FROM ZONE III DIRECTOR KATHY METZ Dear Friends,

The GCA Directors met on March 2 and 3 and I am including a syn-opsis of those meetings below. Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me. I hope you are all enjoying a very welcome spring!

Memorial Tribute: Mary Price Ratrie (1914-2010) Kanawha GC died at her family home in Malden, WV on January 19, 2010. Mary was a past Zone Director, GCA Board member, Horticulture Judge and served as a GCA Vice President from 1966-1968.

Treasurer’s Report: We continue to hedge against inflation with our holdings in tips-treasury inflation protected securities—in com-modities and natural resources. The endowment is now at $22.5 million. It had fallen to $16 million a year ago.

Admissions Committee: Lynden Miller has accepted our invita-tion to be an Honorary Member of GCA. She will attend the GCA Annual Meeting in May. Lynden lives in Sharon, CT and was pro-posed by The Millbrook GC.

Archives Committee: Vintage photos are urgently needed. Visit the GCA website, select committees, select archives, slect year, click box for complete file list and have fun! We thank Annie Shultz, Ulster GC for creating the website.

Awards Committee: Letter of intent for National Medalists were due February 1, 2010. Think of those outstanding members either from your garden club or in your community. I can suggest, encour-age and advise but the work must be done by the proposer.

Board of Associates: Fifty BOA members are expected in Char-lottesville, VA.

Bulletin Committee: Incoming Chairman Jenny Reynolds faces challenges and new direction but is making progress. The Bulletin Committee will meet in March and report to the presidents.

Conservation Committee: It is critical that we pay attention as to how our food is grown, and continue to support sustainable farm-ing.

Farming is now agro-business - a corporate management sys-tem controlled by headquarters; the process has taken priority over the product and nutritional and taste suffer.

American agriculture is big business; the majority of meat comes from CAFO‘s (Concentrated Animal Feeding Opera-tions).

(Continued on Page 2)

ZONE III DIRECTORY Zone III Director Kathy Metz, kkmetz1@aol.com

Zone III Chairman Marilyn Donahue, mguggi@aol.com

Zone III Vice Chairman Lisa Gerard, ebg1@optonline.net

Zone Representatives

Admissions Committee Margy Richardson, margyric@rochester.rr.com

Awards Committee Linda Fraser, lflawyer@aol.com

Bulletin Committee Carolyn Fadden, cafadden@msn.com

Conservation/NAL Committee Linda James, lbjames@mindspring.com

Flower Show Committee Laura Haley, ljah@aol.com

Founders Fund Committee Suzanne Kingsley, skingsley@stny.rr.com

Garden History & Design Committee Anne Unger, agtu1222@aol.com

Horticulture Committee Chris Murray, crissykm@optonline.net

Judging Committee Susan Detjens, barnssheffield@aol.com

New York Committee Cindy Mullin, puggieming@aol.com

Nominating Committee Sue Bullock, songbird@hamptons.com

Program Committee Nan Berger, nailbe@aol.com

Public Relations Committee Cindy Willis, halewillis@aol.com

Scholarship Committee Donna Ganson, donnaganson@aol.com

Visiting Gardens Committee Carol Large, clarge@optonline.net

Z O N E I I I G CZ O N E I I I G CZ O N E I I I G C AAA twenty-two garden clubs in new york stat e s

April 2010 Please Note: Table of Contents - Page 3 Page 1

Conservation Committee (continued)

Sustainability means living today without compromis-ing the ability of future generation to meet their own needs.

The EPA calls runoff the leading cause of water qual-ity problems in the US.

The Great Lakes, Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario, form the largest surface freshwater system on the Earth.

Halting the spread of Asian carp into the habitat of the Great Lakes is a major problem.

Flower Show Committee: Zone Meeting Flower Shows will be held at meetings in Dallas, Atlanta, Richmond, Buzzards Bay and East Hampton in addition to the GCA Annual Meeting in East Brunswick, NJ. Technology is in the works for interactive entry cards and botanical nomen-clature. The yellow book revisions were posted online on February 9. Please log on to the GCA website for more information about Zone III shows scheduled for Spring 2010.

