Report on Sierra Club Maui’s 2017 Annual Meeting

Wow! This year’s Annual Meeting (February 25th) was a blast with over 80 people in attendance to enjoy our fantastic panel and pot luck at Kaunoa Senior Center in Spreckelsville.

The meeting began with a pule by Catholic Deacon Stan Franco, who also received this year’s Onipa’a Award for his decades of work to bring affordable housing to Maui. Kai Nishiki and Ananda Stone received our M?lama Kahakai award for their dedication to protecting Maui’s coasts and defending public access to our beaches and trails. After lunch, House Representative Kaniela Ing (South Maui – 11th District) and Sierra Club of Hawai’i Executive Director Marti Townsend gave a quick but thorough update on the status of important bills in the legislature and how attendees could help.

Our main event for the day was the introduction of our new coalition campaign – Hukilike No Maui: Together for Maui, which Sierra Club Maui has been working to build for many months.

Lehua Simon introduced the Hukilike Coalition to our attendees with a wonderful presentation. Then, we hosted a panel discussion to hear from specialists from each sector of our coalition – Dale Bonar and Kai Nishiki for Conservation and Preservation, Lawrence Carnicelli and Cassandra JL Abdul for Affordable Housing, and Evan Ryan and Bob King for Agriculture. Each panelist made excellent ideas for the former cane lands and what is needed in order for us to come together and work as one community. Maui residents: check for screenings of the panel discussion on Akak?.

We then had a breakout session so that all our attendees could give us their mana’o about the sugar cane lands and ideas. For over an hour, everyone talked and debated about what they wanted to see in Central Maui and the obstacles that are in the way. Although this will surely be only the first of many community discussions, the ideas that came from it were fantastic. Learn more about the Hukilike No Maui Coalition and see the notes from the breakout session at www.togetherformaui.org

We ended the meeting with a circle up to reflect on the day and give thanks as Lehua sang a beautiful closing pule.

BIG MAHALO to Tim Wolfe of Akamai Productions for recording the meeting, Geoff Moore of Silver Maui Moon Maui (www.silvermoonmaui.com) for designing the Hukilike No Maui logo and outreach poster, and to Flatbread Company, Mana Foods and Whole Foods Market for donating food and drinks for our potluck lunch. The food was ono!