Brookline GreenSpace Alliance
Highlights of the First 20 Years
1987
Brookline GreenSpace Alliance founded
BGSA founding motivated by citizen concern about damaging use of Larz Anderson for parking for U.S. Open, a private event.  The vision is for a Town-wide organization to work with individual parks friends groups to advocate for preservation and protection of the Town’s public lands.  Michael Berger is BGSA’s first president.
	BGSA publishes first issue of Alliance Update
1988
BGSA establishes tradition of publishing views of candidates for Selectman pertaining to open space issues
	BGSA appointed to Moderator’s Committee to study parks and open space management
	Subsequently, priorities for parks improvements begin to be set according to need, matching funds are sought and significant improvements, including at Larz Anderson Park, are undertaken.  Advocating for parks funding is an ongoing BGSA priority.
1989
BGSA, the Town’s only Town-wide parks advocacy group, becomes a 501(c)(3), a tax-exempt non-profit organization
1990
	TM  approves design review committees for park capital improvements which include neighbors, park commissioners and necessary consultants.  BGSA actively participates in bringing the article to TM for consideration
BGSA receives Conservation Commission Environmentalist of the Year Award
1991
	BGSA sponsors its first event, Hidden Places, Public Spaces, with focus on introducing families to the natural treasures of Brookline
1993
Barbara Whiting Drew becomes BGSA’s first Executive Director.  BGSA establishes first office with regular office hours at 40 Webster Place
	Putterham Woods is threatened when Golf Club interests are pitted against preservation of historic Putterham Woods as the Town considers a driving range.  BGSA rallies constituents and the plan is dropped due to broad public objection
BGSA sponsors Isabel’s Gift, a video about Isabel Anderson and Larz Anderson Park produced by BGSA founding Board member, Mary Dewart, with principal funding by Brookline Community Fund
	BGSA hosts Twilight in the Park, a landmark community and organization-building event at which Muddy River Suite is premiered
Frances Shedd-Fisher becomes BGSA’s second President
	BGSA acts as fiscal agent for citizen fundraising initiative to create skating rink at Larz Anderson Park
1994
BGSA collaborates with U. Mass Forestry Department, the Town and the Tree Planting Committee as they design and implement the first ever inventory of municipal street trees performed by volunteers
	BGSA collaborates with Conservation Commission on sponsoring Open Space Tour focused on properties in danger of development
BGSA is asked to assist by organizing volunteers for the effort.  BGSA then  partners with the sponsors and the Arnold Arboretum as 105 volunteers are trained.  The result is a successful inventory that is the basis of the Town’s continuously updated inventory of street trees.  The value of this effort as a model for collaboration, volunteerism and sound environmental economics cannot be over estimated.
1995
Pam Goodman becomes BGSA Executive Director, bringing a new focus to the organization’s programming for children
	Visions of a Green Community, a Multimedia Festival and Celebration, is launched, and a series of consciousness-raising Visions events and exhibitions follow over the next several years
BGSA hosts exciting Halloween event for children at Puppet Showplace featuring naturalist with live bats
	Task Force on Open Space is established when BGSA raises questions with Town leadership about management accountabilities and about the efficacy of park maintenance in preserving tax-payer investments in park improvements
	This major study of parks management in Brookline is a collaborative effort of Brookline GreenSpace Alliance with the Town’s administrative and political leadership, Town staff, and all pertinent agencies and commissions.  The Task Force, co-chaired by Frances Shedd-Fisher for BGSA and Donna Kalikow, for the Board of Selectmen, spends the next three and one-half years evaluating systems, practices and policies, including communication issues, and implementing a massive overhaul in the management of the Town’s public lands, including the creation of a new division of Parks and Open Space, still operating effectively today.
1996
BGSA kicks off its 10th year with Annual Meeting at historic Longyear estate with former governor Michael Dukakis as guest speaker
	Fred Perry becomes BGSA’s third President
Lost Pond, production of a video detailing efforts by advocates to preserve the nature sanctuary, is sponsored by BGSA
1998
	Task Force on Open Space makes final report to Selectmen
	The majority of the recommendations are in place by the time the Task Force is disbanded.  The recommendation to create a master plan for each major park in Brookline is begun and continues.
