The Association of Professional Landscapers will be having a busy time at the moment preparing for the International Chelsea Flower Show.
Generating Gardens, Landform Consultants, New Ground Landscapes, RG Landscape and Construction Ltd, Nascentia Landscapes Ltd to name but a few of the APL companies representing the association at this years show.
The Horticultural Trades Association website, quotes James Steele-Sargent, Chairman of the APL, “ Chelsea provides APL members with a wonderful opportunity to work closely with garden designers to bring paper plans and ideas to life. The resulting gardens are a fantastic advert for the work of the skilled landscaper which can be applied to all sizes of garden – people really can have a little bit of Chelsea in their own gardens.”
The APL is the only UK landscaping association that has Trust mark accreditation
Time for a grumble I am afraid! I found this news release on the HTA site but not a dickie bird on the APL site. In fact, the last press release about the APL and Chelsea is the one I highlighted, and they have buried, that dates from the 18th January 2008.
I brought up a few points on the 14th March 2008 - "Is the Association of Professional Landscapers 'A Dead Man Walking'?" - about how poorly served the UK landscapers of the APL are served and I am sorry to say, they just do not get how important the internet is.
After the 14th of March, when I called the the APL, it took ten days for the misspelt word 'landscapper' to be corrected.
I know there a few that are going to be wounded by my criticism but I am going to repeat myself here and say that the APL are a bloody shambles.
I am not going to identify the person I spoke to at the HTA but I was greeted with a great deal of apathy and excuses about how there isn't the time to spend on the APL work and that they do enough already.
It is time, in my honest opinion, to install a forward thinking energetic and proactive chairman who can pull together all of the resources that the APL has available and shake up the whole outfit.
The APL just does not do the job that it says it does on the tin. Why isn't the press release about Chelsea, which I have had to trawl the HTA site for, on the front page - or at least a link to it with a headline.
When I called the HTA, it was inferred to me that I am a trouble maker. Nothing is further from the truth. I would like nothing more than to sing from the highest sky scraper that the APL is doing a fantastic job and representing it's hard working membership in a positive way.
Here is my wish list for the APL
Make the APL a stand alone organisation - it does not need the HTA. I have always been confused about where the boundaries lie and it certainly does not help that the two share the same admin staff. If I telephone the APL, I want to speak to someone who id dedicated solely to the APL business and has their finger on the pulse.
Change the committee and have an internet poll to find the right officers.
Update and upgrade the internet site so that all of the very latest information is available. Add a community feature such as a Ning network which has a members area where they can chat and upload their project info.
A community will also allow potential customers the opportunity to get right to the heart of the organisation.
Upload all of the information that is relevant NOW. My blog is updated on the search engines within one hour of adding a post. This potential Juice is evading sites like the APL when it is not updated regularly.
I want to see pictures of the APL gardens at Chelsea being built and interviews with the APL members. I want to see the organisation trumpeted and all of the boasts about quality followed up.
I have even offered to help (which I was serious about) and that offer still stands but one thing is for sure, if nothing is done soon, the APL will be left for dead.
I need to add a little about BALI - they do not fare much better. The news section has not been updated since September 2007. Can you honestly say that there is not a great piece of news coming out of either of the two associations that represent the valuable UK landscaping industries?
Lets not end this post on a sour note - I need to catch up with John Kersley of Nascentia Landscapes and find out how they did eventually transport those 1000 litre pear trees? "I wonder if we have had the task of transporting three 1000 litre mature pear trees – too tall to go on a lorry and too fragile to put on their side’!"
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