10:55:18 Good morning, everybody. Welcome to our 2021 annual membership meeting, as you all are entering in. Please drop your name state and chapter in the chat so we can see where everybody's tuning in from will give everybody just a couple of minutes, and also
10:55:35 continue to mute yourselves as you guys are getting in and settled.
10:55:42 Alright so we will get started so just to go over some housekeeping, so that we play nice in the garden with each other again put your introductions in the chat your name state and which chapter you're representing, we will have space for comments and
10:55:58 questions at the end. But you are free to use the chat to drop any comments or questions as we're going, we will be providing links that we're sharing throughout the presentation today will also be making those available early next week as we start summarizing
10:56:14 today's presentation. This meeting is being recorded, we will be sharing it post the completion of the meeting today, that will be available in your member account.
10:56:24 We also have closed captioning turned on to make this meeting more accessible to all of our members, you can make adjustments to your screen specifically if you'd like to turn it off, looks different for different people.
10:56:37 But there's that option there if you find that distracting and then please just as a reminder keep yourself muted, we get background noise it's difficult to concentrate on information that's being shared.
10:56:48 So mute mute mute.
10:56:51 What we're going to go over today is we're going to hear from Sally for a few minutes. She's going to kick us off and share on a couple of topics that we've been hearing a lot about, we're going to introduce the national board and take a minute to recognize
10:57:06 service, and will also introduce the net introduced the national staff and contracted staff members, we're going to review 20 20th annual meeting minutes and approve those and then we're going to get into the heart of the meeting today which is really reporting on the state of the organization and all the great work that's been happening over the last twelve months. And then we will wrap up. We will open up the floor for questions and comments. And then we will wrap up the meeting shortly thereafter. I am handing this off to Sally. Sally the floor is yours. 
09:03:55 I really do appreciate you attending today's meeting you could be doing other things. And so this is just a great sign of your dedication to the organization.
09:04:05 So I just wanted to say that last year in September.
09:04:13 I helmed an annual meeting that was considerably different, because at that time.
09:04:21 You may recall, we didn't have an executive director.
09:04:28 We had a few staff, the board were actually, members of the board, we're doing a lot of staff work.
09:04:37 We were in the midst of a pandemic. Of course, it looks like we still are and could be for a while we were basically in great chaos and terrible.
09:04:52 Not as an organization but there was a lot going on so we've made remarkable strides.
09:04:59 Over the past year, I hope you have felt those changes, positive changes a lot of that is because of the excellent staff. We have so I want to remember to recognize stare up to this important being so important to our ability
09:05:21 away. I'm talking to zoom sorry.
09:05:25 Oops, Carol can't login. But anyway, I wanted to say that a lot of what we've been trying to do this past year and I think very successfully so is regaining our footing.
09:05:38 We get a lot thrown at us. I think we've managed to thrive.
09:05:45 Despite all these issues. The board has spent a lot of time working with Jan and staff, kind of rejiggering things, I think that's an okay word to you.
09:05:58 Anyway, but we realized that we have a lot of a lot more issues to plow through, and I hope that the coming year we will be able to pick up on some of the other issues out there, such as a big one being social equity.
09:06:13 I know it's important to a lot of people.
09:06:16 One of our barriers is reaching communities in need.
09:06:23 We've started doing a little better than with the seeds for education program trying to be more accessible.
09:06:32 Climate change is a huge issue, and I think that we need to be better at describing how and showing how, what we're doing with our approach to landscaping will help make a help big thing I'm concerned about is carbon sequestration, but being able to enunciate
09:06:59 how this is the way people can make a difference.
09:07:03 Something that is kind of new to me, and it's something that Lisa also brought to my attention. But before I could heavily research it so I'm not very literate in the idea of land acknowledgement and indigenous people and how a lot of the problems that
09:07:23 we're facing now are because of poor management of the land, and how this is an issue that we can help.
09:07:32 Help Echo, or at least get out there.
09:07:48 Even simple things like, what is a native plant, and some of that is very much dependent on a cultural definition so we do have, we're getting there. I wanted to go ahead and, and acknowledge that the native our statement was, I think an important part
09:07:56 of us getting back in acknowledging and articulating these issues as an organization.
09:08:06 And something else that's going on, and a lot at the chapter level, but having how you like this alliteration cohesive conservation community conversations.
09:08:18 So something else that we're looking at both at a national level, and locally, is how to evaluate into joint alliances with other.
09:08:30 Similarly, position to organizations, and I know a lot of you are members of multiple organizations.
09:08:36 This is something that we need to help chapters, with in terms of
09:08:46 gaining more power locally by working with others.
09:08:50 All right. And now I would like to introduce.
09:08:57 Next.
09:08:59 There we go, our newly elected officers.
09:09:03 I was just at the Thursday's board meeting. Stuck being president again for another year. I'm to speak. Okay I'm being irreverent is my honor to be your President, for the next year.
09:09:21 I'm Laura's, Would you like to introduce yourself. Yes, I am Loris tomorrow, and I'm honored to be serving as the vice president for another year.
09:09:32 From Arbor, Michigan through you.
09:09:43 And you may remember Loris was also a member of Fox Valley chapter and sir is President and I believe, so she's had many years of service to the organization Radia.
09:09:51 Hi, I'm Rita all Rick, and I'm, I have the dubious honor of serving as secretary, it's a job nobody wants so this is sort of, it's a default position.
09:10:01 Nonetheless, it's, it's actually very interesting and fun and rewarding to be part of the executive committee and work with other officers and everyone else so she doesn't look like a desk Lee.
09:10:15 Carol, are you able to log in.
09:10:20 Last I heard was no. Okay, well that's Carl Ackerman is a force to be reckoned with his treasure, and as a. I think he's still president of the Gibson Woods chapter.
09:10:35 All right. Oh, Jim says that readers services secretaries invaluable. And she's also the chair of the Governance Committee so rara, we all support each other.
09:10:45 Thank you, Jim.
09:10:48 If we could go one by one. In order from top to bottom right.
09:10:57 The current board of directors I'd like you to just quickly introduce yourself and where you're from.
09:11:07 k Marty.
09:11:09 Are you there.
09:11:11 All right.
09:11:13 Um, I think JB Carlson is off hiking in the woods somewhere.
09:11:22 Eric is I'm happy to be a member of the board of directors are joined us here at also be serving on the Governance Committee, and I'm from Northwest Arkansas where I serve as the president of the Ozark chapter.
