2010 Winter BOD: Richmond

July 11, 2022

The Board of Directors meeting was held January 18-19, 2010, at the Kent-Valentine House.

Board members gathered at the Kent-Valentine on Monday afternoon, January 18, for a presentation of new branding proposals by the Flores Shop. Following the presentation, President Cabell West called the meeting to order and began the afternoon discussion by asking, “Where has a year and a half gone? I am sure each of you realizes that we are on the downhill slide of our term. We are not lame ducks and we have more to accomplish before we take our final bow.”

Parliamentarian Dianne Spence presented a Conflict of Interest policy, prepared for GCV by attorney John O’Neill, at which time the policy was adopted.

Cabell then read a letter from the president of the Elizabeth River Garden Club, expressing concern that by placing styles of flower arranging within the GCV Flower Shows Handbook on the website, available at no charge, it creates competition with her club’s primary source of funding, The Styles of Flower Arranging: A Primer by The Elizabeth River Garden Club. Suggestions included ideas for promoting their publication more actively.

The meeting recessed and Cabell hosted a delightful dinner for the board at her home.

First on the agenda when the meeting reconvened on Tuesday morning was approval of the logo prepared and presented by the Flores Shop the previous afternoon.

Development Chairman Martha Wertz provided an Annual Fund status report, crediting Cabell for providing the vision; Nina Mustard for developing the Green Gifts database; Marsha Merrell and Joanie Robins for putting financial record keeping and structures in place; Catherine Whitham for her support of the GCV Development Committee and board members for willingness to participate. Martha then recommended that GCV consider having the supervision of the Director of Development fall to the Executive Director of the GCV, assuming that the Executive Director is knowledgeable about fundraising.

Board members learned from a survey that responses were overwhelmingly positive regarding the preference for the newly shortened meeting schedules, specifically referring to time commitment and reduced cost to both attendees and host clubs. But the question of how best to present committee reports remained unanswered; the membership wants to be informed but does not want to spend an inordinate amount of time listening to reports.

Noting that Legislative Day had occurred prior to the board meeting, Conservation and Beautification Committee Chairman Anne Doyle described the GCV dependence on Virginia Conservation Network for assistance in sorting through the myriad of legislative items. The organization was co-founded by GCV with a handful of conservation nonprofits during Tayloe Murphy’s administration as Secretary of Natural Resources and has grown to represent more than 100 nonprofits working together for public policy research and advocacy. This year, VCN is considering 141 legislative items. Marsha Merrell then suggested that future January board meetings be held prior to Legislative Day to allow motions to be passed by the GCV Board.

Flower Shows Chairman Betty Michelson initiated a discussion about the challenges her committee has faced with everyday concerns of flower shows, as well as issues regarding the online publication of our handbook and the many concerns voiced at the BOG round-table discussions.

Following business reports, Parliamentarian Dianne Spence moved that the Board of Directors of the Garden Club of Virginia be expanded to include the chairmen of the Development, Flower Shows, and Horticulture committees which would bring the total membership to twenty. Motion carried.