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Frikkie who asked for useful information on:
>how to invigorate an orchid
society which have become stagnant, old
>and non-responsive?
There can be many reasons why your society has reached
this stage.
It is hard to address your specific problems, without
knowing the details.
The most important reason why people join an orchid
society is that they
wish to learn how to grow orchids, and they wish to
interact with fellow hobbyists.
Thus the OS meetings business parts are kept short
and coffee breaks are
extended.
Here are some suggestions how a healthy and
vigorous orchid society operates:
1 It has an interesting speaker every
meeting
2 It has orchid vendors at every
meeting
3 It's executive is made up of members
interested in growing orchids;not talking at meetings
4 It has an orchid show table every
meeting
5 It conducts beginners classes, just
before each regular monthly meeting.****(most important)
6 It sponsors an Orchid Show at least once a
year
7 It conducts open house tours of fellow
members
8 It has a monthly newsletter in which it features
members and their orchids
9 It keeps the business part of a meeting short, 5
minutes max and do not read the newsletter.
10 It has a LONG coffee break, where members interact
and talk to each other
One could probably extend this list.
Attracting new members is extremely important
and easy, when you have successful orchid shows.
Keeping new members often fails, when they
attend three or four meetings and their needs have
not been met due to the non existence of beginners
classes. Realize, they joined to learn how to
take care of their, often, single orchid. Guest
lectures do not address their needs and
often
are over their heads. The orchid dies and the new member
stays away and/or resigns.
That is why beginners classes are so necessary at every
meeting.
Our fellow OGDer and personal friend Dr. Jim Brasch has known, understood , and
practiced, for a long time, beginners classes before every
meeting me at the Orchid
Society of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington,
Ontario Canada.
I hope this helps you Frikkie.
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