The heart of the SCAA is independent companies still run by their founders. Many, if not most, SCAA member companies are younger than the association itself. SCAA companies are more dynamic, committed, independent, individualized, invested and, yes, passionate as a whole than their National Coffee Association brethren. The SCAA itself is a voluntary federation of these individual and very independent stakeholders. The federation that is the SCAA encompasses the entire coffee supply chain, from seed to cup. As in any federation, however, there is a constant give and take between different interests and perspectives of those involved; it is Pollyanna, irresponsible and even dangerous to pretend otherwise. Growers, brokers, roasters, retailers and allied manufacturers do not have the same business concerns, models or, in most cases, customers.
In any organization of this type, there must be one overriding goal or mission that brings these groups together. The mission must be important to all, and it must encompass all agendas within. For the SCAA, that goal was--and should remain--quality coffee. The advancement of quality in coffee has been the glue that has held our little federation together, regardless of the secondary issues that constantly swirl around it. Quality is, in effect, our flag.
Throughout the occasional battles within, our quality flag has remained high above the fray. In most cases, the organization has come out stronger once conflicts have been resolved. It wasn't that we argue over the mission itself, but over the strategies to be employed to accomplish our mission and to maintain our goal. But in the last few years, we have experienced something altogether different: a slow decline toward irrelevancy as different groups within the SCAA have squabbled over ever-dwindling resources. Mud has been flung, motives questioned and reputations savaged. Our flag, now soiled, is at risk of becoming an empty symbol.
In the life of any organization, there are times when honest, probing and often painful examinations must be undertaken. Mission statement, bylaws, operating environment, structure, personnel, finances and supplier agreements--all must endure close inspection and, if need be, must be rewritten, restructured, rededicated or abandoned. As a U.S. trade organization, the SCAA must be cognizant of the market realities facing its members and respond accordingly.
In the past, the SCAA has often operated more as a charity than a trade group, pinging from directive to directive, crisis to crisis and initiative to initiative while chanting the mantra, "We chase the mission not the money," even as the opposite was occurring. What mission can be accomplished without adequate funding and resources to bring it to fruition? The history of our association is littered with starved skeletons of programs began and never finished, from the National Specialty Coffee Week/Month program to the Roasters Handbook project, and any number of professional and/or business certification programs. Many of these programs, if not all, failed not because of a lack of interest, but due to a lack of committed resources. Idealism often triumphed over pragmatism and condemned many of the membership and the staff's greater ideas. Is it any wonder then, that through the last dozen years, we have hardly grown our membership, even as our industry has virtually exploded?
So here we find ourselves a year after the SCAA's financial crisis was first reported, an organization floundering in a sea of doubt, seemingly rudderless, without a chart, a captain or a navigator. Yes, we may soon have new executive leadership, but is the organization healthy enough to be righted by one individual? Sure the immediate cash flow crisis has been solved, but how do we look in the long term? Worse yet, the initial energy that pushed committed volunteers to dig deep has been largely squandered by in-fighting on the board of directors.
Within the committed SCAA volunteer community, there is an undercurrent of resignation, disillusionment and fatigue. Often, the more committed the volunteer, the deeper the foreboding. There is a rising pessimism stoked by the seeming inability of the board of directors to communicate with the membership in a clear and timely manner. This is a board stacked with talent, experience and competence that seems incapable of functioning as a team. How can a board that fails to communicate effectively with each other ever expect to communicate effectively with the rest of us? It is past time for all volunteers in leadership positions (on the board, Roasters Guild, Barista Guild and standing committees) to vow to set aside their differences or step down.
Our current situation is best described as weakness exacerbated by confusion. In the midst of all this confusion and weakness, enter the NCA. What exactly the NCA is up to and whether they really want to go after those of us that have been the bedrock of quality in coffee in the United States remains to be seen. The NCA issue underscores what many of us have known for awhile: The Specialty Coffee Association of America needs to be remade.
Coffee consumers are different today than they were 25 years ago, when the SCAA was formed by a small group of committed individuals. Let us acknowledge these people and move on. We owe them the respect they have earned and nothing more. That is business. Many of us have also invested our lives and our security to make our livelihoods in this industry. Through our hard work and entrepreneurship, we have also changed this industry. We need a trade organization that looks and acts more like us and less like our local municipal planning authorities.
It is time for a re-constitutional convention, to re-federate our federation. We should start with the mission statement and not stop until we have looked at every nook and nuance, from the dues structure to the number of committees and their makeup.
Let us rally around our flag.
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