AIS: Letter

Below is a letter that I am sending to the Officers and members of the
Board of Director of the AIS.

I have tried to make some workable suggestions, I hope the board will
consider them.

If any of you would like to send the board your own comments on the same
or any other issue, I have a set Microsoft Word merge form files that I
will be glad to email to you. They consist of a letter form and an
envelope form that are linked to an address list. Assuming that you have
Word, all you have to do is type what you want in the letter and select
Merge/Print and a letter individualized for each person will pop out. Do
the same for the envelope, adding your return address and you get
envelopes (assuming your printer will print envelopes).

If you don't have Word I am sure your word processing program can
convert the address file, or I can provide it in "text only" format. If
worse come to worse, I can even sanil mail you a set of preprinted
envelopes.



John                     | "There be dragons here"
                         |  Annotation used by ancient cartographers
                         |  to indicate the edge of the known world.

John Jones, jijones@ix.netcom.com
Fremont CA, USDA zone 8/9 (coastal, bay) 
Max high 95F/35C, Min Low 28F/-2C average 10 days each
Heavy clay base for my raised beds.

___________________

Open Letter to the Officers and Board of Directors of the American Iris
Society.


I am greatly disturbed at the recent events surrounding the availability
of AIS publications. My understanding is that the only action taken at
the recent Board of Directors meeting was to accept Mr. Giffords
resignation, and perhaps to take the Storefront page out of the next AIS
Bulletin. Trying to solve a bungled situation by preventing members from
placing orders is ludicrous at best. At worst, it demonstrates a lack of
any business sense and a total disregard for the membership.

While I would agree that a good long term solution should be developed,
and that the officers and members of the board should take the
appropriate amount of time to evaluate the options, I find that your
lack of interest in implementing an interim solution unconscionable.

It isnt as if no one knew about the problem. This situation has NOT
just jumped up in front of everyone in the last month. There are people
who placed orders last fall and STILL have not received their items nor
have their checks been cashed. The AIS treasurer noted at the November
1996 board meeting that the AIS had only received a small portion of the
revenue from the Official Store they normally did for that time. Mr.
Gifford himself noted, at that same meeting, that he was behind, and
committed to fix the problem within two weeks. According to the interim
financial statement presented in Dearborn by the Treasurer, Mr. Gifford
has deposited very little over the amount noted in November. Many of you
have received letters on the subject for many months. So, to claim that
this is a new problem, is disingenuous.

This is not intended to be an indictment of Mr. Gifford. There are lots
of reasons that he fell behind, both personal, and from the perspective
of the level of effort required for the job. His flaw was perhaps not
being willing to face up the fact that the task was beyond him. Your
flaw was not having accurate description of the job and its scope to
alert a prospective new Sales Director as to how much time and effort
would need to be expended.

However, as officers and board members of AIS, it is your responsibility
to watch for problem areas, and knowing that they exist,  ensure that
the situation is evolving in an acceptable manner. This was clearly a
case that required special attention over the last six months and you
failed in your responsibilities. 

I dont know about all of you, or all the very high level hybridizers,
but I dont have my 96 R&I, and judging from what I can see, I wont be
able to get it for 4-6 months at a minimum. I need to have it, and to
have the leadership of my organization take such a lackadaisical
attitude about implementing an interim solution, even under the guise of
trying to find a long term one, is just unacceptable. AIS is my
organization, mine and every other dues payer, and we deserve better
than this. I know you are all volunteers, and I appreciate that. I do a
lot of work for my local club, and I know the time that takes. You have
personal lives, and you have to carry on with them, but if there is not
enough time to do the AIS job as well, perhaps you should consider
stepping down and letting someone else take over. We, the membership,
deserve and demand leadership that is looking out for what we need, not
furthering some political agenda.

Being a businessman, when I complain about something, I also believe
that I have a responsibility to offer suggestions that might make
acceptable solutions. I half expect this to fall on deaf ears, because I
know that you have already just ignored some offers from reliable,
interested people  ones that could provide at least an interim
solution. 

Be that as it may:

The membership deserves a temporary fix. There are several options. Some
of them may cost the AIS some money. I realize that the AIS financial
picture is already slim and may have to suffer another blow.  I think
you need to accept that fact, even if it is at the expense of someones
pet project. It is, after all, due to the lack of action by the officers
and Board of Directors that we are where we are. 

One solution would be to hire a local temporary to take over from Mr.
Gifford. Set up a small temporary office, move in enough of the
inventory to keep things going on a short term basis, and monitor the
situation. Perhaps the RVP there would be available to manage things.
Another solution might be to call upon the local club to do the
fulfillment instead of a hired temporary. This might not result in as
effective a response time, but it is an alternative  IF the local club
were willing. An incentive should be offered to the club.

A third solution, one that could also serve as a long term solution,
would be to contract with fulfillment house. I have had experience with
them. There are small ones and large ones, ones staffed by partially
disabled individuals, and ones that run giant organizations. If it costs
a small surcharge on an order, I think it would be worth it to the buyer
to know that the operation would run smoothly, on time, and efficiently.
Find a local one in Tennessee, use it while you evaluate other options.
If the AIS has to absorb the service charge for those orders on backlog,
I think you owe it to the membership. Who knows, you might even find it
works well.

Long term, if you want to try to keep the process on a volunteer basis,
perhaps you should split the task into two parts; the first consisting
of receiving the orders, validating them, and depositing the checks. The
second, forwarding the order to what ever process is being used to
fulfill them.

If you insist on finding a single person to do the job, sooner or later
the same thing will happen again. It is a big job, and if AIS is to
grow, the task will continue to get bigger and bigger. It is problematic
that the folks that have the most time to volunteer, are generally the
older members who often have physical disabilities. We dont need that
kind of problem again. A good long term solution will be more cost
effective and recover any initial cost of implementation. What we need
to do is find the right solution, not the cheapest one now!

The AIS is a business, and needs business expertise to manage it. It is
time to put down whatever political banners are being waved and start
serving the membership.

If you wish to contact me directly, my home phone is 510.795.9723, my
FAX is 510.794.6887. I can be reached via email at
jijones@ix.netcom.com.

Sincerely,


John I. Jones
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