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Minutes of the Executive Committee held by Teleconference on Wednesday 20 June 2007 at 7.45pm
Present:
Mike Armour, Helen Meehan, Mark Heard, Ian Manson, Alastair Bridge, Margaret Edwards,
Tony Casey, Graham Keen, David Pearson.
Apologies:
Ed Scott
Executive Officer Report:
Alastair tabled his report which dealt with
membership numbers up to 368 with another 6 to process 2009 International Awards : Margaret, Mike and Alastair met with Melanie Walker of
Avenues and Graeme Harris to discuss possible board members for an initial board
for the Awards Margaret, Mike and Alastair met with MFAT to discuss possible IOC membership.
Tony felt that N Z should follow what Australia did with regard to IOC membership. the final draft programme and budget for this year’s conference were presented to be
discussed under the Conference agenda item
Financial report.
Balances : Main account c$6,309; IOP account c$12,500; Conference account
c$11,615; Term Deposit c$63,376 Ian asked if there were any funds allocated to certain projects. David is to check but
Alastair said he didn’t think there were any funds allocated as no budgets have been
forthcoming to support projects Mike said all surplus funds would be required if we are successful with our SFF
application
Certification:
- Margaret reported that the first session had just been conducted with 6 oils but she
has concerns about using HortResearch in the future.
- Only 50ml sample bottles will be accepted for retention samples
- Alastair is to send a supply of 50ml bottles to each region
2007 Awards
- Awards entry forms are ready to go out – just waiting for notification from
HortResearch about their sponsorship
- The plan is to have 2 panels this year but if there aren’t enough entries to warrant two
panels they will be cut back to one.
- 7 people are needed for a panel
2007 Conference
- lengthy discussion took place on the costing for registration for the Conference with
Helen and Margaret maintaining the registration fees should at least be on a par with
last year
- Ian disagreed and Tony, Mark and Graham agreed that we should charge less to make it more affordable especially for South Island growers
- Margaret maintained that conferences are expensive to run and if a conference is
good value then people don’t mind paying. Other conferences are much more
expensive than ours
- David said the registration should be the same as last year as there are a number of
unknowns such as sponsorship and wine donations
- Alastair moved that the registration should set at $195 per head. Seconded Helen.
Split vote
- Graham moved that the registration should be $175 per head. Seconded Tony
Split vote
- Alastair moved that registration should be set at $185 per head. Seconded Tony.
Passed. Helen abstained.
- It was decided that the level of sponsorship should be ascertained and then the fee
should be set
Food Safety Programme
- Ian reported that David Shovel is on holiday but he had been told that there would be
a decision from the Health Dept this week and approval given next week.
- David will bring a template to the Processors Course in Auckland
N Z Gap
- Graham did not have much to report due to the time of year.
- Bert van Heuckelum has become the second olive grower to be accredited
Research
- Mike reported that the decision on our Sustainable Farming Fund application is about
a week away
- Margaret and Mike met with Laurence to discuss what position Auckland
UniServices wants to take with with ONZ on a FoRST bid. A scoping report will be
done for presentation to the Executive.
- UniServices is excited about a possible “strategic alliance” with ONZ.
Marketing:
- Tony presented a report on climate change and recommended that the N Z olive
industry should work to promote the industry as carbon neutral/positive to support our
clean, green message. He thought the IOC should be telling the world of the olive
tree’s carbon footprint
- Margaret asked Tony to prepare a paper on the subject for the Executive to consider
together with cost implications. She also suggested that we should look overseas to
see what work has been done there.
- Mike said he would speak to Alan Woolf at HortResearch and see what he knows on
the subject.
- Tony will also speak with HortResearch in Havelock North
General Business:
- Ian suggested that advantage should be taken of the recent press report on the
labelling of Italian olive oil
- Helen will speak to Deborah Battell at the Commerce Commission
- Mike will speak with Marie Wong about the testing of overseas oil
Date of next meeting: 7 August
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