Timeline of Events National HIA & State Chapters Dissolution
Under the State Chapter Agreement between Colorado HIA & national HIA, HIA’s national office collects membership fees and disburses 50% back to the states on a quarterly basis. States were not allowed to accept members independently of national HIA under the Chapter Agreement.
From 2015 to 2018, the HIA grew from around 300 to over 1,500 members, due in large part to membership recruitment by the state organizations.
Current conflicts between the HIA State Chapters and the national HIA began to surface in the fourth quarter of 2019 stemming from questions related to accounting discrepancies, transparency, and lack of disclosure of financial documentation.
This was compounded in December of 2019 when Colleen Lanier Keahy, the former HIA Executive Director, resigned and further questions emerged. Joy Beckerman, HIA President, left the position in March 2019, and was replaced by Rick Trojan (also a COHIA board member).
In late March the HIA formed a State Chapter Task Force comprised of Sara Gardner HIA membership coordinator, Joe Kirkpatrick of the Tennessee HIA® and National Board of Directors, Annie Rouse of the Kentucky HIA® and National Board of Directors, Ray Mazzie, Executive Director of the Florida HIA®, and Coleman Hemphill, President of Texas HIA®. The intent was to begin to make recommendations to the National Board regarding ways we can both (i) improve the process of establishing/onboarding new state chapters and (ii) ways National HIA® can improve its support and guidance of the current state chapters.
In April national HIA President, Rick Trojan, explained that HIA was having some financial problems and requested the Colorado chapter assist national HIA by delaying quarter 1 of 2020 payment. The Colorado board agreed that we could delay payment for two months to assist national in with their financial issues. The Colorado board reasoned that a solid national organization is beneficial to assist the states in addressing federal matters so it would be in the best interest of our membership to assist the national HIA board at that time.
April 16, 2020 the Colorado boards Executive team met with the HIA State Chapter Task Force comprised of Sara Gardner, Joe Kirkpatrick & Annie Rouse. During the call they asked for Colorado’s input in improving the State Chapter Program. We discussed the need for improved communication so our board & the membership could understand what national HIA was working on, suggested implementation of a policy where members or states could propose action items or policies to be voted on at the national level & requested that they more frequently provide the new members list to the chapters as it could be over three months under the current method before states even knew of new members. When asked in that meeting if national HIA intended to change the dues share agreement they said no.
May 4, 2020 HIA provided notice they intended to change the Chapter Agreement. In conversations with Rick Trojan he stated numerous times that HIA national would not change the dues share of the agreement.
May 13, 2020 state chapters were informed by HIA President Rick Trojan of impending insolvency of the national HIA.
On June 1, 2020 the HIA Board of Directors sought to formalize their contract by requesting the State Chapters to voluntarily waive “Quarter 1 2020 and Quarter 2 2020 HIA Membership dues, without expectation of repayment.” Colorado did not waive the quarterly dues payments as national HIA requested.
Through discussions with other states we found out that quarterly membership dues have not been paid to any of the State Chapters in 2020.
Due to the ongoing communication issues between nationals & state chapters Colorado led an effort to advance communication & transparency between hemp boards across the nation with a liaison to National HIA by formation of the State Chapters Congress that was officially formed a week before the July 14th vote.
After discussions with President Trojan and the HIA since the beginning of 2020, eleven of thirteen State Chapters responded June 30, 2020 with a signed financial disclosure request for ledgers, bank accounts and minutes of meetings, citing the HIA bylaws. Colorado did not sign on to this letter because of our agreement to delay payment for quarter one for two months & a few discrepancies in the technical details in the process moving forward. However, Colorado did express our own concerns about financial obligations of nationals and the Colorado board agreed that to entertain any further delay in payment or future loan to HIA we would need to see national HIA’s financials to better understand what had happened & a budget showing how they intended to address the shortfall so it would not happen again.
The Colorado board was beginning the process of following the established protocol for viewing said documents by filling out the financial request documentation to view national HIA’s documents when the July 14th vote happened.
The HIA Board of Directors voted July 14, 2020 to immediately end all revenue sharing with the State Chapters and to abolish the State Chapter program.
On July 16th the Colorado board held a special board meeting to discuss next steps. Rick Trojan who also was a COHIA board member resigned from the Colorado board. After much discussion the board decided to keep all options open to move forward at this point but our commitment to serving the Colorado hemp community is stronger than ever. In the coming weeks we will release a membership survey on priorities moving forward for Colorado & look more deeply into ways to appropriately represent our members needs at the federal level.
On July 21st, the National HIA sent the state chapters a draft license agreement (link), asking for signatures by the following Tuesday. The COHIA board reviewed the contract and found it to be lacking as a “licensing agreement” and included provisions that acted outside the scope of a traditional licensing contract.
On July 23rd, the COHIA board met and voted unanimously to decline the current licensing agreement offered by HIA; the agreement proffered addressed issues outside of licensing that at this time are not in the best interest of the Colorado organization. View document here: HIA State and Region Licensing Agreement. We remain open to an amended agreement specific to licensing being offered so we can choose to operate under the brand if our membership so chooses.
Fortunately, through all of this Colorado HIA is and has remained fiscally sound as the board has been adhering to our budget and we do not anticipate any disruption to member services. Currently, HIA National still needs to pay quarter one and two of 2020 dues owed to Colorado totaling over $20,000. The Colorado board thanks you for your membership & ongoing support.
