The NCOS publishes a growing guide with articles about how to grow various
genera and different aspects of orchid culture. It is about 20 to 30 pages
and the ads are in color so it costs a bit to produce. They hand it out
free at the show/sale they have in October. They sell advertising space in
this book to offset the cost of producing it. It is worth it to me, and I
think to other local orchid growers, to buy the ad space in this book
because it is local and given out to like 10,000 people a year who show up
at the NCOS show/sale with an interest in finding local orchid recourses.
It is one of the few places where I *see* a benefit of buying advertising.
It is one of the few ideas to come out of my local orchid society that I
think all local vendors could easily support with a minimum of fuss and
competitive jostling. Included in this guide are also advertisements for
local nearby smaller societies so it is possible that local societies could
band together to produce it and share its costs and benefits at local
functions. Two years ago they bought enough booklets to last two years but
Sadly, I think my society has concluded it is too expensive to produce and
is not going to do it again next year. This is really a pity from my point
of view.