North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>]

> I did not mean that NAFEX should change the name.  However, the outlook and 
> policy should change in accordance with time.


Yes, you either move forward or you die. Clearly, when it comes to 
communication at a distance, the Internet is the future. Eventually, I 
suppose that paper copies will cease and everything will go by email. 
Not yet, of course. There are plenty of members who don't have email, 
I'm sure. But that's the direction things are going. It's just so much 
cheaper and easier. (But I have no idea how long that will take, and I'm 
not urging a current change like that.)

Still, NAFEX might consider an email-only membership for those who are 
outside North America. I don't know how "Pomona" is put together, 
whether or not it could easily be emailed, too. If not, then 
international memberships might not get that publication (I imagine that 
the mailing costs would be considerable). But though the focus would 
probably remain with North America, international memberships offer a 
lot to a group like ours. I'm sure we're all well aware of that.

An organization has to look to the future or fade with the past. This 
certainly does *not* mean ignoring long-time or older members, the 
foundation of the group. It just means that times change and 
organizations must change with them. There must be a reason, after all, 
why NAFEX is HALF the size it used to be.

Just some thoughts...

Bill
Lincoln, NE

--
There's this thing called being so open-minded your brains drop out. - 
Richard Dawkins