PGTA Membership Information
As a member of the Progressive Gardening Trade Association (PGTA), you receive programs, services, and benefits designed specifically to help you develop and expand your progressive gardening related business. PGTA programs are created by retailers, manufacturers and distributors of the latest earth-friendly organic and water-wise gardening products - people in the field with front-line experience.
The purposes of the PGTA are as follows:
1. Actively promote the common business interests of merchants promoting earth-friendly, organic, and water-wise gardening products and techniques.
2. Educate members of the industry and the general public on the most current progressive gardening techniques and science.
3. Generate and promote generic educational materials for progressive gardening merchants and the public that will continue to expand the commercial and home utilization of earth-friendly, organic, and water-wise techniques and systems.
4. Hold meetings, conferences, forums, seminars, and lectures that will promote earth-friendly, organic, and water-wise gardening practices, markets and ethics for the benefit of the industry and to publish such data and information.
5. Encourage research that seeks to determine how home agricultural pursuits affect our environment and to disseminate such knowledge to produce new and more efficient systems and methods.
6. Assist public and private agencies in identifying basic and applied areas of research and development.
7. Establish and encourage sound and successful business practices for the commercial and consumer progressive gardening industry.
PGTA membership is a small investment in the future profits of your company. Membership is on an annual basis, and second year dues are automatically prorated to a calendar year. A comprehensive listing of benefits are outlined below. To begin receiving your PGTA service, just complete the online membership application at the bottom of this page.
Membership Benefits
Training & Education
PGTA members benefit from information compiled by the most experienced members of our industry. Our Progressive Gardening Media Kits on Hydroponics and Organic Gardening, with more in the works, provide valuable guidance, information, and myth-busting capabilities for new retail establishments, giving you a significant edge, especially in fast-growing markets.
Our Annual Meeting & Educational Seminars, held in conjunction with major trade shows, give attendees an opportunity to personally interact with industry founders and established enterprises, as well as up-and-coming companies and the entrepreneurs who founded them. PGTA Educational Seminars top all others, and have a 14 year history of providing key presentations that members have successfully used to increase the effectiveness of their businesses and mutually promote progressive gardening technologies.
Targeted Promotion
Membership includes store listings on our popular consumer websites at http://ProgressiveGardening.com, mirrored at http://ProgressiveGardening.org, and on this website at http://PGTA.org and any future promotional websites developed by the organization.
We also maintain an active Facebook Page and Twitter Feed with hundreds of followers where we promote member companies and events, interesting news regarding progressive gardening techniques, and much more.
Legislative Monitoring
With the ever-changing legal morass concerning laws, it's important for indoor and hydroponic garden stores to keep current on legislation and ordinances that may inadvertently affect an enterprise not directly engaging the markets.
Laws relating to seeds, organic farms, regulation on pest control and more. The PGTA is committed to protecting innovative water wise progressive ideas and will monitor to keep you informed.
Legal Advisory Service
We all hope legal services are something we will never require. But in the event of a government investigation or the violation of your civil liberties, you may need help, quickly. Local lawyers often lack sufficient experience in these areas; so, the PGTA's Legal Advisory Service (LAS) will pay for the first hour of advice from our specially selected legal experts on these topics.
Every day retailers face a complex web of legal and regulatory issues. These issues are of such a specialized nature that the legal talent in their area is very likely to be poorly equipped to advise, respond, or defend at the appropriate levels.
Considering asset forfeiture and other severe consequences of the issues in question, the PGTA believes it is in the best interest of the membership to allocate resources to provide a quick, first-response capability on legal issues utilizing experts experienced in the more unique aspects of legal issues in question. Our experts can be available as your first line of defense or as a supplement to your local legal resources.
By creating the LAS program, our objective is to establish a working arrangement with law firms and/or legal experts, whose knowledge and experience can be utilized to advise and assist PGTA member companies in developing an early response to unique issues impacting hydroponic retailers. Such issues include, but are not necessarily limited to:
- Civil Liberties Infringements
- Federal Agency Investigations
- Local Government Investigations
- Other Issues Atypical of General Consumer Retail Activities
The PGTA Legal Advisory Service (LAS) is not intended to address typical retail issues for general business operations, customer relations, vendor relations, local ordinances, taxes, civil lawsuits, contracts, and similar general business activities for which qualified local legal counsel should be readily available.
Credit Card Fraud Monitoring
In many online credit card fraud attempts, perpetrators attempt their fraud on several businesses in any particular niche with the hopes that at least one of them will fall for the fraud and ship an unauthorized order.
PGTA Retail Members help each other avoid these types of attacks by sharing fraudulent purchase attempts with our national office, which then disseminates the pertinent information immediately to all PGTA Retail Members via email as an alert so that fellow members can avoid being victimized.
Awards & Recognition
Each year, the PGTA sponsors the PGTA Media Awards. The purpose of the program is to recognize member efforts to create superior advertising, writing, websites and other projects and materials aimed at promoting the image and understanding of earth-friendly, water-wise and organic gardening. All judging is performed by independent experts in their related field.
All retail, manufacturer and distributor members of the PGTA are invited to participate, and unlike other awards programs, the cost to participate is included in your PGTA membership. For more information on the PGTA Media Awards, click here.
Networking
PGTA membership affords you many opportunities to network and learn from those who have helped to grow the industry from it's infant beginnings a short 35 years ago. Many PGTA members are more than happy to provide advice and mentoring to those new to the industry, especially retailers who are the front-line, life blood that makes the industry as successful as it is today.
Membership Categories
All applications for membership must be submitted for the membership category for which the applicant receives the largest portion of revenues. A complete membership application indicating the correct membership category must be submitted to the PGTA office, accompanied by full dues payment fitting the appropriate category.
Retail Members
Retail Membership is available to corporations, partnerships and sole proprietorships actively engaged in the reselling of earth-friendly, organic, and water-wise gardening products, services or equipment to commercial or noncommercial end users. Annual Retail Member dues are $300 USD per retail establishment. Membership includes PGTA Retailers Coupon Book. (VOTING)
Consultant Members
Consultant Membership is available to corporations, partnerships and proprietorships engaged as consultants to businesses engaged in the commerce of earth-friendly, organic, and water-wise gardening supplies are qualified for Consultant membership. Annual Consultant dues are $350 USD. (VOTING)
Distributor / Wholesaler Members
Distributor / Wholesaler Membership is available to corporations, partnerships and proprietorships engaged in the facilitation of transactions between corporations, partnerships and proprietorships qualified for Retail and Manufacturer membership. Annual Distributor / Wholesaler dues are $1,000 USD. (VOTING)
Manufacturer Membership
Manufacturer Membership is available to corporations, partnerships and proprietorships actively engaged in producing products for use in or resale by merchant members of the association. Annual Manufacturer dues are $1,000 USD. (VOTING)
Allied Organization Membership
Allied Organization Membership is available to corporations, partnerships and proprietorships involved in the horticultural industry and interested in participation in programs of the Progressive Gardening Trade Association and its members but are not qualified for any voting membership. Annual Allied Organization dues are $300 USD. (NONVOTING)
PGTA ONLINE MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
New memberships are valid for one year after approval. If you are an existing PGTA member, utilizing this form will extend your current membership by one year.