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Hawaii Island Wellness Travel Association |
Newsletter
February - March, 2007 |
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Aloha Members,
Already 2007 is turning out to be quite a productive year!
Our first board meeting took place on January 2. We were
hosted in a beautiful meeting space by member
Ana Jones. I was delighted that so many members could
attend. You can read more about what was discussed in the
full report below. Also, thanks to the speedy, creative and
affordable work
of web designer Phoenix Williams, we were able to launch our
web site. Please give us your feedback and
thoughts.
On a personal note, I am enjoying setting up our new
association. Since November I have been devoting myself
almost full
time to the many tasks that must be done. I do this work
entirely on a voluntary basis and sometimes I am asked,
"What's in this for me?"
First, I do feel a great sense of satisfaction doing work that is
of service. Second, I am now ready to launch a new project
that will benefit our industry; it is a holistic guide to
wellness services on Hawaii Island called "Big Island: Body,
Mind, Spirit."
It is very
important that we have a printed piece that
targets visitors and can be a resource to residents as well.
Some of you may be aware that the Five
Mountains Hawaii Kekukui Guide will not be printed in
2007. Big Island: Body, Mind, Spirit presents everyone with
an opportunity to promote your business or service. I
would very much appreciate your support in this endeavor.
More details are posted in the article below.
Wishing you all a Happy Chinese New Year -- The "Year of the
Boar!"
Susanne Sims, President
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Thanks to all 14 members who participated in our
first board
meeting, held at "The Studio Center for Holistic
Arts" in
Honoka'a and hosted by member Ana Jones. The facility is
available to community members for events, gatherings,
seminars, or ongoing classes.
Pictured (left to right standing): Caleb Milliken, Robert
Frutos, Joyce Marvel-Benoist, Ana Jones, Marcel Hernandez,
Kehau Keopuhiwa, Jeanella Keopuhiwa, Marcy Montgomery,
Marcia Timboy, Dane Silva, Brenda Hall, Barbara Moore;
(kneeling): Susanne Sims, Catherine Kalama Becker.
There were a number of important issues that were
covered:
MEMBERSHIP
At this time, our membership stands at 64 members and
growing! A new
membership brochure has been designed and printed. We
will mail several copies out to each member. Please pass these
along to others who would be
interested in joining.
TAX EXEMPT STATUS
We are in the process of obtaining our tax-exempt status.
Because we are a start up organization with very little funding,
it appears that we are eligible for free legal assistance through
Volunteer Legal Services of Hawaii. We will be able to receive
assistance in filing all the paperwork necessary. Until tax
exempt status is given, there are other umbrella non-profits
that can
act as fiscal sponsors should a grant or donation opportunity
come about. Thanks to Dane Silva for his investigative work on
this.
NEW COMMITTEES FORMED
Two new committees were formed; one on standards and
guidelines, the other on insurance issues. Please contact the
committee chairs to become involved. We would like to move
ahead on both of these important issues and need member
support and input.
Standards and Guidelines:
Marcia Timboy, 964-3487,napiliwahine3@hotmail.com
Insurance Issues:
Ana Jones, 775-9172, ajones4554@aol.com
SPECIAL EVENTS
Some members have asked for assistance with
marketing and business development. Member Sharman
O'Shea has recommended that we consider bringing
in a business consultant by the name of Juliet Austin who
specializes in coaching health and wellness practitioners.
Juliet is from Vancouver, Canada and her website is www.julietaustin.com.
Please let us know if this is of interest
to you. If so, we could offer a one-day
seminar with Juliet on Saturday, November 3 at one of the
Kohala Coast hotels. Price for the one day workshop would be
approximately $150 Volunteers will be needed to
help produce such an event.
NEXT MEETING
Our next board meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday,
April 10 to be held at Hawaiian Oasis Retreat in Kona. A final
confirmation on the date and time of the meeting together with
directions will be emailed out sometime in March.
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We are looking for a new logo. In fact, we really don't have a
logo per se, we have a piece of artwork. While that has
served us in our initial stages, it's time to create a logo that we
can use on letterhead, business cards, our website, brochures,
etc.
We need to get creative. So here's an idea: What if our
members donated some of their services; for example: a
night's stay at a B&B, a spa or massage treatment, an
ecotourism excursion, etc. These items could then
be packaged together as a special "wellness weekend" prize.
