Category for Orchid Societies?

[epiphyte78]

It would be nice if there was a forum category specifically for orchid society related topics... such as benefits, publicity, education, fundraising, adding value for members, how to encourage members to join the orchidboard, etc. No worries if there aren't enough threads on the subject to warrant its own category.

Here are a few threads though that could go in a category for orchid societies...

• Letter to the AOS
• Goodbye AOS
• AOS - Orchids A to Z Section
• Questions for Youngish Orchid Growers
• Flickr for Orchid Society Websites

[cb977]

I don't see that happening but have you ever seen this thread? It's a shame that more societies don't take advantage of what Marty has offered:

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...s-read-up.html

[epiphyte78]

Yeah, I wish more society members would participate on the forums. There are only two approaches that I can think of to get more society members interested in joining the orchid board...

Approach 1

Set aside 15 minutes during each society meeting to show society members some of the most useful orchid board posts from the past month. This would require a projector and a computer connected to the internet. Or, the selected threads could be saved to the computer beforehand as html pages. The society board members would have to approve the changes to the meeting of course.

Actually, it would be kind of fun to show my society a question that somebody posted on the orchid board and see if any society members could offer some answers. Then we could scroll down the thread and compare the society answers to the orchid board answers. That might get some lively discussion going.

Approach 2

The second approach would be to pass around an orchid board magazine during society meetings. With print on demand websites such as MagCloud it's completely free to publish a magazine. People would then be able to order the orchid board magazine for $.20 per page or however much Marty wanted to charge. It's pretty much the same thing as the orchid board calendar...but with articles from the article contests instead. I'm sure a few nice photos could be included as well though.

[cb977]

I'm going to forward this link to Marty, in case he misses it...maybe he can come up with some ideas too

[Marty]

There hasn't been much interest in private forums for orchid societies. Perhaps private isn't the way to go.

It may be cool to make a forum category "Clubs & Societies" and if a club/society is interested, I can make a sub-forum for them. Idea is that topics could be discussed in the open. Members of the club could tap into the shared knowledge base of OB. The benefit for a club would be obvious. OB could be a major recruiting tool for them to gain new club members. We have members from all over the world

Our traffic is very US heavy though.

62% USA
8% Canada
4% UK
3% Australia

However, cool thing too is that looking at traffic per city, it's not all USA. UK only has 4% of the traffic, but as far as traffic per city goes, seems that a lot of people from London hit OB...almost 20,000 unique individuals.

New York 2.78%
London 1.26%
Miami 1.12%
Sydney 0.83%
San Francisco 0.71%
Brooklyn 0.71%
Brisbane 0.70%
Edmonton 0.69%
Melbourne 0.65%
Vancouver 0.64%

If a member of a society subscribes to the specific forum for that society, they will be notified about every post in that forum. This would make a great communication tool. You could talk to the world of orchids and still get in touch with your Orchid Society and you could recruit new members for FREE ! If I was running New York Orchid Society or a society in one of the big cities, I'd be all over OB pushing and marketing my society. Over 40,000 unique individuals that are into Orchids logged in from New York City. I doubt that NYC Orchid Society has that many members and I'm sure they could always use more... Not many places where you can tap into a very targeted audience for free. Should we try a new forum/sub forum ?

[cb977]

I think it's a great idea!

I tried for the longest time to get my old club to use the private forum area but they just weren't the type of people who would do it

So...now that I've left that club and am a member of the Tampa Orchid Club, I think the TOC members are much more open-minded, tech-savvy and eager to learn...which is why I think Marty's new idea may grab their attention. I'm a rather new member of TOC but the people I talk to at the meetings all seem to be truly interested in learning...and of course, TOC has some very well-known orchid masters on the roster

I've already let them know about the private forum option and if this new option seems to work, I will let them know about that too

What a fantastic way to communicate and expand your sources of knowledge

[cb977]

Thanks Marty

[Marty]

No problems, I made a couple of test clubs. Be sure to let your club know that they can use their club forums any way they wish. We get a lot of visitors here and I think it would be in their best interest to use our facilities...esp that it's totally free and could only benefit their club. If you need a subforum for your club created, contact me or CB977 (sue)

[cb977]

Thanks Marty

I've sent emails to a few of the TOC members

[epiphyte78]

Thanks Marty for the society/club forum categories! Societies should really try and take advantage of as many free, exposure providing resources as possible. It stands to reason that the more society members participate on forums...the more forum members will participate in societies.