Recent and upcoming events

The Specialty Coffee Association of Indonesia (SCAI) held its second Annual General Meeting (AGM) on June 16th. SCAI is a registered Indonesian NGO with 94 members representing the entire Arabica coffee industry whose members include 12 coffee farmers? cooperatives with more than 10,000 members, as well as exporters, coffee retailers, importers, research institu-tions and equipment manufacturers. The AGM was attended by 44 mem-bers. Including the proxy votes sent to the meeting by other members, the AGM achieved a quorum. The meeting was opened by SCAI's new Execu-tive Director, Ina Murwani.

Her remarks were followed by welcoming remarks from Saimi Saleh, repre-senting the out-going board and Dr. William Levine, the Chief of Party of AMARTA. The Executive Director presented a report on the activities and finances of SCAI, followed by a review of the articles of association. One proposed change established a formal procedure for sanctioning members who do not pay their dues. After a detailed discussion of each proposed change, the new articles of association were approved by the membership. AMARTA consultant Dieter Fischer gave a presentation on research that SCAI has been working on with the French Agronomic Institute (CIRAD) to characterize Arabica coffee from three regions in Sumatera. The final activity of the day was the election of a new board to guide the association over the next two years. After a close election, the new board members include:

- Tuti Mochtar of Santino elected as the SCAI chairperson, a Jakartabased vendor of equipment and supplies for cafes And three board members were elected to second terms:

- Saimi Saleh, of Indokom, a Surabaya-based coffee exporter

- Olivier Tichit, a coffee consumer from Medan, formerly in the industry

- Agam Sulaiman of Menacom, a Medan-based coffee exporter