"I'M boycotting the AOS"

[epiphyte78]

Ok, you're right...judging does have some relevance. When an orchid in cultivation can't handle conditions that it has no problem with in nature we can thank the AOS judging system for encouraging breeding along purely superficial lines. So the only relevance of the judging system is turning orchids into pansies.

Other than that...it's definitely not relevant to the discussion because no part of the $65 goes towards the award system. Nearly all of that money goes towards the cost of publishing the magazine. Switching over to a online model will significantly reduce the cost of membership and make the information accessible to more people.

Is the problem that the AOS is not aware that the articles can be shared online for free? Maybe...it is possible that they haven't heard of the Orchid Board or the Orchid Species Encyclopedia.

But I'm going to guess that they are fully aware that free online models exist and are successful but for unknown reasons continue with the $65 per year magazine model. Well...it's not much of a guess because I brought the issue up 2 years ago and in fairly regular intervals since then. This is just to make sure that you folks are fully aware as well.

Some food for thought...imagine how drastically membership on the Orchid Board would be impacted if Marty started charging $65 per year.