Garden History and Design Committee: The mission of the committee is to educate members of GCA in historical and contemporary landscape design and garden design. Demonstrate how American garden history is an integral part of the cultural and social life of the communities where these gardens exist. Interact with all GCA commit-tees and continue to add to the GCA collection at the Ar-chives of American Gardens.

GCA Manuals/Website: Changes/additions to the GCA website.

Terms of use drafted by an intellectual property attor-ney has been added to website homepage.

TRD, ConWatch and Focus will be on the public por-tion of the site.

National Committee Chairs have been editing and expanding their content.

Club presidents have been asked to forward their annual reports by April 15.

Historian: The goal is to have every club update its his-tory by 2011.Anne Meyer has prepared a memo on the GCA website with a brief description of how clubs can update their history for the 2013 Centennial.

Expanded histories are encouraged.

The Admissions Committee and the Historian are re-searching the history of Foreign Courtesy Clubs. Please forward any information you may have.

Horticulture Committee: There are six nominations for the Freeman Medal. Partners for Plants - Zone XII leads with eight projects—money is available for projects and projects can be long or short term.

The Shirley Meneice Workshop will be held in Bir-mingham, AL October 24-26, 2010.

Kathie Vandervere is the new editor of the The Real Dirt.

The Horticultural awards section on the website has been updated.

Hospitality Committee: Buffet lunches will be served on a trial basis. The Committee is working with Rouge Tomate Restaurant to develop menus with a broad simple appeal.

House Committee: A new cabinet for the boutique items has been installed.

Judging Committee: Area Vice Chairmen must work closely with the Judging Reps to conduct workshops. Five hours of training in each applicable discipline is manda-tory each year for every judge.

Library Committee: New features will be added to the website, both under the Library section and under the Centennial section. An article describing the rare book exhibition at the NY Grolier Club in 2013 will be in the lat-ter section. In addition, please read about one of the rare books in the recent Bulletin. The report describes the 200 year old book by Mark Catesby, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands.

NAL Committee: The committee organized and con-ducted the annual Washington, DC Legislative Meeting from February 22-25, 2010. The Position Papers that are the foundation of the committee have been recently up-dated and approved by GCA. An Advocacy 101 Work-shop for all delegates was begun this year. Advocates for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, EPA, National Wildlife Federation, Senators, Congressmen and ap-pointed heads of various departments met in the Caucus Room on Capitol Hill with our delegation. The mission is to continue environmental action for the health of our earth now and in the future.

Policy Committee: Should a question regarding policy arise, GCA has a very thorough Policy Manual that is available to all members online.

Program Committee: The Program Committee met March 8-10 in San Francisco.

Public Relations: Positive responses have been re-ceived from the January e-news. The ―GCA Minute‖ will get a name change and be added to e-news.

Scholarship Committee: The committee hopes to work with the Allegheny Garden Club in offering a scholarship in botany. This club works in conjunction with the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh and is over subscribed. The Committee hopes that qualified applicants will be made aware of the GCA opportunity now offered. The Corliss Knapp Engle Scholarship in Horticulture has been estab-lished and funded by Zone I and friends. The Arnold Arbo-retum will administer the scholarship to a student who will study in the Northeastern United States.

Visiting Gardens Committee: The trip to Italy was sold out in two days. A second trip is planned for June 2011. Offerings for 2011 include trips to Argentina, Gardens of the Hunt Country and Alaska‘s Inside Passage. The tax-deductible gift to GCA for the privilege of travelling with GCA amounted to more than $15,000.

With warm regards, Kathy Metz, Zone III Director

April 2010 Page 2

Zone III Calendar 2010

April 29 - 30, 2010 Rye Garden Club Founders Keepers, GCA Flower Show Jay Heritage Center, Rye, NY

May 6, 2010 Three Harbors Garden Club Club Photography Show

May 13-15, 2010 GCA Annual Meeting East Brunswick, NJ

May 18, 2010 Ulster Garden Club Club Flower Show

May 20, 2010 North Country Garden Club Club Flower Show

June 8, 2010 Rusticus Garden Club Club Horticulture Show

June 16-17, 2010 Garden Club of East Hampton Harvesting the Land & Sea, Zone III Meeting Flower Show Maidstone Club, East Hampton, NY

July 8, 2010 Southampton Garden Club Inspirations for a Wedding, GCA Flower Show Southampton Cultural Center, Southampton, NY

