2015 Accomplishments
- A closed Facebook Members page was launched.
- Advertising was placed in Mother Earth Living and OLA Destinations 2015 publication.
- Continued monthly maintenance of our Membership List
- An Exit Survey was developed for departing members.
- Increased number of total United States Lavender Grower Association (USLGA) members from 237 in February to 245 in October.
- Board approved an increased number of membership types and an increase in fees to be effective on January 1, 2016.
- In January, a three day event was held in San Antonio, Texas with 163 attendees. Workshops, networking, educational and marketing opportunities were provided. This United States Lavender Conference (USLC) was a great success.
- Advocacy Team developed info sheets and hosted a round table for the USLC in San Antonio.
- Members have volunteered to Chair our Education and Research Committee (Dennis Hamilton) and our PR & Communication Committee (Susan and Jack Harrington temporarily). Ellen Reynolds and Eileen DeCamp are now the acting chairpersons for PR & Communications.
- Our Internet Committee streamlined the Mailchimp process to more effectively handle outgoing communication allowing Chairs to focus on content.
- Mary Bergstrom was hired in June as our new Website Consultant. In that capacity, some of the items she has addressed are: Fixed website issues, made corrections and basically cleaned up the USLGA website. Email addresses and passwords changes have been addressed.
- Advocacy Committee sent out an insurance survey to members and shared information on crop insurance. This is an ongoing project.
- Advocacy Committee gathered information on S.1014, the federal Personal Product Safety Act of 2015, which may affect the manufacture of personal care products and shared an update.
- Design Committee finalized and posted Brand Guidelines, Gallery and Templates for use as of April 8, 2015. Shortly afterwards, this committee was dissolved and replaced by a permanent Publication Team which is now under Public Relations (PR) & Communications.
- Nomination Committee became a standing committee instead of an ad-hoc committee.
- In April, the Board elected two new members, Ginna Gemmell and Trudy Perry.
- Board Liaisons for each committee were designated.
- Education and Research Committee (E&R) sent out 2014 Harvest Survey with added questions about winter kill and collaborated with Advocacy Committee to add financial questions to the survey. The results have been compiled for future release.
- Mary Bergstrom has been hired as Administrative Support through the end of 2015 to facilitate USLGA Board and Committees needs and tasks.
- Membership Committee has taken on the goal of researching Bulk Buying.
- Newsletter Committee has published four newsletters during the year, in January, April, July and October with educational articles, recipes, news articles and member profiles.
- LIFT Award form has been developed and approved by the Publication Team.
- E&R Committee is currently looking into USDA grants.
- In September, the Advocacy Committee developed the document “Recommendations on Taking a Stance” which was subsequently approved by the Board.
- Phytophthora Alert was sent out in October via email to members and in our newsletter. This alert was a collaboration between E&R, Advocacy, with special help from Mary Bergstrom.
- A Webinar for members was held in November to discuss issues with the Phytophthora outbreak. A presentation was given by Dr. Steven Jeffers, Department of Agriculture & Environmental Sciences, Clemson University. Their Plant Pathology Clinic has taken the lead in testing plants submitted by members and identifying the DNA strain.
- Rose Eide resigned from the Board and as Secretary. Trudy Perry has agreed to act as temporary Secretary through the end of January 2016.
- In October, PR & Communications has started to create a media list for sharing news worthy articles.
- PR & Communications began producing a library of authoritative articles on marketing for use by member farms and associates
- Branch Planning Team along with the Membership Committee, finalized the definition of Regions for USLGA, produced a map and defined Regional Coordinator guidelines.
- The Nomination Committee handled another election for three Board positions available January, 2016. The Secretary and Treasurer positions will need to be filled from board members. (It was announced during the meeting that Julie Haushalter was reelected and Mary Seek and Martha Wilczynski were elected to three year terms to begin in February 2016.)
- The Event Committee hired an Event Coordinator in April and kicked off preparation work on the next USLC for January 2017. Mesa, AZ is the chosen location, as it offers many exciting opportunities for a fantastic conference.
- Started a paid subscription for a pro version of Anymeeting (online meeting program).