President’s Perspective

MOLLY JOHN

M.J. Design Associates, Inc. 2022 OGIA President

mjohn@mjdesignassociates.com We are amongst one of my favorite times of year, Fall. The air just feels cleaner, humidity is gone and the splendor of the leaves changing color, for me creates a rejuvenated feel. I think so often we don’t take enough time to enjoy the beauty we have around us, no matter the season. For a profession that allows us to play such an integral part of our environment, whether it be; growing and propagating new varieties of trees, shrubs or flowers, to developing new disease resistant turf grasses to integrating all these new innovations into our designs and landscape installations, it’s a time to wrap up another successful year and start planning for the next.

In this addition of The Buckeye we are talking about charity and community service and show examples of what a few of our members are doing. I know this is just a small sampling of what is happening. Charity and community service doesn’t have to be some large, organized endeavor or project. Just helping a friend in need plant a tree or clean-up their house. Giving a little time to a local school or organization, to talk about plants, gardening or our environment. This past month was one of OGIA’s biggest events of the year, OHLO (The Ohio High School Landscape Olympics). Almost 20 organizations volunteered their time to create the events that the students competed in. Over 125 students competed from 14 schools around the state. Many of the students have never tried any of the events, let alone compete. I was there with our event; Site Surveying, and one reoccurring theme I heard from many of the students is we didn’t have time to prepare, or someone was scheduled to come teach us, but then had to cancel. I thought, this is a great opportunity for so many of us to help. Reaching out to your local career tech school and telling them you would be happy to spend two hours with some of the students. Two years ago, I helped a student at Tolles Career Center with plant identification. She brought her plant list, and we walked around our gardens identifying the trees and shrubs. We spent two hours and she felt much better about what the test would look like and what she would need to know. The same can be said for many of the events from; using a large mower, driving a truck and trailer, how landscape lighting and irrigation works, driving a skid steer, climbing a tree, etc. It doesn’t take a lot of time, but a few hours can go a long way in helping a student to have the confidence to compete.

We are all in the midst of wrapping up what I hope was another successful year for all of us. As I wrap up my last two months of my term as President of OGIA and write my last article, I hope one thing has come through and that is PASSION. If there is one thing my husband, Joel and I have always felt, “we love what we do every day.” From the first article I wrote to today, what I wanted most was to encourage all our members to get involved. To find a part of our profession that you have a strong feeling for and help make it better. There is no question we are all busy and our work takes a lot of time out of our day and away from our families. I am sure asking everyone to do a little more, in the back of your mind your going, “how could I ever fit that into my schedule?” But, when you truly believe in what you are doing, you can find the time. As I always say, the more people who get involved in something, the less time is needed by everyone.

As we begin planning for 2023, please dig deep and think about what you can do to make a positive impact on our industry. How can you help OGIA be the leader in our profession? Tracy, Roni, Sara and Jim work hard for our organization and are trying to put together programs and activities that will grow our members, our employees and our profession. One initiative continuing and developing next year will be certification and training. This year we have begun work on rewriting the manuals for the outdated OCNT Garden Center and Grower tests. There is much more work to be done and from surveys completed at the beginning of the year, this was something most of our membership wants. Certification and training allow us to set the standard and teach our employees the basics. As our workforce changes and evolves, we all spend a lot of time and money on training. If we could have a common resource to help teach the basics, wouldn’t that be great? Encouraging certification gives us the opportunity to show our employees we have faith in their abilities and want to see them grow in our organizations. Developing longevity for individuals in our industry.

I know from all of my articles you all probably feel like I am standing on my soapbox. Well, I probably am. I have been part of the green profession for over thirty years. I have had many mentors and many past ONA/ONLA/OGIA members who I looked up to and learned from. While I don’t think I am that old, I am now one of those “older” members. I hope I can have the same influence on the next generation of green professionals. Find your passion. Develop it. Get out and help! Make a difference!

It’s been a pleasure working with my fellow Board members. I wish Genevieve Reiner-Mills all the best as she succeeds me as President.

2022

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