September 14-17, 2010 Rochester Garden Club Ready, Set Play!, GCA Flower Show Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester, NY

September 23-24, 2010 South Side Garden Club Cirque des Fleurs, GCA Flower Show Seatuck Nature Center, Islip, NY

October 1, 2010 North Suffolk Garden Club GCA Flower Show

April 2010 Page 3

Report from Zone III Director Page 1-2 Calendar Page 3 Admissions and Awards Committees Page 4 Flower Show Update Page 4 Zone Meeting Reminder Page 5

Conservation/NAL Committees Page 5 Bulletin Committee Page 6 New York and Horticulture Committees Page 7 Flower Show and Program Committees Page 8 Public Relations Committee Page 9

Table of Contents

Lynden Breed Miller is one of New York City‘s foremost public garden designers. Lynden has trans-formed the city by planting stunning gar-dens in derelict parks. She believes that beautiful public spaces have the power to transform the way people be-

have and feel about their cities. Lynden‘s first project was the rescue and restoration of the historic Conservatory Garden in Central Park. She has since created dozens of public gardens throughout the city, including gardens at the NY Botanical Garden, Bryant Park, Central Park Zoo, Madison Square Park, Hudson River Park and Wagner Park at the Battery Park City. After 9/11, Lynden organ-ized a donation of half a million daffodil bulbs to New York City from her bulb distributor, who asked to help. Other Dutch organizations followed suit, and now the Daffodil Project has millions of daffodils blooming around fire-houses and parks all over the five boroughs of the city. Her latest projects include landscape improvements at Columbia, Stony Brook, and Princeton Universities and the United States Supreme Court in Washington, DC.

Lynden is director of the Conservatory Garden in Central Park and an active director on several boards. She is a highly sought-after lecturer, and her first book, Parks, Plants, and People: Beautifying the Urban Landscape, was published in October.

She has been recognized with many awards, including the Garden Club of America Elvira Broome Doolan Medal in 1993.

Lynden was proposed by Millbrook GC and seconded by Fort Orange GC. We are grateful for their wisdom to pro-pose this outstanding woman, and it was a very lucky day for GCA when Lynden accepted the invitation for member-ship.

Lynden joins five other distinguished Zone III Honorary Members: Frances Cabot, Kay Heasley, Nancy McLaren, Scot D. Medbury, and Katy Moss Warner.

Honorary Members (formerly Members-at-Large) are men or women of distinction who are not, nor ever have been members of any GCA club. They may be professionals with established reputations in horticulture or conserva-tion, or individuals who have considerable knowledge and interest in the purposes of the Garden Club of America. There are currently 63 Honorary Members. If there is someone you think qualifies to be considered to be an Honorary Member, please contact me at margy-ric@rochester.rr.com. I am happy to work with you. Margy Richardson Zone III Admissions Representative

Zone III has a New Honorary Member of the Garden Club of America

Zone III Awards Update

A big thank you to all of our Zone III Clubs who nominated candidates for Zone III Awards and Commendations to be presented at our meeting in East Hampton in June. The portfolios that were submitted were brilliantly presented and captured the essence of the horticultural, flower ar-ranging, civic improvement, and conservation genius of our Zone. The breadth of talent and contributions high-lighted in these proposals is a true tribute to Zone III.

However, now it is time to send in your GCA Club Award and Commendation proposals and portfolios in time for presentation at your Club's Annual meeting. All submis-sions must be submitted at least two months prior to pres-entation. There are many dedicated club members for whom recognition is long overdue, so please email or call me if you would like to discuss your candidates, the Club Awards or the Club Commendations.

Hoping to hear from you.

Linda Fraser Zone III Awards Representative

Gardens Private & Personal Text by Nancy D‘Oench, Coordination by Bonnie Martin, Photography by Mick Hales. For information on how to order, please visit the GCA website at www.gcamerica.org, click on members only, enter username and password and click on the Boutique link at the top of the page. It‘s ―A Must for Every Gardener‘s Library!‖

April 2010 Page 4

GC of Irvington-on-Hudson Flower Show

The Gilded Cage was aglitter in gorgeous flower arrangements, green and growing with glorious garden speci-mens and potted Plants, and glowing with a gal-lery of Photography. Truly a Gilded Cage. Congratulations to Best in Show, Dorothy Vietor Munger and Sandra Baylor winner Richard McKeon for his blue ribbon in the Victorian Wedding class.

