Re: communications

[Robert Pries <robertpries@embarqmail.com>]

Kelly wrote:

----- Original Message -----
I'd love to offer someone the Commentary column for the October issue on the
subject of "apathy"!  Who will take me up on it? :)

Regardless of the author, I would want the timbre of the column to be
optimistic and encouraging.  The last thing overtaxed volunteers want to
hear is that their apathetic because they're overtaxed.  

Calling all wordsmiths...
--kdn

Horticulturally,
 
Kelly D. Norris

Kelly I have framed this post in the form of an article. You could print it but as is. But it seems it would be most productive to allow comments and perhaps action at the board meeting and be able to talk about positive initiatives in a later article. It contains some proposals.--Bob

Bridging the Digital Divide Some Proposals

There is no question that the world is changing. Some of us embrace some changes and others choose not to. Sometimes we are forced into these changes by virtue of our jobs and sometimes we are prevented from them because they are not within our budgets. We have print memberships and electronic memberships. You can have one, or the other, or both. Digital communication can be cheap but not every post is of value to a particular receiver. Print is costly and for those that do not want it, it is junk mail. Each requires; time, energy, and cost to the sender. How do we solve this problem in a reasonable way while accommodating each group?

Communication to and, very importantly, from our AIS membership is vital for a healthy society. This is half of all the PR committee does. The other half marketing is also directed to non-members. Here are some of the problems our society faces; Note that problems are really opportunities to build a better society if you can develop good solutions.

1.	Let us think about the symposium first, since it will be due in September/October The symposium is a very valuable tool for recommending Irises to the world. Less than 10% of our membership cares enough to vote. Perhaps if it were easier we would gain another 10%. But it seems 80% maybe 90% basically do not care. For the majority including it in the bulletin is just junk mail and expensive to the society. A solution that seems viable is to post it on the internet so that individuals can download copies and mail them in. But what about those people who do not have internet. It has been recommended that affiliates have an officer who is in charge of providing copies for those members. Immediately there are cries of unfunded mandates. Although this is a very simple solution it is often met with considerable resistance. What to do?

2.	Another perennial concern is the business of the society; minutes, treasurerbs report, lists of judges, exhibition reports, etc. Years ago when all this was published in the bulletin, the January issue became an annual report. We all know how many people read the annual reports of their stock funds. Again only about 10-20% of the membership cares. It is an important segment because they are the ones working on maintaining the society, but still it is not exciting to most new members. Again much of this has been shifted to the website. Then there is the complaint that people cannot find it. PR has tried to alleviate this by linking all these things into a traditional index on the Encyclopedia. But still we have the problem of the digitally challenged. What to do?

3.	The other communication that could separate the E verses print members are surveys. It is very easy to create surveybs with a tool called Survey Monkey. The PR committee has been planning to buy a year subscription, I believe still under $300. It allows instant tabulation on line and unlimited numbers of responses. The free version only allows 100 responses. But if we are not going to disadvantage our print members there would have to be away to distribute and receive printed versions of each poll. What to do?
We are a plant society and a country in transition. I believe it will be many years before the infrastructure is there for everyone to be connected. The challenge to the AIS is how to serve both worldbs well and fairly. 

I some proposals. 

In looking at other plant Societies I see how they have addressed similar problems. The Royal Horticultural Society Has tens perhaps a hundred thousand members worldwide. They produce 12 beautiful magazines a year. But RHS does lots of things that never appear in their magazine; plant trials, exhibitions, and all the types of business that AIS does. Each year they produce an annual report which includes these. It is on plain paper and is only sent on request, since as with AIS probably 90% of their subscribers are not interested.

It seems to me this represents a model that could work for AIS. With membership approaching 5,000 sending a plain paper report to 500 people who request it might be a feasible cost. Another possibility would be to send 3 copies to each affiliate Secretary. That may cut the postage costs and if additional copies were needed they could be requested. Or perhaps each affiliate could poll their membership to see how many copies would be needed. We would have to stress that if people are capable of downloading this from the website it would not only be faster for them but save AIS money.

The annual report could easily be assembled for February distribution but other items such as the symposium ballots and perhaps surveys would be needed in the summer. It would seem two distributions would be required.

Even digitally we can improve communications; If,  e-members subscribed to an e-list, that list could be sent notice that the new bulletin is now available on the e-member site. If we wish, this list could also provide announcements of and links to others Iris News. I would suggest this E-News should not fill mailboxes more than once each month and perhaps not that often. But it could be a great toll for alerting those electronically connected members that would subscribe to the list. For that matter it could be expanded to any electronically capable member who wished to receive these types of notifications. 

The Daylily Society takes this much further with their E-News. It is open to anyone that wishes to subscribe, it has advertising, articles, and News. This is perhaps more than we would want. Minimally I think an alert that the new bulletin is available should be done. I would suggest that if we can find the workers more should be considered. 







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 MORRISJE1@aol.com
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2012 11:34 AM
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] communications

Cheryl,
 
Well said.  Maybe we should prepare an article on  APATHY for the AIS
Bulletin and our web site.  Maybe I  should put same in my column.  What do
you think?  As Section Liaison  I run into the same thing from too many
Section officers.  I think many of  our volunteers are overtaxed and spread
way thin.
 
Jim M.
 
 
In a message dated 7/20/2012 11:08:08 A.M. Central Daylight Time,
region15kids@hotmail.com writes:

One of  the biggest obstacles to communication is apathy by those involved. 
  As
the RVP Counselor, I have tried to communicate with all the RVPs about  the
many changes/decisions/discussions happening within AIS, but  unfortunately
many RVPs are not as diligent as Sue Ann Barnes in passing on  the
information to her affiliates or asking for clarification about  changes.
Even when requesting a response to an email I do not hear  from some RVPS,
even after re-sending the request.  Multiply this  percentage by the number
of affiliates and you can see how many would think  we are not
communicating, or responsive to our membership. As volunteers we  do the
best we can, and I think we do a pretty good job.  I too am  available for
any complaints or concerns from the membership and willingly  try to help
resolve any problems and questions that arise.
Cheryl

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