Kona Coffee Farmers Association Board of Directors meeting
MONDAY, September 19, 2016 CTAHR Conference Room, Kainaliu
CALL TO ORDER—
3:00pm
Bruce Corker, President
Present: Colehour Bondera X, Chris Coleman X, Bruce Corker, x, Kay Dixon x, Sandra Scarr x, Judy Schuman absent
Kurt Schweickhard, x, Suzanne Shriner, absent, Terri Sparks x, Karen Zulkowski absent
Members present- none
CONSENT AGENDA
Approval of Minutes of August 15, 2016
Approval of membership applications Acclamation of committee reports.
Clarification in August minutes: Membership Committee Reports are accepted when Minutes are approved.
Motion to approve Terri moved to approve and Kurt seconded Motion passed
Treasurer’s Report—Kurt
Report submitted prior to board meeting; verified that all received the P&L documents sent around.
Terri moved to accept and Sandra seconded Motion passed
Volunteers—Bruce
No replies to newsletter efforts to seek volunteers; therefore how? Group discussion points:
1. add to Facebook page
2. continue (ongoing) to interest folks
3. offer to “treat” or “reward” (such as take volunteers to lunch)
4. ‘blast’ emails of “volunteer opportunities”
5. phone tree to directly call members
6. engage students from college/ag program
Online Impersonation/Credit Union—Bruce & Kurt
Incident with contact who sought KCFA financial access was reviewed and police report was filed and complaint was filed with Hotmail regarding use of false emails.
OLD BUSINESS
• Resort Links to Website—Karen -Karen not at meeting so deferred.
• Coffee & Art Stroll – Bruce Attended the Kona Coffee Festival Meeting and some changes to annual events were shared, including”
o *UCE Coffee Picking changed to Saturday which is same day as Coffee & Art Stroll
o *Parade is happening again this year
o *Lantern parade is also happening
o *Anita seeking 2lb. coffee from each BOD member for event
• HDOA Grant--Colehour
Due to changes in the reporting process, some modifications being finalized and it will be completed very soon.
Kurt noted that any money that KCFA still has from the grant is not from our pockets directly.
• Coffee Grade Standards—Bruce Participated in meeting on September 1 where the 3-year extension of rule was agreed upon. Additional points worth noting included:
o follow through needed with review of standards in place
Bean size is not included in future standards
o Determining quality will be the most difficult, since the use or not of defects is not agreed upon
o Questions include if color or pinholes affect taste
o Can coffee entities worldwide provide examples of how standards are set?
Members Attending Meetings
Discussion was held regarding encouraging members to attend BOD meetings and being provided with the Agenda in advance of the meetings to consider attendance. This is for future consideration. It was also noted that BOD members are requested to miss no more than three BOD meetings per year.
Marshall Island picker efforts?
It was noted that child help not available on weekends and picking needs to still happen on Saturday and Sunday during peak of harvest, so this must be addressed.
EXPO - Terri Comment made that the Sheraton is trying to work with KCFA and the dates discussed will be reviewed.
Adjourned 4:20 pm
Thank you to Colehour for the Guatemala coffee Next month -- Bruce
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Branding Committee—Bruce/Cea
During the past month the committee has exchanged communications with MacFarms and Kauai Kookie Company concerning the use of the "Kona Coffee" name on labels of products having little (or none) of the coffee flavoring provided by actual Kona-grown coffee. MacFarms has indicated that it is continuing to seek to have its contract confectioner use "100% Kona Coffee"--as opposed to something the confectioner refers to as "Kona Coffee flavor"--for the coffee flavoring for its "Kona Coffee/Dark Chocolate Macadamia Nuts". Communications have begun with Kauai Kookie Company about the apparent use of less than 5% of actual Kona-grown coffee for the coffee flavoring in its "Kona Coffee Macadamia Cookie" product.
Coffee & Art Stroll--Anita
Education Committee—Colehour
Estate Committee—Christine
EXPO—Karen
Finance Committee—Kurt
• Prepared a “Draft” Final Grant Report (utilizing/reconciling original format of grant budget) following grant committees decision to send draft to HDOA for approval prior to September report deadline.
• Prepared & filed Form G-49 (annual) for KCFA GE Tax.
• State of Hawaii Department of Taxation has issued a new General Excise Tax License to KCFA with a new Tax ID number, going into effect August 15th 2016
• Additional security measures have been implemented for KCFA`s bank account:
1. Added a verbal password on the account
2. Transferred $30,000 from checking to savings account.
HDOA Grant Committee—Colehour
Kamehameha Schools Liaison Committee—Suzanne/Christine
Legislative Committee—Bruce
KCFA participated in a September 1 HDOA-sponsored meeting of representatives of coffee organizations concerning amendment of the Hawaii Administrative Rules to extend the current green coffee grade standards. Those standards were put in place in 2014 to assist farmers while programs for mitigating CBB damage are developed, However, those standards are scheduled to expire on July 1, 2017. The HDOA has committed to seek amendments that will extend the expiration date for 3 years, with a new expiration date of July 1, 2020. KCFA strongly supported the HDOA's commitment to seek an extension.
The committee has been discussing with Hawaii County legislators ways to support the resolution adopted by Hawaii Democratic Party Convention in June calling on the Legislature to adopt a 51% genuine-content-minimum and label identification of the origin of imported coffee for Hawaii coffee blends.
Membership Committee—Donna
There are 258 Active voting Members, 22 Supporting Business Members and 33 Associate Members. The Holualoa Village Association is a new Supporting Business member.
New Members- Ad Hoc Committee
Newsletter--Clare
Origin Protection Committee—Colehour
PR/Marketing—Kay/Anita
Pest & Disease— Bob Smith
--Task Force Representative—Kurt
Social/Fund Raising—Tari
Website—Cea/Karen
Requesting July 2016 Minutes in final form to post on site.
Sent emails to all Members for 1) Moisture Meter Calibrations Workshop-CTAHR, 2) Flat Bark Beetle Study-CTAHR, 3) September's Independent Voice, and 4) CBB Subsidy Program-HDOA.
Written to Members with Classifieds to update or discontinue Listings. Some are old and doubtful they are valid. Plan to write again to those that have not responded in a week, and if still no response, think I should remove them in order to keep the website up to date.
