Bev Droz has infused energy and life into the Green Decade Coalition / Newton with her prodigious management and organizing skills as its president for the last five years. From 2000 to 2005, under her guidance we have doubled our membership, tripled our donation revenues and grown our programs. Her leadership has been outstanding.

She has maintained the ongoing program and coalition work and added new ones, including: monthly environmental pages in the Newton TAB newspaper, new monthly programs on Newton's cable TV station alternating months with the Newton Conservators, a Mayor's Committee on Sustainability, and a special High Performance Building Coalition to make all Newton's buildings energy efficient and green starting with the new Newton North High School.

She worked with each committee, empowering them. She spent hours every week ensuring that communications between volunteer committees were clear, that people met their deadlines and that everyone knew the next steps to meet our goals. And she did all of this being sensitive to everyone's needs.

She facilitated a revitalizing retreat for the Board of Directors. As the programs expanded and revenues increased, she hired our program director, Margaret Ford.

During her tenure, our Energy Committee raised $20,000 to put solar panels on the Newton Community Service Centers building. The Energy Committee also coordinated meetings with businesses in Newton Highlands and then in West Newton to provide them with information about a free program to upgrade their lighting and save them thousands of dollars on their electric bills.

Additionally for these five years, she also served as treasurer, tracking donations and expenses and preparing detailed reports for each board meeting. Before leaving the board, she found a wonderful volunteer to take over that job so that the board would not be left without this important function being filled.

Bev´s earliest connection with the Green Decade was as a founding Board member in 1990-91. She continued her commitment by helping with projects "behind the scenes" over the years. Earlier, she honed her skills in management and organizing as state director for the Massachusetts Women´s Political Caucus and as a co-founder in 1981 of both Newton Action for Nuclear Disarmament (NAND) and the national WAND (formerly Women´s Action for Nuclear Disarmament). Bev served terms as president of both organizations, and traveled to Russia in 1986 as a national representative to the World Congress of Women.

Bev´s skills are not only in the above mentioned non-profit/business areas, but also in the world of the arts; a former piano teacher, she is becoming a well-known watercolorist in Newton, exhibiting her work at local places such as the West Newton Cinema and Newton Open Studios.

Bev had a job for the City of Newton as Director of Volunteer Services during her five years as president. Recently she was given major new responsibility as Director of Human Services, which meant she had to step down as president. We are pleased to have the opportunity of the fifteenth anniversary party to honor her service to the Green Decade Coalition/Newton.