Class I: A Victorian Wedding An arrangement staged on a white pedestal 41‖ high with a 16‖ square top. Pedestal may not be draped. De-sign may not exceed 36‖ in any direction Viewed from all sides. Laura Haley Zone III Flower Show Representative

Twenty-one NYS delegates from 12 clubs attended this year‘s conference which began with an in-house Educa-tion Day to see that all 300+ delegates are working with the same current issues and pending legislation informa-tion base. In addition to an update on NAL/Conservation Reports (which are available on the GCA website), pres-entations were made by the Fresh Water Trust, the Open Space Institute, the NRDC, the Joint Ocean Commission, and the PEW Environment Group. John Broder, the New York Times DC Bureau Energy & Environment Editor, opened the meeting with a dismal assessment on the po-litical ―climate‖ and legislative status of a comprehensive global warming bill this year.

Rich Innes, the GCA NAL Washington Consultant gave a crash course on how to be most effective when visiting Senate and House Congressman on Thursday. NYS is very lucky to have Rich join the delegation at the tradi-tional Zone dinner hosted by Jackie Quillen, GCEH, at her lovely Georgetown home. This evening gives the Zone delegates an opportunity to further explore local initiatives and work up a State program consensus on priority legis-lative issues to carry to the meetings with the 2 Senators and Congressmen/women.

An all-day briefing session at the Capitol included addresses by West Virginia Congressman Nick Rahall, Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner John Norris, Congressmen Chris Van Hollen and Oregon‘s Earl Blumenauer (a Conference favorite for his vision and

optimism), Senators Lamar Alexander and Sheldon White-house and Gina McCarthy from the EPA. Agriculture Sec-retary Tom Vilsack (Iowa‘s Governor and Des Moines neighbor of Nancy McKlveen, NAL Chairman) and Larry Schweiger, President of the National Wildlife Federation completed a program agenda that in addition to all the in-formation shared by the speakers also highlighted, through the Q & A following each speaker, the extensive conserva-tion and national legislation insight each GCA delegate brings to this conference.

BUT, fun and camaraderie is also brought to this confer-ence. The dinner at the Mayflower Hotel and entertain-ment by the Capital Steps, is the perfect evening to meet and greet GCA members from everywhere. There is much to learn from our colleagues who share the same GCA goals working with their local constituencies to arrive at outcomes in support of these national goals.

Even the threat of another DC snowstorm could not keep the delegation from an early morning meeting with Senator Gillibrand on Thursday (see photo). Ellen Rouse Conrad (Bedford) and Kathryn Hoenig (Rusticus) addressed the State-wide interest on Climate Change and Ocean legisla-tion, issues which the Senator and her Legislative assis-tant, Ben Rosenbaum, strongly support. Again, another no-show for Senator Schumer (whose full agenda leaves little time and priority for issues important to the few dele-gates still in attendance) but assurances from his Legisla-tive Assistant were received.

The conference closes with a lunch to which all delegates have invited their Congressmen and aides (who are the real work horses) to join us for an opportunity to speak casually to their constituencies. Weather prevailed as the Conference ended with the strongest possible outreach to each delegate to go home and encourage their clubs to step forward when support is needed in our stewardship of our natural resources so dependent on the well balance and conservation of our environment.

This a summary of a report Sue van der Stricht, Club President, Allyns Creek Garden Club, prepared in her capacity as my stand-in, stand-up at the Conference while I was touring with friends in Iran. Thank you Sue......

Linda James Zone lll Conservation Representative

NAL/Conservation Conference Held in Washington, DC, February 2010

Zone III delegates to the NAL meeting with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Legislative Assistant Benjamin J. Rosenbaum in the Old Senate Indian Affairs Caucus Room

Zone III Meeting June 16 - 17, 2010

The Garden Club of East Hampton looks forward to welcoming you in June, thank you all for registering. We are getting ready to send our Program/Directory to the printer, so if you have any additions or corrections to those attending from your club please send them to Mary Clarke ehmary@optonline.net as soon as possible.

