Goodbyes From the Board
By Jim Bishop.
After six years as president, this is my final From the Board column. It has truly been an honor to serve the San Diego Horticultural Society. I’ve had a lot of fun meeting and working with horticultural-minded people who love to share their insights, gardens, and plant knowledge. Everyone’s support and contributions are greatly appreciated.
Special thanks to the following board members whose terms also end in August:
Mary James has served as program chair for most of the last six years. She’s scheduled the great monthly speakers that have set a local standard for well-qualified horticulturist presenters covering contemporary topics. Some of the innovative programs she’s coordinated include our meeting at the San Diego Natural History Museum, Night at the San Diego Zoo, Horticultural Day at San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park, the Holiday Marketplace, and Horticulturist of the Year events.
Cindy Benoit, our outgoing membership chair, is always a welcoming face greeting people at meetings and she’s done a great job signing up new members and helping existing members renew. Cindy has also streamlined the meeting check-in process, which is now completed almost entirely online. This was quite a challenge to implement, but it has allowed us to keep our membership prices affordable.
Patty Berg is outgoing volunteer coordinator. Patty has been recruiting and scheduling volunteers for many of our events—most notably our annual garden tour—and staffing our exhibit at the San Diego County Fair. Additionally, she plans and organizes our annual Volunteer Appreciation Party and has found new and creative ways to entertain us each year.
B.J. Boland has been writing and sending thank you notes for the Society for several years. Oddly, the task of thanking people is a thankless one and B.J.’s help with this is greatly appreciated. Though B.J. has resigned from the board, she will continue sending thank you notes. (Thank you, B.J.!)
Jeff Biletnikoff has been in charge of meeting room setup and vendors for many years. We thank Jeff for doing the behind-the-scenes work of setting up and cleaning up the meeting room each month.
The terms of two one-year board members (Ari Tenenbaum and Lisa Robinson) also end this month. Lisa coordinated the vendors at this year’s garden tour and has retired to the Chicago area. Anne Murphy was the third one-year member, but she became workshop coordinator mid-year. She’s done a great job finding people and places to host interesting workshops.
New Board Members
In September, you’ll be learning more about our new president, membership chair, and garden tour coordinator. We are still looking for a volunteer coordinator to recruit and schedule volunteers for events and to organize the yearly Volunteer Appreciation Party. If you know of someone, please contact Patty Berg or me.
Online Newsletter
Also in September, the new Let’s Talk Plants! website launches, replacing the current printed and PDF versions of the newsletter. The site will continue to have great monthly news articles and feature columnists and it will be accessible from any device connected to the Internet. Additionally, you’ll be able to read past articles, search the site using keywords or by topic, date, or author, and share articles with your friends on social media.