09:11:36 Michelle.
09:11:39 Hi, I'm Michelle Hansie I'm from West Chester, Pennsylvania, and also honored to be a board member for the next few years, and really watch the transformation that Jan and her team have brought to the organization just in this short time.
09:12:10 You're also the chair of the SFC the seeds for Education Committee, I'm Holly if you're there. I'm here.
09:12:18 I coming live at you from my Hawk in the office, I am Holly Lachman I am the on the board for national as well as the president for Columbus chapter. I am also extremely honored to be here.
09:12:28 I'm just starting out this year, and really excited about, about serving in this capacity, and we're going to have a great year.
09:12:42 All right, thank you Hello, Jim.
09:12:44 Hello everybody my name is Jim post neck on the national board member and also honored to be the volunteer General Counsel for wild ones on the rank and file number of the West cook chapter.
09:12:59 All right, Jerry, are you there.
09:13:01 Yeah, I'm here. Carrie Ratliff with the less hills chapter based in northwest Iowa. Specifically, right now, the Sioux City area.
09:13:12 I serve with the government committee and with the chapter I'm membership Chair.
09:13:18 Thank you, Carrie. Matthew.
09:13:24 I don't remember he, I think he was visiting his parents.
09:13:28 But if he's here.
09:13:31 Going once, going twice and then Pam Todd is also.
09:13:36 I can't remember if it was her son's graduation, it or it was her daughter's engagement party. But I, but I'm Pam.
09:13:45 Matthew and Pam are working on the honorary director program.
09:13:51 Matthew has been in in charge of the photo contest and Pam is serving as the Chair, I think, chair of the grants committee. And so she's been doing a lot of work on me Stanley Smith or a cultural trust.
09:14:12 Grant which has been awesome. This past year, so now you can see the board.
09:14:19 You may look, you may have seen the newsletter that we are on occasion asking for people to volunteer to be on the board.
09:14:28 So, will be looking for a new board members I believe in 2022 that's next year, so keep that in mind.
09:14:38 And now I'm going to turn it over to Jen.
09:14:42 Right.
09:14:45 Maybe Laura's. Okay. Yes, I would like to acknowledge some board members who have stepped off this last year. And the first one is Marty angler who served on the board as our internal auditor.
09:15:02 For many years, she provided additional support to our finances and we are grateful for her service.
09:15:11 I would also like to acknowledge Janice hand.
09:15:15 She was our illustrious president from the autumn of 2017, until the autumn of 2019, and she championed our organization through some very challenging years, she continued her service on the board until the end of 2020.
09:15:33 And during that time she served in many roles, particularly important is the development of our ongoing strategic plan.
09:15:42 So thank you, Janice for all that good work and leadership.
09:15:47 And I would also like to acknowledge Ellen false.
09:15:51 Ellen provided valuable native plant information and knowledge during her term. And she also served as the seeds for education, Chair.
09:16:01 Thank you.
09:16:04 Thanks, Laura.
09:16:06 So, I'm Jen Ainsworth executive director I'm just coming up on my first year. So I started in October of last year. And as I'm scrolling through participants many of you I've had meetings with so welcome back and those of you who are new to meetings with
09:16:25 me. I'm glad that we've had the opportunity to somewhat Connect kind of face to face.
09:16:31 So I'd like to introduce staff and our contracted team so I'm Rachel you want to introduce yourself first.
09:16:38 I am Rachel check Alinsky, I started out as the administrative assistant in December and was recently promoted to the membership coordinator so I am in the national office here in Nina Wisconsin.
09:16:53 Thank you. Yes, I'm in ash crash Wisconsin is my, my hometown.
09:16:58 Katie.
09:17:01 Hi everyone, can you hear me. Yes. Okay, great. I'm Katie Huebner I'm also located in the, you know, office and I am the Mission Manager for wild ones and I handle all of our Social Media Communications and getting our programs up and running and also
09:17:17 assist with our website. So, thank you.
09:17:20 And Katie, just celebrated for one year anniversary of 11 days ago so congratulations Katie and thanks for all you're doing here.
09:17:30 Lisa.
09:17:32 Hello everyone, I am the newest staff member I joined the team in July, and have been busily getting up to speed. I came from the Front Range chapter I was chapter president for about 18 or so odd months there, and I'm really excited to step into the
09:17:49 role of chapter liaison where I will be focused on connecting all the chapters and really trying to tap the expertise that is out there in our chapter leadership and connect everybody get everybody working together and out, moving the mission forward
09:18:10 as you all are doing so thank you for coming today.
09:18:15 Excellent. Thanks, Lisa.
09:18:16 And then we've got a handful of folks that we work with, that we work with, that are contracted to work with the national office so we've got.
09:18:32 Jessica goober is from nonprofit bookkeeping she's one of our bookkeepers we've got, David, Chris Bx, these are it contractors so if you're submitting support tickets.
09:18:42 He's one of the individuals who's helping that and he is also been doing all the work behind the membership account system.
09:18:43 We've got Kevin Rao, who is one of the handful people that work on the journal but he's responsible for the design and layout and how it's all presented.
09:18:57 We've got five Schmitz who is our journal editor, so she's actually the one that you all are reaching when you email journal at wild wings.org and you're sharing stories are pictures of your guardians and things like that.
09:19:03 And then we've got Jeremy van girl, who is the senior bookkeeper of nonprofit bookkeeping, which is the accounting service we use so all lots of hands, contributing to wild ones and our work and mission that we're doing.
09:19:18 Okay, so I'm going to hand this over to Rita, she is going to take us through 2020 annual membership meeting minutes.
09:19:27 Rita, you can take it away when you are ready.
09:19:37 Okay, couple of highlights.
09:19:35 We add at that meeting.
09:19:38 We had newly elected board members who were Carl Ackerman Laura stammer Oh, Janice hadn't been reelected Roberta Jansen and Laura Clem.
09:19:48 Jim pause neck, and that Ross.
09:19:51 We've lost Roberta and Laura. Sadly, because they had other things that needed attention. And last year was intense. I'll tell you, and also continuing board members at that time and folks Marty angler and Sam Todd.
09:20:08 Janice announced that we had one at 2028 Beck's award which is for publications in RS was in the area of environmental publications, which really was recognition for the excellent work of contributors and the editor.
09:20:31 Barb Schmidt, and the layout.