Thank you, Mary Clarke

Harvesting the land & Sea

April 2010 Page 5

At the Bulletin Committee meeting in March, Brenda Beust Smith, our new GCA Bulletin production manager, pre-sented some guidelines for submitting photos with your articles. Goal: To make everyone read every article

Pictures pull the eye to an article. Headlines help, but a picture makes you look first

Action makes the reader think, ―what are they doing?‖

Stunning photos make you focus

If we can draw the reader‘s attention into a page, chances are better they will read all articles on that page.

If a particular visual is described in the article, include that visual in the picture.

Pictures of people standing in a row staring at the cam-era do not encourage readers

Readers who know the people will be attracted by such pictures but people who don‘t know them might move on to more interesting-looking article.

The Bulletin tends to put articles with action or very eye-catching photos at the top of the page. Suggestions for enhancing your photos: Flower Show photos:

Have winners making final touches or pointing to some aspect as though they‘re explaining it.

Closes-ups of unique arrangements Other tips:

Watch background

Make sure no lines distracting from entry lines

Ideal, blank walls, white or black

Show aspect of actual project — workers digging, set-ting up, cleaning up, talking to experts, officials (not just staring at the camera)

Award winners:

Avoid folks holding plaque facing camera if possible

Have winner hold plaque, be talking to presenter

Best of all, include object/project involved in award in the picture

Photograph winners at site, discussing something Table shots:

Have one person or two standing and talking to others Garden visits:

Show group walking (toward camera!) through area

Pose group around focal point, but have them look at focal point, not camera

Try to get folks close together to cover distracting back-ground. May look strange in reality, works in pictures.

Speakers:

Arranger – have her arranging something

Slide show – put slide in background Photo Size Justification:

The article was deemed worthy of greater display.

Exceptional pictures draw more eyes to the page

The resolution was such that if it were made larger it would become out of focus.

We use 200 dpi resolution

Photos shot in, 75 dpi may become very small when raised to 200 dpi

Photo releases:

The Bulletin cannot publish pictures already published in other publications unless the publication gives the article submitter specific permission.

The person submitting the photo is responsible for ob-taining permission. Permission does not need to be sent to The Bulletin, it is to protect the person submitting the photo for publication.

I hope you find these suggestions helpful when you submit your next article to the GCA Bulletin. If you have questions or need further assistance, please contact me by phone at (845) 265-6322 or at cafadden@msn.com Carolyn Fadden Zone III Bulletin Representative

April 2010 Page 6

Photo Guidelines from the Bulletin Committee

Please keep an eye on upcoming issues of the Bulletin for an article about the Rusticus Garden Club Grant to fund a Community Garden at Marsh Sanctuary in Mt. Kisco, NY.

Well it finally happened!! Despite cancellation in February due to a ma-jor snow storm and near 90 degree temperatures the day before, The New York Committee did indeed have it‘s annual meeting and high tea on April 8

th. Headquarters looked

lovely in pink and green toile, the flowers (by Murphy and Co.) looked and smelled delicious and the tea (by Jacqueline‘s Patisserie in Babylon, NY) was … well, shall we just say there wasn‘t a crumb left over. We had informative reports on current projects - Marge Sullivan and Ban-ford Weisman on The Christopher Green Roof and Peter Pan Garden, Rosemary Vietor and Ann Perl de Pal on Bowne House and a proposed research pro-ject involving the Million Trees NYC project, and Ethel Woolverton on Hopper House. Franklin Hill Perrell gave us a briefing about the walking tour of Central Park monuments that he will lead on June 2, 2010 from 10:00 to 1:00 and Heather Leeds addressed our future plans for in-volvement with Memorial Sloan Ket-tering. Our featured speaker, Michelle Paige Paterson, First Lady of New York State spoke about her creation and ongoing works with her ―Healthy Steps Initiative‖, a many fold plan

to educate our state‘s school aged children about healthy, organic eating and exercise in the fight against childhood obesity. We presented her with a commendation and 500 daffo-dil bulbs, (the Mrs. Michelle Paige Paterson daffodil of course!), to be planted in her honor by New Yorkers for Parks next fall. Our unique ―Little Apple‖ Award was given to Zone III Chairman, Marilyn Donahue, with gratitude for all she has done to help The New York Committee grow these past three years. Katie Stewart was also given a token of our thanks for all her guidance and advice. Millicent John-son was honored for her unwavering support of the New York Committee since it‘s beginning with a contribu-tion in her honor to the GCA scholar-ship committee to be used to fund the Rome prize fellowship in landscape architecture. We all enjoyed a lovely day that informed, involved and deli-ciously nourished us. To sign up for the Franklin Hill Perrell walking tour of Central Park monuments on June 2, 2010, or for more information about the tour, please contact Cindy Mullin by tele-phone(631) 321-6290, or by email at : puggieming@aol.com Cindy Mullin

