What's New
Sara Helm-Wallace becomes New England Botanical Society's first Executive Director
Sara Helm-Wallace joined NEBS in the role of Association Manager in 2020, where her responsibilities were to manage our organization's membership and coordinate Rhodora subscriptions with Allen Press, our publisher then. She also readily maintained our social media presence and was soon running our monthly meetings over Zoom. After Council voted to self-publish Rhodora and take on management of all subscriptions, Sara enthusiastically took on those extra responsibilities. Also in the last year, Council has initiated the construction of a new NEBS website and a reorganization of committees and their functions. Sara immediately became a pivotal coordinator of activities that support our mission, vision, and strategic goals. It was clear to Council that Sara's investment in NEBS with her broad suite of skills should be expanded into a part-time Executive Director position. After many discussions within the NEBS Council and with the support of the Finance Committee, the position was created, and Sara's duties were expanded to enable us to better serve our membership and fulfill our mission. Sara will be responsible for all aspects of memberships, for leading outreach initiatives that promote NEBS, and for ensuring the success of Rhodora, including supervising its Managing Editor. The Executive Director reports to an Executive Committee, who among other things, supervises and collaborates with her.
Since its inception, our organization has been led and run by a group of dedicated volunteers, especially by elected Officers and Councilors supported by a network of committees. Collectively, these volunteers have acted as supervisors to employees, curated and grown our herbaria of over 260,000 specimens, facilitated the publication of our journal Rhodora, maintained a library and archives, operated our website, circulated a monthly mailing, planned field-trips, outings, and a monthly speaker series, maintained the society's finances, and sought to maintain the regulatory and legal standing of NEBS. While NEBS remains a predominantly volunteer-run organization, we are pleased to announce the first Executive Director in our 126-year history and are thankful for having Sara Helm-Wallace serve in this capacity. She has impressed NEBS leadership with her independently driven motivation, creativity, and intellect. To top it off, Sara has an extensive background in the public garden sector and shares our organization's enthusiasm for plants and plant-minded people.
NEBC Changes Name!
On the evening of Saturday, 27 February 2021, a Special Meeting of the New England Botanical Club was convened virtually to discuss and vote on two important items: updates to our organization's Bylaws and a proposal to change our organization's name to
New England Botanical Society.
This Special Meeting for changing the Bylaws, which requires 30 members present, was attended by 48 members of NEBC. A 2/3 vote of those members present and voting is required to pass changes to the Bylaws.
- The proposed updates to our organization's Bylaws, other than the name, were passed unanimously (47 votes in favor, with 1 abstention).
- A vote to change our name to New England Botanical Society was also unanimous (46 votes in favor, 2 abstentions)
- The final vote on the Bylaws with "Society" replacing "Club" was also passed unanimously (47 votes in favor, no abstentions).
These votes resulted in the adoption of the updated 2021 Bylaws for New England Botanical Society, which also includes the name change.
This Special Meeting was preceded earlier in the month by sharing with the full membership a 4-page document that outlined Council's rational for the name change proposal. An Open Discussion of the proposed name change was held virtually on 13 February 2021, followed by a non-binding online poll of membership, which was open from 13-25 February 2021. A Summary of the Name Change Poll results were presented at the Special Meeting. The membership received the announcement of the name change from the 2020-2021 NEBC Council via email on 2 March 2021.
The process of formally and legally changing our organization's name to New England Botanical Society will be undertaken in the coming weeks and months. Until those changes are officially made, we will still use NEBC in our mailings, on the current website, and in social media posts. However, the new, more responsive, and expanded website that is currently under construction will be as the New England Botanical Society. Our herbarium acronym will remain NEBC.
NEBC Celebrates 125 Years!
Friday, February 5, 2021 was the 125th anniversary of the founding of the New England Botanical Club. We celebrated the 17 charter members in this slideshow and provided a report that was written after the first official meeting on February 5,1896. In recognition of all the officers, councilors, and others who have served NEBC since our founding, please have a look at this list and see who you recognize. On the NEBC website, you can also read a short history of NEBC starting with the first two organizational meetings. We hope that later in 2021 we will be able to meet in person and have a proper celebration. In the meantime, we ask you to tell us about some of your most memorable moments of membership, share photographs from previous NEBC events, and contribute poems, art work, or creations that celebrate all things botanical. We look forward to sharing these later. Please be sure to include your name and contact information with items placed in the Dropbox. Google Drive for Contributions to 125th.
The New England Botanical Club announces a new Special Publication describing the Vascular Flora of Franklin County, Massachusetts written by Robert Bertin, Matt Hickler, Karen Searcy, Glenn Motzkin, and Pete Grima. The 290-page book includes introductory sections on the physical setting, geology, climate, soils, vegetation, human influence, and history of botanical collection and exploration in Franklin County, which includes parts of the Worcester Plateau, the Connecticut River Valley and the Berkshire Highlands, and an annotated list of county species based on over ten years of field and herbarium work. For more details and to purchase, please see Special Publications page.
