My :twocents: I can no longer justify the amount of $$ to be a member ... Gin

I have been toying with becoming a member for a while, even though I am across the pond. But I think that $47 (student price) is still a lot just for a magazine, good or not, since I can't enjoy any of the other perks. I wish they had a 'magazine only' price for those of us overseas. FYI, I receive Horse Illustrated from the USA for less than half that price.

From what I've read, the AOS is a great thing, especially compared to what exists in France. The national French orchid society (SFO) is nearly non existant, not to mention regional clubs and they focus almost exclusively on our native terrestrial orchids. The once a month meetings in the warm months consist in going for a walk looking for orchids. That's why I'm not a member of any french societies. I like the terrestrials a lot, but I want more activities on the kind of orchids everyone grows! There are none/almost none SFO shows or events. The Rhône-Alpes region (where I live) only has ONE single show per year that I know of.
So I still stay hats off to the AOS for still being a great society, despite the problems mentioned.

Hi Everyone
Normally I would not chime in on a seemingly sensitive issue such as this. But I do have an opinion, I am new to orchids, only been growing half a dozen years, and have belonged to the AOS for two years now. I find both the AOS website and the magazine to be very helpful. There is alot of good information included, and even some of the few things that I do not like about it (lindleyana?) are outweighed by the good. In fact, I find it to be as helpful, as all of the knowledgable people here on the board. I can see what some people mean by the large amount of advertisement in the mag, but where can you go in day to day life today without being bombarded by advertising. Even here on the board we are all so fond of, there is advertising.
I am a bit shocked by some of the negativity toward some members for sharing thier opinions. Is this not a place where we can all voice our opinions and recieve some CREATIVE CRITICISM from the others?

Yes, it is :)

We all have our opinions and we applaud a good back-and-forth conversation to discuss them. What will not be tolerated here is bashing another member. Orchidboard is here for all of us to enjoy and nastiness just isn't called for in any situation.

:)

In case, it did not come through as clearly as I had intended, I am completely agreeing with you Susanne. Bashing someone for thier opinion is not helpful, nor will it get us anywhere! Can't we all just grow pretty flowers?

LOL...your message came through just fine...I understood what you meant :)

My reply was another reminder for those who don't play nice with others ;)

Just wanted to make sure!! Didn't want to be lumped in with those who do not play nice!! In any case, thanks to you Susanne, you are definitely a voice of reason!!

I have a rather basic question... What primary purpose is the AOS trying to fulfill? Is it primarily education? conservation? awards & judging? what?

I think one thing to think about is why online forums (like this one) are so successful/popular with people. Some reasons I think they are: they are quick and easy in most cases, they are on demand, they allow for any/all levels of expertise, they are not limited by physical geography, they are a place for people to connect and exchange ideas and information, they require as little or as much committment as a person is willing to give. Can any 'Society' or organization compete with that? Not likely. Granted there is sometimes a credibility question about on-line information from 'unknown' sources, but this is quite often overcome quite quickly.

Should orchid societies in general (AOS included) compete with providing these types of services? Or perhaps they could serve the orchid community in other ways that people will find valuable.

Just some random thoughts, really, but following this thread, and seeing similar things written in gardening magazines here about the RHS, it makes one wonder what is the future of 'Societies' in general...

Frankly, I wouldn't expect anybody to think that the AOS has the same resources available that Google does. Having interns or volunteers type up articles is free and allows for more flexibility in formatting the document. Additionally, more likely than not, the intern or volunteer hasn't read the article in the first place...thus killing two birds with one stone.

Digitizing 5 articles per month and making them available to members would double the amount of information that they were disseminating. Hence they would provide more value to more orchid hobbyists than they are providing now.

As you mentioned, based on their current digitizing plan, it's not going to happen anytime soon because they are trying to make a relatively simple task more complex than it needs to be. In my opinion, this is quite a glaring shortcoming that indicates ineffective leadership.

Perhaps this is the heart of the problem. Both the articles and the ads in the original AOS Bulletin will show that the primary purpose of the AOS was to provide a forum and information for ordinary orchid growers. That does not appear to be its primary purpose any longer, but perhaps the problem is that it is trying to be too many things to too many people.