AIS President’s Message GARY WHITE, NEBRASKA
It has been my
privilege to serve the
American Iris Society
as the 28th president
to do so after its
founding in 1920 in
New York City. I think
that we can safely now
say that the formation
of AIS nearly 99 years
ago was a great idea.
Somewhere along the
way, the AIS board of
directors voted to limit the terms of their presidents to
three years. I’m not exactly sure what prompted that
decision, but it was another great idea. John Wister,
the first AIS president, served in this job for 14 years,
and Dr. Harry H. Everett, the second president, served
for five years. After that, the president’s job varied
from two to four years through a few terms, but finally
was restricted to three years. I know that times are
very different and the society itself is different than in
the first two decades of its existence, but might I say
that I have great respect for John Wister.
“Everything has to come to an end, sometime.”
—L. Frank Baum, The Marvelous Land of Oz
So, it’s time for my term as president of this society
to end at the close of the fall board meeting in
Portland, Oregon on November 3rd. At that meeting,
Jody Nolin will receive the president’s gavel and, with
her officers and board, will guide this venerable society
through the next three years and into its second
century. We are lucky to have Jody at the helm and I
am looking forward to the next chapter opening for the
AIS during her administration… no pressure, Jody.
It is the thousands of members of this society who
make it what it is. Many people willingly giving of their
time, energy, talents, and personal expense provide
the necessary work of this organization. And that holds
true for the 13 Sections and Cooperating Societies, the
22 Regions and nearly 160 affiliates as well. Without
those thousands of volunteers across the decades,
serving on local and regional and national offices and
boards, we would not be planning to celebrate the
centennial anniversary of the American Iris Society.
Information documentation and communication of
that information are two of the important functions
of any organization such as ours. Over the past
three years, there are a number of ways that AIS
has worked to increase information resources and
to improve communication to our members and the
public. We have authorized a new website and you will
be hearing more about that in the next few months
from Electronic Services. AIS educational programs
are now free to iris clubs and AIS members. These
programs are being updated and expanded and new
ones are being developed. Contact Neil Houghton at
images@irises.org for information on these programs.
Photos are now part of the iris registration process,
and Neil Houghton is managing those photo archives
as well. This requirement is new in the past year and
will improve image services as registration photos are
received and archived.
An online library, the AIS Hager/DuBose Memorial
Online Library, is active and expanding and is
accessible through the Iris Encyclopedia. This online
library already contains thousands of articles, books,
catalogs and videos. For more information about this
online library, contact Bob Pries at robertpries@
embarqmail.com. Items that are still under copyright
and cannot be included in the online library may be
found in or added to the physical library in Molalla,
Oregon.
Future publications will include centennial
supplements to IRISES in 2020. The four supplements
will be mailed to AIS members and available to
e-members of record in 2020. Please consider
submitting articles, notes, and photos for this
supplemental publication. A call for these centennial
articles and information is included in this issue of
IRISES. Kathleen Sonntag is editor of the centennial
supplements.
For the past two years, we have been holding six
to eight electronic AIS board meetings in addition to
the convention spring board meeting, all open to AIS
members and to the public. These are typically held on
the fourth Wednesday evening of most months, except
for convention months, November and December.
Check the AIS website for updates and contact
information.
Of course, in addition to this publication, IRISES,
other information sources are continuing. News
8 AIS Bulletin Fall 2018