we're not there yet--we only have informational shows, and only the
one so far. however, we had good traffic considering it was snowing
out; got 50 new people on our mailing list. (our co president (who
has many society and a few aos awards under his belt) judged--my keiki
from Al's keiki monster won 2d place in the phals. hee!) also IIRC,
our club's display won a prize in the NCOS show a few months ago, and
i think some individual plants won as well.

we have some members who found the affiliated societies to be too
formal, so they come to us. we're very laid back. but we've had
several good speakers so far; we can even start to afford to pay them
once we get the dues in next month, and we're going to make another
push for new members. so from where i'm sitting, i can't see the
point in affiliating. but i may not know enough about the benefits of
affiliating. based on the drop off in membership, it looks like AOS
may need my club more than my club needs it.

--j_a