Every Newsletter, for about the past year, I’ve anticipated an article announcing the end of the “printed era.” I know most trade groups have gone the, what I assume is called “digital” route, so I figured NHLA was soon due to change.

One of the printed newsletters I still get is from the Oregon Association of Nurseries. It is actually more like a magazine, 40-50 pages. The fact that Oregon has such a large newsletter, which actually includes growers (both nursery and greenhouse) and landscapers, is due to the fact that Oregon is the country’s largest nursery state. I no longer belong to OAN, but they’ve been sending it to me free of charge for about 25 years.

The NHLA Newsletter, I guess you could say has always been a little close to my heart. Sounds a little weird as I re-read that statement! In the early days of NHLA I played several roles. The landscape industry was in it’s early stages, customers were no where near as apt to spend money on plantings, hardscapes, or maintenance. Obviously the economy was much different and landscaping was not as high a priority for consumers.

My memory voids are becoming wider, so dates are harder to remember, but I think it was about a 10-year period that I replaced Peter Kidd, who had been the original newsletter editor. He wrote most of it, the president sent in his column, then off it went to the printer, hopefully with a couple of contributing articles now and then.

At that time there was no position called “business manager.” Most of this work was done by the board president, called the executive director, and/or the secretary treasurer. After I’d been the newsletter editor for a while, the executive director stepped down and I offered to take that job. I drove a hard bargain, however. I asked for a raise; I think I was asking $8/ hr rather than $6, and I needed a new typewriter . All correspondence was either by phone or USPS — very few people had computers at that time. I was the only person that was paid by NHLA, and the only other costs were the newsletter final fine tuning and printing costs. In those years NHLA was operating on a shoestring budget and quite a bit of the work was done pro bono as an attempt to get the organization off the ground and even help boost the industry.

At the monthly board meetings we tried to come up with a program for future months so that I, as executive director, could contact speakers, find places to have dinner meetings when needed, and in winter months contact locations to hold the meetings. Over the years we had some pretty informative speakers such as Mike Dirr. We had meetings almost every month, outside in nice weather and inside in inclement months. I don’t recall the exact timing, but I also served as president at some time.

I can’t remember the exact set up, but after I stopped writing the newsletter, Chuck Simpson took over and his sister Ruth Sterling started doing the editing, layout, and production of the whole publication. Shortly after, Carolyn Isaak took over that role. I think by this time I was back here in Maine and I kind of lost touch with NHLA for a short while, but Carolyn has done an excellent job with the changes over the years managing the whole operation.

I’ve noticed a bit of a change in the membership. Because larger companies seem to be present in the industry, not as much focus seems to go into the actual “Green Industry”aspect of the industry, but toward the maintenance end of the business. Plants (trees, shrubs, perennials) don’t appear to be as high a priority as they were 20+ years ago. Many people seem to think bigger is better and I see companies becoming bigger and “more corporate” and as a result some of the workers I talk to don’t know why they are still mowing at the same height in a hot August as they did in a cooler time when grass was growing at a faster rate. Oh well, Maybe I’m still in the 1970s time warp and short cut August lawns are now the correct way!

This turned into a long side track from the Newsletter going to four issues a year and no longer in print form. Time for me to face the 21st century, I guess! I’m sure it will work out fine and I urge members to write articles and share the strengths they have in different area . There is a lot of talent out there!

— by Phil Caldwell, a past president of NHLA (1989) now living and working in Maine.