When Pat Miller and I attended our first VGCLJ meeting in 1996, it was in Helen Dawson’s garden; there were approximately 30 people there and we noticed (as past Bishop’s PA members and leaders) there was no meeting agenda... yikes!!
My ‘97-‘99 terms as president of the VGCLJ were so long ago!! I do remember that my involvement as president occurred because Adrienne Green called one day and asked if she could stop by and I vividly remember her sitting on the sofa in my living room and very efficiently explaining to me why I HAD to be the next president of the Club. She said she had already received okays from several of my closest Bishop School Parents’ association board compadres to fill the following Garden Club board positions for the following year:
Pat Miller: Vice-President
Sandy McCreight: Recording Secretary
Lucy Borsenberger: Treasurer
(I think there were others whom I am forgetting right now and, as I do not have my Club directories from that time, cannot check.)
She then sweetly explained that they all accepted to serve only IF I would be President. Typical Adrienne persuasive power in action!!
Well, I was not that thrilled about taking on that responsibility at that time because I was still chairing Symphony at Salk and the Secret Garden Tour but... I accepted because it was next to impossible to say No to Adrienne.
The main thing I remember doing was upgrading the meeting formats to resemble those at Bishop’s: having actual meeting agendas and minutes and many more Board committees to spread out the workload. I remember connecting the Club with Torrey Pines State Reserve for volunteering opportunities as I was a long-time docent there. I also remember initiating the system of Immediate Past President/Current President/Incoming President, which required that those office holders agree to serve for two years to help pass along history to incoming office holders.
The membership numbers increased during the period of my presidency thanks to Adrienne’s persuasive outreach. She firmly believed it was important to keep the dues low and to increase the funds available to afford extremely great speakers for meetings by increasing membership numbers.