My staff and I send best wishes to everyone in 2020. The years…they come and just melt away. And the older one gets the clock turns faster and faster. It seems so anyway.
I can remember when I was ten. I wished I was twenty. That was sixty-one years ago. “Seems like yesterday.” Sound familiar?
2019 was a good year at OHA. We had two new fresh faces at our people’s table. Trustees Kaleiaina Lee and Kalei Akaka. They bring with them fresh ideas and new perspectives. For Trustee Lee, his knowledge of parliamentary procedure helps keep board meetings focused and board members from meandering off topic, which is truly refreshing. For Trustee Akaka, like her Papa, U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka, she is thoughtful and positive. A very good listener. She now knows the landscape and has shed her cocoon.
Dr. Kamanaʻo Crabbe completed his CEO contract. I wish him well as he takes the helm at the Kohala Institute at ʻIole in Kapaʻau. Dr. Sylvia Hussey is now our CEO. She’s a Kohala girl who will do both OHA and Kohala proud. I’m sure of that. The CLA Contract and Disbursement Review is complete and in hand. As a Board of Trustees, we are reviewing its findings and will be implementing its recommendations as we determine practical and meaningful with the help of our Administration. Some at our table see the “glass as half empty.” I will continue to stand with our Chair and colleagues who see the “glass as half full to overflowing.” Of course, for the sake of our beneficiaries and mission we can, must and have to do better.
In the last year, our monthly articles focused on Hawaiian leaders from Hawaiʻi Island. In 2020, our focus will be on sharing exciting opportunities and possibilities occurring on Moku o Keawe.
I want to mahalo Kama Hopkins one of my two trusted Aides (Kaui Wailehua being the other). Kama assisted me in writing many of those leadership pieces. Our first piece in February to launch our 2020 series, since this is the digital age, will be a technology article regarding some of the exciting stuff occurring under the direction of Mr. Eric Hagiwara and Mr. Dale Olive at Waiākea High School in Hilo. Mahalo to them and all of our other wonderful teachers that make Waiākea High School one of our great schools on Moku o Keawe. “Go Warriors!”
As we move forward in 2020, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions, concerns, requests, etc. Our Hawaiʻi Island team is energetic and focused on lending their talents, hearts, might and minds to help our beneficiaries however they can. I want to thank Kama, Kaui, Shane, Dawn, Kamaile, Celia, Charene, Kalena and Candace for always putting our beneficiaries’ needs first. They work smart and are as efficient as can be, but never forgetting to add their touch of aloha in service to our people. We have more to do and will keep pushing forward.
Always with Aloha!
