March 15, 2015
Lexi Dearborn leads a mini-governance meeting at the end of GreenTrade Expo.
What happens in Ottawa does not stay in Ottawa
Denis Flanagan CLD
LO Manager of Membership and Public Relations
Your Milton office supported the Ottawa Chapter GreenTrade Show in February. Our membership booth was very busy with lots of inquiries about industry updates, education and joining LO. The job board and plant ID challenge were also buzzing with activity.
The show was amazing and had many new features, including great seminars and a brand new awards evening.
At the end of the show, we also held a mini-governance meeting under the leadership of Lexi Dearborn. A presentation and review was given by Myscha Burton, reporting on the many ideas that came out of the Association-wide governance meeting held last December. Since then, we have prioritized the tasks and have been working on moving things forward, making GreenTrade a great opportunity to get feedback from Chapter members and to fine-tune some details.
Three main topics came up for discussion. These include customized cards showing membership benefits, methods of communication and long distance learning.
We have produced a wallet-size card that highlights the benefits of joining LO. It was suggested that we customize the card for each Chapter, so that local contact information may be included. These will be completed, printed and ready for distribution for Industry Night at Canada Blooms.
How we communicate to our membership is always a lively topic. The goal is to have consistent, professional looking templates available that can be used for numerous forms of communication. This was supported, with the important feature being that they are all adaptable to hand-held devices. An update and samples will be available for next month’s Landscape Ontario magazine.
We all agree that it is an important to present long distance learning opportunities to share knowledge. The concept is that seminar topics would be recorded at a central location and made available to Chapters to use in group settings at local meetings. We will decide on a topic, presenter and location to produce a piece and be ready to launch a test run in the coming fall season.
It was great to have LO President Dave Braun in attendance for the meeting. The enthusiasm and conceptual thinking by the group dovetailed nicely into his theme of Growing Together. The fact that a local group could plan and develop ideas that resulted in hands-on solutions designed to be shared with the entire membership is definitely a big step in the right direction. A big thank-you goes out to everyone who contributed.
Denis Flanagan can be reached at dflanagan@landscapeontario.com or at 905-875-1805, ext. 2303.
LO Manager of Membership and Public Relations
Your Milton office supported the Ottawa Chapter GreenTrade Show in February. Our membership booth was very busy with lots of inquiries about industry updates, education and joining LO. The job board and plant ID challenge were also buzzing with activity.The show was amazing and had many new features, including great seminars and a brand new awards evening.
At the end of the show, we also held a mini-governance meeting under the leadership of Lexi Dearborn. A presentation and review was given by Myscha Burton, reporting on the many ideas that came out of the Association-wide governance meeting held last December. Since then, we have prioritized the tasks and have been working on moving things forward, making GreenTrade a great opportunity to get feedback from Chapter members and to fine-tune some details.
Three main topics came up for discussion. These include customized cards showing membership benefits, methods of communication and long distance learning.
We have produced a wallet-size card that highlights the benefits of joining LO. It was suggested that we customize the card for each Chapter, so that local contact information may be included. These will be completed, printed and ready for distribution for Industry Night at Canada Blooms.
How we communicate to our membership is always a lively topic. The goal is to have consistent, professional looking templates available that can be used for numerous forms of communication. This was supported, with the important feature being that they are all adaptable to hand-held devices. An update and samples will be available for next month’s Landscape Ontario magazine.
We all agree that it is an important to present long distance learning opportunities to share knowledge. The concept is that seminar topics would be recorded at a central location and made available to Chapters to use in group settings at local meetings. We will decide on a topic, presenter and location to produce a piece and be ready to launch a test run in the coming fall season.
It was great to have LO President Dave Braun in attendance for the meeting. The enthusiasm and conceptual thinking by the group dovetailed nicely into his theme of Growing Together. The fact that a local group could plan and develop ideas that resulted in hands-on solutions designed to be shared with the entire membership is definitely a big step in the right direction. A big thank-you goes out to everyone who contributed.
Public relations update
- Large Green for Life presence at Canada Blooms
- LO Garden seminars on What’s New
- Great media coverage; a detailed report from our public relations company to follow
- Home and garden shows with Green for Life and Landscape Ontario featured: Mar. 5, Hamilton; Mar. 25, Picton; Mar. 26, Kitchener; Mar. 27, Windsor; Mar. 28, St. Thomas
- Meetings with United Way in regards to a garden tour, Toronto Botanical Garden and garden tourism, Garden Writers Association, Toronto Parks and Tree Foundation
Denis Flanagan can be reached at dflanagan@landscapeontario.com or at 905-875-1805, ext. 2303.