Duties and Job Descriptions of the Committees of the Cape Cod Hydrangea Society

Curator

Past President of the Cape Cod Hydrangea Society, Mal Condon, is the Curator of Hydrangeas at Heritage Museum & Gardens. He oversees the collections and their maintenance. Heritage Museums & Gardens is home to a national hydrangea test garden when new hybrid varieties of hydrangeas are being planted, grown and studied by professional growing experts from across the country. The North American Hydrangea Test Garden is the most comprehensive collection in the United States. The test garden continues Heritage’s collaboration with The Cape Cod Hydrangea Society, begun in 2008 when 150 cultivars and species were planted.

Display & Test Gardens Maintenance

The Display and Test Gardens maintenance coordinator shall communicate CCHS Display Garden and North American Test Garden information, maintenance tasks and activities with Mal Condon, Curator of Hydrangeas at Heritage Museum and Gardens. They shall schedule and organize maintenance team work to reach the goal of having a world class hydrangea collection.

They shall prepare the work schedule with dates for the coming year in October and announce it at the fall meeting. They shall inform the Newsletter Editor and the Website Chairman for posting. Information and/or photos for an article should be submitted to the Newsletter Editor for the spring and fall newsletters. Deadline is the end of April for spring and end of October for fall.

Workdays shall be one day a week 9:00 AM to Noon from the beginning of April through the July Hydrangea Festival. Maintenance is scheduled one day every other week after the Festival through September.

The Coordinator shall communicate with the maintenance team before each work day with tasks planned and weather cancellations.

The Coordinator shall notify all volunteers of Heritage’s policy regarding New Volunteer Forms and CORI forms to be filed with the HR department at HMG.  The Coordinator shall provide and collect workday sign in/out sheets and deliver them to the Volunteer Coordinator at HMG.

The Coordinator shall update the membership on Display Garden and North American Test Garden activities at the general CCHS meetings. …and have a great time working and learning in the Hydrangea Gardens with fellow CCHS members!

Docents

The Chairperson shall coordinate with the Ways & Means Chairperson to identify houses on the tour and shall develop a spreadsheet of all shifts for Member Gardens and Heritage Gardens and have the Membership Director email a copy to Members with requests to sign-up. A follow-up should be done on a biweekly or weekly schedule.

The Chairperson shall communicate with Member Garden homeowners to verify information needed for tour. One week before the tour, the Chairperson shall meet with the docents, either in person or via Zoom, to describe docent information. The Chairperson shall ensure that each shift has appropriate instructions and materials. The Chairperson shall coordinate the process for end of day tally, movement of money and return of material provided.

The Chairperson shall be available during Hydrangea Festival week to be able to fill in shifts, visit gardens and resolve issues that arise.

Garden Tours

The Chairperson shall organize the CCHS member tour gardens for the Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival sponsored by the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce. This includes emailing CCHS members in the Fall to solicit gardens for the tours and creating a spreadsheet with garden owner contact info and tour dates.

The Chairperson will continue contact with garden owners via email or phone over the winter and spring, regarding requests for garden descriptions, the number of docents needed and the number of directional signs.  The signs are provided by the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce.

The Chairperson will send emails in the spring to the Programs & Events Manager at the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce to provide the list of gardens, tour dates and garden descriptions.

The Chairperson will coordinate with the CCHS garden tours brochure editor to determine the requirements for the garden descriptions and relay those instructions to the garden owners to assist in their description composition.

The Chairperson will contact the CCHS Artists in the Garden coordinator and provide the list of gardens, owner contact info and tour dates.

The Chairperson will work with the Docent Chairperson(s) to provide garden owner contact information, tour dates and tally sheets.

Historian

The role of the Historian is to record any events that significantly impact the operation of CCHS.

Hydrangea University

Hydrangea University is the premier event for the CCHS Festival. It is held on the first day of the Festival. CCHS partners with HMG.

The Chairperson is responsible for booking three speakers for the event, obtaining hydrangea plants donated by the nurseries (200 plants), procuring and collecting items for the “swag bag” by sending out request letters to past sponsors and a different letter to new sponsors and following up with a phone call.

