Joint/cooperative ventures, and a New PC-free LCD digital projector

["K. Loberg" <iris.loberg@comcast.net>]

I wanted to share a couple of cooperative ventures that I have initiated and
completed for my local iris club, which might be something that other iris
societies could consider.



1.   Affiliation with a garden club.  My local club has seen membership
decreases in the past 8 or 9 years.  We've lost more active members who have
passed on than the number of new members we've gained.  I was able to use an
opportunity in my community which has benefited two clubs.   Several years
back I became active in my local garden club, who is very active (2 program
meetings a month) and has about 3 times as many members as does my iris club.
My garden club is also fortunate enough to own a small Clubhouse, a home which
was donated to the garden club some decades ago, and it also has an outdoor
storage room (old garage).   My local iris club has moved it's meeting
location over the years, often initiated because the meeting hall/location
became more expensive.   We also were having difficulty finding a members
home/garage or location to store our show vases, and had resorted to renting
the smallest mini storage we could find, which was an additional annual
expense.  For about 4 years, our iris club was experiencing annual deficits in
our fund balance and we needed innovative ideas to solve this problem.

     The opportunity I saw was to ask our garden club (affiliated with
California Garden Club's Inc.) if we could become an affiliate to the garden
club.   I wouldn't have done this if I hadn't been an active member of the
garden club for a few years, and they knew me as an avid gardener and a
collector of irises.  Our garden club already had another group which was
affiliated, it is a flower arrangement club, and the requirement for that club
was that their members had to also be a member of one of the garden clubs in
my county or the adjoining county.    Upon doing research, I found out my iris
club could become an 'associated plant society' of the California Garden Club
for a reasonable fee, and that would make all of our iris club members
"members of a CGCI affiliated garden club/plant society", and that met the
requirements of my local garden club.   We did not have to pay dues to the
garden club which happen to be $20 per year.   Additionally, we volunteered to
help clean out the outdoor clubhouse storage, so that we could store our show
vases there, and that saved us the annual mini storage rental.  Our iris club
also volunteered to pay a nominal annual fee equal to what the flower
arrangement club did, and the garden club welcomed us as an affiliate.   Our
iris club members do not have to attend any garden club meetings if we don't
want to.

     We now have the use of the clubhouse for meetings.  It has a very nice
kitchen, many folding tables and chairs for a meeting hall.  They've installed
a permanent screen for presenters to show slideshows.   We're also using it
for our annual flower show until the time we might outgrow the room in size.
Our iris club budget is now back in the black.   It became a win-win situation
for both clubs.   As it turns out, we have about one third of our iris club
members who were already a member of one of the six local garden clubs that
are in our two county area, and that also meant a lot of support for our
cooperative venture.



2.   Purchasing a PC-free LCD digital projector.  The second item I initiated
has to do with a slide projector.   For years, one of the problems we've had
in our iris club is planning and getting programs for our meetings.
Distances to bring in program speakers is far, and so often we didn't have
speakers.   A few of us who did have pictures to share, have them as digital
pictures but no one has had a digital LCD projector.  Several of us have the
old style slide projectors, but no one wants to go to the expense of making
slides from digital pictures.  We also had borrowed the AIS LCD projector
once, but that required time to handle the shipping.

     Now that we were affiliated with our garden club, I saw the same need
with them, the need to have a local LCD projector.   With some of the savings
our iris club obtained by using the garden club clubhouse, I suggested that we
again partner with the garden club and jointly purchase a new LCD projector,
to be used by both groups in the clubhouse.  They both liked the idea and
agreed.  One of the things that sold us all on getting a LCD projector, was
that I found a new "PC free" unit, one that runs a digital slide show without
having a laptop or any PC connected.   I also found it at my local Staples
store, and after investigation, ordered it online.   At the time I got a $100
rebate and also used a $120 Staples awards credit obtained by the garden club
from a copy center order the previous quarter.  The whole unit cost us about
$800.00 plus tax minus the credits, and the cost was split by our two groups.

     I have now given one presentation with our new LCD projector and it was
used by one other speaker.  It does exactly what it was advertised as. no PC
laptop or computer is needed.   It has a USB port on the back and all you do
is plug in a USB Memory/Flash card containing jpeg images, and it has an
internal menu which allows you to select and run a slideshow.  This unit has
multiple methods of connecting to units, so it can connect to a Laptop or a
Video player as well.

     I have mentioned our success to a couple of clubs and have been getting
inquiries about what unit it is, henceforth the reason I decide to write and
post this note, hoping it may help other groups.

     The unit we obtained from Staples, is an Epson EX70 LCD projector.    You
can read about it here:
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes
&oid=63077319  and here:
http://www.aboutprojectors.com/news/2008/09/30/epson-releases-ex30-ex50-and-e
x70-projectors/ and here:
http://www.epson.com/cmc_upload/0/000/119/948/EX70_ProdPrev.pdf

    One of the nice benefits I see from having this unit, is that any of our
members who have digital pictures (just about everyone has a digital camera
now days), can select 50, 100, or 150 pictures, simply place them on a USB
Memory card (sometimes called jump drives), and we can have an interesting
program.   And this will help us retain members and encourage new members to
join.



Have a great day everyone!

Kitty Loberg

Calif.

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