This is my last opportunity to write to everyone. Before I put down anything else,
I want to share an enormous thank you for letting me have two years to have a bully pulpit.

When I was offered the job of Second Vice President, I accepted with the intent to encourage our clubs to acquire more skills regarding local and state conservation legislation.

That didn’t work out as planned, did it? What I do hope I’ve done instead is to encourage you to thrive, pandemic or not, to seize the virtual tools we’re clearly able to wield (3 of our schools prefer now to meet virtually and gather students from across our nation), to take an unexpected time at home as time to reflect. Who are we now? None of our clubs is as it was three years past, much less when it was founded, whether that was over a hundred years ago or a handful.

We have been given freedom to cherish traditions (and put them in a storage box if they no longer serve our members and communities), freedom to rethink, in effect, to reopen. Since everyone in our communities suddenly wishes to garden on some scale, we have multitudes of potential new members. So, woo them, engage them, mentor them. Grow and invigorate your clubs.

Here’s one last suggestion from this bully pulpit. When someone asks you to step forward and lead, say, “Yes!” Have an agenda you’re willing to ditch—nature has another agenda in mind, more timely, more in tune with your members. You’ll recognize it when it presents itself.