Re: Fall Board Meeting Motions and exhortation

[K Brewitt <just1moreiris@gmail.com>]

Thanks for taking the time to explain the BIG picture to me, Bob.
Much appreciated,
Kate

2009/11/18 Robert Pries <robertpries@embarqmail.com>

> There is often little understanding of why the AIS board does what it does.
> It
> is often very complex. I can not speak for the board but I can share what
> was
> going through my mind as the decisions regarding the symposium took place.
>
> First off one should know that the budget for the coming year projected at
> a
> $30,000 deficit. Knowing this I fully expected that we might have to reduce
> the number of times the bulletin comes out to 3 a year. More than 90% of
> each
> membership goes to printing the bulletin. Without other sources of funds
> the
> bulletin is the only place to cut. But we did not cut an issue or raise
> dues
> two things that did not seem viable to be on the table in our present
> economy.
>
> Secondly we have been declining in membership at the rate of about 5% a
> year
> and dropping a bulletin would surely cause an acceleration of this loss. So
> we
> were looking for any ways to raise money and reduce expenditures. We did a
> remarkable job in that we reduced the expected loss for next year to half.
> Most officers and committee chairs do not ask for reimbursement for most of
> their expenses. If the real costs of doing business were not being assumed
> by
> many of us the organization would have failed years ago. Remarkably we
> still
> have a $78,000 reserve that can help us get through this difficult time.
> But
> if we didnb t cut that loss we would be dead in 3 years.
>
> Given this background, I and probably most of the board were looking for
> ways
> of cutting costs but still providing as much service to our membership as
> possible. In that perspective I donb t feel that shifting the small cost of
> printing a symposium ballot to those that vote by mail is much to ask. If
> they
> are truly interested the cents that are added to their voting should be
> little
> concern. I might note that it is much more efficient than printing ballots
> in
> the bulletin when so few people now use those ballots. If people can vote
> online than 75% or more can do it this way. To print a ballot in each
> bulletin
> 4000+ ballots and only 300+ are returned and of those 75% could vote online
> we
> are talking about roughly 75 ballots that someone might not send in because
> they had to have them printed out by someone in the club with a computer.
> To
> gain those extra 75 ballots we would have to spend several hundreds of
> dollars. It seems little to ask of someone to support the society by a
> small
> effort that saves hundreds especially when we have been squeezing
> everything
> in the budget..
>
> Many of us on the board feel that the affiliates do not feel an integral
> part
> of the society. Of course there were garden clubs before the creation of
> the
> Iris society but the society was created because of the need for banding
> together to get and sort information and eliminate the chaos, confusion,
> misinformation and fraud that existed before the society was formed. To
> support the affiliates and to create greater communication with them we
> authorized a new discussion forum that will have a representative from each
> affiliate and that is unique to that affiliate. Hopefully information will
> be
> able to flow back and forth from the central structure of committee chairs,
> RVPs, board members, to and from the affiliates. Perhaps the affiliates
> will
> guide us along a path that creates new members or new ways of fundraising.
> To
> paraphrase someone more eloquent than myself , ask not what the society can
> do
> for you, but what you can do for the society. Most plants societies are
> failing to adjust to the environment which presently exists, and many may
> disappear in the next ten years. It will not be what the board does or
> doesnb t do but what the board and affiliates do together that will decide
> our fate.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "K Brewitt" <just1moreiris@gmail.com>
> To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
> Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 8:08:11 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] Fall Board Meeting Motions
>
> Am I to infer then that non-internet users are to be encouraged to
> participate in the Symposium however the expense associated with their
> participation, i.e. printing and possibly mailing or adding extra pages to
> newsletters, is being offloaded to the affiliates?  Making sure I clearly
> understand is important to me because 25% of Region 16 membership fall
> under
> the category of non-internet users.
> Kate
> 2009/11/16 Jody Nolin <jody.nolin@gmail.com>
>
> > I assume that you mean the Affiliates Liaison, Lynn.
> >
> > I'm not sure I'm the best person to recap all the discussion on the
> > topic of printing the Symposium, but I can give it a try.  I'm sure I
> > will miss some important points, so the rest of the group can forgive
> > me, or add what I leave out.
> >
> > Kate, as you can see by the various motions, we kicked this back and
> > forth for a while.  At one point the continuation of the symposium
> > itself was debated.  (The feeling was that most sections have their
> > own version, and TBIS has a TB version.)
> > I think the final decision was based on a couple of factors:
> > 1. low number of votes, even before the change to the current format and
> > 2. high cost of the pages in the Bulletin and
> > 3. the static nature of the list of winners.  Little change is seen
> > from year to year.
> >
> > Suggestions for ameliorating the situation for non-computer users
> > included printing in regional newsletters and bringing printed copies
> > to club meetings.  There were more, but, again, I don't have all the
> > discussion commited to memory.
> >
> > So, I hope I got that close to right.  I'm sure someone will tell me
> > if I didn't.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 6:10 PM, Gerry Snyder <geraldcsnyder@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > > cheryl deaton wrote:
> > >>
> > >> Lynn,
> > >>
> > >> Why would the Affiliates Chair answer a question that the Symposium
> > Chair,
> > >> Gerry Snyder, should be answering?
> > >>
> > >
> > > I assumed one of the board members who supported the action would be
> > eager
> > > to explain it.
> > >
> > >
> > > Gerry
> > >
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