I had let my membership lapse some time ago, but got roped into rejoining to
get the discount on registering an award. Kenni

"OrchidKitty" wrote in message
ps.com...
Maybe it's just me being cranky, but Orchids magazine doesn't seem as
good as it used to be. The January issue was exceptionally dull. The
article "Slipper Orchid Alliance" was just about people in the slipper
alliance and seemed more aimed at ego stoking than anything else. (It
would have been great to have had an article about some aspect of the
plants themselves.) The article on "Orchids in Costa Rica" was a dull
historical perspective focussed on people. (I would have rather have
had an article just about the plants in Costa Rica and tours one could
take to see them. I have been to Costa Rica, and it was a fabulous
trip.) The article on orchid cards was also boring. The article on
"Bamboo Shade House" was for Florida growers. The article on "Managing
Your Collection" is geared toward the grower with a large greenhouse,
lots of land, and a huge collection. The article on Microthelys
rubrocallosa didn't exactly make my pulse race either, but it might
have been exciting to an AOS judge.

On the cover, it says "Staking Basics," and "Staking Orchids" is also
on the magazine's spine, which would lead one to think that there is an
article on staking orchids. There isn't--there's ONE paragraph about
staking cymbidiums. An article about staking with photos or drawings
would have been great, but it wasn't there.

Now the dues/subscription is going up to $60 per year. Is it worth it?
Not to me. I learn more on this newsgroup than I do in the magazine.
What do you guys think?

What is the cost of an award for members vs non-members? How many do you or
your plants get per year that justifies the $60 expense? :-)

I think it is somewhat weird to award a grower a CCM or CCE and then present
him/her with a bill to register it.. It turns the grower into something
like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of OZ who eagerly agrees with the Wizard
that he is smart but needs a diploma to show the world he has brain....as if
the brain can't speak for itself.

"Kenni Judd" wrote in message
...
I had let my membership lapse some time ago, but got roped into rejoining
to get the discount on registering an award. Kenni

"OrchidKitty" wrote in message
ps.com...
Maybe it's just me being cranky, but Orchids magazine doesn't seem as
good as it used to be. The January issue was exceptionally dull. The
article "Slipper Orchid Alliance" was just about people in the slipper
alliance and seemed more aimed at ego stoking than anything else. (It
would have been great to have had an article about some aspect of the
plants themselves.) The article on "Orchids in Costa Rica" was a dull
historical perspective focussed on people. (I would have rather have
had an article just about the plants in Costa Rica and tours one could
take to see them. I have been to Costa Rica, and it was a fabulous
trip.) The article on orchid cards was also boring. The article on
"Bamboo Shade House" was for Florida growers. The article on "Managing
Your Collection" is geared toward the grower with a large greenhouse,
lots of land, and a huge collection. The article on Microthelys
rubrocallosa didn't exactly make my pulse race either, but it might
have been exciting to an AOS judge.

On the cover, it says "Staking Basics," and "Staking Orchids" is also
on the magazine's spine, which would lead one to think that there is an
article on staking orchids. There isn't--there's ONE paragraph about
staking cymbidiums. An article about staking with photos or drawings
would have been great, but it wasn't there.

Now the dues/subscription is going up to $60 per year. Is it worth it?
Not to me. I learn more on this newsgroup than I do in the magazine.
What do you guys think?

The discount is $20 ($60 for non-members, $40 for members); seems to have
gone up from last time ... I gather it pays for the award photographer as
well as AOS overhead. So you need 3 a year to make the membership pay for
itself. Which means I need 2 more this year G. Kenni

"Al" wrote in message
...
What is the cost of an award for members vs non-members? How many do you
or your plants get per year that justifies the $60 expense? :-)

I think it is somewhat weird to award a grower a CCM or CCE and then
present him/her with a bill to register it.. It turns the grower into
something like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of OZ who eagerly agrees with
the Wizard that he is smart but needs a diploma to show the world he has
brain....as if the brain can't speak for itself.

"Kenni Judd" wrote in message
...
I had let my membership lapse some time ago, but got roped into rejoining
to get the discount on registering an award. Kenni

"OrchidKitty" wrote in message
ps.com...
Maybe it's just me being cranky, but Orchids magazine doesn't seem as
good as it used to be. The January issue was exceptionally dull. The
article "Slipper Orchid Alliance" was just about people in the slipper
alliance and seemed more aimed at ego stoking than anything else. (It
would have been great to have had an article about some aspect of the
plants themselves.) The article on "Orchids in Costa Rica" was a dull
historical perspective focussed on people. (I would have rather have
had an article just about the plants in Costa Rica and tours one could
take to see them. I have been to Costa Rica, and it was a fabulous
trip.) The article on orchid cards was also boring. The article on
"Bamboo Shade House" was for Florida growers. The article on "Managing
Your Collection" is geared toward the grower with a large greenhouse,
lots of land, and a huge collection. The article on Microthelys
rubrocallosa didn't exactly make my pulse race either, but it might
have been exciting to an AOS judge.

