JARS v63n1 - From The President

From The President
Fred Whitney
Kent, Washington

And now for the reality of fall/winter in the Pacific Northwest!! Have had the good fortune of experiencing a "second spring" with all the beauty and "rebirth" of the flora and fauna of New Zealand. This dosage should see us through whatever our Northern Hemisphere winter brings in the months ahead (including the significant rain while we were gone).

The New Zealand Rhododendron Association Conference was held in Geraldine on the South Island with 295 in attendance. For the rural area and the Woodbury Domain, what an outstanding feat to handle this event both for the NZRA and particularly the 18 North Americans who were in attendance. Wonderful large (huge) country and intimate city gardens with all of the luscious plants which can be grown in that moderate climate were the venue. (Should acknowledge the existence of unseasonably late spring snowstorms before and after the conference, but the conference committee had ordered favorable weather during their event!) It was our joy to show a companion couple from our chapter some of the highlights which have caused us to return to New Zealand for the 12th time - we still have areas "unexplored" and people to visit which calls for further trips in the future. The NZRA conference will be focused in North Shore, above Auckland, 3-6 November 2009 with the 2010 conference in Cromwell. The Australian Rhododendron Society is planning for their 50th Anniversary in 2010 "dove-tailed" with the NZRA conference (they are another ARS!). Both groups extend hearty invitations to experience the hospitality of their members at these conferences.

This "down under" activity only whets the appetite for our next convention hosted by District 2 in Everett, Washington, 30 April-3 May 2009. The host chapters have organized an outstanding program of both tours and speakers and have "ordered favorable (albeit spring NW) weather" for the event. They are hoping to entice first-timers and welcome the many loyal returnees to this Mecca for rhododendron growing.

Several actions were taken at the Board of Directors' meeting in Hilo on 25 September 2008. These are enumerated in June Walsh's report in this Journal.

1) Journal distribution: Members of the Board felt the negative reaction to the previous practice (and Policy of the Board) of not sending the winter edition if renewal was not received by 1 November was not a reasonable offset to the late renewals.

2) Dues: The Society's Bylaws recognize Annual, Commercial/Corporate, Sustaining, Sponsoring, Life, Honorary and Associate classes of membership (Article II, Section B). Policy 2.1.4 further delineates the Individual and Family classes as breakdown of the Annual class. The listing of couples and individuals in each of these categories confuses the intent of the membership listing and the Board felt simplification to a Regular class was a reasonable approach to achieve consistency. This would be a Bylaws change and will have further action at the Everett Board meeting. To address the chapters' petitioning for return of more dues dollars to them, the dues change was passed with the increase of the chapters' portion now being $10 of Regular class; $20 of the Sustaining class; and $24 of the Sponsoring class. It is the intent of this action to encourage membership at the higher-class rates as a way of further support to the Society in executing support of our members.

3) Insurance: With continuing advisement of the insurance specialist who has/is reviewing our coverage/premiums, the Board moved forward renewing the policy which covers all US chapters for their normal activities/meetings. With our increasing/continuing litigious society, the ARS cannot be "hung out" without protection, something akin to "go after the deep pockets" attitude. Therefore, unless a chapter has insurance coverage equal to that of the umbrella policy and includes/provides to ARS a rider which names the ARS as an additionally insured, all chapters must carry this insurance at a prorated cost per paid up member. The feeling is this policy/premium is better than those available to individual chapters. This is a change to previous allocations with the result being each chapter's cost reflects the members covered - no subsidizing/transfer of cost between chapters based on size.

4) Officers: The Nominations Committee, after extensive search, recommended the following: Society Secretary: Kath Collier; Eastern Vice-President: Bruce Feller. The Board unanimously passed those nominations. We are grateful to the Nominations Committee for these candidates and heartily welcome Kath and Bruce to their positions at the 2 May 2009 banquet/meeting.

Paul Anderson, District 5 Director, advised the Board of his intent to resign that position effective 1 December with Tim Walsh, currently Alternate Director, to assume those duties. I appreciate the significant/untiring support Paul has given to the chapters in his district and to the Society and Paul has agreed to continue support to the ARS in the capacity of chairman of the Long Range Planning Committee - a fit which I think will be of significant benefit to ARS!

May your winter be short and mild and your spring be abundant and bright - looking forward to seeing you in Everett, WA, 30 April 2009!