OCIA Nebraska
Zoom Board Meeting
Monday June 17, 2024
7:00 pm
Dustin Blair, Rick Schuchardt, Genny Mosel, Karen Ostry, Kim Mosel, Simeon Mosel and Travis Wingate
Simeon called the meeting to order at 7:03 pm.
Secretary Minutes: read the minutes of March 11, 2024 zoom board meeting. Rick made a motion to accept the minutes; Travis seconded it and all approved.
Treasurer report dated 6-17-24 for time period of 3-8-2024 to 6-4-2024.
March 8, 2024 started a balance of $24,525.87. Deposits for this time period totaled $15,130.00, UNL conference of $230.49, and wages of $3180.00.
Deposits for April totaled $13,030.00. May deposits totaled $1300.00 and June of $800.00 as of the 4th of June.
Balance as of June 4, 2024 was $35,133.13
Furstenau Financial money market account: I did not request a quarterly statement from the money market account, as the end of the quarter is not till the end of the month.
We are non-profit because we don’t make over $50,000.
Submitted by Travis Wingate.
Motion was made by Karen to accept the treasurer’s report, seconded by Dustin and all approved.
Program Administrator report: All sponsors paid to OCIA Nebraska for sponsorship except F.W. Cobbs company.
Simeon met with 2 scholarship recipients. Suggest that we have deadline of March 1st for next year rather than April 1st, so we can present scholarship at FFA Banquets. Texting members doesn’t work without in house cell phone.
Old Business: Genny has newsletter with Kim and Rick editing it. Sent to board members to view. It will be 3 pages as colored hard copy to mail out to all members with new logo stickers. Motion made by Karen to mail out the newsletter to all members with stickers, seconded by Travis and all approve.
Annual Meeting: Elkhorn Lodge at Ta Ha Zouka Park Norfolk, NE for January 4, 2025. Rent is $210.00 with a $200.00 damage deposit. Hy-Vee Catering would be hired to take care of the meal. Kim wishes to set up the night before. Registration from 9 am to 10 am, business meeting at 10 am and Board of Directors meeting from 11:30 am to 12 pm. Lunch will be from 12pm to 1pm and two speakers after lunch from 1pm to 2pm. This will be followed by a Farm Panel with question-and-answer time. Board is still discussing who the speakers will be. Sponsors of OCIA Nebraska are invited to set up a table to show their company.
New Business: TOPPS funding. Rick is involved in a forty-hour mentoring program that is with two mentees. There is also a plan for 6-7 videos for mentor training, field trips, and farm tours. Larry Stanislav videoing his farm and using 5 minutes segments to keep interest and give information. Randy Mosel farm tour to be videoed with drone. Need more YouTube videos on organic farming.
To be compliant for SOE you can use zip tie tags to ship organic grain.
A reminder of Farm Tours: August 10th Randy Mosel Tour
August 17th Jim Knopik Tour
We need to send info of tours to members and also reach out to the general population through newspapers, flyers, etc. Simeon will contact NTV about ad cost and maybe Steve White with NTV will interview and show farm tours.
Website: We need Phil Schuchardt to help with arranging scholarship recipients, archive blog, events, link to field watch/drift watch, farm videos and minutes from board meetings. Travis made a motion to get a quote from Phil and Dustin seconded. All in favor.
NSAS Organic Transitional Academy workshop Saturday August 3rd from 9am-4pm at Ithaca, NE. Karen will run the booth for the event.
Facebook Administrator? Do we need someone to take it over full time or should we drop it. Some members prefer texting to Facebook. We will bring it up at the next annual meeting.
Radio personality: Dr. Vrbicky supports organic farming and would like to do a segment on organic farming on his radio show. Travis volunteered to visit with him.
Genny is looking into OCIA Nebraska Trifold Brochures to hand out at events where we have a booth. It needs a fact sheet, info about OCIA, and be eye catching. Kim will help Genny put it together.
New member promotional items approval needed: Cap (quote on new price from Kim) Resource Directory and flash drive.
Marbleseed makes Resource Directory that we use to give to new members. Motion made by Travis to donate a $100 to Marbleseed for directory and Dustin seconded. All were in favor.
Next meeting will be in person on Monday, August 12th with 5:30pm at Sly’s Family Bar and Grill for supper and 6:30pm Neligh Library for Board meeting.
Motion made by Travis to adjourn the meeting and seconded by Rick. All in favor.
Submitted by Karen Ostry