On the cover, it says "Staking Basics," and "Staking Orchids" is also
on the magazine's spine, which would lead one to think that there is an
article on staking orchids. There isn't--there's ONE paragraph about
staking cymbidiums. An article about staking with photos or drawings
would have been great, but it wasn't there.

Now the dues/subscription is going up to $60 per year. Is it worth it?
Not to me. I learn more on this newsgroup than I do in the magazine.
What do you guys think?

Photography costs can eat up a lot of the award fee. For those of us who
get slides duplicated instead of shooting a whole roll of the flower it eats
up almost the entire award fee. We send in 36 slides for every award so
that they can be distributed to all of the other judging centers. If AOS
keeps adding new judging centers this system is going to break eventually
(or a switch to digital will need to happen.)
-danny

"Kenni Judd" wrote in message
...
The discount is $20 ($60 for non-members, $40 for members); seems to have
gone up from last time ... I gather it pays for the award photographer as
well as AOS overhead. So you need 3 a year to make the membership pay for
itself. Which means I need 2 more this year G. Kenni

Danny: That's not the only thing that's going to break AOS, as I think you
can see from this thread. Membership is already either voting, or
threatening to vote, with their feet/$$. As membership and prestige
decline, the awards become less valuable -- on that point, I have to say
that for $60 or even $40 to register an award, I really think I should get a
copy of the award photo to use on my website, but NO, that's not included.
And because they do insist on using slides, it doesn't even pay for me to
buy one from the photographer, because I have no use for the slide, I need a
digital or at least something I could scan.

I should perhaps also note that AOS HQ suffered major damage from Hurricane
Wilma. I expect it's well-insured, but that never covers everything ...
even after the deductible. So, cynical though this may sound, I will not be
surprised by more price increases.

And if I don't get 2 more awards this year, the membership will lapse again.
Kenni


"danny" wrote in message
news
Photography costs can eat up a lot of the award fee. For those of us who
get slides duplicated instead of shooting a whole roll of the flower it
eats up almost the entire award fee. We send in 36 slides for every award
so that they can be distributed to all of the other judging centers. If
AOS keeps adding new judging centers this system is going to break
eventually (or a switch to digital will need to happen.)
-danny

Since it is a non-profit organization, The American Orchid Society's IRS
Form 990 , is a matter of public record. So I thought it would be fun to
see if I could find it online. :-)

The most recent one online I found is the 2003 form, but they are available
going back to 1998. It's interesting, I suppose, and all it cost to pull up
the .pdf copy on guidestar.org was to register a my name and a password,
which was free. I say it's interesting to look over, even if some of it's
import is probably lost on me. I enjoyed reading the list of stock and bond
investments, and the list of grants...and the income, minus COGS from their
Orchid Emporium. I think I would have to dig to find the revenues and costs
associated with the award program and the magazine... I didn't look too
deeply at the numbers. Besides I just wanted to see if it was online...
and it is....

But, I'm sure the AOS must publish this info themselves someplace, right?
Don't they put it in the magazine or on the website?

Al wrote:
Since it is a non-profit organization, The American Orchid Society's IRS
Form 990 , is a matter of public record. So I thought it would be fun to
see if I could find it online. :-)

The most recent one online I found is the 2003 form, but they are available
going back to 1998. It's interesting, I suppose, and all it cost to pull up
the .pdf copy on guidestar.org was to register a my name and a password,
which was free. I say it's interesting to look over, even if some of it's
import is probably lost on me. I enjoyed reading the list of stock and bond
investments, and the list of grants...and the income, minus COGS from their
Orchid Emporium. I think I would have to dig to find the revenues and costs
associated with the award program and the magazine... I didn't look too
deeply at the numbers. Besides I just wanted to see if it was online...
and it is....

But, I'm sure the AOS must publish this info themselves someplace, right?
Don't they put it in the magazine or on the website?



In the way olden days they used to publish it in the Bulletin, along
with minutes of the meetings, but no more.