2000
BGSA organizes and sponsors top-tier Forum on Climate Change.  Climate Change Action Brookline is formed and the Town actively pursues implementation of a Climate Action Plan
2001 - 2007
	BGSA continuously upgrades and enhances its communications efforts
	Frances Shedd-Fisher, a Board member, takes over responsibility for editing the organization’s newsletter, Alliance Update, while Board member Marian Lazar continues to lead publication design.  In 2003 a Communications Committee is established: the organization’s website brooklinegreenspace.org is expanded with Lazar as webmaster, a member’s email news alert program is added, a new parks map and brochure is created, and a regular Brookline TAB column on environmental subjects, GreenViews, is launched.  In 2004, with Shedd Fisher and Lazar still leading the effort, the organization introduces PLACE, its journal of ideas and issues, with greater focus on photography and Parks Friends advocacy efforts.  Currently, a landscape photography book detailing historical notes about Brookline’s green legacy is under development.
2002
Tina Oddleifson, a management and environmental professional, becomes BGSA Executive Director, with increased focus on organization building, programming and Town-wide open space advocacy
	Arlene Mattison becomes BGSA’s fourth President
2003
BGSA creates its first five-year strategic plan
	Under Arlene Mattison’s leadership by-law changes are implemented to re-structure the BGSA Board consistent with organizational focus on advocacy influencing Town-wide policies.  New emphasis is placed on Board training and fiduciary responsibility
ALLIANCE meetings are launched.  These public meetings held five times each year offer educational programming and a forum for voicing citizen concerns about open space issues in Brookline
	From the outset of the broad-based public process, BGSA takes lead in assuring the Town’s Comprehensive 10-Year Plan re-affirms the value of open space in Brookline, particularly the inclusion of the “no net loss of open space” provision in the Plan
Guest speakers have covered subjects such as status of climate change, viable methods of land acquisition, workshop in effective advocacy, creative concepts for open space.
2004
BGSA launches Growing Green Space, its annual garden party fundraiser to support the organization’s work; the events also call attention to the importance and fragility of private spaces in Brookline
	BGSA assumes responsibility for the Environmental Learning Project, initially conceived and implemented by Friends of Hall’s Pond as the Hall’s Pond Learning Project.  Under BGSA management the program and venue are expanded beyond Hall’s Pond and access is significantly broadened.  The program continues to be the only free Town-wide environmental education program in Brookline
Earth Night Brookline is launched with showing of Pale Male at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.  The program includes speakers, an environmental video by a Brookline student and a slide exhibition of Brookline landscape photography.  This event evolves into The Muddy River Film Series, co-sponsored by BGSA and the Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation, and is the only continuing environmental film series in the Greater Boston area
	BGSA serves as co-chair of the production of the Conservation Commission’s 2005 Open Space Plan
2005
Edward Hsieh, an environmental professional, becomes BGSA’s first full-time Executive Director
	BGSA co-sponsors with Friends of Public Health and Climate Change Action Brookline Go Green, a fundraiser at Ballroom Veronique in support of the ‘green’ renovation of the Train Memorial Public Health Center
2006
BGSA establishes a Land Acquisition Committee to look at alternatives and methodologies for expanding Brookline’s base of protected open space
	BGSA supports the Community Preservation Act for Brookline as the most immediately viable method of bringing resources to bear on land acquisition in Brookline.  The community rejects the concept for a variety of fiscal and other reasons believed to be unrelated to the broad-based community commitment to open space preservation
BGSA takes a strong stand on aspects of the Parks, Openand Recreation Strategic Master Plan believed to be in conflict with the open space interests of citizens expressed in a scientific survey and in conflict with the Town’s Comprehensive Plan and Open Space Plan.  Appropriate changes in the Master Plan are agreed to
	BGSA develops and launches a program of technical tools to support Friends groups
2007
BGSA launches Celebrate OUR Earth on April 22, Earth Day.  This is the first Town-wide Earth Day celebration in Brookline and encompasses coordinated efforts by Friends groups and BGSA to introduce visitors to Brookline parks to the beauty of our green legacy and to encourage volunteerism
	A new and enhanced user-friendly map of open spaces in Brookline is created.  The map is first distributed on Earth Day
To celebrate its first 20 years, BGSA creates exhibitions in the Brookline Libraries including the landscape photography exhibit An Enduring Legacy and sponsors the second performance and recording of Muddy River Suite by Lorraine Hammond, first performed at the BGSA event Twilight in the Park in 1993
	As BGSA prepares to begin its third decade, 40 Parks Friends groups are Alliance members.  Individual members of BGSA number more than 1,000 today.  BGSA counts as a significant achievement the broadening community awareness of the importance of preserving our legacy of green spaces