Lou said she would check into it. Kathy Wood moved to release funds up to $5,000.00 for the production of the calendar. Sandy Masterson seconded the motion. 10 ayes, 0 nays, motion carried, project approved.
Kathy Wood suggested a fund raising social event for members at Paleaku Peace Gardens, a botanical replica of our galaxy, on Painted Church Rd. She will ask if the artist/astronomer Jon Lomberg, (Carl Sagan's principal artist for more than 20 years), will speak to our group. She is planning to charge $20.00 per person of which $5.00-$10.00 goes to the Gardens. She will work with Lisa Corker to plan the event.
Bruce Corker thanked Mary Lou Moss and Christine Sheppard for all their work and thanked those members who have donated green coffee to KCFA. He asked for a list of those members from Mary Lou so he can send a thank you letter.
PR/Promotions Committee Report: Chairperson Cea Smith
Newsletter Sub-Committee Report: Chairperson Christine Sheppard
Chairperson absent with apologies. Report read by Secretary.
Burlap Bags---1600 bags @ $1.77 bag- no additional art costs. Cea asked the red to be applied more heavily- Ordered 11/11/07 mid-April here?
Bumper stickers ordered 02.07.08 are here, now with a thin green outline border on them at no extra cost
TO DO:
Newspaper ads-- will review by next month’s meeting -costing $98/month
Cea plans to do within the first week of March: Send out our DVDS to press and politicians, with a “Compliments of the Kona Coffee Farmer’s Association” note.
Newsletter Sub-committee
February Newsletter created and distributed to members, press and politicians
Graphics for new Booth transmitted to Miriam. Sandra Scarr reports that the graphics look great.
HDOA Liaison Report: Nancy Griffith
No report on HDOA this month.
Nancy’s son, Rob, attended the Washington DC Coffee Fest Trade Show. He was able to talk to some of the workshop presenters, several coffee magazine writers and editors and included Nancy’s 100% Kona Coffee in a cupping. He promoted 100% Kona Coffee and was asked to get a press release from KCFA to give to Tea and Coffee magazine and other coffee publications. Bruce said KCFA would make him an honorary member for helping the cause!
Membership Committee Report:
Co-Chairpersons Joanie Rowe and Colehour Bondera
Colehour Bondera reports 181 Active Members, consisting of 150 Farmers and 31 Associates. KCFA has added 60 new members since September 2007.
Joanie will send out a final e-mail or letter to those members who have not renewed for 2008 to the effect that their status will be put on inactive at the end of this month. There are 42 members from 2007 who have not renewed. Colehour reminded everyone that the education seminars are what really draw in new members.
Estate Committee Report: Chairperson Joanie Rowe
Chairperson absent, report read by Secretary.
Chairperson reports 23 active Estates, with two new estates in January, George and Joan Prader and Gary Strawn. Chairperson shows several Estates from 2007 that are owned by last year’s members who have not renewed their membership for 2008.
Legislative Committee Report: Chairperson Bruce Corker
On February 5 at the Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on Kona coffee labeling the Hawaii County Council Legislative Liaison Ralph Boyea, and Chuck Moss and Bruce Corker of KCFA spoke to urge Senators to proceed with the Truth-in-Labeling bills and to stop the use of the “Kona” name for 90% foreign coffee. Written testimony from 14 KCFA members also asked for change in the law--without delay.
Senator Clayton Hee delivered a strong statement in support of Kona farmers: It is not a complicated issue; don’t waste money on a study; fix the fraud; require truthful labeling and let the market work it out; address the issue now; don’t delay. Senator Hee mentioned that his family had a coffee farm in Holualoa, and requested that the Legislature protect the name of the farmers’ crop.
Notwithstanding Sen. Hee’s arguments and notwithstanding the Legislature’s factual finding that “existing labeling requirements for Kona coffee causes CONSUMER FRAUD”, the Legislative leadership followed the request of the big corporate blenders to “study” and delay The vote to “study” was 2 yes (Tokuda, Kokubun), 2 no (Hee, Slom), and 1 yes with reservations (Gabbard).