Cindy Mullin, Zone III Rep to the

New York Committee with

Michelle Paige Paterson, First

Lady of New York State, at the

Annual Meeting of the

New York Committee held at

GCA Headquarters in

April 2010

For more information on air layering, copy and paste the following link into your browser:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/ornamentals/airlayer/airlayer.html

2010 Plant Exchange, East Hampton, June 16: If you overwintered your hydrangeas outdoors they are probably waking up from their winter‘s nap. Depending on your USDA Zone you may want to keep them covered a bit longer. They are still young and a cold snap could damage them. Learn and memorize your area‘s last--and first-- frost dates. Keep a look out for interesting Spirea species you may want to propagate for the 2011 PX.

Air Layering is an easy, low risk form of propagation be-cause the branch you are propagating remains attached to the mother plant until strong roots have developed. Pick a favorite shrub and try it.

Expand your repertoire: Plant three new types of seeds this year. Obtain interesting ones from Seed Share on the GCA website (Committees/Horticulture/Seed Share).

Tree of the Month: As part of its Centennial Tree cele-bration, The Little Garden Club of Rye has started a Tree of the Month column in its local paper. To receive the on-line version email crissykm@optonline.net

Happy growing! Chris Murray Zone III Horticulture Representative

Spring Things - Horticulture Committee

April 2010 Page 7

The New York Committee Annual Meeting

When you‘re expanding your repertoire how about growing your own ―eggs‖ with heirloom nest egg gourd seeds.

The Yellow Book defines pot-et- fleur as a combination of growing plants in or out of pots with fresh cut flowers and/or foliage in water or con-ditioned so as to last for the duration of the show, assem-bled in a container or embel-lishing an object. Pot-et-fleur may appear in the Flower Ar-rangement Division or the

Horticulture Division. In Flower Arrangement, and in some instances in Horticulture, pot-et-fleur is a supplemental class. It is important to remember entries in a supplemen-tal class in either division are not eligible for GCA special awards in a GCA Major or a GCA Flower Show and do not count toward the required minimum number of entries. Commendations, however, may be given to the class or an individual entry. In Horticulture, a pot-et-fleur class with ownership requirements of the plant material would not be considered a supplemental class and therefore eligible for

special awards. It is important to indicate which type of pot-et-fleur class your schedule includes.

A pot-et-fleur class in the Flower Arrangement division requires the design to predominant, with 50 points as-signed to design in judging; harmony of plant material is of next importance valued with 30 points; condition and labeling make up the balance. A pot-et-fleur class in the flower arrangement division features design over horticul-ture‘s cultural perfection. Of course a pot-et-fleur in flower arrangement would incorporate more cut stems than rooted specimens and vice versa for horticulture. In Horti-culture, cultural perfection is the most important ingredi-ent, the maximum points being 45, compatibility of plant material earns 30 points followed by design and suitable key card. Pot-et-fleur classes became more prominent in the 2009 Revised edition of The Yellow Book and are ap-pearing with more frequency in our flower show sched-ules.

Laura Haley Zone III Flower Show Representative

Pot-et-Fleur

FLOWER ARRANGING: 1. Team Challenge Class - Place identical materials and

containers at each table. Place one seasoned arranger at each table; the rest of the participants draw their ta-ble number out of a hat. Announce the category of the design and give a set amount of time for completion. Have an experienced judge critique the arrangements.

2. Demonstration of styles of flower arranging - read a description from the GCA Yellow Book and have an experienced member (or two) create an example. Do several styles over the course of the year.

PHOTOGRAPHY: 1. Tour and Take photos- visit a member‘s garden and

have members take pictures. At the next meeting, dis-play 1 picture from each member and offer comments or have a photographer offer comments.

