Paying for registrations

[Robert Pries <robertpries@embarqmail.com>]

Charging for Registration.



B 

Paul Black had indicated that it would be unfair to charge USA hybridizers and
not Overseas hybridizers for registering an Iris. I agree and it will probably
surprise Paul and the board that that is not what happens. Dave had asked
whether we could charge by the rules set for us as a ICRA for Irises. I will
try to answer both since This is a terribly busy time for the Registrar. IVRA
stand for International Cultivar Registration Authority and ICRAs are governed
by the ISHS (International Society for Horticultural Science) and their
Commission for Nomenclature and Cultivar Registration. The Chairman of the
Commission is Dr. Janet Cubey. I have talked with her several times over
several years, although not since I moved to NC. I was delighted that she knew
me from the SIGNA checklist I created and she liked. B  She also noted that
our registrar for Iris is one of the best. Although the rules are spelled out
in the International Horticultural Code, I do not have a copy and can not site
chapter and verse but can only give you a summary. There is no numerical limit
on what we can charge but it should not be much more than the costs involved
in fulfilling our mandate. Our mandate is to get Irises registered and to make
the registration information easily available to the horticultural world. This
is one of the primary roles that created the American Iris Society and many of
our founders where also involved in the foundation of the ISHS. You could
argue that the AISbs reason for being started out of the need to make sense
of all the Iris names in commerce in the 1920s.



B 

Now to answer Pauls problem. Overseas Irises come to the AIS registrar through
assistant registrars for different parts of the World. These assistant gather
the registrations and translate the language to English so that Mike can work
with them to put into the registry, Each registrar can collect fees for the
Irises they send on to Mike. This varies by assistant but in some parts of the
world people have grumbled that they are paying too much to register an Iris.
I have seen letters asking for us to register directly but this could be a
very difficult task because of all the languages involved. So although the AIS
is not receiving money for these registrations you could say, that that money
is what we would have to pay for translations and assembling the
registrations. I know that people overseas have requested sponsors from the
USA to help get their plants registered. If we would follow Pauls thought of
turning the registration over to another organization I am certain what
American hybridizers pay would go up dramatically. Registration is the Pearl
in AISs crown. We would be only another Iris Society without it. Why is
everyone suggesting ideas that would diminish our Society? Certainly we could
review the various charges and see if there is anyway that we could improve on
fairness, but our primary goal is to get plants properly registered and that
information publicized.

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