Many of our members were recognized for achievements and contests during the annual gathering in League City on October 5.
Cecil Carter bestowed Presidential Awards to the committee members who have been working diligently for over a year to improve chapter financial reporting. Award plaques were presented to Jan Hanz of the Austin Chapter, Mike McBride and Mo Saiidi of the Fredericksburg Chapter, and Dennis Perz of the Wilco Chapter.
Cecil also recognized the Big Bend Chapter as the Chapter of the Year for 2019. The chapter started the Michael Powell botany scholarship at Sul Ross State University with an initial gift of $10,000 in 2018 and a similar gift in 2019.
The entire membership voted on which members would be selected for the Benny J. Simpson Fellows Award, which is given for service and work for the enrichment of the Society at the state or chapter level. Those receiving the most votes were Bea Caraway, Joan Miller, and John Nikolatos, all of the San Antonio Chapter.
Contest winners were announced by Bill Hopkins. The video contest was judged by Kay Jenkins and Martha Peet, using a rubric developed to emphasize the qualities considered by the judges to be most valuable in promoting native plants and ecosystems as well as our organization. The chosen video was conceived and created by Robert Kamper of the Wilco Chapter and consists of a slide show of images of native plants, accompanied by an original song also written by Robert Kamper.
For the first year we also had a chapter newsletter contest. The judges for the contest were Lonnie Childs, Heidi Gigler and Ricky Linex. Out of eight entries they judged the North Central Chapter to be the best in all categories of the assessment rubric. The North Central Texas News is edited by Martha and Troy Mullens.
Rachel Cywinski announced the winners of the photo contest, which has twelve divisions corresponding to the twelve Level III ecoregions found in Texas. Steven Schwartzman won in nine of the twelve categories; Marilyn Blanton won in the Cross Timbers category; and Nancy Natho won in the Southwestern Texas Plains category and in the Central Great Plains category. You may see all the photos entered in the contest here.
In addition, Caroll Flournoy held the winning ticket and received the raffle prize of a quilt made by Tricia Hopkins. Caroll and Tricia are both in the Cross Timbers Chapter. Raffle proceeds and silent auction proceeds help fund our scholarship and grant awards.