Landscape Ontario members should be very proud of the special section in this issue of Landscape Ontario magazine that outlines the many benefits available to them. Organizing and displaying them all visually was a collective effort by your talented team at LO. Special thanks to art director, Kim Burton, who produced a “punchy piece” on your behalf. Speaking of collective efforts, it is also heart warming to read the many testimonials from members in that section that tell the story of how much members believe in our mission and how passionate they are about being involved and committed to the association.

Now, how do we harness that passion to help us advance our goal of increasing membership numbers and raising the standards of our profession? Below are a few suggestions.

LO members can request copies of the special section, title “50+ reasons why,” to hand-out to potential members at your place of business or to include with invoices or other mailing to clients and suppliers. We also plan to distribute copies at special events and to students. We will be ordering a print supply shortly, so if you would like some brochures to hand out, please let us know how many copies you would like.

Would a poster work better? We can create and print posters for you to display in your showroom that illustrate any of the reasons you think it’s worthwhile to belong to LO.

In this age of digital communications, we have provided an electronic version of the special section for you to include in your social media promotions, on your website or in email campaigns.

To get the complete special section in electronic format, visit HortTrades.com/50-reasons-why.

You are the associations’ best ambassadors. For that, we have a number of free promotional items to help you promote that you belong to a special group of dedicated professionals. Simply contact us and let us know how many truck decals and/or license plate holders you need.

Have you won an LO Award of Excellence or been involved in a community greening or fundraising event? We can help you create a customized press release to circulate to your local media. This helps to not only highlight your talents and creativity, but can also emphasize your membership in a professional association.

If you have a unique story, we would also like write profile articles on several members across the province, and have a local newspaper publish the story.

We also plan to create a new article explaining to the public whey they should hire an accredited Landscape Ontario professional. This will be distributed through a public relations firm and sent out to our exclusive media member list.

And of course, we will once again be promote the fantastic work of our members via our annual Garden Inspiration magazine, of which we distribute about 50,000 copies of at Canada Blooms and many local home and garden shows.

By continuously promoting all the tangible benefits of membership in LO, we will continue to grow in numbers, strength, credibility and buying power. This will also help attract the quality employees that all members so desperately need.
At the end of the day, we are all in this together. Let’s make the 2019/2020 membership campaign the best ever.

If you have any ideas or would like to participate in any of the programs listed above, please contact me at 905-875-1805, ext. 2303.