The Chairperson is responsible for ordering tote bags (for “swag bags”) and items with CCHS logo and information on CCHS garden tours and display garden. The Chairperson shall order snacks for the two hundred attendees. The bags should be picked up the day before the event. CCHS volunteers (4-6 people) shall fill the bags and package snacks the day before Hydrangea University. CCHS volunteers (4) shall check in attendees and distribute “swag bags” and snacks the day of Hydrangea University. Volunteers (3) shall oversee the hydrangea plant distribution to attendees.

The Chairperson shall have continual communications with Heritage, sponsors, volunteers, speakers, CCHS members and the CCHS Board.

After Hydrangea University, the Chairperson shall assure all receipts are compensated from the CCHS Treasurer, create detailed expense reports and submit them to Heritage for final reconciliation and compensation.

The Chairperson shall send thank you notes to all sponsors.

Newsletter

The Newsletter Editor is responsible for publishing the Society’s e-newsletter on a quarterly basis. Specific duties include:

• Determining appropriate and timely articles, photos and information to be included in each newsletter.
• Asking members and non-members to write articles and provide photos.
• Establishing submission deadlines for articles and sending out deadline reminders to contributors.
• Writing articles that others are not willing to write.
• Editing articles for length, proper grammar, etc.
• Working with a graphic artist on the layout of each issue
• Sending each finished e-newsletter to the Society’s Membership Director for distribution.

Nominating

All members of the (Board) Nominating Committee are required to identify potential candidates for current or upcoming vacancies and to work diligently toward attracting and securing top talent. Their duties include identifying, recruiting, screening and interviewing candidates for Board and Committee Head leadership positions. The President/Co-Presidents should not appoint this committee nor be a member of it, ex officio or otherwise. The Nominating Committee and its Chair fall under the umbrella of the Executive Board position of Membership, as defined in the Bylaws.

Publicity

The Committee is responsible for managing publicity for CCHS and determining ways to share events of our society through various forms of media and to share with the Cape Cod community our mission statement, special events, the Hydrangea Festival, member garden tours and our partnership with Heritage Museum and Gardens.

Social Affairs

The Social Affairs Chairperson shall provide refreshments, setup and clean up for the fall and spring member meetings. The Chairman shall check on and refresh supplies.

The Social Affairs Chairperson shall arrange a date and venue for “Wine in the Garden” in July or August; send out invitations one month ahead; keep a list of members attending and what they are bringing; get volunteers to help serve, pour, set up and clean up; and check supplies and order wine and beverages.

The Social Affairs Chairperson shall (usually in August) arrange the date and venue for the winter Pot Luck; send out invitations one month in advance; keep a record of who is attending and what they are bringing; check supplies and replenish as needed; and get volunteers for set up and clean up.

The Social Affairs Chairperson shall arrange for the annual dinner, held in October; arrange the venue and menu and record who attends.

Social Media

The Chairperson shall update the Facebook page and answer questions posed there.

Sponsors

Sponsors are solicited to help fund Hydrangea University.

The Sponsor Chairperson shall update the previous year’s sponsor list to reflect; 1. previous sponsors and 2. potential new sponsors.

The Sponsor Chairperson shall develop a schedule for the sponsorship process; develop undated sponsorship letters for 1 and 2 above; create specific sponsorship letters, purchase stationary and mail in early February. The Chairperson shall assign volunteers to help with follow up calls; coordinate with volunteer to manage items for “swag bags”; coordinate with Treasurer to identify sponsor applications received; track all responses on a spreadsheet; receive sponsor logos and forward to Hydrangea University Chairperson to send to Heritage for advertising; assist HU Chairperson and “swag bag” volunteers to stuff “swag bags”.

The Sponsor Chairperson shall , upon completion of Hydrangea University, send thank you notes to sponsors and volunteers.

AV Technology

The AV Technology Committee is responsible for the technical portion (audio and visual) setup for the presentations at the spring and fall meetings.

Ways and Means

The primary responsibility of the Chairperson of the Ways and Means Committee is over all revenue generating events for the CCHS. The two major events are Hydrangea University and the Hydrangea Festival Garden tours.  Also, raffles at the CCHS business meetings are an occasional task.

Website

The Website Chairperson maintains the CCHS website with updates that include member lists, board and committee chairpersons, photos, committee descriptions, newsletters, minutes and events.  Website design changes are communicated to COLEwebdev, our design management company.

The Chairperson shall read Gmail emails daily and either answer them or send them to the Presidents or Mal Condon.