Waterloo Chapter this week
Add the Waterloo Chapter page and the LO events calendar to your bookmarks

Planning meeting for Regional Skills, Jan. 27

A meeting is set for tomorrow, Jan. 27, to plan for the Regional Skills Competition that will take place in Elmira. The planning meeting will take place at 10 a.m., hosted by Chapter president Rob Tester at TNT Property Maintenance shop at 40 Spring
Valley Dr. in Kitchener. Rob hopes members will step forward to help out at this annual event, scheduled for Mar. 8 at Elmira Farm
Service. Volunteers are needed for set judging and planning. Contact Rob Tester at rob@tntpropertymaintenance.com.

Jeffrey Scott to speak at Networking Dinner, Feb. 1
Join the Waterloo Chapter for a networking dinner with Jeffrey Scott, an internationally-known author and consultant to the green industry. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Charcoal Steak House, 92980 King Street East, Kitchener. During dinner you will enjoy getting to know other like-minded contractors, hearing and sharing success stories and gaining inspiration. In addition, Jeffrey Scott will give each attendee a complimentary copy of his new book on peer groups, entitled The Leader’s Edge. Cost is $85 per person and space is limited to the first 20 landscape businesses who sign up. For more information, contact Dave Wright at 519-465-4845, or davew@wright.on.ca or pay online.

Waterloo Chapter meeting, Feb. 2
Grow Your Sales Faster with More Certainty. In these tough times where
profits are uncertain and competition is everywhere, you need a new
approach to ensure stronger sustainable growth. Join the Waterloo
chapter from 7 – 9 p.m., as they welcome Jeffrey Scott, landscape business
consultant and author of The Referral Advantage, who will share his 15
powerful tools to implement growth. For more information, contact Helen Hassard at
1-800-265-5656, ext. 354, or helen@landscapeontario.com.



LO this week

CLP certification course begins Saturday
Humber
College, in
partnership with Landscape Ontario
and the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association, is offering a green industry business management course, based on the six required modules to achieve CLP certification. The course will be offered in a
flexible delivery format involving in-class and online learning activities. In-class sessions are scheduled for three Saturdays, starting Jan. 22, and continuing Feb 5 and 19. A review session will be held on Feb 26.
Participants may write the CLP exam following the review session. Registration and information can be found by going to the
Humber College
website.

Free safety training opportunity
Safety
trainer LandscapeSafety.com is offering each LO member a free,
comprehensive online training program for one employee. Participants may
choose from any or all of 23 online training modules, including WHMIS.
To sign up, visit http://www.landscapesafety.com/lo.php.

Growers’ Group Short Course, Feb. 9
The annual LO Growers Group Short Course will take place at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Burlington. The program will focus on important production
issues, including weed management, effective IPM strategies and lots of
research updates. This year’s featured speaker is Charles Gilliam from
Auburn University. Pre-registration price is $65 for LO members, $75 for
potential members and $25 for students. On-site registration is $90.
Online registration is available here.

Garden Tourism Conference in Toronto
The second Canadian Garden Tourism Conference, with the theme of Blossoming Partnerships, will take place Mar. 14 and 15, at the Delta Chelsea Hotel in Toronto. For more information on the event, and to register go to Garden Tourism Conference.


Green Infrastructure Ontario survey
The Green Infrastructure Ontario Coalition questionnaire is part of an effort to
gauge green infrastructure challenges and opportunities in communities across Ontario. Through a
survey, the group, of which Landscape Ontario
is a partner, hopes to learn what’s
working, barriers faced, and what needs to change. Results will be presented at community
workshops and incorporated into a public report, scheduled for release in fall
2011. The questionnaire takes ten minutes or less to complete, and is submitted
anonymously. The deadline for submissions is Feb. 4.


Foundation raffle will help industry

Try
your luck in the Ontario Horticultural Trade Foundation raffle, and
help support your industry. Tickets are $20 each; first prize is
$5,000, second is $1,000 and third is $500. Only 1,000 tickets were
printed. The draw will take place at
Industry Night at Canada Blooms on Thurs., Mar. 17. All proceeds to
go to scholarships and research projects. Contact Kathleen Pugliese to purchase tickets.

