2023-2025 President Lisa Hall

Plant America: promoting beautification, conservation and education

Our officers and other board leaders are a team. We will be working together to provide the  best garden club experience for our members. We will continue with the National Plant America theme. National Garden Clubs incoming president Brenda Moore’s theme will be: Go Green, Plant America. My theme is Plant America: promoting beautification, conservation and education. Simple, to the point, and supports our GCG mission statement.

We will continue building on Peggy’s legacy:  growing with challenges and changes. There will be changes. And they may be challenging. During Peggy’s term we had to build a new website and find a new method of communication. Huge projects that Diane Hunter has led! I can’t thank you enough for all of the time you have spent working on this Diane! Constant Contact is the communication method we have chosen to replace Listserv. For the first time, we will have the ability to communicate through email with EVERY club member in the GCG universe. Not  just Club Presidents and Board Members. A big step. Communication will be one of the keys to our success.

We must respect the past. Enjoy our successes but move forward and build on what we have done. Technology is also key.  We must simplify the way we do things. Everyone’s time is valuable so we must be cognizant of that fact. In doing business and holding meetings. And not everyone can attend the meetings that they would like to for a myriad of reasons. We must take advantage of the technology that is out there including zoom, you tube, Facebook and of course our website. That way we can provide information and education to the user when the user wants it and has time for it. Garden Gateways will be colorful, still mailed to individuals but will also be on our website. I will admit, I went kicking and screaming into using zoom. I finally had to buy a zoom account to have quick meetings with small groups. I can schedule a meeting, run the meeting and share my screen. I learned this much from a you tube video. But all the other features I have not a clue how to use. I have learned to never say never about technology. And, I am also fortunate that I have met some talented people that want to know how all the new technology works and are willing to make it work for us!

Our clubs are our strength. They are an integral part in all that we do. We must be sure that our club members know what we are doing and what we stand for. Some of this was lost because of covid. And it has taken a very long time for us to recover from that! But we will and we must move forward. Embracing technology is one way to accomplish this.

Based on feedback from our members we plan to provide more educational experiences for them. Online and in person. We are working on holding classes and events in several places around the state. Think back to this question; why did we all join a garden club? To learn about gardening! I don’t want to forget about design. We will be offering basic design class around the state. My Savannah friends are excited about that. GCG is also a philanthropic organization. Our members give their time and talent to raise money for GCG projects and college scholarships as well as their own community projects.  We need to continue to support clubs by ensuring they have the tools they need to succeed.  Make sure they know their connection to the state and national organization and that we are also here to support them. We can accomplish this through our new communication channels.

There is much work to be done. To accomplish our goals we will be looking at opportunities for increasing income by  developing ad and sponsorship efforts. We have a great team with a lot of ideas. It will be my pleasure to work with all of you.  By the way, this is not just my club, let me hear from you! What can we do to help you? Do you have ideas that we should explore? I am open to all possibilities.

And one last thing before I conclude. As the leader of an organization, it is very important to say thank you! And often! In so doing, I have the pleasure to present presidential citations and I have my first one ready to give today.  To someone you all know who has worked long and hard for the organization.  This Presidential Citation is presented to William Tucker for outstanding service to the Garden Club of Georgia, Inc as Presidential Driver for Peggy Tucker, GCG President 2021-2023, covering over 30,000 miles and providing transportation to many other ladies to attend garden club functions during her term. Gratitude is hereby expressed at the 2023 Convention, Stone Mountain, Georgia. And here is a replica of a limousine to remember us by.

Thank you all very much!

Lisa Hall
president@gardenclubofgeorgia.org

Acceptance Speech
April 20, 2023