Board of Directors Meeting Minutes 2026-06-15
- OCIA Nebraska
- 2 hours ago
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OCIA Nebraska
Board of Director’s Zoom Meeting
Monday June 15, 2026 8:00 p.m.
Roll Call: Simeon Mosel, Rick Schuchardt, Karen Ostry, Matt Adams, Jacob Passkya and Kim Mosel. Andrew Texley was absent.
President Simeon Mosel called the meeting to order at 8:04 p.m.
The minutes of the March 3, 2026 meeting were sent out for members to read before this meeting. A motion was made by Jacob to accept the minutes and seconded by Rick; all were in favor.
Treasurer’s report shows that money market is going down with interest from 5% to 3%. We need to look at better options. We could transition to Charles Schwab with $115,000 and physically turn in $18,500 manually. TOPPS grant will be $15,000 this year through the 3rd & 4th quarters. The checkbook balance is $8500.00.
Program administrator’s report: We received 2 thank you notes from the scholarship winners this year: Carson Reiman from Cozad, NE and Gretchen Anthony from Brock, NE. Rick was able to present the scholarship to Gretchen Anthony. We have two outstanding members who didn’t renew or pay the dues and three sponsors who have not renewed with OCIA Nebraska. The new OCIA International 2026 Memorandum of Understanding Agreement and Letter of Acceptance was reviewed and filed with the chapter office. OCIA Research and Education belong to the group and can be helpful to us. New sponsor to OCIA Nebraska is La Budde. Terra Transitional Solutions is still working on their paperwork to become a sponsor. Jacob said he will contact them and remind them to finish. We need a new listing of members and with a new column that shows who has been on the board and what years. New members are Dale Juranek, Aaron Spenner and Travis Stevenson. There will be an email sent to all members and a hard copy mailed as well with newsletter.
Matt has had no contact with Bio-char to have a workshop on his farm. Rick volunteered his farm for a tour to show crimped Rye with help from Katja from UNL. It will be August 7th from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. with lunch.
New chapter banner is being worked on by Karen and she will update us on its progress in the next BOD meeting.
Annual meeting: We are looking at a new date of February 6, 2027. Matt will check into the Aurora Leadership Conference Center to see what the rent is with our budget being at $200-$300. We will be needing speakers by August meeting. Rick did research on best place for annual meeting and it showed that Norfolk and Kearney are the most centralized for members.
Newsletter--Rick and Kim will put together a July newsletter showing scholarship winners, sponsors of our chapter and farm tours to be held this year.
Virtual chapter will have a fee structure set up for next year between $50.00 to $35.00 per member so they are equal to regular chapters and they have no voting rights. Kim voiced concern over the virtual chapter taking away members from the regular chapter.
Husker Harvest Days: Tuesday: Karen/Rick Wednesday: Jacob/Matt Thursday: Andrew/Kim
Gateway Expo: Andrew both days
Lincoln Ag Expo: Tuesday: Matt Wednesday: Jacob. Thursday: Andrew
Member Membership Fee Waiver for one member. Simeon made motion to waive the fee and Jacob seconded. All were in favor.
UNL Organic Advisory Committee is needing 6 people to meet once a month and they have met 2 times already.
Pre-NOSB meeting attendance will discuss more regulation, shorten transition time, drinking water for livestock, accreditation and compliance, Sodium nitrates, location of certified farms, using certified seed, build trust, 2018 farm bill, integrity. Would meet once every 3 years rather than every year.
August 3rd meeting will be at Duster’s in Columbus. Eat at 5 p.m. and meeting at 6 p.m.
Meeting adjourned with a motion from Simeon and a seconded by Matt; all in favor.
Submitted by Karen Ostry