09:20:30 Sally, our president at the time, presented outgoing board members Rick Sanders and Karen stepheson who were on the board for a number of years quite a number of years for their distinguished service.
09:20:43 We had a state of the organization reporting to talk about the challenges presented by coded. And we were frankly still dealing with how to help chapters, put on programs and and communicate, whatever they needed to communicate.
09:21:01 And there were a lot of kinks along the way but what I think is much better now. Very happy to, to see how things, how things are working.
09:21:11 Janice and reported that out of 24 tests, actually, in the Christian treaty, sorry, and that the strategic plan 24 tasks have been completed and an additional 15 are underway, which was pretty close to everything in that plan.
09:21:28 We heard from outgoing treasurer and incoming treasurer.
09:21:34 On a membership and financial stats.
09:21:38 At the time, our membership was dynamic, it has curl put it, which meant he was going up and down but revenue was still exceeding expenses so we were still in good shape in that respect, but it was doing Part Two being understaffed, which is not always
09:21:50 such a good thing.
09:21:52 And I was privileged to be part of the team that hired our executive director and and we were in the final stages at the time and I was so glad that we found.
09:22:19 Jenny innsworth and she wanted the job and it's been really wonderful partnership.
09:22:16 We met record on the photo contest Matthew Ross and Pam Todd also reported that we had received an extension to complete additional native plants garden designs as part of our grant from the Stanley Smith horticultural trust which was really good news
09:22:34 because we could have produced this she was for designs and we produced eight or nine, I think it's nine, nine, and then the best part of the meeting is always for me.
09:22:47 Listening to chapters hearing what they're doing, learning what their concerns are, and also hearing how they're doing new things, because there's an enormous amount of good work going on out there and a lot of creativity, and they're, they're just wouldn't
09:23:03 be allowed ones without them.
09:23:06 And we finished off about noon.
09:23:13 I moved that we accept the minutes as read.
09:23:17 Is there a second.
09:23:19 A second that.
09:23:22 Okay. You can indicate in the chat box, your approval to say I or nay, kind of odd.
09:23:32 So all those in favor please indicate in the chat box.
09:23:48 Your eye. Excellent.
09:23:45 I'm thinking the motions going to carry. Yeah, right. Thank you.
09:23:51 Thank you, Rita.
09:23:52 Thank you. So, also, as I was onboarding and, you know, getting acclimated to the challenges that we've had in 2020.
09:24:03 The board was sharing with me some survey results that had been collected prior to last year's annual meeting.
09:24:11 And here's a bullet point list of the things that chapters and shared that would be helpful as we were dealing with, you know, the challenges in 2020 so HD, which is honorary director webinars and more digital programming, the expansion of native garden
09:24:27 designs of regions, extending zoom license capacity and zoom training, updating your website, improving membership account website, and then networking and some youth code curriculum.
09:24:40 And over the last year. Those are things that have really driven a lot of the work that we've been doing so we've been trying to produce as much programming as possible.
09:24:51 So we've had some nice designer events, and some webinars that you're going to hear more about later.
09:24:57 We had, like read I mentioned we were on the hook for for designs as our commitment to the, to the grant that we have received and we actually produce nine.
09:25:07 And then we increase, I think we had two or three zoom licenses when I joined and we now have nine available for chapters to be using.
09:25:15 We'll talk about wild ones.org website.
09:25:19 Towards the end of the presentation today.
09:25:21 Most of you should have seen that the membership account websites updated should have had to log into to reach this meeting link and then we did several sessions of what we call sip and sits and zoom and blooms to provide zoom training networking opportunities
09:25:39 but chapters, and so forth so youth curriculum that's something that we are excited to bring back as far as the seeds for education program this year.
09:25:49 But we're definitely interested in hearing what chapters or ideas that are out there are really doing, because that's definitely an opportunity to engage our youth in our mission and getting them, understanding the impact of native plants and what we
09:26:04 all do.
09:26:05 Okay, so we're going to go into the meat of all the fun stuff that wild ones has done in the last 12 months. And the first thing is going to be our financials and financials are probably most people's least favorite topics so I've tried to make this as
09:26:21 painless as possible and really just cut to the chase on how the organization is doing. So total revenue in 2020 increase 16% compared to 2019. That was just about $38,000.
09:26:35 Our total expenses, increased by 10% compared to 2019, which is very typical to see, you know, expenses increase year over year. The thing we want to keep in mind as we expected them to increase more.
09:26:49 We were actually about $65,000 under budget and that was due to some payroll, you know, so we were understaffed at the time there was some changes at the National staff.
09:27:01 So we ended the year at $125,000. net revenue. I'm going to call that operating game, but that means such as money left over at the end of the year, we'll talk more but what happens to that in a minute.
09:27:13 So, so far, 2021, Our total revenue year over year is 15%.
09:27:21 That's just about $19,000 to date, and our total expenses have increased by 112% and that number sounds really scary but I want you to remember that with the, with the staffing issues that we had last year.
09:27:34 We should have had you know $65,000 or more, or so, added into 2020s expenses so that number would be, you know, somewhere around 40% of 112. If that was the case.
09:27:48 Additionally, we had some grant expenses that were not a part of typical spending so we had made a garden design expenses included in there we had at one time.
09:28:01 Membership membership account, update, and then we've also had some contracted services that we've brought on board to have been previously been worked with volunteer hours so there's the reason for the change.
09:28:14 Right now we're sitting about 4.6 thousand and net revenue or again money left over for a year ended today, but by the end of the year we are expecting that to be completely balanced which means just as money came into the just as much money came into
09:28:27 the organization as money came out of the organization. So, going back to 2020. You know I had said that $125,000 left over after the year. What happens to that so that's conversations that we're actually engaging and now over the next few weeks as I
09:28:42 start looking at what our upcoming.
09:28:46 You know next year looks like and beyond as far as what we want to accomplish as an organization, but there's two primary, you know, uses for those dollars there is reserves, which organization should always have a typical reserve, or a healthy reserved
09:29:00 for any organizations about six to 12 months depending on what you're really looking for and how stable your businesses were right now if revenue stopped coming in today.
09:29:09 The national organization will be able to survive for about 16 months and we'd be able to pay all their bills. After 16 months there would be no more anything we could do we'd have no money left in the bank.
