Written by Claire Sorenson, 2023 President
Dear NPSOT Austin Members,
I am moving from President-elect to President this year. I look forward to a fun 2023 season of activities. I would like to introduce our slate of Chapter Leaders who are the ones who make all this happen.
OFFICERS
• President: Claire Sorenson
• President Elect: still looking for a volunteer
• Treasurer: Michelle Sikes
• Secretary: John Middleton
COMMITTEE CHAIRS
• Program Committee Co-Chairs: Michelle Sikes & Susan Brotman
• Communication Committee Co-Chairs: Adeliza Tiffany & Sandra Ries
• Volunteer Committee Co-Chairs: Susan Brotman & still looking for a volunteer
• Nominating Committee – active August through November: OPEN
AD HOC COMMITTEES
• NICE Committee Chair: Kathryn Teich
• NLCP Classes Committee Chair: Jane Tillman
• Plant Sale Committee Chair: Michelle Sikes
• Garden Tour Committee Chair: still looking for a volunteer
• Field Trips Committee Chair: Jackie O’Keefe
A big thank you to everyone who has stepped up to volunteer for the above positions. The only way our chapter continues is through the support of its members.
This year, as you may have noticed by the committees listed above, we are adding a couple of new activities: Field Trips and Garden Tours. We will share more details about these programs in the months to come.
We also hope to host some activities to encourage more members to grow Texas native plants that can’t easily be found in local nurseries, and then share them with others.
I would also like to thank everyone who helped, last year, to build a NICE Program for our Austin NPSOT Chapter. This is a statewide program which partners with local plant nurseries to encourage them to promote and provide more Texas native plants. We also built a searchable plant database, last year, for the Austin Chapter website. This later led to the creation of a Texas Native Plant Landscape database for the entire NPSOT organization, which all chapters are in the process of contributing to. And, we are so happy, after a bit of a setback, that we were able to continue to offer annual native plants sales.
We are proud of the momentum we built together last year, after the long COVID shutdown, and look forward to riding that wave into 2023.
Cheers,
Claire
