By Aaron Smith, NCIA executive director

The National Cannabis Industry Association’s newly-elected Board of Directors met last week in Seattle to receive presentations from staff and provide strategic direction for the organization’s core efforts.

One of the primary responsibilities of the board is to oversee NCIA’s financial affairs, which are very healthy as membership rolls have reached nearly 700 cannabis businesses midway through the year. NCIA’s revenues are 10% over the projections for Q1 and Q2 and spending is on target. The success of our national conference and growth in membership have allowed NCIA to hire an additional events coordinator who will assist the organization in building out a robust agenda of educational and networking events for members.

The board also received presentations from Deputy Director Taylor West and Director of Government Relations Michael Correia on NCIA’s communications and lobbying efforts, respectively. NCIA and the cannabis industry have garnered more media attention in 2014 than ever before, raising awareness of the positive contribution responsible cannabis businesses make to the national economy and growing public support for the federal and state policy reforms needed to advance the regulated industry across the country.

The addition of a full-time staff lobbyist at the end of last year has allowed us to provide more political representation in Washington, DC than ever before. NCIA’s director of government relations has already made contact with every congressional office and has personally met with over 200 House offices and 30 Senate offices to build support for amending the 280E provision of the tax code as well as reforms to banking regulations so that the cannabis providers will someday (hopefully soon) have access to basic financial services all other industry’s take for granted.

A former Republican Hill staffer himself, Michael Correia, has focused primarily on building relationships with conservative members of Congress and appealing to them on issues of states’ rights and limited government. This effort helped lead to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voting for the first time to block federal resources from to be used to undermine state medical marijuana laws or penalize financial institutions for doing business with state-legal cannabis providers.

The board  also collectively donated over $8,000 to NCIA’s federal PAC during the meeting so that the industry can further support candidates that support our issues in the months ahead.

Before concluding the meeting, board members re-elected Ean Seeb of Denver Relief as the board chairman and elected John Davis of Northwest Patient Resource Center as vice-chair.

The future is bright for the cannabis industry and its trade association but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done before our members are treated fairly under federal law. As NCIA grows, we will continue to dedicate resources to important government and public relations work as well as building a culture of responsibility and political engagement within the industry.