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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Membership, focus, journals, etc...the face of NAFEX

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  • From: Diane Whitehead <voltaire@islandnet.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Membership, focus, journals, etc...the face of NAFEX
  • Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:01:33 -0800

I belong to a lot of garden societies, in North America, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. The membership dues range from $10 to $90 a year. The inexpensive ones send out Xeroxed quarterly journals and charge for the seeds in their seed exchanges. They make most of their money from seed sales. The most expensive one is the Royal Horticultural Society which publishes a monthly magazine, runs three huge gardens and research labs, trains students, and allows me free access to lots of gardens when I make one of my infrequent trips to England.

Most of these societies also have websites on which there is an enormous amount of information free to anyone. Check out how much information is given on the RHS site: http://www.rhs.org.uk/ index.htm The information published on the website is free to all, but if you are a member, you can get personal advice. For instance, you can send in diseased plants and have the scientists test them for you.

One of the liveliest websites is that of the Scottish Rock Garden Club. The club itself has over 4500 members in 38 countries, but the website is for everyone. This is from the homepage: "this site is a reflection of the SRGC's policy of openness and friendliness, whether or not you are a member. We do hope however that any non-members who like the site will consider joining us and thereby enjoy the wide range of benefits that membership of the SRGC brings! "

Here are just a couple of items from the website:

One man publishes a photographic essay each week on what to do with bulbs. He's been doing this since 2003, and it is a very useful resource. Look at one of his essays, and just imagine doing something similar with fruit information. http://www.srgc.org.uk/bulblog/log2007/080807/log.html

It also has a Forum which can be read by anyone, but one needs to join (the Forum, which is free, not the Society itself) in order to be allowed to post. Take a look at how many discussions are going on, including some about what is flowering now in the Southern Hemisphere. http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/ I receive an email notification when there has been a new posting in a topic I am interested in.


So - here they are, giving away information. Why would anyone actually pay the $32 for U.K. residents, or the $41 that I pay (automatically billed to my VISA every year)? Well, there are good reasons: benefits that only members get, and one page of the website spells them out. The most important to me is seeds - they have an excellent seed exchange which is free. This year there were 4300 kinds to choose from, not quite as large as the Alpine Garden Society's list of 5600, but close. I have never been to Scotland, so have not been able to make use of their other membership benefits.

Some of the smaller U.S. societies that I belong to are also very generous with their information. As one of the administrators of three garden lists and a couple of websites, I know how much time is spent responding to both members and non-members.

I could go on about other clubs, but it would be more of the same: incredible friendliness and generosity.

If you do want to have a website and forum similar to that of the SRGC, it should not cost too much. I believe the engine that runs the site is a free one. (more generosity!)

Diane Whitehead
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada






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