Jan. 24, 2010
OEFFA c-5 Board President John Sowder called the meeting to order at 10:02 a.m.
Attendance: Charlie Frye, John Sowder, Joan Richmond, Darren Malhame, Tom Redfern
Absent:
In attendance not voting: Ed Snavely, Mike Laughlin, Mardy Townsend, Dave Benchoff, Gary Cox.
Staff: Carol Goland, Paul Dutter
Absent:
Minutes
Minutes approved by consensus
Director’s Report
• Last of the certification reports are being reviewed, w/ some needing more information from producers before certificates go out. These will be done before the renewal packets go out. The delay is just due to information needed.
• OEFFA Certification Flowchart presented. The outside NOP auditor that came in 2008 and the staff trainings have helped organize work flow for staff to be more efficient. Much better turnaround time. The only delays are due to
late applications and applications without complete information.
• Paul Dutter: Asked by John about difference between C5 and C3 board and what the C3 people do in relation to the C5 board. In passing the budget, we are allowed to ask for input from C3 members, in an advisory role, but SOP is always that C5 board makes the final call. This is just clarifying, since there has been no problem.
Financial report
• Year to date sheet – As is often the case, there is a small deficit as of year end (December), but this is always made up by early income from membership, certifications, etc. The big portion of the budget for coming year centers on creating a balanced budget while maintaining the great progress of expertise and quality of work being done.
Proposed budget 2010-11: the staff made a recommendation/request to John and Darren that an additional person be added, sort of a floater, in order to make the staff be able to do its job even better next year. Decision: if our # of apps don’t increase by 5% or more, certification doesn’t get the “floater” staff member. Break even 653 applications projection already includes increased fees and new floater person. If we didn’t get the expected number of applications, then we won’t hire the floater. July 15 is the last date for accepting applications. June 15 is late fee deadline. We know by mid-summer what the numbers will be. We need to make it easier to make staff as thorough as we want to be as an organization processing these applications. Right now, the budget doesn’t justify an additional staff member. Our goal should be to make sure this part of the organization is capable of supporting itself, meeting the main goals: exceptional service + cover costs.
Flow of work (Carol) – this year, due to unexpected staffing changes, Lexie Stoia-Pierce did the pre-inspection reviews of nearly all applications. That meant that when we got them back to the inspector, she couldn’t do the post-inspection review, so those fell onto Paul, until Andy began helping. SO, the efficiency of work flow will be improved this year by multiple people doing pre-reviews.
Fee includes a complimentary membership in OEFFA. Mike Anderson addresses many questions applicants and clients have, and his work directly helps organic producers and potential organic producers, and so fee helps with this, as an education staff member. Giving a client some of the benefits of membership. Many other certifiers also do what we as a whole do – newsletters, meetings, workshops, etc. In our case, due to the way we organized OEFFA, as two halves with separate federal ID numbers, there’s a bigger gulf there, so this is designed to address that. Paul said even though it’s a “free” membership, they can opt out. Probably many will do that, but there is no credit given back. Darren – becoming certified is a “membership” into a group of people who all share certain qualities in the way that they farm, so he’s not sure what the real difference is between receiving a newsletter and not, etc. Little practical difference. Paul – NOP says we cannot require membership. So, they will not be forced to be members, and if they can opt out, we have fulfilled the NOP requirement.
Some C5 money will be funneled to the C3 in terms of membership. Money will be tracked, in terms of C3 benefits given to C5 clients. Budget of both organization reveals this tracking. Opting out:
Proposed by John – approve budget with opt out money going to the C-3 as OEFFA education services.
Early bird discounts issue – proposed discount for people who get their applications in earlier. It would spread the workload more evenly. $50 by April 15. If 100 people choose this option, that would be $5000. New option idea from staff. John suggest we approve this option. Charlie asks for statistical analysis for next year. Danger: renewing farmer gets application in by April 15, but won’t be inspected for awhile, so we need to explain how we prioritize applications and when people can expect to be inspected.
Ed – fee increases – These changes are to bring fees in line with actual office service costs. Some are bigger increases than other, in terms of different producers, but the quality and efficiency of service demands it. Higher turn around times require staff to do it. It also puts more $ on processor end.
Budget approved by consensus
Carol distributed a copy of the Certification Policies and Procedures form as previously requested by board members.
Discussion
-- Current structure for OEFFA services will be maintained and not expanded into Tier II states/region. We want to put emphasis on quality and efficiency of service to current and new members in our Tier I area and defer expansion. New fees and staffing structure will be assessed and be used to estimate future costs in terms of staff for expansion. There is much support for future expansion. Minutes for this telephone meeting distributed and approved.
-- Area to be certified discussed in terms of farm operations. Not processors. We might want to be willing to accept processor applications from anywhere in the country. Today. We can match staff expertise with any processor. Processors can help generate incomes for us to support more farmers, as represented by the tiered fee structure – the margins are better. Can be a scaled fee structure, which we do have already. Approved by consensus.
Adjourned.
Submitted by Joan Richmond, sec’y.