Current (continuing) board members: Bob Jacobson (President) | Wayne Knapstad | Eva Lee (Propagation Chair) | Dave Plaskett

Vote on candidates here prior to the annual membership meeting
Voting will also take place at the Annual Membership Meeting. One vote per member. Officers will be determined by the new board.

Candidates

JoAnn Kawamura Aguirre, Ed.D. (Candidate)

I’m excited about the growing interest and promise in loose-leaf teas and especially in native-grown and processed Hawaiian tea on the Big Island. I am a tea enthusiast and educator, offering consulting services and educational workshops through my business – www.teachingtea.com. I have completed numerous tea-related courses and certification programs and have also enhanced my tea education through international venues.

I would like to serve on the board as an education committee member to increase the awareness of tea, and to advance the Society’s profile and standing in the tea community, as well as the community in general. Aloha!

Bob Shaffer (Current Vice President)

Agronomist and Soil Culture Consulting. Soil Culture Consulting exists to serve farmers with experience based assistance, information and recommendations for transition to sustainable, organic, high quality food. Soil Culture Consulting has worked with farmers in Hawaii for 16 years designing holistic systems using tillage, organic matter management and mineral management to elevate food quality, prevent pests and sustain farms. Bob Shaffer is a tea farmer in Kona and currently consults for farms and nurseries producing avocado, bamboo, coconut, coffee, exotic fruits, grains, grasses, herbs, legumes, mango, macadamia, orchards, pastures, rice, spices, Taro, vegetables of all types and wine. He is also our current HTS Vice-President

Suzanne Wang (Candidate)

I am a tea lover and still continuing my education with this wonderful plant and complex beverage. I spent four years working as a company manager for a tea importer in the east coast, which sold high quality loose leaf teas to restaurants and also retailed online. My work involved sourcing teas and teaware, website management and customer service. I was fortunate to be able to travel to China, Taiwan and Japan to visit tea farms and spend time with the farmers there. I’m planning on opening a teahouse/cafe in Hilo in the early 2011, and am excited to be a part of the growing tea community here on the island.

Current (continuing) Board Members

Bob Jacobson (Current President)

Eva Lee (Current Propagation Chair)

PO Box 362 Volcano, Hawaii 96785, Tel: 808-967-7637
Life is dedicated to tea agriculture and industry culture.
Eva Lee is a tea grower on Hawaii Island in Volcano Village.

She is Co-owner of Tea Hawaii & Company. Lee is a founding member of the Hawaii Tea Society and held the office of Vice President from 2003-2005, President 2005-2007 and has been the Project Director for all HTS tea programs supported by public funds. She helped to build HTS past membership beyond 100 island-wide expanding nationally. Presently she is the organization’s Propagation Chair heading a committee that provides Camellia sinensis tea plants statewide. As a representative of Hawaii growers Lee has attended the Japan World Tea Conference and the World Tea Expo USA. Hawaii County Council commissioned Lee to coordinate a tea brochure and tea product for the Hawaii legislative body 2008.

As tea consultant and educator Lee has written articles on Hawaii grown tea for local organizations, most recently and as contributing author on Hawaii Grown Camellia sinesis tea for Agroforestry Net Inc “Specialty Crops for Pacific Island Agroforestry” and has been interviewed for numerous publications throughout Hawaii as well as Specialty Coffee Retailer monthly magazine Tea Issue, the New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Edibles Hawaii and the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Featured articles include Tea & Coffee Trade Journal April 2008 Hana Hou Magazine Hawaiian Airlines October 2008 and Fortune Small Business Magazine April 2007. Speaking engagements include Hawaii State Art Museum – “Inside the Dance to Tea”, Agriculture Awareness Day – Career Building with Tea, CTAHR, Buy Fresh Buy Local, KITV Television – Hawaii Department of Agriculture Program and Propagation on Tea, Hawaii Tea Society
Educational Outreach for community and agriculture organizations.

Certifications and Awards: Specialty Tea Institute Tea Association USA Foundations of Tea I, II and Professional Series III Cupping & Sensory. CTAHR – Outstanding Dedication with the Hawaii Grown Tea Project. Hawaii State Foundation On Culture and the Arts Artist Fellowship Award, National Endowment For The Arts – Artist Fellowship, Asian Pacific Performers Exchange Fellowship – World Arts and Culture UCLA, Media Arts Fellowship – World Arts and Culture UCLA, Bachelor Degree – Theatre and Dance University of Hawaii at Manoa

Tea Hawaii & Company – Tea Agriculture Grants: Hawaii Grown Tea Delegation World Tea Expo & Conference 2010 – Hawaii Department of Agriculture Market Development Branch, Tea Processing – Hawaii Agriculture Development Program Big Island Resource Conservation & Development Council, Inc.,

HTS – Tea Agriculture Grants: Japanese Temomi Tea Processing – Hawaii County Economic Development, Domestic Tea Tasting – Hawaii County Office of Research and Development, Hawaii Tea Plant Propagation – Hawaii Farm Bureau, Tea Propagation Programs – Hawaii County Office of Research and Development .

