Re: AIS: Topics for Affiliates Meting in Dallas?

From: hipsource@aol.com

Greetings.

I'd like to offer some random observations about the issues of attracting new 
members, keeping them, and encouraging participation in local society 
activities.

First, it is to be expected that some persons who join AIS will not be 
interested in the activities of its local affiliates. This is simply a fact, 
and it need not be defined as a problem per se, or evidence of perversity on 
the part of those people, or failure on the part of the local affiliate.

Second, there is no reason to expect that most who join AIS or a local 
affiliate will renew their membership, and there is even less reason to 
expect all those who have received complimentary memberships will invariably 
renew. 

Third, various things motivate people to participate on a local level. These 
may range from narrow self-interest to a sincere dedication to supporting the 
larger mission of AIS, about which one does not hear a whole lot very often. 
The mission of AIS and its affiliates is to educate the greater public about 
irises and encourage their enjoyment thereof.  Any local society which 
forgets or abdicates that outreach mission and turns inward will atrophy, for 
the AIS mission is the vital link to the wider world. 

Fourth, any society which sees the recruitment of new members as a solution 
to old problems may very well run into resistance on the part of those new 
members to being saddled with those problems, implicitly or explicitly. A 
healthy society should expect to give to newer members, not make heavy 
demands upon them. However it does not follow from this that all the 
activities of the group need be pitched to the lowest common denominator.

Fifth, members' participation and contribution must be voluntary, and 
cheerful, or it is not worth having. People who are shamed, scolded, 
manipulated, cajoled or otherwise compelled against their own natural 
inclinations will rarely do any job as it needs to be done and will resent 
having to do it at all. Others will resent having to do the cajoling. 

Sixth, the leadership of a local group should function primarily as 
administrators and record keepers. It is asking a lot to expect them to 
inspire as well. Inspiration is supposed to come from the irises.

Seventh, while it is all very well to state that 'iris people are the best' 
the fact remains that as in any diverse group of individuals there are some 
who are destructive pains in the butt. In a volunteer organization open to 
all there is nothing but peer pressure and Robert's Rules of Order to bring 
to bear on this problem. 

Eighth, people with adequate self-respect do not enjoy an atmosphere pervaded 
by backbiting, bickering, rudeness, vendettas and the like and cannot be 
expected to contribute their time, or any other resource, including a 
tinker's dam, to a group accepting of that sort of behavior.

Anner Whitehead
HIPSource@aol.com

 

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