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