Category for Affiliated Societies

[epiphyte]

How many books does your orchid society library have? I wonder which orchid society has the noteworthy distinction of having the most orchid books? It would be kind of fun if the AOS created a page that featured the orchid society with the most members, the orchid society with the most informative website, the orchid society with the most articles written by members, the orchid society with the largest library, the orchid society with the best newsletter, the orchid society with the most members under 30...anything else?

To get back to orchid society libraries...as I'm sure you heard, Google is in the process of digitizing every book ever written. They have a feature where you can add books to your Google library and search only the books in your library. If your society's librarian adds all your society's orchid books to their Google library, then your members could easily find which books contained the information that they are looking for.

While it might seem like a daunting task to add all of your society's books to your Google library...it's not as daunting as it sounds. The Google guy, Matt Cutts, blogged how you can easily add your books to your Google library using a $65 barcode scanner. If you have books that don't have barcodes or ISBNs...don't despair! Set those aside and after you've added the books with barcodes you can search Google Books for the titles. Chances are really good that you will be able to find the titles to add to your library. However, not all of them have been digitized but it's really only a matter of time.

I recently added my collection of orchid books to my Google library. Out of 127 orchid books, only 9 of them could not be found in Google Books. Because all my orchid books are in an Access database, I just copy and pasted the ISBNs into the import books feature. Then I added the rest by way of title search. Not sure how it happened but I ended up with 147 books in my Google library.

Incidentally, my primary interest when it comes to orchids is learning about all the epiphytic orchid species which can be grown outdoors year around in nearly frost free climates... so my Google library is a pretty decent bibliography on the subject. Well...minus a few garage sale deals.

[epiphyte]

In the new Strategic Plan for the AOS, only the AOS members figure more importantly than the affiliated societies.

As I mentioned in my post on Google Analytics, very few of the AOS website's 7,000 visitors per week trickle over to the affiliated society websites. This is primarily because the link to the affiliated societies page is not prominently placed on the AOS homepage. It's fairly straightfoward that where a link is placed on a website's homepage determines how many people will click on that link. My recommendation is that the placement of the affiliated societies link reflect how importantly the affiliated societies figure in the AOS's new strategic plan.

While it might be a new strategy for the AOS to place more importance on its affiliated societies, it certainly seems to be a strategy that other plant societies have adopted a while ago. If you visit the websites of the plant societies that I've listed below, you can see that they've placed the links to their affiliates (chapters, branches) in more prominent, easy to find locations.

American Rose Society
American Begonia Society
The Gesneriad Society
The African Violet Society of America
Cactus and Succulent Society of America
The American Dahlia Society

If you clicked on the their links to their affiliates you'll notice that there is some variation in how they list/display their affiliates. The more user friendly it is to find the nearest affiliate, the more likely it is that somebody will visit the website of the nearest affiliate.

Just like it's a really good idea for the leaders of the AOS to regularly visit the websites of other national plant societies, it's a really good idea for leaders of local orchid societies to attend the meetings of the other plant societies in their area. Take note what strategies are successful and incorporate those successful strategies into your own society.

By the way...if there is anybody out there wondering how difficult it is to move a link from one location to another...let me assure you that it is very very easy to do...requiring only a few seconds to cut the link from its old location and to paste it into its new location.

[epiphyte]

The orchidboard recently added a facebook fan widget to their website. Maybe the AOS should add the same thing to their website?

[epiphyte]

Yesterday at the Affiliated Societies Committee meeting, one member brought up how his society offers two tiers of membership...one for those who receive the newsletter via e-mail and one for those who receive the newsletter via regular mail (which in itself is a good idea). He suggested that the AOS do the same thing with their Orchids magazine.

Another member responded that it would destroy the magazine and it totally slipped my mind to suggest Magcloud as a possible no-cost alternative to the AOS paying to have its magazine published.

[epiphyte]

The International Bromeliad Society is another plant society that has placed a link to its affiliates in a more prominent, easy to find location.

[epiphyte]

For a while now I've been noticing photographers at orchid shows. As a hobbyist photographer I've wondered if they are getting any good shots and as the publicity chair for my orchid society I've wondered how much publicity would be generated if they shared their orchid show photos on flickr.

So I created a group on flickr for Orchid Shows in Southern California, printed out a few cards for the group and at the Southland Orchid Show I handed out the cards to people with DSLR cameras. The response was better than I had anticipated and it's really neat to see the show from different perspectives.

Creating a flickr group for an orchid show isn't a new idea. If you do a search for orchid show groups on flickr you'll notice that some groups were too narrow in scope. It's not necessary to every year create a new group for the same orchid show...that's what tagging photos is for. So instead of creating a new group each year, it's better to create one group for the show and have people tag their show photos with the name and year of the orchid show.

But rather than create a group just for the Southland Orchid Show...I broadened the scope one step further and created a group for all orchid shows in Southern California. A single larger group will generate more interest than numerous smaller groups...aka the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Once enough interest has been generated then groups can be created for the specific orchid shows in Southern California.

To see whether an orchid show has enough flickr interest to warrant its own group, you can search flickr for the name of the show. For example...

NYBG Orchid Show - 3,310 results
Missouri Botanical Garden Orchid Show - 1,774 results
Santa Barbara Orchid Show - 737 results
SEPOS Orchid Show - 314 results
Southland Orchid Show - 180 results

[epiphyte]

Just recently found a good thread on the garden web forum with numerous suggestions on how orchid societies can attract new members.

[epiphyte]

Found out that it's been 12 years since any members of my society have requested access to our collection of AOS magazines. Is that typical for most societies? We store the boxed magazines in a locked cabinet in a different room than where we meet so maybe that has something to do with it?

Then I found out that neither of the two closest public libraries have any of the AOS magazines. If, 12 years ago, my society had donated our collection of orchid magazines to the nearest local public library...would more people have checked them out?

Should my society donate our AOS magazines to our local library? Currently, society members can only check out the magazines one day of the month, but if the magazines were located at the nearest public library then members would be able to check out the magazines whenever the library was open...thus greatly increasing accessibility.

Would having the magazines at the public library help generate any local interest in orchids that could lead to increased members for both my local orchid society and the AOS? Would it be worth it to purchase a $65/year AOS subscription for our nearest local public library? Is there is a discount available for public libraries?

Or should we just sell the orchid magazines on ebay and use the proceeds to purchase more popular orchid books?

[fotofashion]

I know my comment may not be exactly germane to the subject under consideration...but...all these pretty pictures do me very little good when they do not tell me what I am looking at. I see a beautiful flower and I say "ooh, I'd like to have something like that." But, just what is "that?"
Beverly A.

[epiphyte]

Most, if not all, societies limit the number of meetings a visitor can attend before they have to become a member. A visitor can attend two or so meetings and then they either have to pay $24 dollars to become a member or they are prohibited from attending future meetings.

In my opinion, I think it would be advantageous to allow visitors to attend two free meetings and then have the option of either becoming a member or paying $2/meeting.

Here are a few of the advantages...

1. No need to badger visitors to become members
2. Provides more opportunities to demonstrate to visitors the value of becoming a member
3. Allows visitors from other local societies the opportunity to contribute a few dollars
4. Provides members with specific orchid interests an intermediate option between continuing to pay for presentations outside of their interests or completely dropping out of the society altogether.