Maryland State Meeting (FGCMD) 2015

For most of us, the Maryland State Annual Meeting in March is the highest level meeting we will attend, unless we achieve the rarified air of being elected Director.  This year, only Marjorie and I attended and we signed up to be registrars where needed. I was assigned to District 1 which was oversubscribed for volunteers so had a reprieve and the time to take my camera to document what goes on. Now YOU can see what happens at Turf Valley at the State Meeting and why you might like to go next time!

I will break this up into sections of gallery photos. Click to enlarge and scroll through each section.

I. Arrival

II. The Vendors

What surprised me a little–no plants–however, plenty of pots and accoutrements. Also big are items for personal adornment.

III. Inside the Luncheon Room

There are displays, the raffle items, lovely tables (Linda Masland was key in the table arrangements–tres fancy!), workshop designs and displays.Finally, people from all over the state of Maryland were milling around talking and looking at everything.  District V’s basket garnered the highest $$–lots of wine sweetened by our Brent and Becky’s certificate. Sitting at table with people from other districts and clubs is a good way to broaden your understanding of garden club.

 

IV The Work Shop Arrangements

At state, there is usually an option to sign up and pay for at least one special workshop. This one as devoted to a specific sort of arrangement. Note the use of clear cylindrical vases and how they were filled.

V. The Meeting

The official meeting was held in a separate room. Like District, State changed officers with President Jackie Handley handing over the office to her 1st Vice President. She is the lady in this photo wearing a white suit: Nicki Schwab. (Her photo was too blurry–sorry).This was also a time to swear in the 2015-2017 officers and  distribute state awards to varied clubs and districts.

VI. The Program

This years program featured Denny Warrenfeltz, a well known designer. Denny is amusing and also always in motion, so it was hard to get a decent photo of him that wasn’t blurred out. His theme was arrangements made in homage to particular TV shows. He would do the design and then rush over to play theme music for us to guess which it was.  He described himself as being an “engineer of harvested plant materials”, not knowing much at all about the growing part. He is into design for the fun of using varied materials and calling forth the inner artist.  Some of these arrangements, in particular the tropical (Hawaii 5-O) would be very pricey to replicate. He said it would probably cost in the neighborhood of $350 to purchase. (Arrghhh!)