progress to the AIS board. He looks forward to
working with the many fine people he has met and
the friends he has made in the American Iris Society.
He says, “AIS is making real progress to move into
the digital age. It is my contention that we need
to promote ourselves to a new generation. The
challenges of presenting ourselves to generations
that have a whole new idea of what ‘social’ means
are large. Meeting them however is crucial. I see a
board of directors and officers that are ready to take
on the challenge.”
Wayne Messer,
Huxley, IA, Region 21
Editor of the AIS
electronic newsletter
News & Notes, Wayne
joined the American
Iris Society in 2009
after his wife Pam
learned of a new club
forming in Iowa. While
that club did not take
root, the iris virus
Wayne Messer
had. At the first regional meeting Wayne attended,
the RVP Ron Cosner described the new Region 21
website, which needed no webmaster because the
website would be created by all the members. A
few months later when Wayne had some things he
wanted to post on the fledgling website he learned
they were the first posts.
You know how this works—Wayne eventually
became the webmaster. Around that same time, he
learned of the Iris Encyclopedia (wiki) and began
contributing editing changes there, things like
typos, formatting, small changes, as he did not know
enough about irises to make substantial changes.
Somehow the wiki manager Bob Pries learned
Wayne was updating the Iris Wiki and eventually
asked for help with a new newsletter AIS hoped to
start. That grew into what you (hopefully) now enjoy.
This also led to the nickname “the jigsaw puzzle guy”
because of the iris jigsaw puzzle that is a standard
feature of the newsletter.
Wayne is a retired organic research chemist and
group leader of the technical information division
at a specialty chemical company. He holds a BS in
chemistry and math (Iowa State University) and a
PhD in organic chemistry (University of Illinois). The
Messer couple were garden hosts for the 2017 AIS
convention in Des Moines, IA, also serving as guest
bearded iris co-chairs. Wayne currently serves as
the AIS Exhibition Show Reports chairman and is a
member of seven sections/cooperating societies.
Janis Shackelford,
El Cajon, CA, Region 15
Janis has BS and
MS degrees in biology
from San Diego State
University. Following
graduation, she was
employed at her alma
mater as a research
associate on various
National Institute
of Health–funded
grants from 1975 until
Janis Shackelford
retirement in 2005. She became a member of AIS
sometime prior to 1996 but did not become active
with her local San Diego Iris Society until retirement.
Since then she has been president twice and is
currently treasurer. Janis has been Spring Show cochair
2015-2018. She served Region 15 as secretary
2011-2014 and has been assistant RVP October 2017
to present. She became a G/E judge in 2013 and
has judged several Region 15 iris shows since. She
has enjoyed growing irises for many years. She has
presented iris programs to many gardening clubs
and to other organizations such as the Southwest
Judge’s Council and the Master Gardener
Association of San Diego County.
Phyllis Wilburn,
Rescue, CA, Region 14
Originally
appointed to the
board of directors
to fill out the term of
a resigned director,
Phyllis Wilburn was
elected to a full term
in November 2018.
She learned to love
iris by following her
grandmother around
Phyllis Wilburn
Winter 2019 AIS Bulletin 33