THANK YOU MARY SUE I'm a relatively new to PBS & have been very impressed by the quality of the dialog & the wiki. On Apr 22, 2013 10:22 AM, "Nhu Nguyen" <xerantheum@gmail.com> wrote: > Dear PBS members and List participants, > > In February 2013, after 11 years of unwavering dedication to the Pacific > Bulb Society, Mary Sue Ittner announced to the Board of Directors that she > would be retiring. > > Mary Sue and a number of others formed the Pacific Bulb Society in 2002 and > with forward wisdom and insights set up the PBS structure that we see > today. The List was created with the idea that knowledge should be > accessible to everyone, and thus membership was not required to be > participating member. Mary Sue first hosted the List on her own server and > on ibiblio since then. The list now hosts about 600 people and I think many > will agree with me that it's one of the best plant forum on the internet. > > And perhaps most importantly, Mary Sue created the PBS Wiki. The idea of a > "wiki" was new back in 2002, yet Mary Sue adopted it readily and throughout > the years added contents and photos which makes up the core content of the > wiki. The structure that you see today had not deviated drastically from > the original wiki. The appearance of Mary Sue's name on most of the wiki > pages speaks to her dedication and literally countless hours that she spent > improving the wiki. There were major hurdles to keep the wiki running where > at one point we almost had to shut it down due to major software changes. > But Mary Sue kept her dedication strong and sought help to moved the entire > wiki to a new piece of software and we have been using it since. > > In conjunction with the List, the PBS Wiki has become the best source of > information and photos of bulbs anywhere. If you search for a bulb name in > Google, the PBS Wiki can be found on the very first page if not the very > first hit. This speaks to the tremendous influence that the work which Mary > Sue and her helpers have produced for the plant world and for posterity. > > We have now completed the transition of administrative responsibility. We > welcome Eugene Zielinksi who is assisting David Pilling and Diane Whitehead > as administrators for the PBS List. David Pilling had taken over the > leadership of the wiki and with Mike Mace, myself, and our newest team > member Gastil, we continue to add content and maintain the quality of work > that Mary Sue produced over the years. Please contact one of us if you have > inquires and relieve Mary Sue of her duties so that she can spend time > enjoying the sunshine and many wonderful geophytes in her retirement. And > although we consider this a retirement, Mary Sue will continue adding to > the wiki of the years of backlog photos and information. > > Please join me in thanking Mary Sue for all that she had done for the PBS > over the years. The PBS that you see today would not be the same had it not > been for her continual dedication and wisdom. Thank you very very very > much, Mary Sue!!! > > Nhu Nguyen > PBS President > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >