It is a great honor to be from Georgia and to serve as the Deep South Regional Director. Betty Grimes will be the Alternate Regional Director. Betty and I want to thank all of you who answered the "call" when asked to serve on the Deep South Council. We will have a lot of laughter and fun as we travel through out the 6 States.

In 1891, twelve ladies met in Athens, Georgia, to organize the first garden club in America. So that we best keep the legacy of those twelve ladies alive, the theme for this term will be "Membership Offers Opportunities for Everyone" and the Deep South Unified Regional Project is "Building Membership".

Clubs throughout our Deep South States have many wonderful projects. I hope that membership and retention will be at the top of the project lists for all club presidents. We need to tell prospective members (and perhaps, remind current members) how we promote the love of gardening and the study of horticulture; how we protect our native trees, wildflowers, birds and natural resources; how we promote and encourage civic planning; how we educate members through a variety of schools that are available; and how we provide scholarships to students in our schools. There are opportunities for everyone in this organization and we must continue to grow so those opportunities will be there for our next generation.

The six Immediate Past Presidents from the Deep South Region are the team leaders for "Building Membership". They will promote membership throughout their State and have information available for all club presidents within their State.
What are the action plans for building membership?
(1) Recruitment -how to get them? (2) Retention- how to keep them? (3) New Clubs- how to grow them? and (4) Education - what's available for them?

Are we fulfilling these objectives of the Deep South? We must seek new and innovative ways to encourage prospective members to join with us. We must improve our clubs in ways that will keep them involved. Members want to learn more about horticulture, simple gardening, the environment, and floral design. We must think outside the box. We need to make attending garden club meetings fun.

Being a member of the Deep South Region is awesome! Serving on the Deep South Council is an honor and provides each of us duties that will strengthen the Council and ultimately the local, district, and state organization. We need to communicate among ourselves as well as attend and participate in the Deep South Conventions.

I have a quote that was reprinted by the Iowa Federation. "Garden club work is as complex as the unfolding of a rose and as simple as the face of a daisy. It is social. It is spiritual. It is political. It is educational. It is scientific. It is a way of life". Perhaps those few words capture the essence of what garden club membership provides to each member and to those communities we serve.