Graphic designers, art students from high schools,
community colleges and the university would be invited to
compete. We get a
logo, they get a wellness vacation, and everyone could get
some great publicity.
It could also be a lot of fun. Let us know if
you would like to participate in this ADventure!
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Many thanks to member photographer Robert Frutos for his
generous gift of photography used on our web site. His lovely
Hawaiian images were just what we needed to set the right
tone. Robert offers photography retreats in Hawaii and you
can view more of his work at www.heartofnature.net.
A special thanks as well to Nikki Spencer in Waimea for
checking our post office box regularily and depositing
membership dues. |
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www.hiwta.org
Our new web site was launched on February 1! The site assists
visitors with planning healthy vacations on Hawaii Island and it
proudly represents our burgeoning wellness travel industry. A
listing and a link in the directory is one of your benefits of
membership. Please visit our website and offer your comments
and feedback.
Due to our small budget, we were not able to
accomplish everything we would have liked to in this first pass.
In the future we hope to add software to the site that will allow
members to update and edit their own directory listings as well
as post news and events. If you have articles that you would
like to submit, we are glad
to receive them in order to build the
content of the site. The articles should focus on member
issues, health and wellness, travel, culture, etc. and should not
be self-promotional.
For now, please check your directory listing to
verify its accuracy. The information used was complied
from the membership applications. Prior to launching, an email
notice was sent to all members asking them to proof read and
correct the listings if necessary. We heard back from many of
you and if you did not respond, we assumed that no
corrections were required. Until we can afford and install the
software, all changes must be done manually by our web
master so we would like to keep them to a minimum and make
changes only where absolutely essential.
It is required by the state that we list MAT and MAE license
numbers. We attempted to contact those of you to whom this
applies, but if you are missing that information next to your
listing, please notify us.
Currently there is a word limitation on the listings, but this
could change in the future. Several of you have asked if it is
possible to have more than one listing. We would like to
develop the site to allow for that and perhaps even the ability
to feature a member each day in some sort of rotating order.
We will let you know if and when these options become
available.
LINK UP!
Our website has two domain names, each of which leads to the
same site: WWW.HIWTA.ORG
Please link your pages to our site; this will generate
more traffic for us and for you. Our site is linked with
and featured on Holistic-Hawaii.com and Hawaiihealthguide.com
BIG ISLAND VISITORS BUREAU
The BIVB is currently redesigning its website and is expected to
re-launch the new site in mid-February. The BIVB site, www.bigisland.org, will offer a "Spa
and Wellness" option on the top menu of its home page. That
link will point the viewer to a page that contains a listing for
our association and a link to our site. Our page is also linked
to the main Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau's website, www.gohawaii.com.
The BIVB will send releases to local, national and
international press announcing their re-launch. The releases
will also included information about HIWTA and our web site.
Our alliance with the bureau is a very important one and we
are delighted to be an official and active member of the BIVB.
Our thanks to member Barbara Moore of Dragon Fly Ranch for
referring us to web designer Phoenix Williams. If you are in
need of professional web services, Phoenix can be reached at yrrey@yahoo.com or (808) 328-9570.
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Plans are underway for the creation of the first annual Pacific
Cultural Wellness Festival to be held June 28 – July 1 at the
Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort in Kona. The festival will
bring together healers, wellness providers, and the community
to learn about the latest research and issues relating to the
convergence of traditional Polynesian and Western medicine.
In the first two days, kumu, kupuna and medical doctors will
discuss the safety and efficacy of converging lomilomi and la’au
with allopathic approaches. The question of how healers,
doctors and patients can most effectively work together to
safely promote wellness will be explored.
On day three, a ManaFest will feature demonstrations and
interactive sessions of lomilomi, la’au, lua, and hula. Live
music, food, and cultural arts such as weaving, stonework,
carving, quilting and tapa are anticipated. A WellFest,
scheduled on the final day will provide a range of wellness
activities such as chi gong, tai chi, meditation, yoga and more.
Members of the Hawaii Island Wellness Travel Association are
encouraged to participate and to host a booth for our
organization at the festival. A portion of festival proceeds
will be donated to HIWTA.
For more information visit www.pacificculturalwellnessfestival.org (site is active
after Feb. 5th) or contact Dane
Silva
at kumulomi@haleola.com, (808) 965-8917.
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Hawaii Island Wellness Travel Association
PO Box 6693
Kamuela, Hawaii 96743
Phone (808) 885-2181
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