09:29:21 The other thing that we want to do is talk about how we can inject these funds into our mission to grow the organization and expand our reach across the United States within our current territories and provide more programming, educational opportunities
09:29:36 for people to engage in, so more to come on, what that's going to look like you know I'm starting to work on the 2022 budget and the next handful of weeks here.
09:29:47 Okay so, excuse me, I'm going to hand this off to Lisa, or chapter liaison, and she's going to talk about how chapters.
09:29:55 So hello everyone, thank you, Jen.
09:30:00 I am filling the new role of chapter liaison and that's going to be all about networking Jen mentioned how important that is to connect the chapters and offer them support because really our organizational health is dependent upon our chapter health.
09:30:13 And so that's the space I'm going to be working in. I am so pleased to announce we have Welcome 10 new seedlings since last year, and wild ones is supporting the native plants in three new states so Georgia North Carolina and Alabama all have new siblings
09:30:32 in them. These seedlings are taking root in both urban and rural areas and I spent a good portion of my time since I joined the staff, connecting with the founders and getting them the resources they need.
09:30:47 Starting a chapter should be fun, and talking about plants is fun so we really don't want that process to be overwhelming. Many of these chapters are very or seedlings I should say are very near to completing the chartering process.
09:31:03 In fact, I kept checking the email this morning because one is so on the verge, the, the folks in Mid South Tennessee are, are so close. So, we are about to announce them but we'll have to save a slide for next year to honor their progress.
09:31:19 The biggest barrier, I think, to chartering four chapters, is to get chapter officers in place to get people to step up and serve as a chapter officer, so they need those members to step into leadership roles and I encourage you to look at your skill
09:31:41 sets and think about what you're most passionate about and maybe reach out to your leadership team if you think you might be a good fit to to fill one of those officer or committee roles.
09:31:56 The Fabulous programs the chapters put on the tours and the plan sales. They don't all organize themselves so think about ways that you might pitch in.
09:32:07 I will make one more quick pitch, and that is to say that household memberships cover multiple household members. And so if you have a team looking to bolster their college application or a son or daughter in college wanting to strengthen their resume,
09:32:25 consider encouraging them to volunteer for wild ones, they don't need to know anything about native plants. Most seedlings and chapters could really use some tech support running zoom meetings, editing videos, updating websites.
09:32:41 So most young people are pretty tech savvy and where plant people might struggle a bit young folks really do shine so think about that, if you're got someone in your household who is looking for opportunities to volunteer.
09:32:59 Next slide.
09:33:00 We are super excited to announce the first chapter in Pennsylvania chartered back in January, the southeastern Pennsylvania, chapter, founded in January of 2020 and the timing could not have been more challenging for them.
09:33:18 But instead of waiting for the pandemic to pass the founder Jessica Scheffler took the online plunge and connected with folks around Philadelphia via social media and hosted meetings and programs online.
09:33:33 They charted in January of this year and are up to 64 active members so Bravo southeastern Pennsylvania.
09:33:42 I have any chapter board members attending today are challenged by how to host an online meeting. I encourage you to check out the southeastern Pennsylvania chapters YouTube channel, they've got all their meetings online.
09:33:56 Next slide.
09:34:00 2020 as Rita said is Sally said, as everyone has echoed 2020 was rough and three chapters did the charter due to the challenges that they faced and could not be overcome.
09:34:14 We extend our sincere thanks for the contributions made by members to the wild ones Central Arkansas Fernwood Michigan and the drift list Wisconsin chapters.
09:34:28 We never want to see a chapter struggle, and we never want to see one disband. When this happens, we do do our best to understand the circumstances and identify how to prevent that.
09:34:40 I'll come in the future.
09:34:46 Next slide.
09:34:46 I want to give a big shout out to the st louis chapter, they reach 300 members this month.
09:34:55 And it should be noted that, though they found it. In 1997 there and well established chapter, they have seen 30% growth in membership over the last 10 months, and many chapters across this, the country are seeing a surgeon membership native plants are
09:35:14 trending and people are hungry for resources on how and why to plant native gardens, many chapters are a little light in leadership and could use some help.
09:35:28 So if you are looking for ways to make an impact beyond your own garden. I encourage you to volunteer to support your local chapter.
09:35:37 Next slide.
09:35:38 We would like to take a moment to recognize the chapters that receive special recognition in their communities. These awards were reported in the 2020 state of the chapter reports.
09:35:51 The southern Kentucky chapter received the earth week 2020 habitat Hero Award from the last rubber cave, for being the group that donated the most volunteer hours, and the wild ones mid Missouri was a chapter was honored with the Columbia environmental
09:36:11 stewardship award. Congratulations to these chapters and to their members. Next slide.
09:36:19 So wild ones has 58 charter chapters and 12 seeding seedlings across 20 states, just in the past few weeks, we've had inquiries come in from Vermont, South Carolina, and Oklahoma, Wyoming and Texas wild ones is growing fast, so keep opening those newsletters,
09:36:40 to learn about new chapters and seedlings as they take root. If you have family living near any of these dots, share your passion with them and encourage them to join wild ones.
09:36:53 I'm going to pass the virtual stage off to Rachel, who will share some information about our members.
09:37:01 Hey everybody, thanks for being here I am the membership coordinator, so I'll be sharing some awesome membership, like big news. So, we are over, 5500 members, as of this week.
09:37:17 That is a 36% increase over 2020, and we are currently averaging about 223 members, each month so y'all are doing at the chapter level you guys are doing great things to spread and share wild ones with everybody so I'm super excited for what's going on
09:37:36 in our membership.
09:37:38 This.
09:37:40 You know this growth has been hard over covert and everything but chapters been super flexible and adjusting their programming and meetings to accommodate social distancing and safety restrictions, which allow members to continually, you know, and engage
09:37:55 in these meetings. I know some chapters have been able to over the summer to do some awesome outside events so there's a good balance and there's growth has been amazing.
09:38:05 We've also paired with some awesome wild ones programs like the native garden designs and the meat designers web webinars that were released in 2020.
09:38:16 And so this is made wild ones really attractive to new members we've had such growth with the native garden design, the boom. This spring was well over a couple of months of 300 members so each month so that was really awesome.
09:38:31 Next slide.
09:38:37 So, we have welcomed 14 new lifetime, members, since last year and we just want to thank these members for making this lasting commitment to wild ones and our mission.
09:38:52 It is so important.
09:38:53 You know we spread that and there have been these awesome members that have taken that next step commitment.
