Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 1, 1 January 2006 — Productivity of trustees and staff ensures a bright new year [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Productivity of trustees and staff ensures a bright new year

Linda K. Dela Cruz TrustEE, Hawai'i

Aloha kākou! Hau'oli Makahiki Hou! We at OHA are looking forward to a very exciting new year. We are hopeful that all of you will take the time to participate in the community meetings in 2006 and let us know what is happening. It seems easier to figure out what OHA is doing nowadays since OHA divided the workload into what we eall a Strategic Plan. Actually, we have been practicing this plan for a eouple of years and the responsibilities are many. There seems to be a huge interest in culture, education, natural resources and the environment, social services, land issues, housing, health and nationhood (whieh also includes the Akaka Bill). Lots of the funding is earmarked for those purposes via grants, scholarships, legal assistance, better monitoring roles, etc. This group of dedicated trustees and staff members is really working together - not fighting with eaeh other - as some beneficiaries have commented at our

meetings. Okay then, this translates to completing tasks more efficiently and effectively so we ean move on to the next eoneem. This year I will be holding meetings in the communities on the Big Island. The best way to evaluate if the programs are really getting to the eommunity is to ask the community. If there are concerns or ideas on what ean be done better, we want to hear about it. Don't forget, in order to contact you- we need your updated addresses for more efficient eommunication. If you have an idea of when or where these meetings should take plaee, we want to hear about it. The "hot topics" right now are: 1) land acquisition (OHA is working to acquire 26,000 acres of forest preserve in Puna and OHA may be involved with Waimea Valley on O'ahu); 2) Care of the iwi (bones of our ancestors); and 3) housing. The other "biggy" is donations, whieh OHA usually refers to our grants or micro-loan programs. Hopefully in 2006, OHA will expand the MicroLoan Program beyond emergency use only. Mālama i kou kino, a hui hou (until we meet again, take care of yourselves). S

LEO 'ELELE • TRUSTEE MESSAGES —