Forum and email list

Forum and email list
Marc Rosenblum via pbs (Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:53:53 PST)

On 2/12/2023 1:02 PM, Jane McGary via pbs wrote:

Thank you to Mary Sue for her detailed discussion -- and for her
tremendous contribution to the PBS wiki. I was another board member
who preferred the email list to a forum, but when the forum went up I
registered for it and check it every day now. I haven't mastered the
posting of photos yet, but I'm not much of a photographer anyway. The
splitting of the forum posts into many topic areas worried me, and I'm
still not fond of it; however, users have found ways around strict
categorization in the Off-topic area.

PBS got occasional complaints about the email list from users who
objected to the large number of emails they received through it, and
did not want to deal with the "digest" function. This wasn't a problem
for me because I filter my email manually before downloading it from
the provider's webmail site. I had to start doing that because of the
way membership payment notices come to me via PayPal; the provider
insisted on dumping them into the spam folder until I turned off the
filters. Now, if there is a thread that doesn't interest me, such as
"hybridizing Hippeastrum," I can delete it along with the advertising.

Regarding the admittedly undemocratic way the PBS board is now
constituted, the subject of Robert Lauf's post, I think it arose
organically out of the founding of our society. The name "Pacific Bulb
Society" refers not only to the predominance of western North American
members at that time, but also to the hope that we would be pacific --
i.e., peaceful. Many of our original members were in the International
Bulb Society (IBS), a long-standing group which was then falling apart
under the impact of hostile management. Early in the formative years
of PBS, we in turn had an administrative breakdown which we barely
survived. It has become a particular concern to avoid adversarial,
factional, or ideological clashes. This can make the board and the
various managers look like a clique. Nevertheless, decisions have been
taken to expand board membership, notably adding European members. The
call for applicants to the voting positions of vice president and
secretary -- neither of which requires a large time commitment -- is
an outreach too.

I have a long history with the North American Rock Garden Society, so
I know that difficulty in recruiting board members and officers is not
unique to PBS. I've also been through at least two periods in which a
president, elected by the relatively few members who had bothered to
vote, did serious damage to that society. I switched from the PBS
president's position to my present one as membership coordinator
simply because the former membership person was unable to continue,
and maintaining the membership database is an almost daily activity.
Robin Hansen, the current president, is also the editor of the Bulb
Garden newsletter because she was the only qualified and willing
applicant for that task. Arnold Trachtenberg, the treasurer, also
handles the demanding tasks of getting the Bulb Garden printed and
mailed, and processing the occasional group book orders.

Do you remember the story of the Little Red Hen? "Who will help me
grind the wheat?" "Not I," said the cow/pig/duck, etc. ... "Who will
help me eat the bread?" "I will!" said they all. Apropos to plant
societies! Please volunteer.

Jane McGary, Membership Coordinator and PBS Board member

On 2/12/2023 11:55 AM, Mary Sue Ittner via pbs wrote:

Over the years there have been many requests for volunteers to help
running this organization and usually not a lot of replies. If you
got rid of all of the people who contribute their time without
getting anything in return, except for occasional thanks, I expect
that would be the end of the Pacific Bulb Society. I for one am very
grateful for all the volunteers. I periodically have asked for help
with the wiki and for whatever reason, maybe because of the learning
curve, it hasn't resulted in the last few years of any sustained
help. Dues for this organization are modest and that allows people to
participate in the BX and the SX and to get the Bulb Garden and
provides money to pay to keep the list, the wiki, the BX/SX, the Bulb
Garden, and the forum going. The main job of the Board is to find
ways to make sure all of those things continue.

There was email discussion about forum vs list before the Board made
the decision to start a forum. There were many of us who preferred
the list, but also others that were unhappy with it. I suspect if
there had been a vote there would have been no consensus. And who
would you have vote? The list has always been available to people who
were not members of the Pacific Bulb Society. So would all of them be
allowed to vote even though they do not pay dues? It seems to me that
the Board came up with a compromise. They created the forum, but did
not do away with the list. The disadvantage to this is that
announcements like the BX have to be two places and some people just
participate in one or the other so we don't have the rich discussions
that we once had. The advantage is that people who were unhappy with
the list now have the forum and those people who preferred the list
still have it. If David Pilling is able to find a list where it is
easy to add photos I'm sure the people who use the list would be
grateful.

David has given so much of his time over the years. I'm not sure how
many people recognize this. It was 2009 when the wiki was no longer
functional since the software was not being updated and some things
no longer worked. We had to convert. This is one of the times when I
asked for help and got it. David volunteered and he has been the main
stay of technical help since then. That's 13 years. It took me a
year to fix everything after we converted it to new software. During
the conversion a lot of people checked pages for me and reported the
mistakes I needed to fix. And a lot of people helped over the years
with the wiki, but now there are few. Luckily David continues to help
and Martin has spent a lot of time on it as well, but basically it's
just the three of us.

Arnold has been volunteering since 2002, maybe before. He does all
the mailings, manages the finances, contacts new members. Jane McGary
has put in years and years, was President, before she took over
membership and writes for the Bulb Garden. Diane Whitehead has been
helping with the list for years and years. And there are many others
who have helped for a long time. Robin is editing the Bulb Garden AND
being the President. Who would you replace? PBS is lucky that they
have continued to help. It would be really unfortunate if posts like
the one from Robert led to resignations.

Mary Sue

On 2/12/2023 8:42 AM, Robert Lauf via pbs wrote:

Yes, it would be nice to allow members to vote on lots of things,
but the PBS governance model appears to be patterned on that of
Cuba. The Board essentially elects its own members from a list of
candidates they select via an arbitrary, capricious, and completely
opaque process, much like the Politburo. We were recently
(inadvertently) given a glimpse into the inner workings and
attitudes at the Mother Ship and it wasn't a pretty picture. Nor
surprisingly, many excellent people have better things to do than
try to improve things in the face of resistance, secrecy, and
outright abuse. Is it any wonder that volunteers are hard to find
in this environment?
It's time to send a few of the Commissars off the the Gulag and
start over. Just my opinion, but feel free to make it your own.
Bob Zone 7

While I very much appreciate the PBS and the work that our board
members do; and personally see no reason to change anything, I
believe that the static I have been seeing on the list does not
suggest that everyone feels as I do.

That kind of static does NOT attract new members!

NARGS, SRGC, AGS, and HPS all have elected boards and all function
quite well. I believe that if we had an elected board, the current
board members would still serve; because most of us appreciate you.

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