The Annual Meeting of the Hawai`i Tea Society (HTS) 
to be held on Sunday, January 18, 2008
at  Aupuni Center 12 Noon. 

The purpose of the meeting will be to elect the 2009  Board of Directors. The election of directors will take place, according to our By-Laws, at the Annual Meeting. You may view our By-Laws
on the HTS website. All members in good standing as of the date of this
newsletter, will be eligible to vote for up to 12 board members. The
list of recommended nominees
and their brief biographies may also be viewed on our website. On the
ballot, you may also write in an HTS member of your choice. Ballots
will
be given out at the annual meeting.

We hope to
see you there!  Please come enjoy good tea and the companionship of
your fellow tea farmers, processors, businesses, and others who are
involved with the production, processing, distribution and the art of
tea. Those wanting to learn more about the HTS and the possibilities in
tea are also
invited to attend.  Please come to share common goals and help direct
policies and activities of the HTS for 2009 and the future. 

The Annual Meeting of the Hawai`i Tea Society (HTS) 
to be held on Sunday, January 18, 2008
at  Aupuni Center 12 Noon. 

The purpose of the meeting will be to elect the 2009  Board of Directors. The election of directors will take place, according to our By-Laws, at the Annual Meeting. You may view our By-Laws
on the HTS website. All members in good standing as of the date of this
newsletter, will be eligible to vote for up to 12 board members. The
list of recommended nominees
and their brief biographies may also be viewed on our website. On the
ballot, you may also write in an HTS member of your choice. Ballots
will
be given out at the annual meeting.

We hope to
see you there!  Please come enjoy good tea and the companionship of
your fellow tea farmers, processors, businesses, and others who are
involved with the production, processing, distribution and the art of
tea. Those wanting to learn more about the HTS and the possibilities in
tea are also
invited to attend.  Please come to share common goals and help direct
policies and activities of the HTS for 2009 and the future. 

Present: Randy Nunokawa, Grif Frost, Wayne
Knapstad, Eva lee, Eliah Halpenny, Mike Longo, Sherry Miller, Aileen
Yeh and Dwight Sato. Mike and Eliah were present as general members
only.

Mike Longo agreed to act as secretary for the meeting.

The Minutes of the last meeting were approved.

The meeting started with Sherry handing out copies of the by-laws that she felt were current and accurate.

Bi-Law committee Report: made by Sherri: The By-law committee met with Jim Wilson at his house Friday morning, 24 October 2008 and came to 2 conclusions:

1) The copy of the by-laws that were given to the current BOD was
given

BOD members: Randy Nunokawa, Alex Wood, Grif Frost, Wayne Knapstad, Eva lee, Mike Longo, Sherri Miller, and Aileen Yeh.

General members: Eliah Halpenny, Bob Jacobson and Jim Wilson.

The Minutes of the last meeting (10/27/08) were approved minor corrections.

The question of the By-Laws was again brought up. Many people remembered something about Term limit but no one could produce a hard copy of the by-laws that listed anything about term limits for BOD officers.

Eva, who was president during the last by-laws revison on 9/25/06, provided the copy of the By Laws that she emphatically stated were the true, accurate and most current set of the HTS By-Laws that were approved by the General membership at the 10/29/2006 General Meeting. (These By-Laws will be attached electronically as soon as I get an electronic copy of them)

MOTION: made by Mike Longo: To accept Eva statement that the By-Laws attached herein, approved on 10/29/2006, are the true and accurate and most current By-Laws of the Hawaii tea Society.

Seconded by Griff and the motion passed

PREPARATION FOR THE NEXT GENERAL MEETING AND ELECTION:

Sherri stated that the general membership was asked to provide nominations for the HTS BOD and that she has received a list of names from the membership. She is trying to get the Bio’s for all people on the nomination list to send out to the general membership when the ballots are sent. The importance of the general membership having the Bios before they vote was discussed.

MOTIONS: After some discussion about what format was to be used for the election the following Motions were made by Eva:

1) That the Nomination committee send out a notice to all candidates on the nomination list and inform them that the Board has met and has approved them as eligible candidates and to provide them with a copy of the current By-Laws.

