From the Chair

From Carol Eichler, board chair:

I always we enter each new year of our Chapter with great anticipation. The Board, with its annual retreat in January, met to solidify our goals, programs, and projects which then we present to you through this, our first newsletter for 2008.

We’re making some changes and so read this newsletter carefully. First, we welcome some new leadership to the Board. While everyone from the 2007 Board has returned, we have added new positions to share the responsibilities (see Familiar Faces, New Places). There remains one open position at the time of this writing – that of Chapter Treasurer. We continue our appeal for someone – YOU? -– to step up and fill this important role.

We offer nothing too radically different. We have lined up four great speaker programs and hope to offer an additional speaker program in November to complement our year-end dish-to-pass. Workshops and garden tours are also in the works with Donna Kraft planning a day trip in June to her garden and several others in the Tully area. Judy Fogel has generously offered to host our August picnic at her home overlooking Cayuga Lake.

This once again there will be ample opportunities to learn more about rock gardening through hands-on experiences – by participating in our free seedling exchange, two plant sales, and plant-of-the-month “buy-one/get-on free” sales and through working in the Wurster Memorial Rock Garden.

In addition to the usual member benefits for plant sales, we will continue to offer several additional member benefits. These include a member appreciation gift (usually a plant – a future newsletter will announce when this will be distributed), a 50% subsidy to workshop attendees, and one-time grants to attend NARGS conferences (note the article on these special grants).

I’m especially excited to have Tom Myers coordinate our efforts at the Wurster Memorial Garden. Tom will spearhead the Wurster Garden Study Group to keep up the momentum that was begun last year.

Lastly, our newsletter and webmaster, Craig Cramer, has taken a bold step to streamline Chapter communications. He is making our website more interactive and dynamic with the addition of a blog. Not only can new information be posted on an on-going basis but others can add comments and create dialogue.

Craig will be demonstrating the new blog at our February meeting “Members Share” for those of us (myself included) unfamiliar with blogging. Another highlight of our February meeting will be seeing photos from last year’s three day trip to Quebec gardens. We welcome other contributors.

This should be a good meeting and I’m looking forward to seeing all of you again after our winter break.

Carol