RE: 2014 AIS Convention


Dear all,

I'm going to address the lateness issue again rather succinctly for the
benefit of everyone involved in this discussion.  Positive, progressive
discourse is incredibly valuable, but it pays to have a discourse with all
facts and relevant insights in the open.  

There's no excuse for the degree of lateness that occurred in 2011.  I have
accepted and continue to accept responsibility for that.  I had a full plate
of other obligations and those contributed overwhelmingly to the tardiness
of each issue.  I offered my apologies in my editor's messages and to the
AIS Board.  For those who'd like my head on a salver, I'm sorry to
disappoint.  My term of service ends November 2014 (with the October 2014
issue).

However, regarding the reason how things came to be late (regardless of my
other professional commitments), many of you need to understand how our
deadline structure works and how it COULD work.  First, how it works...

We are effectively trying to produce and publish a magazine in two months, a
nearly impossible timeframe to begin with.  We often do it in 10 weeks (as
we did this issue), but in recent history it's pushed into 12 and 14 weeks.
No commercial magazine or student-run publication I've ever worked for would
dream of putting together the kind of product we do in that window.  The
kind of content we provide readers these days requires a great investment of
time, primarily in the story development stages.  We continually work with
potential contributors to craft stories of interest for our diverse
readership.
It's my fervent belief that this approach to the magazine is the reason our
membership attrition rate continues to slow and hopefully will see us into
'black' territory in the coming years (i.e. keeping more members than we
lose for a net membership gain).  As for delivery, many members will receive
their January 2012 issue this month--while it's still January!  Some will
not (as Bob acknowledges 'the ways of the postal system').  To Don Rude's
question, we use two professional mailing services, one for domestic and one
for international.  Our magazine is not shipped at first class (to do so
would cost astronomical amounts of money) but rather at media rate, hence
the potential delay.

Now how it could work.  Personally, Erica and I would LOVE to have more time
to work on each issue.  Another month would be exceptional!  But when
discussed in the past, this leads to a number of challenges, ironically as
it deals with conventions and other 'news making' topics.  Let's take the
April issue for example.  The editorial deadline is February 1st (let this
serve as your first reminder!)  If I would have all content by February 1, I
could guarantee an on-time issue without sweating a beat.  But I've yet to
ever have all content in place by the editorial deadline in nearly 5 years
with this publication.  If the deadline were say January 1, I'm confident
from past experience that *most* conventions wouldn't have their logistics
and content in place (program schedules, etc.) that early.  This would mean
that the convention wouldn't be promoted at all in the magazine because it
would fall outside of the lead time for each issue (bear in mind that this
is just an example, but stretch this out to other issues across the calendar
and you see the challenge).  If there was a way for these other parties and
contributors to have this content to me by January 1, I'd love it.

But please don't take this as flaming on my part.  While the lateness does
start to bother me, I've long acknowledged that we are a society largely
churning on the engines of volunteerism.  Late contributors can attest to my
flexibility with deadlines--I can't go to press without content after all.
Many of us have lots of other commitments, and sometimes per the way of
human nature, things just don't get done when we think they will.  While I'd
love to 'fire' people for not meeting their commitments (Judy can empathize
with me here from her corporate experiences), it's rather indignant to
'fire' a volunteer. ;-)  

So we come to a happy medium.  As Bob points out, e-members had their issue
almost 2 weeks ago. (And in keeping with the electronic momentum of the
times, I prefer to read my news online anyway.)  This is a positive solution
to an otherwise difficult problem.  I'm *always* open to feedforward (as my
educational pedagogy professor called it) and critiques, but please make an
effort to embrace a holistic understanding of the situation.  It's of great
benefit to the direction of the conversation.


Horticulturally,
 
Kelly D. Norris
Farm Manager, Rainbow Iris Farm
Editor, Irises: The Bulletin of The American Iris Society
Bedford & Ames, IA 
Zone 4b/5a
Read my blog at: http://www.kellydnorris.com

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org [mailto:owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org]
On Behalf Of John W. Baker
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 8:24 AM
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] 2014 AIS Convention

Goof morning, Terry:
Thank you for your words of wisdom regarding conventions.
As a past president of our local club for a number of years, and chairman of

the 2010 AIS Convention in Madison, I agree with what you say.
We were happy to receive a large check from the Kansan City Convention 
committee prior to our convention, and we sent one in return to Canada for 
their convention.  However, if every club that can afford it would make a 
contribution to the AIS for an insurance to cover the hotel (OUR BIGGEST 
DOWNFALL) it would help everyone hosting a convention.  We all know in 
advance what the buses, food, convention bags and give-aways are going to 
cost, but the hotel always has to be the big question mark for any 
convention, due to the unknow attendance.  We were absolutely sure that we 
were going to hit 500, but planned for only 300-400 which seemed positive.
As for the iris sale, it was a salvation to uur club.  We had several very 
large orders from around the country which amounted to a few thousand 
dollars, and made $14,000 on our three-day iris sale at Olbrich Botanical 
Gardens in Madison.  This was our salvation, truly!
I understand that the AIS Bulletin is going to be late again, forcing the 
California people to push the
higher registration fees from March to April.  This is a loss of money to 
those people.  I have already gotten myself into trouble with Kelly Norris 
regarding my outspoken views on his job as editor, but I feel that the 
printing deadline is something that should never be overlooked.  How would 
he like to receive his daily paper a couple weeks (or even a month) late?
Enough said on that subject!
Thanks for your words of wisdom, and for your many years of service to the 
AIS.
John Baker
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Terry Aitken" <terry@flowerfantasy.net>
To: <aisdiscuss@aisboard.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 6:29 PM
Subject: RE: [AISdiscuss] 2014 AIS Convention


