2008 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the MGS

In the fall of 2008, our Northern California Branch of The Mediterranean Garden Society hosted the Annual General Meeting of the international membership in Monterey, California.  I recall that we were asked two years prior if we would consider taking on this task by the society’s then president, Cali Doxiadis.  This meeting is hosted by the various branches two out of three years, the third year being held in Greece when elections are held.  The majority of branch hosted meetings had been in Europe, though the Southern California Branch had hosted in 2002.  Because California had been one of the most actively growing sections of the society, this perhaps made sense.

Our committee chose the Monterey peninsula as the location for meeting, as we were fortunate that a historic hotel – Casa Munras – was just completing renovation and was eager to have our event as one of their first.  We were also lucky to have connections to a handful of very talented garden designers who were actively working in this area and had many properties to suggest visiting.  We are grateful for their cooperation in making this a spectacular event.

Some of the international membership in attendance had never been to California, or had only visited briefly many years before.  It was a treat to see their excitement over things those of us living here often take for granted.  Through explaining the details of our local expression of the mediterranean climate, we also came to learn more ourselves about the unique advantages of our locale.

Graphic for the 2008 MGS AGM

In the fall of 2008, the Northern California Branch of The Mediterranean Garden Society hosted the Annual General Meeting of the international membership.  In anticipation of the event, I created a ‘logo’ that could be used as a folder cover or front page.  Ultimately, it was used to decorate a tote bag that we gave to the meeting’s attendees.

Our aim was to highlight California, so I mused on a number of iconic natural locales, flora, and fauna, especially those relating to the meeting’s location – Monterey.  Because the committee chose the denim option for the fabric of the tote bag (considering it also an iconic fabric for our state), I had to do some selective reversing of images since it would be printed in white ink on the relatively darker fabric.

I managed the printing of the bags and was very happy with the outcome!  And they remained very popular even after the event until all bags were claimed.

The first MGS meeting in California!!

I came across this e-mail while searching the Medit-Plants e-mail forum archives and thought it would be best to let is speak for itself here.  The event being discussed was the beginning of the Northern California Branch of The Mediterranean Garden Society.

Note that there is mention of a new MGS website – with the help and encouragement of Hugo Latymer, I had created the first web presence for the Society within the website we were building as part of the Medit-Plant initiative.

To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Successful MGS meeting last week
From: “Sean A. O’Hara”
Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 13:21:07 -0700

Fellow Medit-Plants-persons –

As previously announced, there was a Mediterranean Garden Society meeting here in the S.F. Bay Area last week – the fist of its kind in California. Turns out that I had to lead more of the meeting than I had previously imagined, but it went very well in any case. 😉 There were some very notable people in attendance – Heidi Gildemeister, the President from Mallorca, Spain; Joan Tesei from Italy; Dick Turner & George Waters, the current and retired editors of Pacific Horticulture respectively; Bill Grant from the UCSC Arboretum; Warren Roberts & Mary Burke from the UC Davis Arboretum, Elly Bade & Peter Klement from the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden; Peter Dallman, author of the new book Plant Life in the World’s Mediterranean Climates; Charmain Giuliani, a teacher at Strybing Arboretum in San Francisco; Glen Keator, author of many books on native plants; Ernie Wasson who you know from Medit-Plants and The Bay Area Gardener web site, Katherine Greenberg, author and garden designer; and other enthusiastic horticulturists interested in the MGS.

It was a great ‘kick-off’ meeting and much was learned through discussion and questionnaire. There will be other events in the near future, likely about every quarter, so there will be other opportunities to come and find out more about this new, well-connected, and important group. If you haven’t already, consider joining the Mediterranean Garden Society which will help you keep informed about upcoming events. If some of you are interested in attending a future event to find out more, please let me know and I will add you to the mailing list. To provide diversity and more opportunity to members in outlying areas, we are planning each event in a different part of the Bay Area – if you have suggestions, we’d like to hear them

Right now, this new, informal ‘Chapter’ of the Society is very free form and casual, until we gather more members and organize more officially. So it is a good time to ‘get in on the ground floor’ and help mold the group to meet specific needs you might feel are lacking in Northern California’s horticultural community.

regards,
Sean O.

Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 17:18:48 -0700
To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
From: “Sean A. O’Hara” <sean.ohara@poboxes.com>
Subject: the first MGS meeting in California!!

Fellow Medit-Planters –

At the end of September, the current Mediterranean Garden Society president, Heidi Gildemeister, will be visiting the Bay Area as a speaker at the ‘Gardening Under Mediterranean Skies’ symposium, hosted by Pacific Horticulture and Strybing Arboretum.

While she is here, she has requested the opportunity to meet and address the local MGS membership. To accommodate her during her short visit, a meeting has been scheduled to take place in Berkeley on Monday morning, September 28th, from 10am-noon. This is the first meeting of MGS membership in California (there is also a Southern California meeting scheduled for October 10th, after she speaks at the L.A. Garden Show). The meeting is free to all, interested parties are welcome to attend. There will be light refreshments, Heidi will address the group, we will have all of the MGS Journals on hand to view, and a demonstration of the new MGS Web Site is planned.

To RSVP or for more information, contact Katherine Greenberg or myself before Sept. 21st – we need to know the number of people attending as the meeting room has limited accommodation.

This is an exciting opportunity to get to know more about the MGS and meet the local membership. There will be the opportunity to sign up for membership during the meeting.