INSIDE THE IPA
Photo : Eric Fang
F irst , before anything else , I would like to express my appreciation for the efforts made by Tom Harper these last two years as president of the organization . Tom did a remarkable job in leading the IPA from some difficult times . Perhaps the most noticeable improvement was the Journal , beginning with the appointment of Wes Higgins as the editor and his staff . The Journal is now on track with very good content and on a credible schedule . Second , with the input from Barbara Noe , most of the regions were remapped to be better aligned with our current membership as the original regions were set up by Bob Gordon over 20 years ago . Third , the first strategic planning committee was formed and , armed with a recent member survey , the first strategic plan for the organization was created and approved by the Board .
So , what are the new steps to take to make this organization better ? For this we needed to look at our membership demographic , and what we read from it is that the IPA is losing foreign members at a much faster rate than U . S . -based members . When you think about it , you realize that for most of the members and perhaps more for the foreign members , all that the member receives from the IPA is the Journal . Yes , there are other things such as our website , symposiums , and regional meetings , but the foreign members have little to no access to these last two events . And , the Journal is at a much higher cost than for U . S . members with postal rate increases . What is worse , the magazines are not reaching our members on regular basis : they tend to get lost in the delivery process , requiring the publishing company to mail them again . Realizing this , the IPA Board met at a special meeting during the Orlando Symposium on August 25 , 2012 and instructed the editor to have the Journal ready for electronic publication with the first issue of 2013 . Everyone who is a member will have access to the electronic version of the Journal without an increase in membership rate . For our foreign members , they will be able to subscribe at a lower rate to get the electronic version only , or subscribe at the full foreign rate to get both .
The 2012 Symposium , the 18th since the inception of the IPA in 1991 , concluded on August 25th with great success . We had one of the better-attended symposiums in the history of the IPA with 117 registrants . Frank Smith of Krull Smith in Apopka , Florida , Norman Fang of Norman ’ s Orchid in Ontario , California and David McDaniel of Orchid Classics in Virginia Beach , Virginia gave very interesting lectures on trends in breeding , growing in sphagnum moss , and laboratory techniques . These were capped off with the lecture by our keynote speaker , Mr . Chen-Chung Chen of Mainshow Orchids , Taiwan , who gave an overview of the Phalaenopsis species from A to Z presently available in Taiwan , and talked about some new primary or near primary hybrids being created there . The auction conducted during the luncheon raised over $ 5,000 for the Journal Color Fund . In addition to the speakers selling plants , Orchidview from South Carolina , Orchidaceae from Washington State and Brother Orchids from Taiwan also sold plants . The symposium ended with a visit to Krull Smith on Saturday evening where the attendees were treated to a barbeque dinner .
Also at the special meeting on August 25th , the board voted to have the next symposium in Texas . For more information on the actual city and dates will be forthcoming in future issues of the Journal .
Carlos
Phalaenopsis - Fourth Quarter , Vol . 22 ( 3 & 4 ) 2012 5