OS Show Advice

[stonedragonfarms]

Hello Everybody,

Right to the point, I was a president of an AOS affiliated society off and on while I lived in the Midwest, but I've since moved to the west coast...and joined an os...and will be the president next term...
Things are way different here than where I've come from, but a different perspective is usually a good thing. I've been asked to set some goals for the society, one of which is to have an AOS judged show here within the next two years; the society here used to host a show with two other societies on a three year rotation, ie the first year society A would host, the next year, society B and the third year our society, rinse and repeat. Somewhere along the line this system fell apart (nobody can give me a definitive answer as to why...) and there hasn't been anyone to relight the torch.
I'm not exactly sure what sort of input I'm looking for, more of a sounding board I guess, especially being as I am basically rebuilding this from the ground up. Tentatively I'm thinking that I should contact the other two societies that we've collaborated with in the past and see if there is any interest in their participation. From there it's off to speak to vendors and other possible attendees. We've 2 AOS judges among our membership, so I'm covered on this resource I believe.
Additional thoughts/questions... In the Midwest we typically used the Mid-Americas show classes; is there a regional body similar out here; is there any problem with simply porting their classes to our show catalog? Can I get a raise of hands on how many societies do cut flower and arrangement classes? How many of your societies do bench staging and how many do formal displays? I'm intrigued about the idea of forming a show where the bench staging would be the "norm" as I believe it greatly simplifies things for exhibitors, judges and staging facilitators, but I realize the trade off is the lack creativity in show displays...does anybody know is there are any hybrid shows of this nature out here that I might take a field trip to? The Osaka dome show is as close to this format that I have been to, but obviously that's a biggie!
Thanks for any help/ideas/concerns,
Adam

[WhiteRabbit]

Hope it all works out well for you!

[stonedragonfarms]

Thanks for the well wishes Sonya! I hope so too!

[Cym Ladye]

Adam,

Isn't there a show in Portland? If not, see if you an get down to San Francisco, or more importantly, down to Santa Barbara this March. These are large shows but will give you an idea of potential.

That said, there are many small shows in the SF Bay area and I will see if I can send you privately some of the class entry sheets. No problem in copying or adopting the classes you want according to the genera most grown by your members or the time of year you hold your show.

CL

[stonedragonfarms]

Thanks CL; I will be going up to the PDX show in the spring, so I'll definitely take some notes. I just thought it would be good to get as much advice as is possible.
Adam