North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[claude sweet <sweetent@home.com>]

Christopher Mauchline wrote:

> What can we do?
> 
> I'm not sure.  Some on this forum have offered some ideas that may
> help.  But we're bucking a national trend.  The Boomers and GenX do
> not join organizations like the GI generation did (they do join more
> as they age, but never at the rate or involvement of their forebears).
> And the millenial "cohort" is too young to know their involvement
> trend.

Chris,

My experience is that a high percentage of people who are connected to
the Internet will participate in discussions and will share information
if provided the proper forum.

I share plants and exchange information with people all over the
country, indeed the world, only because of the easy and quickness of
email.

While there is a decline in people attending physical meetings,
organizations like NAFEX have yet to tap into electronic memberships as
a revenue source or a communication device.

Involving children is a matter of establishing example of gardening
observed in the home. The younger, the better to acquaint them with the
joys of gardening. Admittedly a difficult task for apartment and
condominium dwellers, but there is the possibility of participating in
community gardens sponsored by schools, churches, and local agencies.

An out reach to schools and universities needs to be established to both
expand membership and revitalize our gardening organizations. Empty
nesters could act as sponsors/mentors in such a program by passing on
information and distributing plants. My interest in gardening was the
result of such a partnership in the apartment complex were I lived as a
teenager. There were areas to garden and an older gentleman gave me
dahlia tubers from his stock. A few years later he died and his
relatives were not interested in his collection so they trashed them. It
still saddens me today to think of the waste.

Claude Sweet
San Diego, CA
USA

 

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