Professional development seminars
Quit hoping for Profit: Plan on it Jan. 31
Chiseled
in Stone-Inter
Jan. 31
Keep
your Engines Running
Jan. 31
The
Hardy Woody Plant
Jan. 31
Plant
Doctor in the House
Jan. 31

Trees and Shrubs: Establishment & Maintenance from the Ground Up Feb. 2

Getting Started in Concrete Feb. 3

Intro to Grading/Drainage & Other Practical Calculations Feb. 3

Ultimate Supervisors: A Foreman’s Guide to Productivity & Profit Feb. 3

Retaining Walls from the Ground Up Feb. 4

How to Utilize Dynascape Feb. 4


Quit hoping for Profit: Plan for it Feb. 7


Times of Transition: Succession Planning, Family Dynamics & Multiple Generations at Work Feb. 7

Paving your way to Perfect Interlock Feb. 7


First Aid and Level A CPR Feb. 9


ECO-Logic:How to Use it naturally in the Landscape Feb. 9


Flagstone Fundamentals Feb. 10

Landscape Design – Above and Beyond Feb. 10

Estimating to Win Feb. 10


Perennials = Sustainability Feb. 11
Ready, Set, Go! Feb. 11

Growing Gretzkys: How to Find & Develop Superstars Feb. 11


To register or get more information, click seminars.

Building your Prosperity seminar, Feb. 17
The introductory Prosperity Partnership seminar will get you started on to the road of success. The next program is scheduled for Landscape Ontario home office at 7856 Fifth Line South, Milton. It is intended to help green industry members clarify what they excel at and what components of their business need attention and improvement. A seminar workbook will be provided. Take this online survey, to measure your strengths and weaknesses in the six Prosperity pillars. Click here for more information, or to register.

Professional organic horticulture course
An
intensive two-week course, Feb. 7 to 18, at Humber College, North Campus, Toronto, is
being offered on organic horticultural practices. Directed at educators
and landscape professionals, the course is offered
by Gaia College, in partnership with Humber College. Participants will
have the opportunity to write the SOUL organic certification exam at the
completion of the program. Registration instructions may be found here.

Ontario Turfgrass Symposium, Feb. 23-24
Rozanski Hall, University of Guelph, is the site for the 20th annual Ontario Turfgrass Symposium. Speakers from both industry and academia will provide information pertaining to the symposium’s theme, ‘On the Cutting Edge.’ Sports and recreation staff, lawn care, golf course workers and nursery sod growers will benefit from the many sessions, including pest and disease controls to safety and liability issues in turf environments. Registration for the symposium is available at Symposium, or call 519-767-5000 for more information.

Lighting Symposium, Feb. 24
At this year’s Landscape Lighting Symposium, internationally-known designer Jan Moyer will speak on LEDs, and George Gruel will address how to
properly shoot photographs of night lighting projects. Last year, the symposium sold out, so it has moved to the larger Grand Chalet venue in Milton. Hurry and register today! Click here to view flyer.

WSIB’s service for clearance certificates is online

The WSIB launched its new electronic clearance certificate program, called eClearance, on Jan. 17. The WSIB says this online service will allow employers to easily check
the validity of a potential contractors’ clearance to avoid any
financial liability when hiring independent operators / contractors,
contractors will be able to obtain an electronic clearance certificate
to verify their WSIB account is in good standing, and both parties will
be able to view clearance status at any time. For more information about clearance certificates, refer to OPM
Doc. No. 14-02-04, Clearance Certificates: Employer Accounts.

Survive and thrive in today’s market, Mar. 2

Monroe
Porter, internationally-known business strategy speaker is coming to
Landscape Ontario! Learn to survive and thrive in today’s market in this
program that demonstrates how to establish goals and strategies to keep
pace with the lightning-fast changes in the green industry. Porter will
discuss how to combat shrinking margins, realistic budgeting,
profitable pricing structures, how to identify winning jobs and more.
This seminar takes place on Mar. 2, 1 to 4 p.m., at the LO home office.
Cost is $60 for LO members, and $96 for non-members. For more information, see the flyer. Space is limited to 15: register today at the LO seminar page.

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