The Communications Committee (COMMCOMM) is the marketing arm of the Boothbay Region Garden Club. It is made up of three communications professionals working together to bring the BRGC message to all of our target markets…the general public and both current and prospective garden club members…and to raise awareness about this remarkable club and its activities.
First, Public Relations (P.R.) is our tool to reach the public through two channels: Both the Public Relations and Social Media components of the committee disseminate information about the club, its mission, meeting dates and program topics to the greater community throughout the year, both before and after meetings and special events.
Using press releases, notices to local media and social media updates, David Applegate describes the nature and purpose of the events and invites the public to attend meetings and events and to join the garden club.
David Applegate and his husband Ken Bertwell bought a home on Barter’s Island in the fall of 2021 and now spend summers in Maine and winters in Palm Springs, California. He joined the Garden Club after attending the Home and Garden Tour in 2022. Until recently, David was VP, Global Commercial Development for Glaukos Corporation, a pharmaceutical and medical device company that develops and markets innovative products for the treatment of glaucoma and corneal diseases. David still consults for Glaukos and has over 40 years of marketing and communications experience.
Second, the new ‘A New Leaf’ Newsletter is currently an internal marketing component, which will be sent to BRGC members monthly, keeping all informed about the club. It includes important current and upcoming dates, presidential, Board and committee updates, articles and photographs about garden club projects and events, as well as other garden-related items of interest to club members.
We hope to have a version available to the general public in the near future, which will, in conjunction with our new website blog entitled “Ask a Gardener”, provide an interactive knowledge-sharing service to members and interested gardeners alike.
Deanna Clarkson joined Boothbay Region Garden Club twelve years ago and has served as the Recording Secretary for the Board meetings for the past three years. She joined the Communications Committee this year as the new editor of the monthly ‘A New Leaf’ newsletter editor. She has degrees in physics, math and music…as she says ‘in areas that have nothing to do with gardening or writing’. She serves as the bookkeeper and somebody’s-gotta-do-it doer for Boothbay Family Dentistry. After homeschooling four children for over twenty years, Deanna has turned her creative skills and newfound time towards gardening and our newsletter. Learning more about beautifying and healing our world through gardening has become a passion of hers.
Third, the Website is the vessel that holds all the BRGC-related information in one, stationary place. Here you can find everything from the history of the club to the latest committee and work project gatherings; from past programs of interest to gardeners to current horticultural news; from past annual events throughout the state to upcoming ceremonies and field trips; from past club news to the latest newsletter; from past fund-raising to upcoming special events.
When Melissa Thornton joined the BRGC seven years ago, she was inspired by the President, Sandy Leonard, to fill the vacant position as the Trumpet quarterly Newsletter Editor. She served as Editor for the next four years. In 2023, she convinced the Board that the Club needed more marketing presence in order to grow the club membership and to fulfill the various missions and goals of the club. So she built a new comprehensive website on the old WIX software and has served as WebMaster since early 2023. This year, with the help of a WordPress expert, Melissa fine-tuned and streamlined the website, then translated it into WordPress software, which offers state-of-the-art functionality and a better fit for our non-profit website messages.
Melissa has an MBA in Marketing from the Amos Tuck Business School at Dartmouth College and has been using marketing in different environments (schools, agencies and in private practice) for the past 45 years. In the early 2000s, she built 15 websites as part of that, some for her own businesses, most for others’ businesses.
Since moving to Maine in 2006, she’s been marketing and running two vacation rentals on the Bold Colorful Life estate, in addition to her psychotherapy practice.
She is excited to introduce you all to the broader offerings of the new website.