- Motion seconded by Mike and was passed.

2) That the Nomination Committee send out Ballots to the General Membership:

A) We use the Ballot that was used last year.

B) That each ballot be tagged with a specific numeric code for the member that it is sent to (so that there can only be one vote per member).

C) That members with email addresses be sent the ballot by email and member without email addresses be sent the ballot by snail mail.

D) That all ballots contain adequate instructions regarding the need to return the ballot with the specific code by snail mail only, and in the self address envelope provided and by the deadline date.

E) All received ballots must be postmarked no later that 2 weeks after the date in which the Ballots were sent, in order to be valid.

- Motion was seconded by Randy and the motion passed

General membership moved back to January 2009

Nomination Committee will appoint the Election Committee who will count the Ballots when received. No BOD member or BOD nominee will be allowed on Election committee.

FARM SERVICES AGENCY GRANT:

MOTION: made by EVA: that the Farm Services Agency be asked to make their presentation at the January, 2009, General meeting.

Seconded by Alex….motion passed.

PROPAGATION COMMITTEE REPORT:

Eva briefly described the activity on Kauai. She made 3 presentations and the total number of people in attendance, for all 3 presentations, was 75. There was about a dozen HTS membership applications.

The motion that passed at the last BOD meeting regarding Blank checks needs to be revised to include more money and more checks.

MOTION: Change the balance to the remaining balance in the Grant and change the number of pre-signed checks to 50.

Seconded by Mike and the motion passed

There are approximately 10,000 plants ready to be sold. The possibility of a plant sale at the end of the year was discussed. The question of providing larger plants and seedlings was discussed.

MASTER PLAN TASK FORCE STILL BRAINSTORMING

Meeting Adjourned at 12:00 Noon

Minutes were approved

When: December 2, 2007 from 2-5 pm

Where: at the Aupuni Center Conference Room, 101 Pauahi Street in Hilo, Hawaii

On the agenda is a review of our accomplishments in 2007, the election of the 2008 board of directors, and a discussion of our plans for 2008.

Remember, members must be present to vote!

Read the 2008 Candidate biographies here.

See you there.

For more information call Kathy at 968-1333.

Nominations with a short bio should be sent by September 15th to:

Kimberly Ino
46-3870 Old Mamalahoa Hwy
Honokaa, HI 96727
775-1011

secretary@hawaiiteasociety.org

It is time again for our Annual General Membership
Meeting.  This year’s event will be
packed with fun; a tea competition, 2007 general election, prizes, educational displays,
committee reports, pupus, silent auction, and guest speaker Jim Reddekopp of
The Hawaiian Vanilla Company speaking on “The Creation of a New Industry in Hawaii”.
 

This event will be held on Sunday, October 29^th
from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM at the Hilo Woman’s Club, 7
Lele Drive (off Kaumana Dr. at the Waianuenue split).  Additional parking is located across the street at the Gilbert
Carvalho Park. Download Location Map   (pdf, 130KB).
 

Please see board nominee biographies and revised by laws which will be posted to this website at least two weeks prior to the election.

This event is free
and open to the public!

Featured Events
and Presentations

• Committee
  Reports on 2006 events  

• 2007
  General Elections to the Board and vote on revised  HTS By Laws

• Inaugural
  Hawai`i Grown Tea Competition of Camellia
  sinensis teas. 
  Download Tea Competition Guidelines and Entry Form (doc, 32.5KB). 
  This event supported in part by the County
  of Hawaii Research and
  Development. 

• “The
  Creation of a New Industry in Hawai`i.”  Guest Speaker Jim Reddekopp, Co-owner
  and Founder of Hawaiian Vanilla Company

• Silent
  Auction for educational fundraising 

• Door prizes

• Potluck
  tea and pupus

• Information
  table featuring upcoming workshop on organic tea by CTAHR, plant
  cultivation information, and more

• HTS sales
  and membership table featuring sales of 2006 tea-shirts, booklets on tea
  growing and processing, opportunities for HTS membership and more

Bring the whole family, and your favorite tea or tea snack to share!

For more information: contact Kimberly Ino

EVENT DETAILS
	August 28, 2006
	5:30 PM
	Komohana Ag Complex 875 Komohana Street Hilo, Hawaii UPSTAIRS
	Before & After Event

The Board Meeting will start at 5:30 PM and will run up until 6PM when the HTS Event will begin. Talk by Laura Nada starts at 6PM and will run for 30 to 45 minutes after which the meeting agendas will be resumed.