IOIA Annual Membership Meeting and Advanced Training - March 25 - 28, 2025

Chico Hot Springs - Pray Montana UNITED STATES

Deadline has passed

Course Description

Annual Meeting (hybrid online/in-person format) on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 25, with music, no-host bar, and live benefit auction to follow throughout the evening. Keynote and lunch starting at 12:30 p.m., with the annual meeting beginning at 2:30 p.m. Keynote address will be rancher Glenn Elzinga of Alderspring Ranch, Salmon, Idaho, with “What Beaver Taught Us”.  Board members will be elected via the online voting platform Election Runner. The election will end during the annual meeting, to ensure that everyone has a chance to vote.

 

Advanced Training has been developed in collaboration with the Regenerative Organic Alliance and Global Organic Textile Standard for Wed-Thurs March 26-27, with the focus on March 26 being environmental and soil health monitoring, plus Supply Chain Traceability Audits & Import Certificates under SOE. Our theme is “The Future of Organic Inspecting – What will inspecting look like in 10 years?”

 

The training on March 27 & 28 a.m. will be an Introduction to Social Compliance Auditing and a field trip (weather permitting). NOP does not address social compliance, but triple bottom line sustainability is becoming increasingly important for commerce, especially to European markets and many consumers. Organic operators find themselves needing add-on labels to satisfy markets. Social compliance is a key aspect of the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). This course will assist organic inspectors in learning how to navigate what is required for approval to do social compliance auditing.

Advanced Training Agenda (draft)

 

For details about the event, the venue, and travel, please see Annual General Meeting. 

Note: If you need lodging, you must call the venue by phone. Reservations may be made by calling Chico at (406) 333-4933 to book within the International Organic Inspectors Association room block. It is not possible to book online in the IOIA room block. You must call the hotel to book within the IOIA room block.

 

IOIA will email invoices about one month before the course begins

 

REGISTRATION LINK - 

Fees are listed on the registration link.

Deadline to apply is Feb 16, 2025. Applications after that date will have a $50 late fee.

Schedule

Dates: 

  • March 25, p.m., Annual Meeting
  • March 26: Advanced Training
  • March 27 - 28 (a.m.): Training - Introduction to Social Compliance Auditing

Options are available to register for Annual Meeting and each training separately. 

Requirements

Those who wish to earn a Certificate for the Social Compliance auditing session should plan to stay through the morning of March 28. This will be an IOIA Advanced Training Certificate. The certificate will not qualify you to do Regenerative Organic Alliance or GOTS audits.