Executive and Officers
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President
Peter Poot PO Box 241 Goodwood ON L0C 1A0 Phone: 905-640-5643 Email: |
B.E., M. Sc. Peter retired from 30 years of community planning some 15 years ago. He has grown orchids for over 45 years and is a past president of SOOS, COC, the Mid American Orchid Congress, and the Eastern Orchid Congress. He is currently an accredited AOS judge, the editor of the SOOS Newsletter and the Chair of the Toronto Judging Centre of the AOS. Peter has been SOOS show chair for many years and has been involved in organizing orchid congresses in Toronto that included the COC, AOS, MAOC and EOC. He is currently a member of the AOS judging committee. |
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Past President
Jean Hollebone 1176 Castlehill Cres. Ottawa ON K2C 2A8 Phone: 613-226-2395 Email: |
Jean Hollebone is a 20 year member of the Ottawa Orchid Society, serving as secretary and show registrar. Currently she is COC rep and manages the monthly show table. She grows a number of orchids and likes Paphiopedilum species, Bulbophyllums and Jewel Orchids. Professionally, she worked for 29 years with Agriculture Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in pesticide and biotechnology regulation, Plant health, and as Director of Research and Development for the animal and plant health and food safety programs. In retirement she continues work with the Science and Technology Secretariat which coordinates the work of 11 science-based government departments and agencies. In 2007-8 she returned to college, earning a florist certification, which she now plans to put into practical use. Jean and husband Bryan have three boys, two daughters-in-law, four grandchildren and a house full of old Canadian Clocks cared for by Bryan. |
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First Vice President
Barbara Bowmar #233 4074 Gellatly Road, Westbank, BC, V4T 2S8 Phone: 250-768-9355 Email: |
Barbara Bowmar has been a member of the Okanagan Orchid Society for ten years and has served at various times as president, membership chair and treasurer. She has a modest, mixed collection of tropical orchids which she grows under lights. She is a member of the Native Orchid Conference. She and her husband, Verne, have located and photographed native orchid species in the Okanagan including a somewhat rare naturally occurring hybrid. A Master Gardener, she serves on the Board of the Central Okanagan Community Garden, co-ordinates a community garden in Westbank BC that contains sixty plots and a school garden. Professionally, she spent most of her career in BC Post Secondary institutions and was a Dean at Okanagan University College prior to retirement. Following retirement, she worked as a private consultant in program evaluation and planning. She looks forward to working with the Canadian Orchid Congress. |
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Second Vice President
Julian Hnatiw 16735 90 St NW, Edmonton AB T5Z 2X4 Phone: 780-476-6564 Email: |
Julian has been an active member of the OSA for about eight years, on the executive of OSA for three years, currently President. He has been growing orchids for 10 years plus, and has been married/and retired with some time. He belongs to other organizations and has a great amount of experience in trade shows/conventions. |
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Treasurer
André Couture 24 Lorne Avenue Ottawa ON K1R 7G7 Phone: 613-233-7335 Email: |
André has been a member of the Ottawa Orchid Society for over 25 years serving in a variety of capacities within the society, most recently as treasurer and has actively taken the OOS exhibits to other societies for many years. Now retired, Andre is a student AOS judge. Professionally André worked for the federal government as Director, Accounting Operations for Citizenship and Immigration Canada and will bring these accounting skills and talents to the position of COC treasurer. |
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Secretary
Claudia Lister P.O. Box 100, Montague PEI C0A 1R0 Phone: 902-838-3280 Email: |
Claudia attended the 2010 Orchid Congress as Prince Edward Island Orchid Club's official delegate and was surprised to be elected secretary of the COC. She has practised as a companion animal veterinarian in PEI for over 30 years. During her spare time, she has been active as a volunteer with a number of organizations at both provincial and national levels. These included president of the PEI Veterinary Medical Association (first woman to be a president of a veterinary association in Canada), president of the Canadian Goat Society when they raised purebred dairy goats, 12 years in Guiding working with youth with stints as Adult Training Director and Provincial Treasurer, and 12 years as a volunteer with EF Foundation working with international exchange programmes. She is dedicated to lifelong learning and completed a Spanish degree while owning and operating her veterinary practice. Her first "real" orchids were a gift from one of their four daughters. Two years ago, after selling her practice, she needed to find a new passion to fill the extra time. Given the look of their sunroom and the growing number of orchids, one would say she has discovered it and that passion is growing orchids. She knows she has a lot to learn but looks forward to doing so with the help of the local Orchid Club and the COC. |
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COC Newsletter & Webmaster
Jerry Bolce 2001 - 6 Willow St. Waterloo, ON N2J 4S3 Phone: 519-885-1888 Email: |
BSc, MSc. Jerry is retired after working for 30 years in computer support at the University of Waterloo. He has been growing orchids since 1976 and has a few favorites left. As a founding member of the Central Ontario Orchid Society he was on the COOS Executive for five years and was their newsletter editor for the first 13 years. His early access to the Internet allowed him to establish one of the earliest websites - The Orchid House. He currently manages several websites and is on the boards of the UW Retirees Association and his condo. |
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Education
Gail Schwarz 301 Kings Rd., Wellington, NS B2T1A2 Phone: 902-860-0115 Email: |
I've been growing orchids for about 15 years and I've been on the OSNS executive for about 13 years. I was treasurer for the first 2 or 3 years and the rest of the time I have been the show chair. I'm also the vice president now. We have a 16' x 20' greenhouse. We grow a real mixture of orchids, some successful, some not! We have Paphs, Phrags, Cattleyas, Oncidiums, Odontoglossums, Lycastes, Masdevallias, but my real love are Dendrobiums. I'm trying to collect as many Dendrobium species as I can. I am a probationary AOS judge in Toronto. It means I have to fly in from Halifax for judging and shows. |
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Conservation
Marilyn Light 174 Jolicoeur Gatineau PQ J8Z 1C9 Phone: 819-776-2655 Fax: 819-776-3703 Email: |
Marilyn has 35 years experience growing and exhibiting tropical orchids and has registered 20 of her
own hybrids. Her hybridization objectives include compact growth habit, repeat or successive blooming and
fragrance. She wrote Growing Orchids in the Caribbean Macmillan. In 1993, she directed an educational video
for the Canadian Orchid Congress titled, For the Love of Orchids - In Living Memory, about the late
Joseph Purdon and his efforts in conserving the Showy Lady's-slippers on his property in Lanark County, Ontario.
Since 1996, she has moderated a monthly internet discussion group on orchid conservation topics at
http://www.orchidsafari.org/. She is a Past President of both the Ottawa Orchid Society and the COC,
now serving as Conservation Representative for both entities. She chairs the North American Region and
the Education Committees of the Orchid Specialist Group, Species Survival Commission. Marilyn recently retired from the University of Ottawa where she had worked with the Professional Training Service for some 20 years. Marilyn studies the long term behaviour of terrestrial orchid populations including Cypripedium and Epipactis. In 1995, she received the Anne Hanes Conservation Award from the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club for her orchid research in Gatineau Park, Québec. She has recently received the prestigious Edgar T. Wherry Award from the North American Rock Garden Society recognizing her outstanding contribution in the dissemination of botanical and horticultural information about native North American orchids. |
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COC Group Insurance Plan
Dianne Gillis #48- 21848 - 50 Ave., Langley, BC V3A 8A9 604-530-0569 Email: |
person's Bio |
