Re: Message from Paul Black

[Robert Pries <robertpries@embarqmail.com>]

I believe Paul has raised some issues that should validly be discussed by the board. Unfortunately the registrar, Mike Lowe will not be present at the coming meeting. I am no longer a director. but continue with my role as Public Relations and marketing chair, but I also will not be at this board meeting. I also chaired the committee that presented the idea of a SPEC-X award to the board about 20 years ago. At that time the reccommendations of my committee and what the board actually passed were not correctly recorded in the minutes and this has added to confusion through the years. I do agree that all of Paul's points have merit for discussion. I am not known for supporting the status quo, and do believe there are changes needed. But all of these suggestions have a great deal of complexity and would need a lot of input from various sources let alone, a buy in to any solutions. With the Iris Encyclopedia and the potential addition of an electronic membership the landscape of Iris information will broaden. The pospects are that the society may begin to grow again. Many of these issues should be brought before the strategic planning committee so that their solutions can be integrated into our changing organization. I have repeatedly suggested that AIS needs a group perhaps a committee or even an independent consortium of hybridizers that could interact with AIS to promote Iris and Iris businesses. Being a 501c3 nonprofit an independent advisory group from the trade, may be the best solution. Aside from when a nurseryman is on the board there is little feedback and suggestions from the Iris industry. I am thankful to Paul for providing at least this letter. But I believe AIS could do more to help the Iris nurseries and vice versa. 

----- Original Message -----
From: "John I Jones" <jijones@usjoneses.com>
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Sent: Thursday, November 4, 2010 1:32:23 AM
Subject: [AISdiscuss] Message from Paul Black

attached.

John

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