OCIA Nebraska
Board of Director’s Meeting
Monday, August 12, 2024
6:30 pm
Neligh Public Library
Neligh, Nebraska
President, Simeon Mosel called meeting to order at 6:35 pm. Present were Simeon Mosel, Kim Mosel, Travis Wingate, Rick Schuchardt and Karen Ostry.
Minutes from the June 17, 2024 Zoom meeting were sent to all Board members to view. A motion was made by Rick to accept the minutes and a second by Travis. All approved.
Treasurer’s report: It is dated 8-12-2024 for time period of 6-4-2024 to 7-25-2024 by Travis Wingate.
June 4, 2024 started a balance of $35,133.13. Deposits for this time period totaled $2,300.00. Total debits for this period totaled $5,795.83.
Expenses for office supplies and advertising totaled $958.70, conferences/HHD of $2,075.00, donations of $100.00, mileage of $162.13, and wages of $2,500.00.
Balance as of July 25, 2024 was $29,637.30.
Furstenau Financial money market account: I requested a statement for the Money Market account. As of July 31, 2024 the value was $52,700.00. A quarterly change of $182.56.
Total income year to date are as follows: Membership $6,030.00; TOPP Grant $14,994.00; Sponsors $2,100.00; other $125.00; Total of $23,249.00
Total expenses year to date are as follows: Advertising $125.00; Labor/wages $5920.00; Conferences $2,851.48; supplies $1598.20; Scholarship/charity $500.00; Travel $376.53; Promotional $136.23; Postage $68.00; Misc. $145.00; Total of $11,430.44.
Overall change of $11,818.56 year to date.
Rick made a motion to approve the treasurer’s report, Karen seconded it and all were in favor.
Program Administrator report: A thank you was sent from Jake Eckmann, recipient of the $500.00 scholarship for his further studies in agriculture. Kim is waiting for more work to be done to our website when we have videos about organic farming to add. A thank you was sent to us from Marbleseed for our donation of $250.00. A letter was sent to OCIA Nebraska from OCIA International that we have met the terms and conditions of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for 2024. Randy Mosel’s farm tour was cancelled by his son Ethan. Jim Knopik has his farm tour on August 17th from 10am to 3pm and a RSVP is needed. Rick is looking to plan a farm tour for next year. One member still hasn’t paid his dues, even with the monthly penalty. And there is a new member, Jacob Passyka.
Husker Harvest Days: September 10th, 11th, 12th.
Manning the booth will be: Tuesday am: Caleb Mosel
Pm: Karen Ostry
Wednesday: am: Randy Mosel
Pm: Travis Wingate
Thursday am: Kim Mosel
Pm: Kim Mosel
Gateway Farm Expo in Kearney November 20-21, 2024 will be taken care of by Rick Schuchardt. The AgExpo in Lincoln booth will be manned by Rick Schuchardt and Travis Wingate on December 10-12, 2024.
Annual Meeting: Elkhorn Lodge Norfolk, NE January 4, 2025
Notice will go out to the members on November 5th and November 20th.
Speakers-Mark Smith with S & G Commodities out of Omaha & Norfolk, NE.
-Mac Erhart or Margaret Smith with Albert Lea Seedhouse out of Albert Lea, Minnesota.
-Marketing person from Alfalfa Mills Plant from Arlington, NE
-farm panel
Noon meal will be catered with fried chicken, party potatoes, green beans, dinner rolls, fruit and vegetable trays.
Caps with the OCIA Nebraska logo on the front are made with organic cotton will cost $17.20 each. Rick made a motion to order 100 caps. Seconded by Travis and all were in favor.
Program Administrator’s salary was discussed. Motion was made by Travis and seconded by Rick to keep her salary as last year. All were in favor.
Nominations for board members: Rick will call new members if they would be interested in being on the board. Travis will call members for nominations. Heather could move from alternate to full board member.
Video on Larry Stanislav organic farm is being edited for the website to show. Integrity database from USDA has a link on our website. More videos on buffer strips, etc.… may be helpful. We could have fieldwatch/driftwatch on our website, too.
OCIA Nebraska had a booth at the Organic Transition Academy held in Seward, NE library due to no electricity at the Ithaca, NE building. There were several speakers that explained how to become certified organic. They handed out 3 ring binders with a lot of information and resources for potential organic farmers.
Travis visited with Dr. Vrbicky with Midwest Health Partners. He suggested having Larry Stanislav on Dr. Vrbicky’s radio talk show, because he has much more knowledge and experience with organic farming.
Rick spoke on texting for the group through SMS (Short Message Service) on the computer which is $20.00 a month. It would be $240.00 for 70 members at $3.50 per member. Two other systems were tried and they didn’t work for our group. It would be nice to use for the board members. Travis made a motion to use the SMS for the Board of Directors. Seconded by Karen and motion passed.
Simeon will look into NTV ag marketing for Sunday nights at $85.00 for 30 second advertisings. Then he’ll talk to Steve White about featuring organics farming on his 30-minute show.
Adjourn motion by Travis, seconded by Rick and all in favor.
Next meeting will be a zoom teleconference on Monday November 4, 2024 at 7 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Karen Ostry, secretary