Re: Local iris society
- To: i*@rt66.com
- Subject: Re: Local iris society
- From: I*@aol.com
- Date: Sat, 10 Aug 1996 07:20:35 -0400
In a message dated 96-08-06 22:18:07 EDT, you write:
> I also welcome any further information on the topic of
>establishing a local iris society/ AIS affiliate.
>
>
Donald - I can offer you my experience in starting a local DAYLILY club! Not
the enemy... but we already HAD an iris club, and club members were not
interested in adding daylilies to the mix, so we had to start from ground 0.
I just made up my mind we would DO it... put a notice in the paper in the
home and garden page...baked cookies, dug plants for door prizes and off we
went. Twelve folks showed up - and 10 of them formed the nucleus for the
club (the 11th said that she thought that the name "BADS" (Buffalo Area
Daylily Society) would bring bad karma or vibrations or some such thing to us
and stalked off...dragging her husband - No. 12 - with her).
Other possibilities:
Find a willing nursery or library or shopping center and have an iris
display. Make handouts announcing a meeting... AND ALWAYS PROMISE THEM
SOMETHING - like free plants!
Get a list of local iris folks from your RVP or from Marilyn and send THEM a
notice.
Anytime you "meet the public", find a way to get them to give you their name,
address and phone number. I make raffle tickets for winning a free iris - or
collection of irises. By getting their name & address, you have the
beginning of a mailing list.
Donald... the bottom line is, YOU'RE "IT". Since YOU"RE the one wanting a
local club (as I was for daylilies), you're the one who will have to start
it. The local Daylily club is fertile ground for seeing how a meeting is
conducted... and for recruiting. I admit I trolled the iris club for daylily
folks. Because: aren't we all GARDENERS first?
Then: when you have your meeting, make sure you have slides, plants, cider
and cookies. The slides you can either rent from AIS, or ask for here...
ditto the plants (not from AIS...but here, fer shur) the cookies n cider
have to come from you. Then you should prepare a SHORT agenda.. ask each
person to state what their interest is in iris.. state your case for starting
a club.. show your slides... schmooze over the cookies and cider and you're
ROLLING.
The first year is the hardest - you will need to find a way to communicate
with folks - by newsletter or postcard. Phone is not good since you put
folks on the spot. You will have to just keep repeating the above until you
have a group rolling along - THEN you can get to the officers, bylaws, blah
blah blah.
Yes... we all want a local club so that someone ELSE can do all these things
and we can just attend and learn - but just remember, you're "someone" and go
for it.
Kathyguest - avoiding making a fruit salad for the family picnic
