September 16, 2019 Board Meeting Minutes

Kona Coffee Farmers Association Board of Directors meeting KCFA BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING—MONDAY, September 16,2019  2:36pm 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 Kay Dixon x Chet Gardiner x Jeanne Kapela Jim Monk x Armando Rodrequiz  x Cecelia Smith x Sandra Scarr Suzanne Shriner x Tari Sparks x Karen Zulkowski x
GENERAL
Consent Agenda – (5 min) Approval of June and August Minutes Approval of Membership Applications Acceptance of Committee Reports	Jim made a motion to accept the consent agenda and Tari seconded..  Also a motion by Suzanne and second Tari to accept the  membership application..  Both approved. Discussion of August minutes to change wording about expo.  Changes were approved pending an expo plan.
Treasurer’s Report – Jim (30 min)	Discussion- Membership and merchandise sales down in August.  We need to attract new members.  People don’t seem to know what the membership rate is currently. Budget- Jim askes to accept draft 2 and accept and move on.  Cea made motion to accept and Colehour seconded.  Motion accepted
NEW BUSINESS
Education (5min) Discussion	Table until next month.  We had 2 functions;  Moisture meter and processing discussion.
Expo	Grant for state due in October.  Kay would like to send a survey monkey on what people want to see at the event and where they want to have the annual meeting.  Armando suggests we do a tree adoption for people as a fund raiser.
Annual meeting	Pavilion or rodeo grounds.  Would be Jan 26.  Karen moves and Kay seconds to use rodeo grounds.  Accepted.
OLD BUSINESS
Oct 13 social event	This will be a harvest fest theme. Event will be held from 2-sunset at the rodeo grounds.
USDA/APHIS Regulation PR and Press (10 minutes) – Bruce / Sandra	Bruce and Sandra want to go public with the green coffee issue.  Karen made the motion to go public with wide PR blast,.and Cea seconded. Motion passed. Information will be available about targeted fundraising for freedom of information act at harvest festival event.
Green Coffee Grade Standards (1 minutes) – Suzanne	Dr. Leo Alaban will be taking over standards.
American Certified Brands Blockchain MOU (1 minutes) - Suzanne	Suzanne is working out the details.  We will discuss this further at a later meeting.
Order fulfillment- (5 min) Jim/Karen	Some burlap bag delivery issues were discussed.
Chet’s music	Chet asks everyone to pass information around for Saturday Sept 21 music event. A donation will be made to CFA from door fee.
Thank you Chet for coffee	Next month Tari
Adjourned	3:45

 

 

Committee Reports

Treasurer’s Report

Two separate financial reports are a part of this report: a balance sheet for our Association as of 8/31/19 and a profit and loss statement for the month of August, which also includes year to date information for the fiscal year.

 

August was a fairly slow month.  We took in a bit less than $900. We spent about $2,600, $1,500 of which was for travel to Washington DC, giving us negative spending for the month of about $1,700.

Our balance sheet looks reasonable with sufficient funds available to pay our bills, although we will be transferring money from our Vanguard account to cover expenses with the next month or two.

 

We still do not have a budget for this fiscal year.  At our last meeting we voted to eliminate some spending and to increase some income accounts but the proposed budget expenditures are still too high for our proposed income.  I am hoping we can reach agreement at this meeting on a budget.  Please bring the last budget I had emailed to you back in August, since I have not been near home in a week or so and do not have the written budget in hand.

 

 

Legislative Report

 

Meet with Legislators.

• In August, Bruce, Deniz Tek and I met with Rep Richard Creagan (HI Distr. 6) to discuss resubmission of our legislative agenda to the 2020 Legislative session. Creagan remains as Chair of the House Agriculture Committee, and he plans to expand the ready-to-drink bill to require labeling of individual portions of ground coffee often provided to hotel guests and visitors to auto dealerships.  With cooperation of our Senate representative, Rep. Creagan will reintroduce the proposed coffee bills to increase the percentage of Kona in blends and to label coffees accurately.
• On September 9, Bruce, Deniz Tek and I met with Senator Dru Kanuha (West Hawaii) to discuss resubmission of our legislative agenda to the 2020 Legislative session. Kanuha introduced companion legislation to the House bills in 2019.  He discussed politics within the Legislature to getting bills passed through relevant committees.  He will seek additional information from other committee chairs about what bills to introduce first in the Senate and which in the House to maximize the likelihood if getting bills through the Legislature.
• The Committee plans to schedule a meeting with Rep. Nicole Lowen (HI Distr. 8) soon.

 

FOIA and UIPA Requests.

Despite repeated contacts and requests, we have received no additional materials or information.  APHIS researcher in charge of fulfilling our FOIA request says the search for our materials is “backed up” behind other requests.   HDOA Plant Quarantine Branch assigned a person to respond to our UIPA request, but he “kicked the matter upstairs” to the Branch Chief and the State Attorney General.  Neither has been heard from.  Calls to the Branch Chief are unreturned. This week, we will proceed with an appeal to the State Office of Information Practices, which has been helpful with getting HDOA responses in the past.

 

Alternative Assistance

After discussion with committee members and Legislators, we decided that investigative journalists may be the next best step to shedding light on the perceived conflict between federal prohibition of green coffee imports into Hawaii versus the existing Hawaii state law on importation of fumigated green beans.  To that end, we have contacted investigative reporters at Civil Beat and Channel 2 News, who are known to members of the Committee.  We will go to other news groups (HPR, PBS Hawaii, Hawaii News Now), if we get no response from Civil Beat and Channel 2 News.

 

Newsletter Article

With permission from the Board, the Committee will prepare an article for the KCFA Newsletter on the perceived conflict between federal prohibition of green coffee imports into Hawaii versus the existing Hawaii state law on importation of fumigated green beans for a fall issue.  Members may suggest other ways to gather information on this issue.

 

Web Committee Report

Sent out emails for 1) September 2019 - "The Independent Voice", 2) Processing Workshop and 3) Significant Contributor to CBB Infestation.

Posted numerous articles to KCFA's Face Book page.

Continue to tweak new KCFA website and help members as needed.

Helped Clare with Newsletter.

 

Education:

Fifteen people attended the moisture meter calibration seminar co-sponsored with CTAHR.  Parchment was supplied by KCFA and metered by HDOA for the calibration.

 

Seven people attended the processing workshop at Cornwell Mill.  Discussions on equipment, processing for quality, fermentation and drying were had.  It was noted that this workshop may have attracted more people if it was held in early August as many growers were surprised by the early season and were already deep into large harvest rounds.

 

Membership:

 

Date: 08/17/19

Counts:
Active Voting Members                              184– Down 4
Associate Members                                       26 – Up 2
Supporting Business Members                  16 – Up 2

Total Membership:                                      226 Down 2

New Members:
Thomas Rayson - 82-5999 Coffee Place, Captain Cook

Associate:
Tracy Lamon – Kula, HI
Sharon Miller – Phoenix, AZ

Business:
Denise Wallace

Renewals

Voting:
Gunnar Hillert/Alysa Freeman ($45), Armando & Karina Rodriquez (1 vote), Terry Fitzgerald, Ernest Simien (2 yrs)

Reported as Expired:
Carol Okamura, Maureen Datta, John Langenstein, Motter Snell, Frank Fleecs, James Ameika