> Hi "All"
> The local committee does all of the negotiating with contractors, be they
> hotels, buses, meals, whatever.
> When all of that is added up, they should allow about a 10% contingency.
> The local committee then sets the registration fee.
> So far, so good. AIS advises but is not responsible. Thank you, Paul
> Gossett!
> The big unknown is ATTENDANCE ?!?!? and nobody can predict that if there 
> is
> no history of iris conventions at a specific location.
> On any committee, there will blatant optimists and blatant pessimists. 
> Being
> "REALISTIC" is a crapshoot at any time and many circumstances are beyond 
> the
> control of the local people. I hear that there is insurance against a
> financial disaster but it is very expensive. It covers the hotel fees for
> "under" attendance. It would be nice if the successful conventions could
> donate some money to AIS as a backup fund so that AIS and the local
> committee could be "self insured". (No idea where that money is going to
> come from!)
> Another big unknown is the distribution or sale of plants after the
> conventions. Sometimes they can bail out a convention that is in a
> precarious financial position.
> Terry Aitken
> Planning for the 2015 convention.
> Conventions are for the dissemination of information and nobody owns that.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org [mailto:owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org]
> On Behalf Of R. Dennis Hager
> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 5:53 AM
> To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
> Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] 2014 AIS Convention
>
> There are underlying questions that need to be considered as a part of 
> this
> question.
>
> Who OWNS the Convention?
> How should the Convention be promoted?
> Who owns the intellectual data that is generated at each convention?
> Is that data used to promote and improve subsequent conventions?
> What functions of the convention should be administered by the Host?
> What functions of the convention should be administered by AIS?
>
> These questions are NOT about how things ARE done, but how they SHOULD be
> done.
>
> Dennis Hager
> Irisarian, Pharmacist, Restaurateur, Councilman, Former Mayor and General
> Pain in the A....
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Maureen
> Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 10:40 AM
> To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
> Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] 2014 AIS Convention
>
> Hi Paul,
>
> I think we all suspected that a discussion on AIS policy on conventions 
> was
> going to happen sooner rather than later.
>
> I expect that the current ad hoc help at the back end should a club suffer
> catastrophic losses from a convention is not going to be sufficient going
> forward.
>
> I would suggest that board discussion consider the following.
>
> If AIS takes on the riskiest and costliest expense of the convention, 
> should
>
> AIS then also receive some part of the revenues generated by the 
> convention?
>
> (for example, collect a fixed portion of registration fees and receive all
> revenues from silent auction)
>
> Should AIS get involved in fund raising for conventions?
>
> What is the impact on the long term financial health of AIS?  While AIS
> manages its finances fairly well by managing its expenses with variable
> revenues. How will AIS manage with a significant variable expense?
>
> The last question is probably the most important.
>
> Unfortunately, I won't be at the national convention this year. I will see
> some of you at the Siberian convention.
>
> Maureen Mark
> Ottawa, Ontario
> (Not a current board director)
>
> On 2012-01-11, at 3:00 AM, "pwgossett@juno.com" <pwgossett@juno.com> 
> wrote:
>
>> Good Evening Folks,
>>
>> The weekend of December 3 & 4, 2011, I had the pleasure of meeting with
>> the Delaware Valley Iris Society at their winter board meeting in
>> Pennsylvania.  After they concluded their board meeting they allowed me 
>> to
>
>> tell them my thoughts about them hosting an AIS Convention in their area
>> and what AIS can do to assist them.  We discussed all aspects of hosting 
>> a
>
>> convention and had volunteers to be the Chairperson, Guest Iris Chair,
>> Transportation Chair, and Treasurer all from the area.  We also discussed
>> 4 or 5 gardens that might be on tour along with local non iris gardens 
>> and
>
>> historical attractions that could be used as an optional tour.  They 
>> would
>
>> like to receive guest plants but, will have to have a limitation on the
>> number and also 2014 would be too soon for them if they would be 
>> receiving
>
>> guest plants.
>>
>> We also discussed financial concerns and obligations.  I believe their
>> greatest concern is how much of a role would AIS be willing to take in
>> both manpower and financial.  On the financial side the hotel is the
>> biggest expense of a convention.  I believe if AIS would be willing to
>> sign the hotel contract and take on the financial responsibility of the
>> hotel we might have a convention site on the east coast probably not in
>> 2014 but, maybe 2016 or 2017.  They are thinking about it now and will
>> make a decision by the end of January.  I am hoping for a positive
>> response from them on hosting an AIS Convention.
>>
>> My question to the AIS Board is....  Would AIS be willing to sign the
>> hotel contract and take on the financial responsibility of the hotel?  I
>> would estimate the cost of the hotel expenses would be about $25,000.
>>
>> I would like to have your suggestions as to what I need to do and what
>> role will AIS have in this convention and also future conventions.
>>
>> Thank you,
>>
>> Paul
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ____________________________________________________________
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>>
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>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To sign-off this list, send email to the AIS Secretary
> <aissecretary@irises.org>
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> http://www.aisboard.org/lists/aisdiscuss/
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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> <aissecretary@irises.org>
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> http://www.aisboard.org/lists/aisdiscuss/
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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