Thank you

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Fri, 26 Dec 2008 12:21:10 PST
Dear all,

About this time every year I make a list of all the things that I am 
grateful for before the end of the year. There are always a lot of you and 
things you have done on my list. I'd like to share some of these with you. 
I apologize for the length of this as over the years a few of you have 
asked me to write shorter emails, but there is so much to be grateful for 
in this group that it is difficult to write a brief note.

I am grateful for this list and for all who contribute to it with questions 
and answers. I am grateful that our list is a friendly one and has become a 
community over time and that people who are expert in the field are willing 
to help others who may be beginners. Not all the questions get answered, 
but it often happens that someone takes the time to type an answer, give a 
resource, look up information and pass it on.

I am grateful for all those people who do not include the previous message 
in their response and therefore make the digest easier to read, for those 
people who clearly identify the subject in the subject fields, and that I 
don't get a lot of messages asking me to keep people on topic when they 
stray.  The latter would be a difficult task.

I am grateful for all those volunteers who have given of their time to make 
the Pacific Bulb Society, the pbs list, and the pbs wiki grow and improve. 
I'd like to mention a few of them who have made big contributions, but 
please forgive me if I forget anyone as all efforts are appreciated. Dell 
Sherk has been an awesome BX director. If he ever decides to resign, it 
will take a team to replace him. We are approaching the 200th BX and if you 
add in sales, probably have exceeded that number of offerings. Can you 
imagine all the details that go into packaging and sending out seeds and 
bulbs that many times? Arnold Trachtenberg has helped with the list and the 
wiki from the beginning and added photos of his own. He has also been the 
treasurer of the Pacific Bulb Society and responsible for seeing that the 
recent newsletters and membership book got printed and mailed. If there is 
an unsung heroine, it has to be Jennifer Hildebrand. She doesn't post very 
often so some of you may not be aware of her contributions. She has been 
secretary and treasurer of the Pacific Bulb Society and is often the one 
who has offered to help when help was needed. She helped me with the list 
in early days and helps Marguerite now with the newsletter. She created the 
pbs logo and was responsible for editing and formatting the membership 
booklet which was beautifully done with the bonus of a  lot of nice 
photographs. Patti Colville offered to do the membership even though she 
doesn't have a computer  at home. I am grateful that Marguerite English, an 
early vice president, has returned to editing the newsletter and is getting 
the newsletters out in a timely fashion. I am grateful to the new officers 
who are willing to give of their time, Jane McGary, Paul Machado, and Pam 
Slate.

I've had a number of good helpers on this list including those I've 
mentioned. Susan Hayek helped me for a number of years and Diane Whitehead 
now is an excellent source of help. She keeps track of messages that come 
from people who are not members of this list and helps answer their 
questions when she can or refers them on to someone else.

I am grateful for all of you who have contributed to the wiki. I am 
especially grateful for those people who have taken the time to master how 
to add to it and who do their own work. Over the years individuals have 
taken an interest in making some of our wiki pages very special.  In the 
very beginning Mark McDonough who also helped me figure out how to organize 
the wiki created a whole series of Allium pages. It was the first genus to 
have multiple pages. Jay Yourch divided up Narcissus into divisions and has 
show cased all those different cultivars and hybrids he grows in his yard. 
He and Alani Davis worked hard on the Crinum pages, especially the Crinum 
hybrids. David Victor took the time to create the tuberous Pelargonium 
pages. Angelo Porcelli made a page for all the things that grow near where 
he lives in Apulia. Lee Poulsen created rainfall graphs and links to cold 
hardiness maps. Giorgio Pozzi took on Arisaema and made many wonderful 
contributions to those pages as well as to other genera in the Araceae 
family. Mary Gerristen added pictures she and Ron Parsons had taken of 
Calochortus species and excellent text too that she as an expert in this 
genus would be able to provide. Christiaan van Schalkwyk recently improved 
our South African Oxalis wiki pages. The wiki in the early days got an 
excellent start from Bill Dijk who grew more different kinds of bulbs than 
I knew existed at the time. Dennis Szeszko adds images of species from 
Mexico. In the beginning Jane McGary added a lot of images with very 
informative text as well. Germán Roitman has contributed many images of 
South American species and Cameron McMaster of South African species, 
especially wonderful habitat pictures. Alessandro Marinello has continued 
to contribute images even though my lack of Italian doesn't allow me to 
help him very much. He gets added to my list for his persistence.

All of those who have helped me with the wiki are high on the list. Mark 
McDonough mentioned before and Mark Wilcox had super ideas during the time 
they were on board. Susan Hayek worked on the wiki nearly every day when 
she was helping and between us we added many great contributions from John 
Lonsdale. Susan was always there with support and encouragement as well. 
Jay Yourch has been invaluable with all his help apart from all the 
wonderful photos of all those things he grows in North Carolina. He has 
studied the software for our wiki and helped secure us from spammers. He 
figured out how we could have thumbnails and helped get us in working order 
after an upgrade in software took us done. Knowing I can count on him for 
technical help has meant a lot. Diane Foulis has been a great help a number 
of times doing drudge work. I am especially grateful for new helper Nhu 
Nguyen. When he has time, he has been putting an incredible amount of time 
into the wiki. He almost always says he can help when I ask for it. He has 
almost completed the task about writing about all the families represented 
on the wiki. I find his knowledge of taxonomy extremely helpful since that 
is not an easy area for me. Lately he has been adding information and 
pictures about tropical species, something not very well represented on the 
wiki.

I am also very grateful for all the friendships I've made from this list. 
Meeting many of you in person has been a joy and I now have many garden 
memories that came from bulbs or seed that was shared.

I am very grateful to ibiblio,  http://ibiblio.org/
Ibiblio hosts our wiki and our list because of their belief and support for 
open source information and education. They host more that 2500 collections 
from around the world, including our pbs wiki. One of the newest 
collections they are hosting concerns African Elephants.

Finally I am grateful for all of you who have posted your appreciation on 
the list or to me privately. Jim Waddick deserves special praise not only 
as the one who conceived the idea of the BX, but because of his ongoing 
encouragement to many of us who give of our time to this group. For all of 
you who I have not mentioned by name but who have given of your time and 
talents, thank you. I look forward to another year with all of you and 
encourage many of those who of you who have asked to contribute to the 
wiki, but haven't found time to do so yet to join all those other contributors.

Mary Sue
pbs list and wiki administrator


More information about the pbs mailing list