I have left Paulbs Letter at the end of this very long post so that everyone can refer back to it. I really appreciate that Paul has taken the time to raise these issues. I agree with much of what Paul is saying with the exception of some Key points. I also believe the way forward may be different than any of the current thinking and would like to propose several new approaches.
First I wish to put all this in context. The American Iris Society has been on a downward trajectory for the last 17 years. At first it was not understood. And even now there are some that are STILL in denial, but you do not go from a membership of over 8,000 to a membership of 4,000 and claim success. I have spent weeks of time interviewing principles in other plant societies, researching data on the internet and talking with Garden Writers, horticulturalists, etc trying to understand how to turn this around. This type of market research should always be a part of the PR office I chair and frankly I could use of team of people that could help acquire data, assimilate it and develop strategies to act upon it.
My research leads me to believe that the natural size of our Society should be around 12,000 members. That said I believe if the Iris Society would have been more pro-active instead of just reactive they could still be at this level. While comparing notes with a director of another plant society director, they commented, b Your just about ten years behind usb . While I do not believe this is exactly true, I would ask you to think about the amount of change in the world in the last ten years and ask yourself, Has the AIS changed as fast?.
I have tried to understand what brings people to join and participate in a plant society. I have boiled it down to an acronym PIPP. Plants, Information, People, and Praise probably in that order. Let me address each and how they relate to Paulbs suggestions.
PLANTS: In 1980 I came to the Iris Society because I was looking for Dwarf Iris and species. I believe for most people the contact and interest in the Iris societies develops because of plants. Thatbs what we are all about. Years ago in searching through garden magazines you would discover ads for AIS. By joining you would find sources for all types of Irises advertized in the Bulletin. Clubs plant sales, shows, etc also all brought people into the Iris society because they were looking for plants. Club sales and shows still function this way, but Bulletin and Magazine advertizing serves a new role I will explain in a minute. Today most gardeners are going to the internet if they are looking for a particular Iris.
But first let me suggest that AIS as an organization does not have enough input from hybridizers and nurseries. We should be working together to the benefit of all. I have suggested the possibility of a trade association of nurseryman and hybridizers that could work with AIS. And even if that could not happen, at least a liaison to the board could be created that represents the industry. How could this be useful? It could develop a code of ethics for Iris nurseries. Members of the Iris society already practice such a code although I do not believe there is a formulation of such anywhere. The first basic tenet is that Irises are sold true to name. Today there are large nurseries outside the iris society, who do not care, and e-bay nurseries that are downright fraudulent. The new role of the Iris Society is validation of sources if only by their association with AIS. AIS has not even discussed these problems and we ask ourselves why are people going to Davebs Garden and their!
Garden Watchdog.
If there was such a structure I believe Paulbs point one could be implemented quickly and point two worked out also, although perhaps in a different way than he is suggesting on point two..
Because the world is changing and the internet has become so important, I expect E-memberships to be where the AIS will gain the money to operate the society and prevent the print services we already provide from disappearing. Presently the only place left to cut to balance the budget would be an issue of the bulletin. But by bringing in other revenue from e-membership and other services I believe we can prevent this. There are greater improvements on the way that will make a subscription even more desirable.
But AIS is very poor at marketing itself. Despite my ranting there are many areas in which we do things terribly. Let me suggest an element that could help both nurserymen and AIS gaining members. The Daylily Society has a program where they give new members a coupon for the price of their membership. They do a much better job of marketing their membership than AIS at least in some areas of their website. The coupon is one of those things that could just tip the scales as to whether to join or not. I will let each of you do your own homework. Go to the American Hemerocallis Society website and see how they do it. Even though the nurseries compete for the customers as to how they will honor the coupon, they can benefit by additional business. Before AIS gets a big head, let me point out that the nurseryman do a lot more for the society then it does for them. But when we turn this society around that will change. There is good evidence that with the Iris Encyclopedia and other!
improvements, the AIS website could generate more than 30,000-40,000 unique visitors a month during peak season. And I believe we could bring a great deal of business to nurseries.
