Thank you

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