09:39:00 Next slide.
09:39:03 We have 24. So you almost doubled our business members.
09:39:08 24 new and returning business members that's 2018 more business members than last year.
09:39:15 That are many of which are not returning many of which are brand new to the organization and this week we had our very first wildest business member so the highest level of business member we've never had one before and all of history.
09:39:30 We this list of business members, pretty much comprises of nurseries, see distributors landscapers who support our mission.
09:39:40 These members are featured in our journal. And so it's a great way for our members to connect you all to go into our journal, check out all of our business members support, support them, and if you, I'm going to throw a pitch here if you know of any business
09:39:58 members, or a nurseries that you made of garden nursery, that you go to any sort of like minded wild ones type businesses. We would love to have them join our wild ones family.
09:40:14 Next slide.
09:40:16 We have affiliate members as a different level of membership and they are individuals or nonprofit organizations that have parallel missions that support wild ones and this over the past year we had 34 new and returning affiliate members, so when an affiliate
09:40:36 member joins or a new is during a certain journal, we have for journals that come out.
09:40:44 They are featured in the journal once a year so keep an eye out for your affiliate partners, and members.
09:40:51 A lot of them are organizations that you can go to Arboretum's and other groups that are like minded so might be another way to connect with some other members, and other people who may be not a wild ones member.
09:41:09 Next slide.
09:41:11 We have a partner at largest so partner at large, or member at large. Some people call them, we call them pals are members that are not a part of a local chapter because they may not have a local chapter near them.
09:41:27 And I just listed some states here we have a long list of states that have members in them that don't have chapters. So, a plug to help Lisa, as our chapter liaison and see leads we would love to see ceilings, all across the United States.
09:41:45 and hopefully we will see chapters grow in the States as we see members and partner largest.
09:41:53 So if you know anybody or, you know, you can, and those states may Hey there, we have some wild on members, and we'd love to get a seed lien started in your area.
09:42:07 And last but not least, we launched in January. We, a new system, the membership account area and replaced the members only.
09:42:24 And we migrated so you should have had to log into your member account.
09:42:23 This morning to join this meeting, you can imagine, you can manage your account information, you can access some members only content and meetings and check.
09:42:37 You can also print your membership card in here and you can view to see who your current chapter officers are so there will be more stuff added, hopefully in the future, but it's a lot.
09:42:50 I would say it's a really big upgrade from our old system.
09:42:55 member recognition so we.
09:42:59 Each year we have our chapters Submit.
09:43:02 Soc ours we call them state of the chapter reports, and we were able to submit some member recognition that they chapters wanted to share with the national organization and we asked some chapter presidents, to share some member recognition so this is
09:43:18 where we got some of this information.
09:43:21 So we're just going to take a moment to recognize, so a handful of wild ones members john flew from the Gibson Woods Jeff chapter was awarded the bringing home nature award.
09:43:34 Peggy foster from the Gibson what's chapter was awarded a Volunteer of the Year Award, hell man from the openings, chapter, it was named an outstanding volunteer he's a past president and still on the board.
09:43:50 He helps create chapter newsletters.
09:43:55 Charlotte pile from mountain laurel chapter received the 2020 less Morocco award, and from Connecticut invasive plant working group. And then last but not least, Christine gust and our very own Lisa Olson from the front rage chapter we're honored with
09:44:12 the entire neighborhood cooperation from the neighborhood Star Awards for their efforts in downtown Denver.
09:44:22 And we are now going to be transitioning over to the heart of wild ones our mission and our, our wild ones programs.
09:44:35 I help. I'm in charge of the butterfly garden program and in the past year we have had 135 Gardens certified through pre certified or certify your garden registrations, you when you do send in a submission to certify your garden.
09:44:57 It is registered with the National pollinator garden network, which now has over a million butterfly gardens. So that is an awesome way to let everybody know where your garden is, you can certify your garden if you have not done that already by going
09:45:15 to our national website and wild ones.org and then forward slash certify your garden.
09:45:22 And Katie will now be sharing the rest of our very exciting program.
09:45:29 Hi everyone, I hope you've been following along this past year and are familiar with our native Garden Design program, we were proud to launch. Back in January.
09:45:38 That was supported by a grant from the Stanley Smith horticultural trust.
09:45:42 Last month we introduced to more designs for the Boston area and Denver Front Range. In addition to the original seven that we launched in January, for a total of nine designs that are available for the public to download and use the native garden design
09:45:57 program as a whole has been extremely successful this past year since January 1. We have had 32,000 new visitors to the native garden design section of our website and we have had nearly 10,000 combined downloads of the designs and over 3000 people registered
09:46:14 to attend to attend three different meet the designers webinars that focus on sharing information about the designs and how they were created webinar recordings from these events have been received very well as well they have about 2300 total views on
09:46:30 our YouTube channel.
09:46:32 And we wanted to share with you that we've also submitted a grant proposal to the Stanley Smith horticultural trust to further this program in 2022 so we are looking forward to hearing back from that in the coming months.
09:46:47 A part of the native guard design program we have been fortunate to add as the meet the designers webinars. These events are great opportunity to hear how the professional designers' approach creating their designs and ask them questions.
09:46:58 So we hope you join us in September for the meet the designers of Boston, with the boss designers Josh Altidore and Andy brand.
09:47:07 And make sure you sign up before registration closes kind of close to the middle of September.
09:47:15 And then the seeds for education program is now accepting applications. After being paused to decoded in 2020, we are excited to reinstate this impactful program for wild ones.
09:47:27 So please share this opportunity with any local schools nature centers, after school care programs or community or youth centers or a faith based groups that you are aware of who would be applicable for this grant to apply organizations just must be located
09:47:42 in the United States or via territory of the United States. and please just keep in mind that any funds used have to be spent on native plants or seeds.
09:47:54 And then we wanted to just highlight and congratulate our photo contest winners from 2020 as we stated earlier in the chat. Many of the photog photos that you see in this presentation today are from past photo contests that members were kind enough to
09:48:07 submit.
09:48:09 So we had over 150 entries in last year's contest and we are proud to recognize the following winners from 2020, Abby rock star and photos by kids, Arlene care and scenery.
09:48:25 Cathy street for natural landscaping, Joe brand john brand wine for Best in Show flora and pollinator categories and Kim Smith was the recipient of the People's Choice Award.
