VISTA - Behind the Scenes
Whether its a Broadway show or your favorite restaurant, lots of activity happens behind the scenes to produce a successful performance or a delicious meal. And, that’s what happens at VISTA Gardens. When you visit the garden and tend your plants it may look like things just happen to be in the right place at the right time. But we have many activities and people working behind the scenes to ensure that the garden functions well and meets our gardeners’ needs.
Some of our members may not know that the garden is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors with a set of Bylaws that spell out when we have meetings, how our Directors are appointed, and what the various Committee functions are. The Board has an Executive Committee of the President (Bill West), Vice President (Marty Kleiner), Treasurer (Susan Baxter Gibson), and Secretary (Jennifer Grebenschikoff). Each Committee has a volunteer chair who reports to the Board monthly about what that committee is doing and what resources it will need going forward.
For example, MJ Wentzel is the Chair of the Compost Committee. Without her team working throughout the week picking up fruit and veggie discards from the church pantry plus all the work they do each Thursday to turn and move the compost bins, we wouldn’t have all the fabulous Black Gold soil that each of use in our beds. Two others who work even more behind the scenes are Leah Wooten and Susan Baxter Gibson. The impressive VISTA website and weekly newsletters are all due to Leah’s focus on making these communications happen. Our budget, expenses, revenues and tax reports are all handled by Susan. Both Leah and Susan work many hours behind the scenes to ensure that you know what is happening at VISTA and that our finances are in good order. There are numerous other members who put in many hours handling Committee responsibilities that keep our garden such a special place for all of us.
One more very important behind the scenes activity concerns our status as a Hillsborough County Park. VISTA Garden is on County land and that requires us (i.e., Bill and Marty who do all this) to
meet all the County requirements: annual reports, meetings with County staff, lobbying for funds, plus fiscal and insurance and regulatory compliance. In addition, we are always alert to opportunities to reinforce our viability as a County park.
So, if you aren’t able for whatever reason to commit your required volunteer time to pulling weeds, or carting mulch, or moving soil, there are plenty of other behind the scenes activities for you. Just
click here
to see the Committee list that describes what each one does and who to contact to join that group. See you backstage or in the kitchen soon!
