BX possibilities (was Re: Bulbs)

Regarding the BX, thank you Dell for all the time and effort you put into
it. I love receiving those little packages and I consider the BX to be a
major asset to this society. We should figure out a way to keep it alive
and thriving.

If nobody is interested and/or able to take over Dell’s work in its
entirety, another option might be to distribute the process. It seems like
the basic BX procedure is this (Dell, please add detail or corrections if
this description is lacking):

- - - -

1. Receive bulb/seed donations from members on an ongoing basis.

2. When a critical mass of bulb/seed donations have been received, make a
list of the available donations and send it to the group as a BX offering.

3. Collect member responses to the BX offering.

4. Divide the bulbs/seeds from each donation among the members interested
(bag and number each divided member-share appropriately).

5. Package up each member’s set of divided shares and mail the packages.

- - - -

It seems to me that distributing this work among two or more members could
be done in a number of different way, e.g.

Volunteer A: steps 1,2 (coordinator)
Volunteer B: steps 3,4,5 (divider/packager)

Volunteer A: 1,2,3 (coordinator)
Volunteer B: 4,5 (divider/packager)

Volunteer A: 1,2 (coordinator)
Volunteer B: 3,4 (divider)
Volunteer C: 5 (packager)

...there are obviously many more ways as well.

Some additional considerations:

If there were enough volunteers, it could make sense to have some steps
performed in parallel by multiple volunteers at once (e.g. dividing and
packing shares for shipment) or setting up rotations to alleviate the
constant pressure.

If we had geographically clustered volunteers, time and money could be
saved by people meeting in person to divide/package shares.

Going a little further out on the limb, if we had geographically-clustered
*sets* of volunteers (e.g. Portland area, Bay Area, etc.), we could even
consider having some kind of rotation set up where a given crew could meet
in person to divide and package up the shares for some interval of time.
But that is probably best viewed as a future “aspirational” goal rather
than a starting point.

Of course the drawback of this kind of system is the overhead associated
with coordination and the additional costs associated with mailing more
packages if the volunteers are distant enough geographically that meeting
in person doesn’t make sense. But if there are only a few volunteers
working at a time, the costs and overhead should be fairly low.

For what it’s worth, I can’t commit to taking over the entire BX alone, but
I’m certainly willing to participate in a system like what I’ve described
here. And I live in the Seattle area.

On Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 4:38 PM Jo&Greg <sun-coast-pearl@telus.net> wrote:

Dell-
If you need help, there might be a seed savers group in your area. The
folks in our area are amazing ... they clean, sort and package soooo fast!
Many sees savers groups deal with all types of seeds, not only veggies.
Just an idea.
Jo-Ann Canning

-----Original Message-----
From: pbs [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net] On Behalf Of
ds429
Sent: Sunday, October 1, 2017 1:01 PM
To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Subject: Re: [pbs] Bulbs

Thanks again, Kipp. How about a robot who could sort and package bulbs and
shortlived seeds and then fill orders and prepare the parcels for shipping.
Those are the real time consumers for me.

Dell
--------------------------------------------
On Sun, 10/1/17, Kipp McMichael <kimcmich@hotmail.com> wrote:

Subject: Re: [pbs] Bulbs
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Date: Sunday, October 1, 2017, 3:41 PM

Greetings,

I've previously offered
to help in updating the tech side of the BX - but I think Dell, already
at the limit of his capacity for this enormous, ongoing effort, preferred
to keep things as they are. Here are a few ideas:

1) I presume Dell keeps an
inventory document (such a spreadsheet). We could use this document to
populate an online ordering page where, rather than sending emails to
place orders, people could instead place their orders online. That system
could track inventory and automatically remove items that were spoken-for.

2) The
online ordering system would intake shipping address info and, with
paypal support, could also process payments. In such a system, orders
would not go-out until they had been paid. This would eliminate the need
for Dell (or another) to track outstanding balances and copy/paste
shipping info from emails. Likewise, non-PBS-members would not be able to
submit orders at all.

3) When completing an order, the ordering website could also provide
the shipping info as a printable address label.

As outlined above, I think this system could reduce the work of
supporting the BX/SX.

* Those who ordered would be responsible for supplying their
correct, current shipping address.
* Payment through the ordering website would eliminate the need to
manage unpaid balances separately.
* Member verification at
ordering would eliminate the need to track membership status.
* Inventory would update
automatically as orders were made. Adding new donations/offerings would
still require manual work -but these would then appear automatically
without the need to draft new emails.
* Ordering through
the site could be turned on and off as needed (or we could move to a
continuous offering system)

There would still be *plenty* of work left to do even with an ordering
website. But that work would be the unavoidable stuff like packing seeds
in envelopes and, when new donations arrive, deciding how many "lots"
of given offering will be added to the website.

I would be happy to help
engineer a system like this.

-|<ipp

________________________________
From: pbs <pbs-bounces@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
on behalf of Jack and Val <vkmyrick@pacbell.net>
Sent: Sunday, October 1, 2017 11:51 AM
To: Pacific Bulb Society
Subject: Re: [pbs] Bulbs

Dell, Robin and All,

Dell does a very efficient and prompt job as far as I can tell from the
receiving end. He lets me know that my order has been received, for
example. That puts my mind at ease each time. Then the order is
received about a week later. I figure Dell has made the process as
streamlined as possible under his current operating conditions.
The only thing I could
guess that could be done to help is to have different responsible
parties do the seeds and bulbs. Dell may already be doing that. Dell,
are your helpers also PBS members? I think I’m the only one in my area
but am not sure.

Thanks to Dell and all of you who make the PBS such a great
organization. You all put so much time and dedication into this group.

Val
Sonora, CA , N. CA near
Yosemite

On Sep 30, 2017, at 1:50 PM, Hansen Nursery <robin@hansennursery.com>
wrote:

Dell,

On just one BX you

send out 150 shares? And SXs are bigger than that? What an incredible
job! And I think you do this on average once a week year-round. You've
also been doing this for 14 years or more, if I'm correct? You have a
right to retire or step back. PBS Folks, I think it's time Dell had some
more and reliable help or at least allow him to retire....

May I

put forth a request for ideas on how to streamline this process to make
it less onerous? I'm sure this has been brought up for discussion before,
and it's time to get serious about this situation. Dell has done this
without pay as an incredibly generous donation of time and probably money,
too for a very long time. Please, folks, step forward and offer ideas,
help or whatever you can. We owe this to Dell in particular but to all
volunteers who keep this organization running.

My best regards,

Robin
Hansen

Nursery

robin@hansennursery.com

_______________________________________________

pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…

pbs Info Page - pbs -- Pacific Bulb
Society<http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…>
lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Your email address: Your name (optional): You may enter a privacy
password below. This provides only mild security, but should prevent
others from messing with ...

_______________________________________________
pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…
pbs Info Page - pbs -- Pacific Bulb
Society<http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…>
lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Your email address: Your name (optional): You may enter a privacy
password below. This provides only mild security, but should prevent
others from messing with ...

_______________________________________________
pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…
_______________________________________________
pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…

---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
http://www.avg.com/

_______________________________________________
pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…