09:48:33 And all of those entries can still be viewed out on our public website if you want to go back and see all these gorgeous pictures and if you are not a follower on our Instagram account please go out there and follow us because we are constantly sharing
09:48:45 these pictures throughout the year from all of our past contests.
09:48:50 And speaking of the photo contest the 2021 photo contest is going on right now. and we have a little over 100 entries so far.
09:48:59 And there are still a few days left to submit your entries, you need to have them in by August 31, and we really hope that you go out and share your photos with us.
09:49:07 When you participate in this contest you are helping wild ones further our mission we really depend on using these photos and our publications and presentations and on our website to help inspire others to learn about native plants and natural landscaping.
09:49:24 We also have a number of online educational events coming up this fall and winter. We have.
09:49:34 Besides meet the designer webinars, we had several honorary director presentations, one from Lifetime honorary director, Doug Tallamy Dr. Doug Tallamy and one from honorary director Heather home, and he will be sharing from their recently published books
09:49:55 the nature of oaks and wasps respectively. So please watch online for those registrations to go live they will be published on our website on social media and also through email, previous presentations and Dr.
09:50:04 Tammy and Heather home have been extremely successful they've received over eight and a half years on our YouTube channel so they're extremely popular and you will want to make sure to register as soon as it opens up.
09:50:15 In addition to honorary directors webinars we also have some guest speakers that will be coming up to, including Larry winner of new directions in the American landscape and wild ones board member Matthew Ross of Longwood gardens.
09:50:30 Again this registration will be opening on our website, social media and through email, you'll just want to be paying attention for those but make sure you mark those dates on your calendars.
09:50:41 And then we also wanted to highlight that you may have noticed on our website. We have a couple of proud partners. We have gained a new partner in 2021 was two thirds for the birds.
09:50:51 They are community of organizations that have joined alliances to promote native plants to help support and revive healthy bird populations.
09:51:00 And in addition to two thirds to the birds. We also continue our partnership with Monarch Joint Venture to conserve the monarch butterfly populations and migrations.
09:51:09 You can find links to both of these partners on wild ones.org.
09:51:14 And then we have our quarterly.
09:51:18 Wild Ones journal, which is published online which I'm sure you all are very familiar with. We are always looking for quality content to share with our members in the journal so if you are a subject matter expert on anything related to native plants,
09:51:31 or have a garden transformation or just proud of your garden or have an article request that you'd like us to research and share about in the journal please reach out to BB Schmitz her email is included.
09:51:44 And she will do her best to include that information.
09:51:51 And then, Lena song. We had an opportunity this year to connect our mission with Lena she is a high school students in Virginia, who produced a really amazing short film stop motion film, and her story a message are spot on with the wild ones mission
09:52:08 to promote environmentally sound landscaping.
09:52:12 It has been an honor to work with Lena and sharing this important message and we invite you to go out to YouTube and watch her amazing film today she's had over 1000 views on the wild ones YouTube channel so we also have an interview with board member
09:52:26 laura steam room and Lena that's really great to check out which talks about how Lena was inspired to create this film and she's a really neat backstory so if you get a minute go ahead and watch those her short film and the interview with Laura's.
09:52:44 And then we've also had a partnership with new directions in the American landscape.
09:52:49 Over the past year and hopefully you've had the opportunity to participate in some of their educational webinars, and we have a couple listed here that are up and coming that you are still able to participate in.
09:53:09 And now I'm going to turn it back over to Jen who's going to talk about programs going into 2021 and 2022. Yeah, so I mentioned when we're talking about the financial discussion that we have a little bit of resources that we might be able to put towards
09:53:18 some growth or mission, increasing our mission delivery so some of those things that we're looking at and considering is an exploration of the brand and doing a refresh of that what we think about our brand is who we are, how do we talk about ourselves,
09:53:34 and how do we present ourselves so that includes things like language that we're using it includes things like how our website looks so I know we all see that there's a lot of opportunity to update our website, we're just looking at the best way to go
09:53:49 about doing that.
09:53:50 We also want to, you know, with the native garden design being highly successful we want to expand on that. So we did apply for some additional grant funding that will find out in the next couple of months as we've received.
09:54:03 For some reason if we weren't considered for that, how can we continue to grow that program.
09:54:08 We also want to make sure we're increasing inclusive it for the seeds of education program so it's not just schools, it's a broad range of different youth serving organizations we want to make sure that we're reaching those folks so that they know that
09:54:23 this resources available we're inviting them to come and apply. We also want to evolve our honorary director and guest speaker programs so that we're consistently, providing members with, you know, the latest and greatest kind of research or topics that
09:54:38 might be going on out there, so that we can participate in all you know become aware of what's what's going out in the native plant movement. And then the last thing is with Lisa is wrong.
09:54:50 We really want to provide support to develop into developing chapters whether their existing or seedlings. We have a lot of opportunity to be connecting chapters with each other, provide some resources to help chapter officers and board members be successful.
09:55:05 So we're looking at some chapter leadership development.
09:55:09 In the upcoming, you know, several months to a year.
09:55:13 So we're in the final stretch of the meeting today. So I'm going to do a couple of plugs and then we'll open it up for questions so get ready to interact.
09:55:23 We have several social media web sites so please follow us. We have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. All of those links will be dropped in the chat.
09:55:34 And then our social media names are on the slide here. We do have 10,000 followers on Facebook and 2900 Instagram followers so there's a lot of folks out there that you can be connecting with join our Facebook private discussion plant or native plant
09:55:53 groups, we have currently over 1300 members, and we are always looking for folks to volunteer moderating. So if you would be interested in doing that, you can email Katie, and her email address will be dropped in the chat as well and she can get you set
09:56:09 up to help moderate.
09:56:12 And then lastly, if you need support for anything. If you have questions, comments, you want to share a concern or celebration that you have, you can email us at support@albums.org.
09:56:25 What's that good that's our it should be your first line of defense to go to, because that's going to send a notification to the entire national staff that we can address or or follow up with you appropriately, and then always my virtual doors open if
09:56:38 you have something that you want to share with me. You can email me directly, I will get your email might take me a little bit of time to get back to you within a couple of days but you are always welcome to reach out to me regarding any kind of topic
09:56:52 that you would like to share.
09:56:55 Okay, so I would like to open it up for questions and then address anything that you have come inside.
09:57:04 So, remember to unmute yourself.
09:57:08 And feel free to feel free to speak.
