On the QT | The Official Newsletter of GWA December 2016 - January 2017 | Page 4

Noteworthy NEW& Dawn Hummel of BeeDazzled Media LLC, has launched a new website, beedazzledmediacom. Tova Roseman has added a podcast to her new website, Tova’s Garden: Organic Gardening for Body & Spirit. In the podcast, she interviews nature’s thought leaders and people who have expertise and insights to help us live in harmony with our environment. Patrick Ryan, education specialist for the Alaska Botanical Garden, continues to teach as part of Alaska Botanical Garden/Anchorage School District 21st Century Community Schools gardening program. The program is in its third year of a five-year grant to teach kids to grow food and helps build school gardens. In schools, he works daily with kids and plants, teaching horticulture and science. Pat is also doing book reviews and articles on ABG’s Facebook page. Bob Tanem, a GWA member since 1989 and a Fellow of GWA, was awarded University of California Berkeley’s 2015 Peter E. Haas Public Service Award, which recognizes alumni for their public service. Bob’s award is based on his founding a gardening program at Homeward Bound of Marin, a homeless shelter and service center in Novato, California. Tanem transformed a parking lot into an organic garden that provides produce for shelter residents, and donated 400 pounds of food to a local charity in its first year. More recently, the center expanded the program by turning a courtyard into an edible landscape. The garden also supports Homeward Bound’s culinary academy and catering program. Bob’s unwavering dedication and leadership was recognized in a special presentation at the Haas Pavilion on the Berkeley Campus of the University of California. P R E S I D E N T ’S M E S S AG E KIRK R. BROWN Happy New Year! Our 12-month anniversary of working with Kellen Company is cause to celebrate the monumental undertakings that we’ve been planning for so many years. So as this year fades to black, I choose to smile brilliantly, turn the page and carry on. As a member of GWA, everyone should be creating a checklist of advantages that this new year offers. Never before has our association offered so much as a return on an investment of time and money: • Plan trips to MANTS, TPIE, Cultivate and Far West Trade Show. We have a presence on the trade show floor of each of this industry’s biggest events. • Write a program submission for the 2017 Conference & Expo in Buffalo. Develop a topic for a presentation that you’ve been saving for a very special occasion. • Enter your 2016 work in the Awards Program. Now is the time to prepare. Enter a forum that recognizes the best of the best. • Update all of your information on the website database. This is the key to universal awareness of who we are, what we do and how we impact our network. • Attend one of the 20 upcoming regional meetings. Add garden tours, networking and story ideas to your list of completed activities. These meetings create the easiest and earliest means of entry into a wonderful world of professional garden communications and people who do it. • Post ideas, travel suggestions, blog links and member updates to our social media platforms. Access is open to all and definitely encouraged. • Volunteer for one of our committees. This column replaces the former “On the QT.” It includes non-time-sensitive member news, awards, job changes and anything else that does not fit into “Regional News & Notes” or “Hot Off the Press.” Please submit news items and high-resolution photos to [email protected]. 4 • Recommend someone you know to join the group for very specific reasons. We are open. We are encouraging. We are facilitating. We offer the best tours—at amazing venues with superior networking among industry leaders. The friendships that are made within this outstanding group are the things by which a life is measured. Please join me by celebrating GWA’s brand new year of exciting possibilities. At the stroke of midnight on December 31, 2016 raise a glass and toast our growing future.