Now let me address the area where Paul and I disagree. As I have said before, people come to the Iris Society for plants. They want to have the best, or most interesting, or rarest in the World not just the USA. Although including foreign Irises in the award system does not necessarily bring them to North Amerca, excluding them could easily have an adverse effect. With phyto-sanitary certificates and more and more regulations it is getting harder and harder to get the worldbs plants into our country. Instead of limiting possibilities we should be trying to expand them. Last Year when it was revealed that Decadence and Slovak King could not compete on the Ballot for the Dykes Medal, the Medal lost some of its luster in the eyes of many irisarians. They assumed that it represented the Best of the Irises grown in this country not just the best produced by North American hybridizers. For the 50 years after World War Two, Americans had a huge advantage. This countrybs gene pool!
of Irises had not been plowed under to grow food as happened in much of Europe. We were way ahead of the rest of the world. We shared Irises with overseas hybridizers in exchange for species that grew in their native lands. Everyone benefited. Now overseas hybridizers have done some remarkable things in several types of irises and continue to share them with us. The more we take a chauvinistic American viewpoint the more everyone looses. Now is not the time for the AIS to turn inward. There are many types of organizations that would replace us. Limiting our awards in my mind would be one more way we could weaken the Society. Remember that plants are what people want not just USA plants.
INFORMATION; Hear is where we have some of our biggest failure in the last ten years People used to come to the plant societies for information. But in todaybs internet world information is all over the place. Our presence on the internet was superceded by Wikipedia, Davebs Garden and over a dozen other sites that were providing more content than AIS. Who needed the plant societies? Several plant societies responded with Daylily Dictionaries, Daff-Net/Daff-Seek, And Bulb wikis. While those societies continued to grow the AIS had already started its decline The Daylily society that was smaller than us grew past us while we fell. Now all plant societies are suffering and those that had been successful when we were not are doing even more change. We are catching up as some of the things we are doing I believe will be even better than what the other websites have done. But much is not in place yet. We still have to have a bylaws change to allow the addition of e-memberships. I!
f we could have accomplished much of this before the current economic collapse the results would have been much better than they will be now. It will take longer to get the growth I believe we can achieve and it will take a better organized organization than we have now.
But e-membership can address another of Paulbs points. Right now it is horribly expensive for members to be members in AIS and all the sections. The sections are much more nimble when it comes to change than AIS. Two already have e-memberships and others have them in the works. It will become easier for sections to provide bulletins and less a cost as fewer have to be printed. With cheaper rates it is likely that more AIS judges and members will participate in more sections at least through e-memberships. There is one point that is still a problem, Fewer members in AIS the workforce available to edit and write articles for all these groups until we can grow members again.. But I also think e-memberships will bring more younger and more energetic members to the society. But this transition period of raising the sinking ship and sending it in new directions will be painful.
As we learn how to benefit from the internet old sources of revenue in the iris society can be done away with or with more equitable charges. Perhaps we will be able to eliminate charges for registration for everyone but we are not there yet and sadly it is very hard to get AIS to create a business plan. Too much of the society is done item per item as opposed to creating a comprehensive strategy. Even small investments in new products tend to be sidelined if there is any risk involved. Yet if you are providing new things you have new sources of revenue.
PEOPLE AND PRAISE: Another reason people join is for the socialization. As membership declines there are fewer people to man clubs and do activities. It is hard to believe that we are still doing all the things we did when we had twice the number of people in the society. If so I expect a number of people are headed for burnout.
The Iris Society does a poor job of praise. Often by the time some one is honored they are so old most members do not even know what their accomplishments were. The enormous success of the Master Gardeners, which I believe is the fastest growing plant organization, is based on praise. People join because they want to make a contribution to society and enjoy being recognized for that contribution. Does anyone believe that it is a great honor to be an AIS judge? Are we respecting the time and work it takes to put on an iris show. The Iris Encyclopedia allows people to help build something bigger than all of us and each picture that is entered recognizes who entered it and photographed it. We need more ways in which people can contribute. I believe with Dave that the greater number of sections and Iris groups allows for greater participation. The contributions of many have created an awesome Iris society that can be even better. I realize I have not covered all Paulbs points b!
ut I am wearing out typing and you are wearing out reading, so I will cease for now. But I think the better AIS address PIPP to more successful it will be.