August is The Iris Encyclopediabs Birth Month. It is a rambunctious 5 year
old. Happy Birthday wiki! There is fair evidence that more people now seek
their iris information from our wiki than from Davebs Garden another wiki.
Within the last year use has grown 36% and continues to grow. People from the
whole world contribute to the wiki and use it. It should be a source of pride
for AIS to be providing this service.
In 1920 John Wister, president of the new AIS, wrote of creating an AIS
library. He wrote at length of what it should contain and hoped that it would
be a traveling library, so that many could look into it. Little would he know
that we can now bring great parts of the AIS library to the entire world via
the wiki.
The early AIS also paid subscriptions to The Flower Grower for all its
members. In turn The Flower Grower published many articles on Iris and the
Iris Society each issue serving as the Societies monthly newsletter on top of
the AIS Bulletin. Today we have News & Notes. B B The Flower Grower also
served as a monthly forum for the Gladiolus Society and the Rose Society. The
hot b newb idea for non-profits today is b partneringb . It is ironic
that AIS did this from its beginnings.
I think this is a lesson in what can be accomplished when we work together.
The 650 plus contributors to the Encyclopedia can be proud of what they are
achieving. We welcome everyone to help. It will not be long before the
Encyclopedia will be celebrating 10 years and that will be the same time that
AIS is 100 years old. Think about how you would want the future to look and
help us record it on the Encyclopedia!
--
Bob Pries
Zone 7a
Roxboro, NC
(336)597-8805
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