The corporate blenders strategy of study and stall is based on the hope that Kona farmers will give up on Truth-in-Labeling and that we will stop drawing attention to the issue.
Going forward, we will seek to keep any “studies” honest and objective.
The third of our series of WHT ads will run next week with a report on what has occurred in the Legislature.
Many thanks to Cea Smith and others for efforts to encourage signers on our on-line petition. There are now more than 2350 signatures.
Thanks also to the many KCFA members who submitted written testimony and made calls to legislators.
The bill for a moratorium on planting GMO coffee in Hawaii (Supported by the Hawaii County Council, KCFA, the Kona County Farm Bureau, and many others) also appears to have been bottled up in committee by the legislative leadership.
Grants Committee Report: Chairperson Sandra Scarr
Chairperson reports that KCFA received a matching funds grant from the Hawaii Department of Agriculture Market Development Branch, in the amount of $9,925. This award is our 2008 application for funds to attend three Coffee Fest Trade Shows, in Washington, DC, Waikoloa, and Hong Kong. The final contract was delayed until late January, which made it too difficult to go to the first funded event -- the Coffee Fest trade show in Washington, DC on February 15-17. We will add a trade show event later in the year, probably Coffee Fest in Seattle. The grant also covers the cost of equipment so KCFA could purchase pump pots, coffee pot, grinder and carafes for the Trade Shows.
Sandra received a request from the Hawaii Department of Agriculture Market Development Branch to consider two alterations to the KCFA DVD, which was funded in 2007 by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture Market Development Branch. As a favor, they are asking us, first, to delete reference to methyl bromide as a "cancer-causing" agent; Sandra agreed, and we will change the reference to "toxic pesticide," which is how the EPA lists methyl bromide. Deleting three words from the sound track and inserting two words can be accomplished fairly inexpensively.
Second, they want all identifiable blend bags and labels to be deleted from the DVD. You can read between the lines to understand who is behind this request. It is very important to the Market Development Branch that we agree to make these changes; their whole funding program may be in jeopardy. To accomplish this change, Marie Kelley will have to re-shoot generic packaging, insert the new shots, redo the audio, and remix everything. She estimates the cost of making these changes to be about $3,800.
After consultation with Bruce, Christine, and Marie Kelley, Sandra told the Market Development Branch folks that we are willing to make these changes if, and only if, they find the funds to cover the expenses. They were scheduled to meet with Sandra Kunimoto last Tuesday to discuss the matter. Chairperson has not received any more information. She will get in touch with them to set a time limit for their response before we continue to pass out the DVD as it now stands.
Social Committee Report: Chairperson Lisa Corker
Chairperson reports that she would like to hold quarterly social get-togethers with members to have fun and to do a little networking. She will work with Kathy Wood on the Paliaku Peace Garden event. She asked for volunteers for her Committee. Kathy Wood was recruited. Lisa will pass around a sign-up sheet at the next meeting for volunteers and for social activity ideas.
Old Business:
Sandra Scarr reports that Craig Lee sent out a notice that there will be a North Kona Leaseholders meeting March 8th. He feels they have an acceptable resolution. Bruce asked that an email be drafted so we can send out the information to our members.
Nancy Griffith asked Sandra Scarr if she had gotten information about joining the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce. Sandra reported that it would cost $250.00 to join. Nancy will contact the Chamber to ask about the benefits of joining and report at the next Board Meeting.
New Business:
Ken Sheppard suggested that we add a classified ad section to the KCFA Newsletter. It could be sent in 2 files so it could be opened by members if they desired to read the ads or left closed if they did not. It would be free to members and each ad would stand for a month. Mary Lou Moss volunteered to receive member ads to type up to send to Christine Sheppard for posting. Sandra Scarr moved to include a classified ad page with the Newsletter. Mary Lou Moss seconded the motion. 10 ayes, 0 nays, motion carried.
Meeting Adjourned at 6:05pm
Next Board of Directors Meeting:
March 19, 2008 at CTAHR Conference Room, Kainaliu, at 4:00pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Suzanne Kustusch
KCFA Secretary 2008
