COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Debbie Steel

Chair

​Debbie has now been in post since Jan 2017 having been elected to the position of Chair, to replace Eric Watson, who stood down after 18 years service. She has been a member of the Group since Oct 2013. During that time she was our Treasurer, Membership Secretary, and on the Events Committee, organising our Day Trips and Holidays. She continues on the Events Committee whilst serving as Chair.
She works part time in a Finance Dept for a local Waste Recycling Company in Canford and spends a lot of her time in the garden, with her long suffering husband Dave, and looking after her Mum.

Sheila Westgate

SECRETARY

​​Sheila was co-opted to the Committee as Secretary in 2015, having been a member since 2012, and has now started her second year in the role. She lives in Colehill with her husband, James (our Speaker Secretary). Although they had not been here for very long, they bravely opened their garden, for the Colehill Garden Gadabout, and hope to do so again in 2018 to help raise funds for the library. They used to open their garden in Essex to the public and were keen to raise money for the local community. 

David      Burnham-Slipper

TREASURER

David has been a member for a number of years, and, with his wife Jane, has, since his retirement as a solicitor in 2012, taken to re-designing their garden in St Leonards.  He has given practical help at our monthly meetings.  David has been our Treasurer since January 2017, having fulfilled that role in other organisations over the years.

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James Westgate

SPEAKER SECRETARY

James, married to Sheila, as referred to above, was co-opted to the Committee as Speaker Secretary in 2015. Having been thrown in at the deep end, he soon managed to find his feet and the speakers we have had since have been excellent. 
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Whilst Sheila deals with the "artistic" parts of the garden, James  takes care of the landscaping and puts Sheila's ideas into practice.  He is also very useful when it comes to the sound system and the projector in the Hall, especially if Eric is not around.

Janet Riggs

COMMITTEE MEMBER MEMBERSHIP

Janet has been a member for a number of years and has helped with events such as the Colehill Gadabout and Plant Fayre last year. She moved to Parkstone 7 years ago, after retiring from working in HR, but got bored  and after trying several jobs now happily works for a local supermarket part time.
She shares her garden with 2 cats who aren’t very good gardeners and is always trying, and failing, to make her garden look like the books. She is looking forward to getting to know the members better. Janet will be taking on Membership and may be contacted via the website, or by our email address dorsethps@gmail.com
She has also volunteered to join the Events Committee - welcome Janet. 

Barbara Gooch

COMMITTEE MEMBER
COMMUNICATION

​Barbara has been with the Group for so many years, too many to mention. She has done pretty much EVERY job except Chair. Having stood down last year, having exceeded the maximum for committee members under the Constitution, she was co-opted back on to fill the role of Hardy Times Editor (as well as sitting on the Events Committee). She now stands in her first year on the Committee now.

Now there are so many more things to do, Barbara will be responsible for Group  Communications. So she may not write the Hardy Times, Magazine, Website etc......but she will co-ordinate their production. She is checking our new email address daily and will forward any query emails to the relevant person.
  
Her wealth of knowledge about places to visit is invaluable for planning successful Holidays and Day Trips. She also knows everyone in Colehill so when we organised the Colehill Gadabout, she was the one who found the gardens and their owners, then encouraged them to open their gardens to the public.

Jane Norris

RAFFLE

Jane too has been on the Committee for many years organising the Raffle Prizes. She is also responsible for the Plant Stall, growing many of them herself. If you have any queries re growing plants or propagating them, she is your lady. Jane encourages members to produce more plants so that we can sell them on our Plant Table, with the members making money out of it, whilst we take a small commission.

She has also been helping with the narrative regarding the Speakers on our website.
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As with Barbara, Jane stood down from the Committee in January 2017 but, as we did not have a full committee, she was co-opted back on as we needed her special skills. Now in 2018 she is a full member of the Committee and continues helping the group in whatever way she can.
As well as helping the Hardy Plants, Jane also helps run the U3A Gardening Group with Barbara once a month.

Roger Melton

COMMITTEE MEMBER PHOTOGRAPHY

​Roger has been a member for a number of years and has been a member of the committee for the past year. He is putting his photographic skills to good use and is organising the Photographic Competition this year so if you would like to enter please contact him via the website or by our email dorsethps@gmail.com 
He lives in Verwood, with his wife Barbara, and enjoys visiting gardens and buying plants. Roger is an enthusiastic photographer and has captured some of our events on film over the past year.

Janice Walters

COMMITTEE MEMBER REFRESHMENTS

Janice has been longstanding member of the Group, with her husband Hugh. She joined the Committee and threw herself into the Refreshments role and is doing an excellent job of keeping us fed and watered at each  meeting.
Hugh & Janice's special interests include wildlife and organic gardening.

Andrew Haynes

PRESIDENT

We do have a President, and whilst he is not a member of the Committee, Andrew has an important role to play within the Group.
He is a professional gardener, working as Head Gardener at Edmondsham House for a number of years. You will always find him behind our Plant Table, and he too is another of our members who has a huge amount of horticultural knowledge which they are happy to share with you, so please feel free to test him some time.

Eric Watson

FACEBOOK ADMINISTRATOR

​Eric too is not on the current committee, but has headed it up for the past 18 years. He has taken over our Facebook page and is still heavily involved with the Group.