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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] nafex Digest, Vol 107, Issue 17

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Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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  • From: Neil Lewis <lewisn@georgetown.edu>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] nafex Digest, Vol 107, Issue 17
  • Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2011 13:40:16 -0500

Present state of NAFEX

I'm glad to hear that membership is increasing with the new website; this shows the value of making proactive attempts to increase interest. If there is any time that a fruit growing club should be increasing in size it is now, with the explosion of interest in growing one's own food, keeping chickens and bees, and so forth. My suspicion is that one of the difficulties that NAFEX faces is not that it is not sufficiently international but that it is not sufficiently local. Local fruit growing clubs like Backyard Fruit Growers in PA have large memberships and meetings are very well attended by people living in the area. NAFEX basically has only one meeting a year and a newsletter, and it is often expensive to attend that meeting if it is at the other side of the country from where one lives.

One positive step that could immediately be taken is to make the online forum open to all viewers and not password protected. Perhaps only NAFEX members could contribute, but it should be something anyone can see. This is common with forums on the web. We are stabbing ourselves in the foot by not allowing anyone with an interest in fruit to see it. (Incidentally, I like online forums. One problem with the email system is that we get a lot of repetition in the posts from the preceding posts; it is also easy to search online forums for material.)

I'll be interested to hear the thoughts of others on these issues.

Neil Lewis




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