Kona Coffee Farmers Association
Monthly Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
October 15 2008, CTAHR Conference Room, Kainaliu
Board of Directors Meeting Called to Order at 4:00 pm by President Bruce Corker
Board Members Present:
Bruce Corker-President, Mary Lou Moss, , Colehour Bondera, Sandra Scarr, Joanie Rowe, Nancy Griffith.
Apologies for absence from John McClure- Vice President, Sandy Masterson, Kathy Wood, Debra Sims-Treasurer and Suzanne-Secretary.
Review Minutes of September 2008 Board of Directors Meeting
- Postponed until next board meeting
Introductions of New Members or Guests
- No introductions
Treasurer’s Report:
- Treasurer absent postponed until next board meeting
Coffee for November 2008
- Page Trygstad
Committee Reports:
Education Committee Report: Colehour Bondera
- Praised the workshop on wet milling. Approximately 25 in attendance. Thanked Ron and Mary Lake.
- Joanie Rowe suggested two different workshops for the committee to think about. A website information class and a merchant service information class.
Chamber of Commerce/Price Information – Nancy Griffith
- Meeting of the Chamber announced October 15th at 6 PM no one could go.
- Chamber offers a sales page in their magazine 100 words or less for a “special sale” Board thought it to be a good idea for calendar sales.
CHERRY PRICES:
- All mills not talking except for Kona Coffee Mill $1.10 30 days $1.15
- No Parchment or green is being bought at this time
- Requested an Organic price chart be developed on the website. Cea will do this.
- Requested a chart of Cherry to Green info. Only numbers no names
- Nancy will receive information from farmers in confidence and send just the numbers to
- Cea to post on the website.
Fund Raising Committee Report: Chairperson Mary Lou Moss
- Requested help in getting more auction items for the Coffee Festival dinner
- Gave out 10 dinner tickets to board members present to sell
- DINNER ENTERTAINMENT: Kauwila and Hisbicus Jam will sing the Calendar Girl Song rewritten for the KCFA
- Requested auction items
- Invite the Alii Landlord to KCFA Dinner/Auction at our expense
- Dinner Fliers given to people to post around town
- Joanie Rowe added that the Ironman wasn’t the venue for selling calendars but we sold 2
- CALENDAR SIGNING: November 22, 2008 at “Talk Story” for calendar gals
- EXPO AND ANNUAL MEETING: scheduled for January 30, 2009
- Need more vendors and workshop ideas
- ALII DRIVE SALES: We need coffee donated and volunteers to work at the booth. Page Trysgtad will help or his wife Yoko will.
- Sandra Scarr purposed we purchase green coffee from the members but Mary Lou still wants to have it donated. Put to fundraising committee for consideration
Legislative
- Bruce thanks the legislative committee for all it’s hard work
- Thanks to all testifiers’ on Bill #361
- Bill #361 passed 9-0 People opposing the bill
- Kona Coffee Council Board Members Bivens, Bateman, Greenwell, Collector and Wayman
- Motion made by Colehour Bondera: To authorize the Legislative Committee to spend up to $450.00 to place an ad in which KCFA thanks the Hawaii County Council for enacting Bill #361 to restrict the release of GMO coffee and taro (kalo) in Hawaii County.
- Motion seconded by Joanie Rowe
- Requested Colehour to contact Donna Wooley, President of Kona Coffee Council to participate in thanking the Hawaii County Council
- Forums scheduled for October 20, 2008 at Konaweana Elementary School for Mayor, District and House candidates
- Billy Kenoi canceled so Sandra Scarr was asked to take his name out of the ad for the forum in the WHT
- Cookies will be provided by Mary Lou Moss and Joanie Rowe
Membership Committee Report: Chairperson Joanie Rowe
- 258 members 207 farmers 9 supporting 44 associates
- 137 new members since January 2008
- 6 old members renewed
Estate Committee Report: Chairperson, Joanie Rowe
- Trying to connect with Albert Holt for inspection
Promotions/PR
- Changed Relentless Add to “Political Notices” after Ferrari followed us onto “Personals” with a huge pricey ad. Political Notices come before personals in WHT. Cost of $40.47/month 1 wk.mo
- Got new Burlap Bag storage at John McClure’s. Thanks John! Bruce & Chuck for help.
- No idea of individual Burlap Bag cost as Invoice won’t be here until end of October- Cindy Boots on vacation
- Christine sent out Newsletter and we sent to Press and Politician and kopepua lists
- Ad in Coffee Fest from WHT- same as last year with website mentioned more prominently
- Google ad for website $50- Will see what it generates. Has lots of tracking abilities. Have pre-paid $50 and will check often to see how fast it goes.
Website
- Changed the site over this past weekend. Few glitches but working them out.
- Website will have total tracking abilities. >From what source, what email client, what page they looked at, how may looks per day etc. All for free on a monthly basis
- Please update your farm listing with information and a photo to make it the best site!
- Offering free web sites on KCFA to Members who do not have a www site. Free until 12.31.08 Member benefit!
- Sent 3 General Membership notes on different aspects of new site.
- Worked with Joanie and Deb on their parts of the site
- Spent lots of fun time working on new site
- Entered in Coffee Fest Contest (potential for $500 prize)
- Cost of Website revamping is $2000with anonymous $500 donation, so $1500 total cost to KCFA. Valerie spent at least 40 hours on this project at $50/hour. She’s still working on it as part of the total $2000.
- Paid up for 2 years for the 2 Domain Names of KCFA.org and KCFA.com =total cost $35.80
Old Business:
Jack in the Box Kona Coffee Shake
- Communications with Jack in the Box executives revealed shake was not 100% kona coffee
- Bruce Corker requested that they stop making them or advise consumers there is only 70% kona coffee
- Bottom line Jack will probably put the product off the menu
Twig Borer
- Letters received from Sandra Kunamoto and Hashimoto stating research is being done on the twig borer
- Joanie Rowe and Duane Harens received a request from Elise Burbano to come and spray their property for the twig borer
Authentication for Kona coffee
- DNA Coffee authentication put on hold for later workshop
NEW BUSINESS:
- Nancy Griffith made a request to the board for permission to contact the membership regarding a sales opportunity from Tom Bong of Bong Brothers. Possible $11-$12.50 for green. Parchment milling costs .20 per pound.
- Board gave her permission to use the membership e-mail to make some contacts. 6-0
- Solar power subsidized by government
- It was noted that Tom Bong’s sister-in-law wrote grants for the Kona Historical Society
--Acting Secretary, Joanie Rowe
