Hawaiʻi Island Annual OHA Meetings Going Virtual This Week

Due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Hawaiʻi, and in accordance with current safety guidance, the two Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) meetings scheduled this week on the Big Island will be hosted in virtual formats only.  

Beneficiaries are encouraged to tune in to www.oha.org/livestream for the Community Meeting on Sept. 15 at 6:30 pm and the OHA Board Meeting on Sept. 16 at 10 am. Written and oral testimony may be submitted. Instructions for submitting testimony are available on the OHA website: https://www.oha.org/how-to-submit-testimony-for-oha-bot-meetings/. 

The community meeting is intended for OHA officials to listen to beneficiary manaʻo and highlight efforts to improve the conditions of Native Hawaiians. Regular board business will be conducted at the trustee meeting. Both meetings are open to the public. 

During the pandemic, the Board has conducted business via Zoom. Based on an assessment of conditions in the island community, in July OHA held its first in-person meeting during the pandemic on Molokaʻi. Meetings scheduled to be held on Maui in August were shifted back to the virtual format due to rising COVID-19 case counts. The Hawaiʻi Island meetings wrap up the OHA series of annual meetings focused on each of the neighbor islands.   

To view updates to the board meeting schedule and official meeting schedule and to view agendas visit http://oha.org/BOT.

For more information on the Hawaiʻi meetings, contact OHA’s Hawaiʻi Resource Center in Kona at (808) 327-9528 or in Hilo at (808) 933-3106.