Reach Out &
Message from our National Capital Area MEMBERSHIP Chairman
October 2011
Dear Garden Club Officers and Members:
PUBLICITY. Our clubs need to be seen in our communities. If there's a parade, we should be in it. If there's a community festival, we should participate. If there's a farmer's market, we should be there. Wherever there is an opportunity, we should take it.
For example, although preparing for last May's National Garden Club convention, District I signed up for a table at Behnke's Garden Center on June 4, 2011. District IV Director Bette Lewis joined the members of District I's Goddard Garden Club to promote membership in the garden clubs of National Capital Area Garden Clubs, Inc. By the end of the day, they had 5 new persons for District I clubs, 8 persons and 1 entire new garden club for District IV, a person from Burke VA seeking a garden club in District II or III, and the Prince George's Herb Society expressed an interest in becoming affiliated with National Capital Area Garden Clubs.
On Saturday, September 24, 2011, Capitol Hill Garden Club supplied member horticulturists
to a CSX Railroad green initiative at the Barracks Row Fall Festival in the District
of Columbia. The volunteers showed how to plant spring-
On Sunday, October 2, 2011, Dominion Valley Garden Club arranged with Merrifield Garden Center to set up a membership table at the Potomac Rose Society Rose Show. Photographs of club events were used as a lure to draw passersby in and 6 persons expressed an interest in membership.
PRESS RELEASES. Our clubs also need to issue press releases, particularly to local newspapers and newsletters. When you do something—a community project, a flower show, work with youth or the elderly—be sure to take photographs and be ready to tell people what you have done. Attached are guidelines for writing and distributing press releases and taking and distributing photographs.
FEATURE STORIES. Clubs also should consider submitting a feature story about the club, about its activities, about the fun you have and the friends you have made. A feature story is more general interest than a press release which is aimed at one specific event or activity.
BE PREPARED and FOLLOW THROUGH. Finally, we all need to be ready with membership information and follow through whenever anybody expresses an interest in joining a garden club. Always be sure to get their name and contact information. Pass this information on to a club president or a district director or me. Be sure that somebody contacts persons interested and invites them to a club meeting.
People are looking for garden clubs and we need to come out of hiding.
David Healy
1st Vice President and Membership Chairman
202-
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