COG-OSO’s activities are made possible thanks to the hard work of its Steering Committee, volunteers, and of course its supporters! Our Steering Committee normally meets one evening per month to discuss upcoming events, services, programs, and activities. Our Steering Committee members are very hands-on and directly involved in delivering services within the community, along with additional volunteers. Our Steering Committee follows a “working board” and “shared leadership” model. This model means every member of our board is responsible for helping with different areas of our chapter and its services.
We are always looking for community members to join us on the Steering Committee. In particular, we are looking with community members who have expertise in communications, marketing, youth and adult education and farming. If you are interested, please get in touch!
COG OSO Steering Committee Meetings are open to COG members and the public and we’d love to have you attend! In 2020 the steering committee meetings will take place on the 4th Thursday of each month from 7:00-9:00 pm. The location of the meeting is variable, so if you’d like to attend, please contact us and we’ll let you know where we’re meeting! cog.oso.chapter@cog.ca.
Caitlin Carrol, Steering Committee Chair
Caitlin is an urban gardener with an insatiable appetite for locally grown, organic food. She started volunteering with the team in 2015 after being blown away by the impact that a handful of COG OSO volunteers were having on the community. She believes the educational services the Chapter provides to the local community are invaluable and takes immense pride in being able to help shape and support their success.
In her spare time she writes a food blog that focuses on cooking with local, seasonal, and mostly organic food. Caitlin also dabbles as a farm hand on her mother’s certified organic farm, as well as coordinating the recipe testing and communications for the farm’s CSA program.
Gary Weinhold, Treasurer
Gary has been involved with COG-OSO for 20+ years. He joined the team because he wanted to contribute to the organic movement in Canada. Gary had been a member of the OCIA Wisconsin chapter board prior to coming here.
Dick Coote, Membership Secretary
Dick has been involved since 1997. He got started because he used to produce soybeans and cereal grains using herbicides. Dick started to notice that spraying made him ill, even though he was conscientious about using protection. If these chemicals were having this effect on him, heaven knows what effects they were having on wildlife, birds, insects… COG helped him make contacts with like-minded farmers, and guided him to information valuable for organic production.
Karen Arsenault, Steering Committee Member
David Townson, Steering Committee Member
David has been a Steering Committee member for over 15 years. He also coordinated Organic Gardening Courses, Workshops and Seminars for about 14 years.
He is an avid organic gardener practicing what COG preaches in his own backyard and allotment gardens! He enjoy sharing his knowledge and a collection of books about organic gardening at the Organic Gardening Seminars. He’s also a contributor to COG OSO’s e-newsletter, Down to Earth, writing articles about various trips, such as his visit to the Rodale Field Day in 2013 which he really enjoyed!
Rachel Murphy, Volunteer Director GUO
Margaret Tourond-Townson, Steering Committee Member, SOG Leadership
Margaret became Editor of Down to Earth in 2003 and in 2010 became Interim Chair. She has had her finger in a lot of pies at COG OSO- helping with fundraising, communications, events such as Feast of Fields and developing a Legacy Program for COG OSO for the years to come.
She is a passionate gardener of organic herbs under the direction of her husband David. She has assisted David in organizing the Urban Organic Gardening Seminars since 2004.
Jim Davidson, Demonstration Garden Co-coordinator
Jim has been gardening at the COG Demonstration Garden for about 16 years. He finds the Demo Garden outreach both interesting and rewarding, as tourism and local enthusiasts bring the team ideas from far and wide, and from close by too. He enjoys that their conversations bring news from other hardiness zones, and allow for a comparison of our garden’s progress with others from Ottawa. The Demo Garden offers volunteer shifts Sunday mornings, with extra shifts added for special projects.
Jim is a Kemptville College graduate and was a member of the Real Food Cooperative. He keeps a garden work-shift-blog, coordinates the COG Info Booth, and also contributes to COG OSO’s e-newsletter, Down to Earth.
Betty Weil, Senior Organic Gardeners Director
Betty has been a flower gardener for many years and has helped establish butterfly gardens in Ottawa area schools where she taught for many years. She has been a member of Monarch Watch since 2003 and raises and releases monarchs.
Since 2016 she has focused her gardening efforts on growing organic food in an Ottawa community garden. She thanks the Earth and the gardening community for their patience and generosity and shares her harvest while passionately promoting the need for food security, healthy aging, and organic practices.
She is grateful to Margaret Tourond-Townson for her mentorship during the transition.