09:57:10 Jennifer done with the slides, maybe stop sharing just so that. Yeah, we see more faces. Thank you. Yeah.
09:57:27 I've been trying to track the chat did everything get addressed in there for those of you who are watching as it was going.
09:57:35 I saw a question pop up.
09:57:37 I think David mentioned we're working on it it was whether or not chapters or members would have access to the photos that were mentioned when we were talking about the photo contest.
09:57:49 The answer is yes, that is a piece that we are working to build out in terms of a library of photos the chapters will have access to. It's not going to be instantaneous.
09:58:00 So again, if you are putting together a presentation or, you know, putting together a newsletter and going, Oh, if only I had a picture of this, reach out, because, odds are we have a photo that we could share with you.
09:58:14 And so if we don't know we can't respond So reach out, say, hey, I need help with this. And do you have any photos you could share and if we have them in our library we are more than happy to get this to you.
09:58:29 Thank you, Lisa Otis you have a question.
09:58:33 Well, that was my one of my questions, and I'm glad to hear that the photos will be available because they are beautiful and yes I think photos when you put it into newsletters communication pieces that draws people in.
09:58:46 And so, I hope, I look forward to seeing that other question. I'm just going back to a subject that we have talked about before, and that's chapter email just haven't heard any update on that or is there an update.
09:59:01 You know the kind of Central chapter, email, that we can use versus like MailChimp or constant time comments. Yeah. So we are in chapter resource training we've asked for some volunteers to be using that systems, we've got a few folks who are utilizing
09:59:18 that we're still working through finalizing making sure everything's smooth there but we don't anticipate any barriers to be able to roll that out.
09:59:29 Excellent. It's in the works yay yay yay yay that that'll help communication greatly. You know, in my case I work full time. And so I end up at 11 o'clock at night, you know going to MailChimp and then trying to get it all done so that will be a welcome
09:59:44 change thank you very much for developing that.
09:59:50 Any other questions.
09:59:59 Yeah, Jim. So I saw a question in the chat about assistance, nationals assistance with local code violations As some of you may know, some of the less enlightened cities including my neighboring city of Chicago, have ordinances that consider native plants
10:00:21 as weeds, the people that plant native plants in their front yards are often violating weed ordinances and so these ordinances are very local they vary by municipalities and so it's impossible to address them.
10:00:37 You know, in one fell swoop. but I would say, you know, we have a new team of lawyers form called the wild lawyers which will be rolling that out. But I'm making the announcement here.
10:00:52 And so that is something that the wild lawyers, you know basically the purpose of wild lawyers is to help chapters with these kinds of questions like, local we'd ordinances.
10:01:05 So if you have that come up. They'll be.
10:01:10 You can just let Jen know you have a question, it'll be a help ticket she's setting up and perhaps the wild lawyers can look into that for you.
10:01:20 At least to give you some ideas of what the scope of the ordinances and maybe some backup even in terms of changing your ordinance going to your local officials and expand educating them as to why native plants are not we took that they actually should
10:01:37 be putting more of them in there and Jim, are you are taking more offers of wild lawyers correct yes thank you, Sally Yes.
10:01:48 Any member who's a lawyer who wants to join the team of wild lawyers, please email me at JLP at wild ones.org, and we'll get you in the saddle with the other wild lawyers and we're gonna have a grand time.
10:02:06 So thank you.
10:02:08 Thanks, Jim.
10:02:12 All right.
10:02:12 Maya
10:02:13 Hello me, so I'm a relatively new member here in the new chapter southeast Pennsylvania. And the question I have is whether the national organization is doing anything to help draft sample legislation for things like bring banning Bradford pairs just
10:02:33 as an example, or other invasive.
10:02:37 We
10:02:42 legislation that might be a possibility. Thank you. Yeah, we are. We're actually in conversations of what we can do to support chapters with that so more to come.
10:02:54 Hopefully soon but that's an active conversation that we're continuing to ask.
10:03:06 Hmm, yeah, I'd like to offer my I'm in the southeastern Pennsylvania as well we have a very active group.
10:03:09 Two of us from the chapter leadership pushing state of Pennsylvania to ban invasive so we can reach out locally and get you involved in that it's very active and we've made a little progress this year.
10:03:23 Great Count me in.
10:03:27 Lydia.
10:03:31 You gotta unmute yourself.
10:03:36 There you go. Hi. Okay, I was typing in a follow up for Jim in chat another issue that came to my mind. With regard is the preservation of native street trees and, you know, maybe materials that would help citizens, you know support advocacy again unnecessary
10:03:53 cutting down of street trees particularly native trees or replanting street trees using preferring natives over some of the more commonly used exotics.
10:04:06 The second question or issue I wanted to just comment on is.
10:04:13 I would really love to see, as you mentioned earlier, in your strategic plan is more materials that we could share with schools youth groups, you know to educate kids.
10:04:25 We have a lot of interest in our area from, even during coven from Girl Scout troops for example, even if schools were not, you know, able to really find the resources to, you know, do native plant programs and actually our chapter did sponsor, our own
10:04:42 local sort of version of a seeds for education because we really wanted to be able to fund any youth group that had the wherewithal to try to do something last year and we did give two awards.
10:04:55 So as we learn and work with these are award winners. I'm realizing that it would be so helpful to have learning modules and age appropriate, you know, learning materials that we could give to schools and other children's groups.
10:05:09 Yeah, Absolutely. Thank you, Lydia, we will go ahead, tell me. Yeah, can I just address the street tree issue a little bit.
10:05:19 That is really local. And I would encourage that passing the buck because I'm on the Chattanooga tree commission have been for many years. And that is one of the major
10:05:33 advocacy points that in the tree Commission has changed. Remarkably, I, you know, starting with even outreach to citizens in providing tree selection list and removing from the tree selection it list, things like golden rain tree in, you know, I think
10:06:02 bread for Paris been off for a while but I would really encourage chapters to see those kind of opportunities, is something you can do on a local level, because you know, it does get very species in, in Region specific.
10:06:20 But I would love you know something we're struggling with. and I don't know the answer is like the whole landscape ordinance issue.
10:06:28 Like tree protection ordinances. I'm not sure if there's someone who's already got. I know it's been addressed city by city.
10:06:42 And, and that may be a place where chapters can bubble up information and share with the entire group.
10:06:52 So,
10:06:54 anyway, it's a tough one, it's it gets very technical, you're, you're fighting City Hall, literally, so it's definitely something I'd love to know what the best way to approach it would be.
