FROGS Talk
by Aimee Martin, FROGS President
Aimee Martin, FROGS President
Behind the Scenes
The Tropical Storm Ophelia edition of Fall Festival is in the books, and it was a surprising success despite all the uncertainty and obstacles. Despite the curtailed number of vendors and some limitations on activities, people braved the weather to volunteer, shop, and participate. We raised $13,000 for Green Spring Gardens. A heartfelt thank you to all of you, especially the volunteers.
You will see many of the FROGS Board of Directors at the fundraisers, doing everything from directing traffic to managing the Bake Sale and Silent Auction. As you probably suspect, this is the culmination of months of planning and hard work by the Board and Green Spring Gardens Staff. But we also do a lot of other work behind the scenes. I’d like to start telling you about some less obvious work the board does in finances, communication, social media, and membership. Next time I’ll focus on some of our other heroes.
Check out the list of the FROGS Board on our FROGS website.
FROGS Board membersFinancial: Our Treasurer, Fred Blott, makes sure the money we raise is accounted for and used to keep Green Spring Gardens strong. In addition to receiving and accounting for everything down to the penny (literally), he helps develop budgets and keeps our State and Federal paperwork for taxes and tax-exempt status. Jim Schroeder has put in many hours on our tax returns.
Media and Communications: Mindy Nash is the power behind our wonderful website and the Constant Contact email that keeps you informed about FROGS activities and Green Spring Gardens. Becky Super and Kerry Mitchel manage Facebook and Instagram, in addition to taking on the new task of recruiting and managing vendors for our two big fundraisers. Mindy and Kerry also produce the digital version of the FROGS newsletter, Gardenline, after Ivy Sinaiko, Sunny Green, Linda Nordstrom, and Green Spring historian Debbie Waugh manage the content.
Membership: Marianne O’Brien, Mindy Nash, and Kathy Trichel worked for two years to bring our membership system into the 21st century, replacing a limited (and failing) system based on spreadsheets and snail mail. We now have a more accurate and easy-to-use system for adding, renewing, and keeping our members informed. These improvements greatly lessened printing costs and eliminated hundreds of volunteer hours. These resources now directly support the garden.
Sometimes the board needs additional expertise in these areas. If you have special talents and would like to volunteer now and then for specific efforts, please let us know at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Looking forward to seeing you around enjoying and contributing to Green Spring Gardens.
