PRESIDENT'S PERSPECTIVE Emily Showalter, Willoway Nurseries, Inc. It’s hard to believe this is my final Buckeye Article as President of the ONLA. To say, “2020 was a year that we will never forget,” is an understatement. I am humbled to have been the President of Ohio’s largest statewide Green Industry association throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic. ONLA’s staff, board, and members have adjusted to these unprecedented times in the most professional way possible while keeping our industry’s wellbeing in mind. Thank you to Tim Clark who has (finally) completed a long Board of Directors term and a combined Executive Board term. Tim has contributed countless hours of dedication to the ONLA and our industry as a two-time board member and Past President. Thank you also to Wendy Moore from Davis Tree Farm & Nursery, and Brandon Druffel from Dan Druffel Inc. for your contributions on the board. We look forward to announcing our new Board Members in January 2021. Our 2020 board meetings were very different with all of our meetings held virtually due to the pandemic. We hope to have our final board meeting in person in November (socially distanced, of course). The pandemic has forced the ONLA to think quite differently over the past year. One of the changes that we look forward to implementing is a new approach to our Committees and Committee meetings. A new Advisory Committee will begin taking shape in place of segmented group committees. The standing committees are welcome to continue to meet as needed throughout this transition and into the future. The vision of the Advisory Committee is a revived sounding board for the ONLA staff, board, and members and a place where we can develop a pool of potential new board members. ONLA staff will be reaching out to current committee members to gather information on interested participants for our Advisory Committee. Another challenge and change we faced this year included creatively designing our popular Ohio High School Landscape Olympics. Our traditional location, Ohio State University’s ATI Campus in Wooster, is not hosting public events, so when Roni asked me if we would consider hosting the event at Willoway Nurseries, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. Even with a reduced number of schools able to participate and continued restrictions due to COVID-19, the event was a success and we are proud that we were able to provide this hands-on experience for students. I think it is still safe to say that the biggest issue we face in our businesses is that not enough young people (or their parents) understand that our industry provides countless career paths to consider. ONLA hit the nail on the head when they developed OHLO to help connect students to potential onla.org
employers and for students to gain hands-on experience in numerous areas of our industry. Willoway and our team were honored to host the event this year to continue the focus on succession planning efforts for the industry and our members businesses. I wanted to close by thanking my family for exposing me to all that this wonderful industry has to offer at a very young age. Thank you for continuing to support me and allow me to grow with the ONLA. My mother and uncle (Cathy Kowalczyk and Tom Demaline) have led by example by always volunteering on Association boards, participating in Industry Advocacy, and building relationships will all of the wonderful businesses that make up the true Green Industry. If you are reading this and have the chance to get involved, I promise you won’t regret it. And we need you because we can’t do it alone! Please reach out to any of our ONLA Staff or current board members if you would like to find out how you can become more involved in the ONLA. By the time you are reading this we have all hopefully been able to enjoy the cooler fall weather and have watched a Buckeye Football Game or two. Thank you again for this opportunity and I look forward to the time when we can all meet in person again soon! B
Emily can be contacted at eshowalter@wwninc.com November/December 2020
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