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Presidents' Annual Report
2022
A year of continued global upheaval, issues with climate change, personal health, economic instability, and the loss of what we used to consider “normal”. The Pandemic has continued to upset the world. Did I not state all this last year? BUT, it did improve and we accomplished many programs, even meeting in person.
Continued Covid restrictions forced Cloverleaf to continue to present the 2021 AGM virtually on January 19th, 2022. The Leadership Team thanks those members that participated. The number of members attending met the required amount to reach quorum, as outlined in Cloverleaf’s Constitution, so that voting could proceed on the various items and Cloverleaf’s Board could continue to work for you, the Club.
Cloverleaf, throughout 2022, maintained its focus, albeit, in a hybrid format. Thanks to the continued support of the Membership and the hard work of the Leadership Team, we presented our speaker series meetings, 4 virtually and 4 hybrid - in person and virtual, at once. The Leadership Team really worked diligently to figure out all the different issues that could, would and unfortunately did happen, while holding in person meetings and virtual simultaneously. It is a quick, steep learning curve for all and required the purchase of more complex audio/ visual equipment, to fit our needs. I regret that some members were not able to view or hear all the speakers, during several hybrid presentations, but I think we’ve got all the bugs out!
A huge thank you, to Scott Harvey, Mary Jane (M.J.) Kucerak, Diane Rogers and Sheila Susini, for their combined and continued determination to make the speaker’s series available to as many members, as possible. M.J. was the Zoomer Co-Ordinator for all our Club and Board meetings, working through all the hiccups that occurred.
Ramona da Cunha took on the task of announcing the Land Acknowledgement Statement at every Club and Board meeting, with her usual calm, clear voice. Ramona also compiled the various photos she received, from members, for the Year of The Garden celebration and provided a colourful slide presentation, with delightful commentary.
A tremendous thanks to Teresa Ierullo for the excellent choice of speakers that she arranged, that covered both types of presentation formats and the thought-provoking topics as well. Her energy, foresight, and negotiation skills helped kept Cloverleaf’s purpose alive.
Teresa has handed over her Speaker Coordinator position for 2023, to two members, Martha Kantorczyk and Sharman Howes. Teresa has helped them, with the initial guidance and the Leadership Team welcomes them and the new ideas they bring forward.
Teresa and Tammy Lemire continued to sort through various websites to update and add new information to our website, to promote and help streamline Cloverleaf’s online presence @www.cloverleafgardenclub.org. It is a wealth of information, covering a huge variety of topics. Teresa has done a huge amount of work, to promote Cloverleaf through her various initiatives over the short time she has been a member.
Tammy, with assistance from Christine Fry, provided the Mailchimp notices throughout the year and now has become our Website and Mailchimp lead.
Scott took over the Administration of our email address from the past president, Patricia Griesser, sorting through all the various requests and redirecting them to the applicable person for action.
Bonnie Gul, the enduring and multitalented Editor of Cloverleaf Thymes Newsletter, our social media format, has once again continued to issue an excellent monthly newsletter. Always full of interesting articles, skillfully arranged, along with member contributions, especially those monthly staples; Christine’s Pick of the Month, From the Garden Goddess and Around the Yard, it is a lighthearted and educational read. Member’s photos highlight our gardening successes, of special note are Patricia Griesser’s professional photos.
At 2021 year end, our Club had a membership of 141, however, 2022 Cloverleaf’s membership was only 130 which was a drop from previous years.
Quietly behind the scenes,Laura Heberle has maintained the Club’s ever changing membership list, keeping track of payments, in the various forms. She attends meetings, hands out membership cards and updates us, with her monthly article for the newsletter.
JoAnn Drennan was determined to reinstate Cloverleaf’s main source of income, which is the spring plant sale, not held since 2019. She took over the immense task of planning and executing a very successful 2022 Plant Sale @ the Senior Center, on May 14th.
JoAnn harnessed an energetic and dedicated group of volunteers to perform all the various tasks, such as potting plants, labelling and organizing them. On Sale Day, these same volunteers were joined with more helpers, who loaded and off loaded, all the items and organized the tables. Mother Nature also assisted and provided glorious warm, sunshine. The day was an immense success on all fronts; from the number of skilled volunteers; the variety, quality and number of plants available; the numbers of customers passing through our site and mostly that we made and exceeded our financial target.
Congratulations to JoAnn Drennan and All the Volunteers, without you, this would not have happened.
The Junior Program at Oakridge Public School has two very dedicated volunteers, Kimberlay Oly, a long-term Cloverleaf member and Frank Cox, an employee of Oakridge P.S. They both poured their hearts, time, and energy into ensuring that the children of Oakridge have a hands-on and positive experience in helping plant and nurture the gardens of the school.
We provided financial support plus $ 280.00 worth of donated plant material from Cloverleaf’s spring plant sale to Oakridge Public School and the Junior Program.
As part of the Year of the Garden and the Red Theme, Kimberlay and Frank were encouraged to focus on planting red, in the various gardens and planters fronting the school. They really took up the challenge and the results are in Kimberlay’s eloquent article in September’s newsletter.
Cloverleaf has been financially stable for 2022. The Government of Ontario, through OMAFRA has supported all garden clubs with a $1,000 grant, to assist with the loss of fundraising events. Diane has tracked all the issues related to grants, carryover credits from City of Mississauga and eTransfers. She is also responsible for ensuring the Audit of our Yearend financials is completed and for filing all the required financial reports to OMAFRA/OHA and City of Mississauga.
The Year of the Garden celebrations had the Board focusing on how the Club could participate in our community and decided to financially support four causes, two of which the Club has previously supported, The Compass Food Bank and its community vegetable garden and Riverwood Conservancy’s Teen Education program. Shelia worked with City of Mississauga’s Ecosource, for funding their needs as related to their community vegetable gardens. Diane suggested GlobalMedic, a new organization focused on growing micro-greens for food banks. We have mostly focused on the issue of growing food, in our community to help combat food insecurity. Diane has provided the Treasurer’s Report for the newsletter, which has further details.
The Leadership Team regretfully received Bruce Ascroft’s resignation from the Board early in the year and is losing several dedicated, knowledgeable members, as of the end of 2022 and all will be greatly missed. I would like to thank Past Presidents of 2021; Christine Fry, who continued to assist with Mailchimp and Patricia Griesser, who was Cloverleaf’s OHA main contact. Their combined knowledge, dedication, and guidance, continued to support Cloverleaf.
Thank you to all the Members and the Leadership Team for supporting Cloverleaf and hope that we can continue to advance our Club in 2023.
Cheers to 2023, a year for Hope & Prosperity.
Regina “Reggie” Gudelis