2018 has been a very good year! 

by Marsha Gebhardt
President, Wild Ones – St. Louis Chapter

2018 has been a very good year!  It’s been a year of impressive growth and significant activity for Wild Ones-St. Louis Chapter, and for the native landscaping movement in the St. Louis region.

Throughout 2018, the chapter celebrated its 20^th anniversary, culminating in November with a catered dinner and an inspirational talk from chapter founder Scott Woodbury.  He acknowledged that our membership has grown to 180.  This is a 50% increase from the 120 members at the end of 2017.  We are now the fourth largest of the 55 chapters nation-wide.   

Why does membership matter? It means we are reaching and inspiring more people around the mission of encouraging landscaping with native plants.  It means we have more person-power for our chapter’s increasing activities that educate and support homeowners as they learn and develop their own native landscapes. 

Overview of 2018 accomplishments

Volunteers – Proudly wearing their Wild Ones-St. Louis Chapter name badges, members filled 156 volunteer committee positions at 22 events. They offered their time, more than 300 hours, and talents to Wild Ones and “Healing Earth one yard at a time.”  

Monthly Gatherings – An average of 70 people attended each month’s Gatherings in 2018. This impressive increase resulted from a combination of efforts. 

• People came to expect a quality learning and networking experience, thanks to the choices of topics/speakers for our three winter Gatherings, and the choices of the six member and public native plant gardens for our spring/summer/fall Gatherings. 
• Often the garden tours were available on Wednesday evening and Saturday morning, which enabled more people to attend.  
• The website invitation to subscribe to receive Gathering reminders was very helpful.  In 2018 the subscriptions increased from 424 to 579; a 36% increase.

Speakers Bureau – Over 700 people were educated and inspired in 2018, through our new Speakers Bureau! Many of these talks were requested by the St. Louis County Library system.  Talks have been extremely well-received. 

• 2017 – 11 talks; 8 by Ann and Bob, 2 by James and 1 by Sue
• 2018 – 31 talks; first year of Speaker’s Bureau

Partnerships/collaborations in the St. Louis region – Wild Ones-St. Louis Chapter continued to be a “major player” in 2018. We created a “rack card”  we titled Circle of Support.  It points people to four primary organizations that support native plant gardeners in the St. Louis region: Wild Ones-St. Louis Chapter, St. Louis Audubon Society/Bring Conservation Home, Shaw Nature Reserve, and Grow Native.  This year it has been used extensively, by all four organizations, at tabling and speaking events. 

Major events with partner organizations in 2018 were:

• Hometown Habitat – March 6^th at the St. Louis Zoo
• Partners for Native Landscaping Workshop – March 31^st at Maryland Heights Community Center
• Shaw Nature Reserve Plant Sale – May 11^th and 12^th
• St. Louis Native Plant GardenTour – June 16^th

Publicity/marketing – In 2018, we also have increased awareness of Wild Ones through the following:

• Signs in member and grant recipient gardens 
• Professional-looking nametags for members
• Wild Ones-St. Louis Chapter and Circle of Support rack cards
• Newspaper ads in the Kirkwood/Webster Times and the Gateway Gardener
• Displays at 4 garden centers which have significant native plant inventory

Website – These days, it is important to have a presence and accessibility via a website, and Facebook.

• The year started with 354 blog update subscribers and closed it out with 476; more than a 34% increase. 
• Subscribers for the Gathering reminders increased from 424 to 579; a 36% increase.
• The Wild Ones-St. Louis Chapter Facebook page received 537 ‘likes’ as of Jan 1, 2017. As of November 8^th there were 778 ‘likes’; a 44% increase.

Grants – The primary expenditure of our chapter is for school and other non-profit organization grants.

• In 2018 there were 12 grant requests; a record number. Three of those were approved for 2019.
• This is in comparison with: 8 in 2017 and 2016, 6 in 2015 and 2014.
• The board approved a $1,000 increase for 2018; from $2,500 to $3,500.
• The board approved $4,000 for 2019.

Thank you and looking forward

With appreciation for all who have participated in furthering the mission of Encouraging Landscaping with Native Plants in 2018, and with anticipation of even greater impact in 2019!

Marsha