Board of Directors Meeting Minutes 2025-08-04

OCIA Nebraska

Board of Director’s Meeting Agenda

Monday, August 4, 2025, 6:30 p.m.

Dusters, 2804 13^th Street, Columbus, Nebraska

Call the meeting to order by vice-president, Rick Schuchardt at 6:25 p.m.

Roll call:  Rick Schuchardt, Karen Ostry, Matt Adams, Andrew Texley, Jacob Passyka, Kim Mosel and guest Helena Ostry.

Minutes from the June 6, 2025 were reported and accepted with Matt Adams making the motion and Jacob Passyka seconding it.  The annual meeting minutes from January 4, 2025 are still needed.

Treasurer’s report:  $32,000 was transferred from checking account.  The money market account has $88,621.05.  August 1, 2025 shows the checking account balance of $10,660.38.  Total assets are $99,281.43.

Magic Jack telephone service for OCIA Nebraska office at $40.00 per year.  Quicken report needs to go from portrait to landscape so columns are not too tight and hard to read.  Right now, only one computer can log in and no one else can access the account.  Matt Adams our treasurer needs to have access to the Quicken account.  Jacob Passyka made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report and Andrew Texley seconded it with all in favor.

Program Administrator:  Abbie Mosel keeps the OCIA Nebraska Facebook page going and anyone can send her pictures of harvesting or any farm work to be put on our page.  Matt Adams and Andrew Texley have not sent in their invoices for working the booth, also there has been no invoice for the video making.  Philip Schuchardt has been paid for his work on the website and computer.  New memberships of 2-3 farmers.  Mileage is paid to Board of Director members.

Husker Harvest Days in three days in September.  We need members to man the booth to promote organic farming and the transitional stage for the TOPP funding.

Tuesday will be Karen Ostry morning and Rick Schuchardt afternoon.

Wednesday will be Jacob Passyka morning and Matt Adams afternoon.

Thursday will be Andrew Texley morning and Kim Mosel afternoon.

We need a new single sheet flyer for scholarship information to hand out to high schoolers at Husker Harvest Days.  A map of Nebraska which shows where all the organic farms are located.

Gateway farm Expo in Kearney November 19-20 booth will be manned by Andrew Texley and Rick Schuchardt.  Ag Expo in Lincoln will be December 9-11^th with Rick Schuchardt watching the booth on Tuesday, Matt Adams on Wednesday and Jacob Passyka on Thursday.

Annual Meeting:  January 10, 2026 at Ithaca, Nebraska.   It will be rent free with Kataja opening the building for us.  There will be 9 a.m. registration and 10 a.m. meeting.  Looking for the noon meal to be catered and speakers for the afternoon.

Brochures:  Matt Adams doesn’t like seeing the phone number and email of all the Board of Directors on the brochure.  There also needs to be more info on the scholarship we have to offer.  New standup banner for the booth is needed with picture of row crop farming and transitioning to organic farming.

Program Administrator review and contract was renewed with all directors present in agreement.  Kim Mosel has agreed to another year.

Looking for nominations for the Board of Directors.  We can have up to 7 members.  Jacob Passyka replaced Genny Mosel and will run for his own term and Rick will call Aaron Hoeffer to see if he wants to run again.

Advisory Board for USDA-OREI proposal:  Matt Adams looking into it.  They have little funds and don’t do farm trials for different nutrient levels.

Matrix Group Publishing was shown to the group by Kim Mosel.  It is a publishing company that works with large groups to get their info to the public.  They are too big for us.  Maybe OCIA International would be more interested in it.

Next meeting:  November 10, 2025 Monday evening at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom.

Motion to close the meeting by Matt Adams and seconded by Jacob Passyka.  All in favor.

Submitted by Karen Ostry