Re: OT AIS membership

Years ago I was a member of the Hutchinson Iris club.  It had a huge iris show every yera, on Mother's day, i believe.  Hutchinson Iris club was pretty big for the area, and the show was pretty big for the size club.
Someone asked the purpose of an iris show.  Trick question, I remember he said.  but I'll partially answer it, since it does relate to this discussion.
1. You get to show off your beautifull iris that are better than anyone else's in the world.
2.You get to see just how much better some other people can groew iris so you can start paying closer attention to the meetings.
3. You get to see some varieties you have never seen before.  New introductions, species, historic iris, seedlings not yet introduced.
4. If you stand back a little and be quiet during the judging, you can hear what some people who really knows iris see in each iris.  You can learn a lot.
5. Time for judge's training.
6, Fund raiser.  Those shows were crowded for hours.  Just a couple of bucks each and the club's budget is taken care of.
7. Public education.  Most people who came to the show didn't have any idea of the beauty of iris.  Most know iris from some old clump that has survived for a generation or two outside the door with no attention.  Which is also pretty impressive.
8. A chance for club members to work together and see something great come of it.
9. An iris sale.  More money for the club to spend on new introductions to divide amoung the members.
 
That is the short list, just what comes to me quickly.  There are other reasons to have iris shows.
Walter

Neil A Mogensen <neilm@charter.net> wrote:
In response to Robt. Pries' suggestion of setting forth concrete proposals, I
offer the following:

J I Jones commented that the life and vitality of the AIS rests ultimately in
the local groups. This is where the AIS is visible, concrete and most
(potentially) responsive.

What if local groups dedicated part of the annual budget to advertising, to
disemination of information? Perhaps this could take place in such as County
or State Fairs, other community celebrations with large gatherings and the
like--and have personable, informed members of the AIS present to encourage
interest, offer membership application materials (most especially the
Membership Secty's address) and perhaps have a few catalogs and even some iris
rhizomes for give-away gifts of good will and encouragement.

There's nothing so seductive as having a NAMED iris to grow and enjoy. I'd be
happy to donate some of my excesses (when I have them) to such a local
endeavor. I'm sure many other growers and hybridizers would do the same.

At the present I don't have the excess I mentioned for a number of
reasons--but ordinarily I end up the season with discarding a lot of very good
stock as I simply do not have room for replanting them. Irises, at least many
of them, increase exuberantly when well fed and well cared for.

Neil Mogensen z 7 western NC mountains

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