Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Regional Newsletter Award

Hello Daylily Friends and Fans!

Did you remember that Region 2 offers a "Best Newsletter Award" to local societies? Any group who provides copies of their newsletters to the Regional President, Regional Publicity Director and Editor are considered for this annual award!! A gorgeous glass, engraved trophy is awarded to the winner at the banquet of the Summer Meeting!

Voting criteria includes diversity and quality of content, timeliness of information, timeliness and consistency of publication. It may also include graphic layout, incorporation of pertinent photos, and incorporation of other graphics (logos, etc.)

I have only received newsletters from 3 clubs for 2009.

If you are interested in having your local societies newsletter considered for the 2009 award, please forward copies, to the three of us immediately.  Contact me for email addresses, or see the regional website.  If you need our mailing addresses, please check the latest newsletter.

If you believe your club has already submitted newsletters for consideration, please email me to confirm receipt.

Previous Winners of this award:

2008- Bette Alden, Southern Michigan Daylily Society
2007- Kim Issacson, Chicagoland Daylily Society
2006- Tim Bleichroth, Daylily Enthusiasts of Southern Indiana
2005- Sandy Veurink and Connie Hall, Grand Valley Daylily Society
2004- Rosemary Kleinheintz, Wisconsin Daylily Society
2003- Bill Johannes, Metropolitan Columbus Daylily Society
2002- Harold Steen, Daylily Society of Southeast Wisconsin
2001- Marcia Razor, Southwestern Indiana Daylily Society

These clubs are eligible for the award again only with a new editor. Any one person can only win this award once.

The winner of this award will be announced at the Region 2 Summer Meeting Banquet this July.

I look forward to receiving more newsletters. Please send them to the three of us by March 1 so that we may have plenty of time to review and discuss.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Region 2 Action Requested - JAN 31 Deadline

Hello, daylily friends!

 
On page 9 of the most recent Region 2 Newsletter, there is an action item that requires you to send in a ballot to the Regional President by the end of January.

 
This ballot is to clarify the election of the committee to select the next RP as the same committee that will select a nominee for the AHS Region 2 Director's position, which comes vacant in 2011. The election of this committee was not clear at the 2009 Region 2 Summer Meeting, in the regard that this committee would be searching for two candidates to fill two different positions. Because of this oversight, we wanted to make sure the membership has a chance to properly elect this committee to do this important job.

At the upcoming summer meeting in northern Ohio both seats need a nominee for the term beginning in 2011. At the summer 2009 meeting, we only specified that this committee would look for a RP, but not for a Director. That is where the oversight occurred. We did not note both positions in the election motion made and passed at last year's summer meeting.


 
In summary,
  • According to the bylaws, the nominating committee is elected by the membership.
  • Therefore, since we did not specify that this committee would also be nominating a Director, we needed to clarify.
  • Both ballots in the recent newsletter should have read Director; there was no typo. There are two ballots to support two votes in one home for family memberships.
  • We have already elected the committee to nominate an RP, we just need to formally clarify that this same committee will be nominating a Director, too.
Please see page 9 of your newsletter now. Tear out page 9 or photocopy page 9 or electronically reproduce your votes and email them to me immediately. The action item requires a certain percentage of the region to return ballots, so they all count!
 
I hope those statements clear up the mud a bit. Please let me know if you have any other thoughts or comment and please forward this information to your local memberships as soon as you can.
 
Don't delay! Spread the word to your local clubs and fellow Region 2 members.

 
I hope you have also had a chance to check out our new regional website.  It's HERE if you haven't.  Here is the gorgeous home page - enjoy!

 

 
Thank you for your time and continued efforts on behalf of the region and the AHS!

 

Seeds of Encouragement

ATTENTION REGION 2 MEMBERS


GET YOUR FREE 'SEEDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT'

In 2011, the Southern Michigan Daylily Society will host the Region 2 Summer Meeting.

To encourage people to come to the 2011 Summer Meeting and to
encourage them to grow daylilies from seeds, Michigan daylily hybridizer and accomplished hosta hybridizer John Kulpa is giving away over 6,000 daylily seeds!!

If you are interested in receiving a packet of seeds, please contact your club president or designated representative as soon as possible. Someone from your club should contact me at schmiths@sbcglobal.net or 248-739-9006 and tell me the number of seed packets that are needed by your club.

This offer is only available to Region 2 members at this time. This is a great opportunity to get some fantastic seeds for free. Only the pod parent is marked on all of the seed packets. However, John only used about 15 great plants for pollen parents. Some of the pollen parents were: LARRYS OBSESSION, WORTHY OF DISTINCTION, WREATHED IN TEETH, VENUS FLYTRAP, RANDY STEPHENS, RED FRIDAY, ALAN LANE AGIN and two very toothy unregistered seedlings.

Some of the seeds have started to germinate in the refrigerator, so please contact your daylily club president or representative as soon as possible. The seeds will be distributed on a first come, first serve basis.

The Southern Michigan Daylily Society is looking forward to sharing its gardens and hospitality with you in 2011. This is one summer meeting that you will not want to miss! See you in 2011!

Hundreds of seeds have already been requested, mailed, received and even planted! 

Get yours today!

Friday, January 1, 2010

Youth Memberships- What's the Deal?

It is membership renewal time for the AHS.

The official position is that yes, Region 2 has temporarily discontinued paying the AHS $1500 each year to cover the cost of all youth memberships.


However, as RP I want to reimburse Region 2 youth members who pay their dues. I have not worked an official policy up about this yet, so for now it is only by word of mouth. Here's how it will work until an official policy can be drafted and approved: you let me know you have a youth who needs to pay dues. I will ask you to send me their name and address and I will reimburse for their AHS membership, along with a note thanking them for continuing to be a member. 


I'll send out a more formal email in the coming months, after the board meets in Cincinnati at the end of February and I have a chance to talk with them about this "youth situation."


In the meantime, if you have ideas on an administratively sound way to handle paying for youth memberships, offering scholarships, paying for national/regional registrations, and spend about $1500-$2000 doing it, please bring your ideas to the table! You can talk with Wendy Schwall, who is our incoming Youth Liaison, at jschwall-at-neo-dot-rr-dot-com or can email them to me at schmiths-at-sbcglobal-dot-net. (can't insert the real email addys here or nasty spammers may pick up the addresses...)


Here is the Youth Meeting at the 2009 Region 2 Summer Meeting
That's me helping them make Garden Journals!


Or, even more exciting, we can use the comments section discuss them publicly here.


What programs could Region 2 implement to benefit our youth members?