2. Flower Show photos- when members attend a flower show, have them take photos of the entries in one class and record the award and the judges comments. Bring the show schedule and photos to the meeting and have members guess or vote on how the entries placed. Then share the judges‘ choice. This could be done for Artistic, Horticulture or Photography classes.

HORTICULTURE: 1. Workshops utilizing members talents - on Propagation,

Bulb forcing, Pruning,, Staging for a flower show, etc. 2. Scavenger Hunt- held in a member‘s garden or a public

park/club‘s civic project; provide a list of things to be found (blooming specimens, flowers, bark, garden structures, etc.); rather than cutting the item, snap a photo and post it in a notebook for display at the next meeting.

3. Plant identification- show a picture (or the plant), have members give the common name and the botanical name. If they write both answers on a 3x5 card, the first person to hold up the card wins a small prize-a packet of seeds, gardening gloves, plant markers, etc.

GCA TOPICS: 1. Show the 2009 DVD ‗A Glimpse of GCA‘ for a thor-

ough explanation of the history, organization and many offerings and benefits of the GCA.

2. Garden History and Design- have your club GHD Representative do a presentation on ‗Documenting Gardens‘ for the Smithsonian.

3. 2013 Centennial Celebration- Have your Club Histo-rian or Archives Chairman do a presentation using photos, programs and memorabilia from the past. Include interviews with members from different eras of the club.

4. Centennial Tree Project- Do a Power Point presenta-tion on your club‘s 2013 Centennial Tree project.

Nan Berger Zone III Program Committee Representative

No Cost and Low Cost Ideas from the Program Committee

April 2010 Page 8

The Public Relations Committee had its first meeting of the new year on March 1

st and 2

nd at GCA Headquarters

in New York City. It was a very busy and exciting time as the committee discussed content and design of the sec-ond GCA eNews.

As I mentioned in the last Zone newsletter, the eNews is an exciting new venture for GCA and the inaugural issue sent out in January received rave reviews from club mem-bers around the country. All of the members of your clubs who have current email addresses registered through your Club Administrators should have received the second issue by now as it was mailed on March 20

th.

Please be sure to have your Club Administrator keep your members‘ email addresses current so that everyone can receive a copy. The PR Chairs of your clubs should make sure that those club members who do not receive email get a hard copy of the eNews. It can be printed out and distributed just like a hard copy newsletter. I have heard from many of you (via the link to Zone III) that you think it is a useful and interesting means of communica-tions – and I really appreciate all of your comments (including constructive criticism and content ideas!). I share copy edit responsibilities with Jo Champlin-Casey from Zone II and we have a terrific working relationship with everyone on the committee. Again, if you have any comments that you‘d like to pass along, please contact me: halewillis@aol.com

The Committee also worked diligently on refining the Public Relations Manual as it is somewhat out-of-date and duplicative of other GCA manuals and publications. We are working on refining it so that the information it contains is easily found, understood and available on the redesigned GCA website that is currently being devel-oped. If there is something in the manual that you feel

needs editing or alteration for clarity, do not hesitate to share your concerns with me. You have been so helpful in producing information that has given guidance to me and the Public Relations Committee as we study and up-date all our methods of communication.

The Bulletin has some changes in content and presenta-tion that are in response to your varied thoughts. The Bulletin will continue to be a hard-copy, mailed newslet-ter that focuses on the activities of individual member clubs. In contrast, the eNews looks forward to alert mem-bers of deadlines and upcoming events. An additional feature of the eNews is its direct link capabilitiy to other GCA publications.

The Real Dirt, Focus, and ConWatch are so easily ac-cessible that it becomes a real joy to read their articles! There will be a wonderful surprise at the Annual Meeting regarding the presentation of the Public Relations Award. Of course I can‘t say anything just now, but watch for the May GCA eNews and The Bulletin. The committee had quite a time assessing the PR Award submissions as they were all of a very high quality – both in terms of presenta-tion as well as content. I am continually amazed and forcefully reminded of the impressive work our GCA clubs accomplish.

For those attending the GCA Annual Meeting in May in New Jersey, be on the lookout for the PR Committee‘s display (hint: check the elevator banks outside the Ball-room!) It will be a tour, so to speak, of our eNews.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in New Jersey and again this June in East Hampton, Cindy Willis Zone III Public Relations Representative

A Successful Debut of GCA eNews

April 2010 Page 9