SX/BX
Steve Marak (Thu, 29 Oct 2015 22:00:21 PDT)

Considering how much time it takes just to do the small piece I'm doing,
I can't imagine how Dell did everything for so long by himself and still
managed to do anything else, like eat and sleep. I had some idea what I
was getting into, since my wife and I package seeds for another
well-known exchange each year in the fall, but the amount of manual work
involved for each SX still surprises me. And, as I say, I just have one
little piece of it. Karl Church packages the seeds, and Dell still
handles intake himself, along with all of the BX. We all owe Dell a huge
thanks - I have a lot of uncommon things growing in the greenhouse from
all of the BXes and SXes he handled by himself over the years, and it
cost me very little.

When I suggested that I continue to offer seed still available from
previous SXes, Dell was kind enough to give me some rope, so I'm glad
that you like it, Mary Sue, I hope others do too. It is a bit of
additional work, but I'm convinced it's better for several reasons -
seed viability, getting it into the hands of growers sooner, etc.
Please, everyone, get some of those half-price SX1 seeds and help us
keep the inventory under control!

I realize that Dell would reply to each requester individually, but I'm
not doing that. I'm being lazy, not rude, or at least rudeness isn't my
intent. I'm trying to automate as much of this as I can, and I have
processes that automatically collect all of the replies (at least all of
the replies that follow the instructions and include SX4 or whichever in
the subject line, and don't send it to the whole list!) for me. But I
don't have a good way to automatically send an acknowledgement when I do
that, and I'm just not going to take the time to send all of those
replies manually, especially since I usually don't see or read the
emails until I start moving the data into a spreadsheet, which may be
several days later. I hope that doesn't fret anyone too much. If it
does, I'd suggest that you use the "return receipt requested" function
of your mail program when you send me your request.

At Dell's urging, I sent the list out for SX4 even before the seeds had
been packaged and shipped to me, which has the advantage of allowing me
to leave the SX open longer and still start fulfilling orders as soon as
the seeds arrive here. I was vaguely uneasy about that at the time, but
as long as Karl doesn't feel pressured by it, I think it's a good thing.

I'll put in a plea here - I'm still getting requests from people who
aren't including their shipping addresses - got one today. Please, even
if you've sent your address before, take a few seconds and include it
again, because I don't have your old email handy. The only exception is
members from outside the U.S., since those are processed by
Click-and-Ship, and if you are sure your address hasn't changed since
you got the last BX or SX package.

Steve

On 10/29/2015 8:08 PM, Mary Sue Ittner wrote:

I really appreciate that Steve is slow to close the SX and that he
continues to list old seed still available when he posts a new list
instead of waiting for an end of the year sale. I know that has to be
more work for him, having all that seed on hand, but it means an
opportunity to plant seeds closer to the right time and if you missed
one seed exchange you may still be in luck and find seeds from the
previous offering.

It must be very hard for Dell with so many people wanting the limited
supply of bulbs that he receives. I'm amazed he is still willing to be
in charge. By my record he started volunteering to do this job in 1999
for IBS. I doubt there has ever been anyone in charge of seed/bulb
exchanges for so many years.

Mary Sue

_______________________________________________
pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/