David Grove usually provides a link to the guidestar report on the OGD.
Usually good for a few days of outrage.

K Barrett

You can get slides copied into .jpg files at the Ritz camera store here in
Leesburg. They used to provide a slide with the award documentation that
you get after you pay the invoice... has that stopped? It is that
professionally taken portrait of the awarded flower (albeit in slide form)
that makes it worth the cost of the award. ;-)

"Kenni Judd" wrote in message
...
Danny: That's not the only thing that's going to break AOS, as I think
you can see from this thread. Membership is already either voting, or
threatening to vote, with their feet/$$. As membership and prestige
decline, the awards become less valuable -- on that point, I have to say
that for $60 or even $40 to register an award, I really think I should get
a copy of the award photo to use on my website, but NO, that's not
included. And because they do insist on using slides, it doesn't even pay
for me to buy one from the photographer, because I have no use for the
slide, I need a digital or at least something I could scan.

I should perhaps also note that AOS HQ suffered major damage from
Hurricane Wilma. I expect it's well-insured, but that never covers
everything ... even after the deductible. So, cynical though this may
sound, I will not be surprised by more price increases.

And if I don't get 2 more awards this year, the membership will lapse
again. Kenni


"danny" wrote in message
news
Photography costs can eat up a lot of the award fee. For those of us who
get slides duplicated instead of shooting a whole roll of the flower it
eats up almost the entire award fee. We send in 36 slides for every
award so that they can be distributed to all of the other judging
centers. If AOS keeps adding new judging centers this system is going to
break eventually (or a switch to digital will need to happen.)
-danny

I've gotten slides of my awards, but I know that not everyone has.
Usually its a matter of housekeeping, the award slide paperwork is as
onerous as submitting health insurance forms. Just about everyone has a
huge backlog. Jeeze, tracking the provisional awards alone can kill you.

K Barrett

Al wrote:
You can get slides copied into .jpg files at the Ritz camera store here in
Leesburg. They used to provide a slide with the award documentation that
you get after you pay the invoice... has that stopped? It is that
professionally taken portrait of the awarded flower (albeit in slide form)
that makes it worth the cost of the award. ;-)

"Kenni Judd" wrote in message
...

Danny: That's not the only thing that's going to break AOS, as I think
you can see from this thread. Membership is already either voting, or
threatening to vote, with their feet/$$. As membership and prestige
decline, the awards become less valuable -- on that point, I have to say
that for $60 or even $40 to register an award, I really think I should get
a copy of the award photo to use on my website, but NO, that's not
included. And because they do insist on using slides, it doesn't even pay
for me to buy one from the photographer, because I have no use for the
slide, I need a digital or at least something I could scan.

I should perhaps also note that AOS HQ suffered major damage from
Hurricane Wilma. I expect it's well-insured, but that never covers
everything ... even after the deductible. So, cynical though this may
sound, I will not be surprised by more price increases.

And if I don't get 2 more awards this year, the membership will lapse
again. Kenni


"danny" wrote in message
news
Photography costs can eat up a lot of the award fee. For those of us who
get slides duplicated instead of shooting a whole roll of the flower it
eats up almost the entire award fee. We send in 36 slides for every
award so that they can be distributed to all of the other judging
centers. If AOS keeps adding new judging centers this system is going to
break eventually (or a switch to digital will need to happen.)
-danny

Smbcna. [now Ctph., according to RHS] Garnet Glory 'Juno Beach' HCC/AOS was
provisionally awarded in June or July 2001. I had to follow up several
times just to get the award registered, finally got the certificate about a
year later and never got a slide [and most recently, I'm following up AGAIN
because the award info, which was previously in WildCatt, has somehow
disappeared from the last update I got ...], nor any separate paperwork to
request a copy of the slide, that I can recall. But (no disrespect to the
photographer), I actually didn't care for the award photo on that one and
got one on my own digital camera that I like better.

Rhv. [now Van., according to the RHS] Ocean Storm 'Juno Beach' HCC/AOS was
provisionally awarded in October 2004. I'm still trying to get the award
registered (awaiting my bill from Pam Guist after talking to her and being
sent back to the judging center, talking to them, and being told several
weeks ago that I'd be getting a bill from Pam). Nor has there been any
mention of the slide. Guess I'll go talk to the folks at the judging center
.... again.

Kenni

"Al" wrote in message
...
You can get slides copied into .jpg files at the Ritz camera store here in
Leesburg. They used to provide a slide with the award documentation that
you get after you pay the invoice... has that stopped? It is that
professionally taken portrait of the awarded flower (albeit in slide
form) that makes it worth the cost of the award. ;-)

"Kenni Judd" wrote in message
...
Danny: That's not the only thing that's going to break AOS, as I think
you can see from this thread. Membership is already either voting, or
threatening to vote, with their feet/$$. As membership and prestige
decline, the awards become less valuable -- on that point, I have to say
that for $60 or even $40 to register an award, I really think I should
get a copy of the award photo to use on my website, but NO, that's not
included. And because they do insist on using slides, it doesn't even pay
for me to buy one from the photographer, because I have no use for the
slide, I need a digital or at least something I could scan.

I should perhaps also note that AOS HQ suffered major damage from
Hurricane Wilma. I expect it's well-insured, but that never covers
everything ... even after the deductible. So, cynical though this may
sound, I will not be surprised by more price increases.

And if I don't get 2 more awards this year, the membership will lapse
again. Kenni


"danny" wrote in message
news
Photography costs can eat up a lot of the award fee. For those of us
who get slides duplicated instead of shooting a whole roll of the flower
it eats up almost the entire award fee. We send in 36 slides for every
award so that they can be distributed to all of the other judging
centers. If AOS keeps adding new judging centers this system is going
to break eventually (or a switch to digital will need to happen.)
-danny

In article ,
says...

~And because they do insist on using slides, it doesn't even pay for me to
~buy one from the photographer, because I have no use for the slide, I need a
~digital or at least something I could scan.

Kenni, you can get an adapter for some scanners in order to scan slides.
They turn out pretty well.

--
Reka

This is LIFE! It's not a rehearsal. Don't miss it!
http://www.rolbox.it/hukari/index.html

Al wrote:
I think it is somewhat weird to award a grower a CCM or CCE and then present
him/her with a bill to register it..

I would suppose that AOS awards are mainly of interest to commercial
growers, so can it be written off as a business expense?

I can't see much point of the AOS judging system for the average
hobbyist, particularly the flower quality awards. I don't take my
plants to judging, but I don't imagine that the satisfaction of an AOS
award is any greater than the pleasure that I derive (at no cost) from
hearing my friends Oooh and Aaah over a plant at the local society
meeting.

Myrecodia: Yes, commercial growers "write off" the registration fees, but
that does not make them FREE. It's just a percentage discount, depending on
the grower's tax bracket. At 15%, 28%, or even the next bracket up "off"
for the tax deduction, it's still a real cost. Nor do we get to "write off"
all the TIME we spend shepherding these things through the process, a _much_
bigger cost.

I would suppose that AOS awards are mainly of interest to commercial
growers, so can it be written off as a business expense?

This brings up a whole 'nother can of worms. IMHO, the AOS standards and
the taste of the orchid-buying public in my locale (south Florida) has been
drifting further and further apart for quite some time now. To the point
where it's a point I teach in my class on orchid selection:

"Don't be too impressed by AOS awards. They give no points for a lot of
things you would like -- fragrance, ease of growing, ease of blooming,
frequency of blooming, etc."

Now, for the AOS fans out there, I'll concede that some of these things
would be hard to plug into the judging standards, but that doesn't actually
resolve the issue. I didn't say I had a solution, I'm just agreeing with an
observation of the problem. Kenni

I can't see much point of the AOS judging system for the average
hobbyist, particularly the flower quality awards. I don't take my
plants to judging, but I don't imagine that the satisfaction of an AOS
award is any greater than the pleasure that I derive (at no cost) from
hearing my friends Oooh and Aaah over a plant at the local society
meeting.

Hi,

I'm totally with you on this one, but I see a lot of really competitive
people growing orchids and the AOS award "notch" on their belt is one way to
give in to that competitive urge.

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org
I can't see much point of the AOS judging system for the average
hobbyist, particularly the flower quality awards. I don't take my

Hey, which OS are you in, Nick? I live in Mooresville, and am in CVOS.
Murri
wrote in message
oups.com...
Al wrote:
I think it is somewhat weird to award a grower a CCM or CCE and then
present
him/her with a bill to register it..

I would suppose that AOS awards are mainly of interest to commercial
growers, so can it be written off as a business expense?

I can't see much point of the AOS judging system for the average
hobbyist, particularly the flower quality awards. I don't take my
plants to judging, but I don't imagine that the satisfaction of an AOS
award is any greater than the pleasure that I derive (at no cost) from
hearing my friends Oooh and Aaah over a plant at the local society
meeting.