10:07:14 I have a thought on that Sally since since I've served for about a decade with, with the city border commission, don't see it as fighting City Hall, seeing as as offering your expertise to city council members and sometimes staff who aren't as knowledgeable
10:07:31 don't realize that some things are an issue when, when they are yeah and usually it's fighting the engineers, the city and dryers.
10:07:40 And the developers. So, anyway, in a kind way negotiating. There we go, negotiating.
10:07:52 We think you're wanting to say something but you're still muted. So sorry, one thing that comes up a lot are people who live in homeowners associations and Minnesota recently had legislation that homeowners associations or he could not forbid, people
10:08:06 from putting solar panels on their homes.
10:08:09 And it just struck me, why don't we add, they can't forbid the use of native plants, so I will be talking to my legislators and other friends that are likely to support that in the Minnesota.
10:08:23 Senate and House, because I think it's got a shot. We've already done that in Maryland. Right.
10:08:31 Marilyn Marilyn has just achieved that. I would love to see that legislation. Yeah.
10:08:38 And we have a couple
10:08:47 occurs to me, or, you know, we're that there's a lot of expertise in the, in the membership.
10:08:49 And maybe something that we should do at the national levels organize people's experiences in terms of dealing with their local tree ordinances their local native plan ordinances and get strategies tips on how to approach that and maybe even some kind
10:09:08 of model ordinance that people could use as a baseline.
10:09:14 Yeah, almost like an advocacy corner on the website in the membership area where those who have had successful advocacy results or examples of legislation or who they contacted in their area.
10:09:33 All of those things are a great starting point, because many of us don't even know who do you call first to do you petition first.
10:09:42 So, it would be a great resource if we could share across the country, those success stories.
10:09:54 This is Ruth Burwell in the Dayton area, and a few years ago we had a series of tornadoes that came through and took out some took up a lot of houses but took out a lot of trees as well.
10:10:08 And so I had posted in the chat.
10:10:11 One of our members one of our wild ones members came across this chapter this organization called retreat. And she was excited because they said they would be planting native plants, native trees that would be replacing those for homeowners and then she
10:10:27 reviewed the list of trees, and there are several that are not even from the US, or from North America.
10:10:35 So they they claim that they had received the list of recommended species from the local is a.
10:10:44 And when we met the other night as as board.
10:10:47 Chapter officers.
10:10:49 We thought maybe we should contact national to see if there could be you know something, since retreat seems to be a national organization and of course, the weather is not going to get any better anywhere in the country.
10:11:04 You know if that would be something maybe we could work with them to make those recommendations on trees if they either need to drop native from their language, or they probably should really work with someone more in tune with native species.
10:11:25 Thank you.
10:11:30 I'm gonna jump to a Nita you had something that you wanted to share, ask.
10:11:33 Hi there, I'm Anita from Melbourne, Florida and nice to meet your wild ones. I am thinking about all the new areas that are growing, or new cities being built in Florida, new areas where they're destroying native plants and they're putting houses every
10:11:51 place, and it always makes me wonder when they have these little bitty medians in a road, and then they put St Augustine grass there instead of native plants.
10:12:03 So, is there any place on wild ones where there's something that we could use wherever we are in the, in the country, and take it to our local, in our case would be commissioners or city council people, and give them a list and say when you're planting,
10:12:23 you know when you want to do something new on a street Can you please put native plants along there, rather than more grass with more sprinklers, and it just really is very frustrating to see all that non native grass all over the place.
10:12:39 Yeah, good question. So, Lisa, do you have a comment on what I needed to set or something else.
10:12:48 Um, I have two comments on what I needed just said the city of Port Washington Wisconsin has recently partnered with a nonprofit group the world bird migratory Observatory, and they have partnered with them to encourage residents to plant native plants
10:13:06 in their yards, but they've also taken the initiative to start planting establishing pollinator gardens throughout public lands in the town, or in the city.
10:13:18 So, perhaps, looking at their model, and how they started that would be helpful. I'm not quite sure I know the person that is like the contact person there.
10:13:31 If anyone's interested, let me know you can give me a shout wild one Otis odd is@gmail.org, but it's a great program. Second thing was going back to the ho ways.
10:13:44 We have a one group in particular, a member and some of her neighbors were interested in native plants on their berms around their condo, development, and they actually got there just by, you know negotiating with the HOA committee approval to go ahead
10:14:02 and plant native plants, and they are doing that rather than the other options of mowing or of planting non natives, or just killing everything off so yea to them that you know I think going local and, you know, I had materials presentation slides you
10:14:21 know that I gave to the members so that you could share that with the committee, and it worked.
10:14:26 Thank you. So I've been kind of the overarching theme here that, that there are resources, even though there are many specific local oriented, you know topics, there's a lot of maybe approaches, or content that we can be helping provide chapters and members
10:14:44 and engage in these conversations like there's a question in the chat about, you know, planting commonweal milk we'd along highways.
10:14:54 I think there's a great opportunity for that.
10:15:00 I'm going to say that I'm Michelle notes, and it is true with this Stanley Smith round to that we were expanding the definition of garden plans to include such things as well I called health strips.
10:15:22 But that's a very technical term, but you know just, especially when Stanley Smith one more grants and address climate resilience.
10:15:34 So that would include potentially rain gardens and other public spaces like a real parking lots of churches and so forth so we really are looking at other design possibilities.
10:15:50 Now of course, what you put in Florida is going to be different from what you put in Texas. So, we will need to draw on regional expertise, both in terms of design and species.
10:16:11 So you start with.
10:16:14 Start with a little icon of an idea, and from that you grow on my white oak tree. Right. So that's, that's where we're doing we're growing this original concept, and expanding on areas, it will address.
10:16:31 Alright so we are at little past quarter after 11.
10:16:37 Thank you all for joining today again I'm just going to reiterate that you can reach us multiple different ways and support, you know, at wild ones.org, or you can reach out to me directly.
10:16:50 We will be uploading and sharing all the links that we shared today in the coming days early next week. In your membership account so thanks again for coming.
10:17:00 I hope you have a fabulous wonderful rest of your Saturday and appreciate everything you guys are doing all your support for a mission.
10:17:09 Thank you everyone.
10:17:11 Stay wild.
10:17:12 The Wild
10:17:17 to see everybody thanks for coming.