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| Each year I think we should give an award to the society that most effectively utilizes technology to help facilitate their mission. Doing so will help other societies become more aware of what internet based resources are available to them.
The following is a list of societies that I would like to nominate for the award. If you know of any other tech-savvy societies please nominate them and describe their use of technology. eNewsletters
MagCloud
RSS feeds
Facebook
Once a society receives enough "likes" they can customize and simplify their URL. For example... http://www.facebook.com/TriangleOrchidSociety Flickr
Flickr API
Badges/Widgets
For example, here you can see that the Orchid Society of Santa Barbara has a badge that dynamically displays the OSSC flickr discussion section...
YouTube
Google Ads
Affiliate of Amazon
Paypal
Two other societies that allow you to pay your dues via paypal are the...
Google Analytics
Google Library
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by orchidnick z9Ca (orchidnick@yahoo.com) on Sun, May 1, 11 at 19:59
| California societies get a disproportionate number of mentions. I'm sure other major areas follow similar practices. It's all good, an open door policy will help keep the membership roster healthy. What for me is a bigger factor is the splintering and fragmenting of a population pool. San Diego has one major orchid society with 800 members of which I'm told around 4 to 500 are active. LA which is much bigger has easily a dozen societies which are all competing for members and funds to conduct their business. In my area there are 4 groups that meet within 20 miles of each other. I think consolidation would lead to stronger, more robust societies whose functions would be better funded. We have a limited number of local speakers all of whom we have heard too often. To fly someone in from the East or even Australia is prohibitively expensive for most of us. 5 societies meet during the 3rd week of the month, I have had some success networking to try to share travel expense but it only works out on rare occasions. All the stars have to be perfectly aligned to make something like that work. Nick |
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| Golly, 400 to 500 active members. Yuk! Just too big! At the other end of the scale the minimum might be say 30 members, any less and its good night Irene. No High-Tech award for the local orchid society, half the monthly bulletins are still sent out using snail mail. Guess we get the Barney Rubble award. |
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| Arthur, I guess there's nothing wrong with the Barney Rubble award if your members live in Bedrock. My OS produces their newsletter as a snail mailed, B&W hardcopy and as a full colour pdf emailed out ~2 weeks before the printed copy arrives and at a reduced membership cost. After 5 years of producing an e-newsletter, 40% of the members still opt to receive the snail mail newsletter rather than the e-newsletter. |
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- Posted by orchidnick z9Ca (orchidnick@yahoo.com) on Mon, May 2, 11 at 10:46
| Arthur, it's a 2 sided coin. The strength of a large group allows them to do things that we would like to imitate but cannot. They offer 2 programs each evening, one for beginners and one for the more advanced growers. When we have a speaker talking about Draculas, Masdies and Pleuros, I gringe as I know that 90% of our members cannot grow these things. Other than general interest, a talk like that has no practical value. The raffle plants carted home by people have a low survival rate. The San Diego society has a subgroup of species enthusiasts who meet separately. As many as 30 experienced species growers create a stimulating experience. San Diego has the only huge group I am aware off, I suspect most other metropolitan areas follow the LA pattern of several smaller groups. When the large society puts on a show it's a thing of beauty, our shows are nice but amateurish in comparison. I like our intimate medium sized society but I also see the benefits of a strong group. I guess you cannot have both. In my immediate area, 4 societies are spending 4 speaker fees every month. If that could be combined we could afford to go beyond the local talent and import notables from further away. If we could cooperate to the extent were we would rearrange our meetings to be back to back, that would also help but even that is not possible. Each group's specific night is set in granite as they have met that particular evening for 30 years. Nick
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- Posted by epiphyte78 9 (My Page) on Mon, May 2, 11 at 20:14
| Nick, there are a lot of California societies listed...which isn't too unusual given that I'm from California. What's strange though is that even though I've posted this list on all the other major orchid forums...nobody has nominated any other societies for the award! Regarding speakers...for a while now I've been pushing to get all the SoCal orchid society members on the same (web)page...SoCal Orchid Growers on flickr and/or SoCal Orchid Growers on facebook. If we were all on the same webpage...and you posted on that webpage that a "notable" was going to speak at your society...how far would people be willing to drive in order to attend the presentation? How much would people be willing to pay...or "chip in"...in order to attend the presentation? In Burbank next week, Marni Turkel will be giving a presentation on miniature orchids. She's posted a nice list of miniature orchids that people can preorder. I posted the link to her pre-order list on flickr and facebook...but since we're not all on the same webpage...how many local orchid hobbyists are going to miss out on purchasing some orchids they might have otherwise purchased? |
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- Posted by orchidnick z9Ca (orchidnick@yahoo.com) on Tue, May 3, 11 at 1:38
| Occasionally we get members from other societies attend meetings to heart a speaker. The real advantage is if 2 societies meeting back to back can share the travel expense. Marnie spoke to San Gabriel on a Thursday and to us on the Friday. We were able to split the airfare. It becomes a mini universe as only societies meeting during the same week can participate. 5 meet during our, the third week. We are trying to get Brian from Down Under to come for a week but so far have not been able to coordinate. I need to increase the number of societies meeting in my immediate area to 5 as one of the 4 I mentioned earlier has split. UNBELIEVABLE!! Nick |
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