I'm not intimately involved in my society's functions, but here's an
overview of what I know we do for money.

The San Francisco Orchid Society is one of the larger orchid societies, on
par with Miami, Santa Barbara, Greater New York, etc.

We have two events a year. The February Show is the Big One - filling two
football fields, split about 2/3 vendors and 1/3 displays. There are about
50 vendors - most from California, but a good number from Hawaii and a few
from overseas. It is AOS judged and most of the local societies put in
displays, in addition to all of the vendors. There is a big area for member
plant sales, with the society taking a 25% cut. If you have plants in the
members sale area, you have to put yourself on the shift list for the area,
too.

The show has a Benefit Preview Night that costs $35 and it's one of the
sleeper Social Events in San Francisco. A couple dozen Napa/Sonoma wineries
come and pour tasting glasses of their wines all night and we have finger
foods. There are probably 1000 people in/out through the whole night.
Regular Show admission is $12, mainly because the venue we use is expensive.
Preview Night is the big fundraising event, obviously.

The second event is in October - it's a sale with a tiny "show" area and
it's not AOS judged. There are about 25 vendors. The venue is smaller and
the admission charge is only $4. This event is our yearly fundraiser for the
various groups we support - things like a small scholarship at a local
college, funding the purchase of orchid books at the Helen Crocker Russell
Library of Horticulture, funding various projects at both the Conservatory
and Botanical Gardens, and a few others I can't recall.

Our monthly meetings are very busy - I know we fly people in, but I have no
idea how we compensate speakers. Every month we have a large area for
members to sell plants, with the society taking a 20% cut. If the speaker
has plants to sell, those are welcomed. Most of our speakers bring plants
the members would never have, so there's not a problem having both. Not
every speaker has plants to sell. Recent speakers Eric Christenson and Nina
Rach didn't have plants for sale, for instance. But Andrea Niessen and
Weyman Bussey did sell, so..

The Opportunity Table is usually break-even from what I understand and is
provided as a way to generate interest in being a society member more than
being a profit center.

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

"Susan Erickson" wrote in message
...
The question is what does your society or one you know well do to
raise funds? This is not asking each member to pay dues or kick
in a donation. How do you get enough money each year to hire
speakers and pay their airfares?

Denver has a Spring show which is for the purpose of raising
funds for the Society's year. The real purpose is a sale of
plants by the society to the general public rather than a show
and vendors for the members to buy from. We get about 200
blooming plants in March, mostly Phal. some dendrobium and some
mixed intergeneric or cattleya. These plants have sold at $20 or
3 for $50. most years. This gives us enough space for the
expenses of the show (judges and helpers food, sales tax, &
shipping) and a profit to run the society on. Because shipping
can eat a large part of the profits, we have to watch the overall
cost delivered.

The President's Contest: The President picks a cross and buys
about 20 unbloomed seedlings. These are sold in lunch bag
disguise at $10 a plant. The first bloomed plant is awarded $50,
$35 for the second, and $15 for the third. The cross is not
identified until after the first is bloomed. Then the hybrid's
name is announced and tags become available for all plants
purchased. Some years this contest goes into the 2 year. So
this year many of the plants were in spike. 3 bloomed within a
week of each other. Which is first is still debated.

Monthly we have donations from members of divisions, AOS
magazines or books. These are sold at such a discount that the
income is insignificant. The society allows members to sell
plants at tables in the back of the meeting room. The speaker
may or may not also be there with a collection to sell. We like
it if they do bring things. We have only one commercial gh
locally.



SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php