"Diana Kulaga" wrote in message
...
FWIW, I think this has been in the works for some time. The AOS has been
holding regular meetings of the S. FL Leadership Council for at least a
year; I think it might actually be closer to two years, but I can't
remember for sure. The SFLC is made up of AOS Reps, local society
presidents and other interested AOS members. For example, our show
chairperson goes to those meetings along with our AOS rep and president.

In the beginning, they were not terribly receptive to new ideas. They
didn't even want to discuss the dues increase. But as time passed, I think
reality sank in. The declining membership numbers finally hit home. At
least they appear to recognize that for at least some people, raising the
dues was like the final straw. And, as has been discussed here many times
before, information is so easy to come by these days that we hardly need
to rely on magazines to get what we need.

Fighetti says something similar in his comment. I thought it was
interesting that he said to the AOS the change to the 21st century should be
more than just pulling another day off the calender. As a business owner I
too am going through these mind changes. I'm trying to design a web page
for my business becasue to google my name and have nothing show up when one
is in business is not a good thing. (one of my patients told me that and
then the penny dropped. 'oh, yeah, huh!' )



They really were in their own little world down in Delray Beach, on the
way to existing for the sake of their own existence. Mind you, I do not
include the judges in that description. Our judges are great.


You know, most people in (any) society are great. I don't know where the
dumb bunny ness comes from in them. I could say the same thing about my
local society. The 'society' in terms of friendship seems to have gone out
if it. But I could be wrong.


So we'll see what happens. I support the concept of the AOS. It has to
morph into something that offers a real service to orchidists, new and
experienced alike. Magazine articles about old time members are nice
enough, but what do they contribute to our growing experience? I think
what we mostly want is relevance, relevance, relevance. Just my two cents.


I wondered about the idea of the blog. I don't know about you, but I have
interests other than orchids (mystery books specifiaclly) and I'm just sick
of authors flogging their blogs. Blatant Self Promotion via their blogs.
Like who cares what their opinions are anyway? But maybe an orchid blog is
somehow a different animal from an author blog (or forum).

Relevance is different for different people. Of course you know that. (I
don't know why I said it.) When asked point blank what would be relevant
for me, I always drop back to good scientific articles. Written on a
college level (not a grad school level - I'm not that smart, but I can
google if I need to) A good article on orchid scents might be good. An
article on whether light intensity or duration is more important in getting
orchids to bloom. I think windowsill growers would like to know that,
since their access to light is limited. On OrchidSafari tonight we're going
to be given a talk about the first meeting of teh Chinese Cymbidium society
in Beijing. Probably just some local color and some pics. 4-5 notable
speakers were present to talk on conservation themes. Why couldn't these
talks be reprinted in teh AOS mag? Same with the meeting in S Africa later
this year? Or the one coming up in Costa Rica?

I dunno. It seems content is where you find it. Like Eric Hunt is going to
Borneo later this spring. Eric Hansen (also a San Fran local) wrote the
book about travels in Borneo. Maybe there's a story in the differences in
Borneo between the 70s when Hansen went vs when Hunt goes... maybe there
isn't. But you don't know until you ask.

Of course these are all ideas and lord knows I don't *actually* want to do
the *work* to bring them to fruition, LOL!!!

K Barrett