PRESIDENT’ S MESSAGE
KIRK R. BROWN
REGIONAL EVENTS
2017 Opportunities Abound
GWA is riding a New Year’ s Express into a dynamic year of programming! Located in the convention centers of Baltimore, Maryland, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, MANTS and TPIE are among the country’ s biggest green industry events. Members attended in record numbers to network, update and find work. Cultivate’ 17, at the Greater Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, promises to be bigger and better than any that have come before. Our association continues to be an involved presence on these trade show floors and throughout the halls of the educational sessions.
In August, GWA is traveling to Buffalo, New York, and a ride around its Olmsted Parks System for our annual Conference & Expo. And in September, we’ re taking a carriage ride down a live-oak alee to Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina, for the second annual NextGen Summit. Every region has a meeting, or a Connect, or a trade show or all of the above to make it easier for our members to pick the vehicle best suited to their professional and geographic needs. As an organization, we continue to find many more ways to celebrate our unique status in the green industry.
STAFF REVIEWS We are an association that has tended to its business: Over the first year of our new management contract, we completed both a six- and a 12-month professional review of managerial effectiveness. We also conducted a separate evaluation of board and volunteer commitment. Following an analysis of best standards and practices, we rewrote our bylaws. To extend benchmarking to all areas of operation, GWA created a dynamic policy manual that now accompanies our strategic plan. We are closely following our fiscal plan to reduce deficit spending and project to end the next financial cycle in the black. Membership numbers are improving while attendance at events is up over all year-to-date comparisons.
Thank you to a dedicated and energized staff. Thanks to an involved executive committee for joining in this incredible ride. Thank you to the recently retired, the continuing directors and all the newly elected members of the GWA board. From my perspective over the past 20 years, there has never been a more diverse and horticulturally rich program with which to get involved. Thanks to the many chairs who steer an outstanding group of volunteers who staff our many and varied committees. They have met and exceeded expectations against our 12-month list of strategic initiatives and long range plans.
CHALLENGE TO MEMBERS
I want to issue a GWA challenge goal: Every member should attend just one more industry-wide symposium or trade show and get just one more member to join our association. We have built bridges to master gardeners, garden clubs, arborists, landscape architects, landscape contractors, growers, hybridizers, public garden administrators and garden center owners. How can we multiply those connections by a factor of 2 or 10? I would like to see our membership numbers double within the time of my remaining service on the board.
This year I thank everyone responsible for enabling me to experience some of the finest public and private gardens that America grows. These gardens demonstrate that there are strong and dynamic programs across this country that will define and cultivate the public’ s taste for gardening into the future. There are many brilliant strategies out there that will nurture a future family of horticultural professionals. My wish for the next 12 months is that GWA and its members is a part of every one of these programs.
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This winter’ s courses at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, include“ Insects and Diseases of Landscape Plants,” on six days, beginning February 28, and“ Introduction to Ecological Restoration” beginning March 7.
The West Virginia Extension Service Master Gardener Association’ s 2017 Annual Conference will be at Stonewall Resort, Roanoke, West Virginia, March 24 through 26.
Spring Blooms: A Celebration of Color will adorn the grounds of the Indianapolis Museum of Art March 31 through May 31. More than 100 volunteers assisted and in the planting of about 150,000 bulbs for the outdoor exhibit.
REGION IV Spring Garden Festival at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, Gainesville, Florida, on March 18-19. More than 100 exhibitors will fill the meadow selling art, crafts, plants of all types, outdoor furniture, tools and anything else related to gardening.
For those in the Deep South, the Mississippi Landscape and Nursery Association has two Garden Extravaganzas coming up: March 10- 11, in Biloxi and March 17-18, in Jackson.
REGION V From February 25 through April 9, the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden presents Dallas Blooms: Peace, Love and Flower Power. It showcases an explosion of color with more than 500,000 spring-blooming blossoms and dazzling layers of landscape at every turn. Dallas Blooms is sponsored by IBERIABANK.
From April 15 through July 3, they will ZimSculpt, an exhibition of more than 100 exquisite sculptures from several dozen contemporary Zimbabwean artists displayed throughout the gardens.
REGION VII Catherine Stewart( Garden Drum) from sunny Australia has provided information on a number of events to be held down under in the next few months. Do try to visit if you are travelling to Australia this spring.
• Through March 31, Eden Unearthed, Eden Gardens, Sydney. Twenty-nine garden art installations by established and emerging artists.
• March 6-8, Green Cities 2017 Annual Conference, Sydney.
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