NARGS Membership - Why or Why Not?

Hi Peter,

From my own perspective it really boils down to economics. I'm a member of SRGC; AGS; my local group of the AGS; in the process of joining the Cyclamen Society; The Royal Horticultural Society; our National Trust which gets me into many of the famous gardens in the UK; the Crocus Group and the South African Bulb Group (OK the latter two cost £5-$8.1 to join with nothing else to pay until the groups begin to run out of funds).  I would like to join SIGNA; AIS; British Iris Society; Daffoil Societies in USA and UK etc. All of this adds up and the more I choose to spend in that way the less I have available to buy bulbs.

From what I have seen so far on the Forum (and I like what I have seen) and from a mainly bulb growers point of view there is not a lot to attract me to make the final step and become a full blown NARGS member at the moment. This could well change in the future though.

I would say, and I think I am right, that the majority of members who have joined recently are either UK or Europe based (I shouldn't say that in the way I have because we are all supposed to be Europeans ;D  ) and have joined because we are aware of NARGS and the NARGS Forum as a result of our participation in similar things on this side of the pond. I'm sure you could do with much more interest from people on your side of the pond.

I hope this helps the last thing I want to do is to upset people.

Hi Peter,
I've been an NARGS member for over 10 years, but must admit that I gave up 3 or 4 years ago.
The reason being, that as David, I'm a member of a lot of societies : AGS, SRGC, NRV (Holland), VRV (Belgium), Crocus group,etc...  I found myself in a position that I didn't have enough time left to garden, if I read all the Bulletins...  ;D  The NARGS Rock Garden Quarterly was the one that was the less interesting for me, considering where and how I garden, so I'm afraid I gave up on the NARGS.
This being said, I'm retired now since a couple of months, so more time has become available...  alas, the funds are down...  ;D ;) so I will have to consider carefully, before acting, if I were to rejoin the NARGS, but I might...  ;)
I joined this Forum, as I'm an active member of the SRGC forum and I'm the moderator of our VRV (flemish) Forum, and I love discussing with and showing plants to likeminded people.  Alas, I must say as my predecessors already mentioned, that a lot of the people I see posting here are from our side of the pond or even down under (Paul  ;D).
For the moment, as the US still is in the firm grip of Winter, you have the benifit of the doubt, but I do hope to see lots more US and Canadian gardeners on this Forum.  ;)
I've had the pleasure to visit the US and Canada on 4 occasions and therefore I know very well what a glorious flora and nature in general can be found there. 
I can only hope to be able see lots of it here a bit later in the season !!
All the best with the Forum !

David makes a good point in that many newcomers here have already had forum experience.  If I could just get some of my fellow Chapter members (who've never been on a forum) to try it out.  That is much harder, in my opinion.  That we talk freely about each other's forums (SRGC and NARGS) is also a big plus.

I joined the NARGS national organization soon after I joined my Chapter.  But that was when I knew very little about the whole subject, and the Bulletins were too academic, even for me who relishes in that kind of stuff.  I just couldn't connect with it.  Sticking with the Chapter, I became sure footed, and later rejoined.

The new layout of the Rock Garden Quarterly well addresses my "problem" when I was a beginner.  It's much more inviting to the uninitiated.

The economic reason is a big one! Given enough funds, I'd join all sorts of things, but that's not the case currently! That said, I have also not joined NARGS for lack of a reason to do so--no chapters close enough that I would/could attend on anything approaching a regular basis, and while I may yet join for the seed exchange, I am mostly uninterested in garden collected seed (open pollinated; I do get some in private trades) and did not feel that the overall costs of joining just for the wild seed on the exchange were justified- as opposed to just ordering from Alplains etc; There may come a day when I hope for a particular species I cannot get any other way than the exchange, but my seed 'needs' are not yet that rarefied....

I can understand the economics as well.  I used to be a member of the American orchid Society, American Rhododendron Society and American iris Society.  The cost of all these memberships was getting daunting, especially in the past when the Canadian dollar was so poor.  Today it might not be so bad.  However, I did find myself torn in many directions.  I visit a couple of orchid forums where I get my orchid fix without being a member of the AOS. I decided to put my energies into NARGS as alpines was my real passion...I particularly like the travel-logs.  Of course, the seed exchange was a major bonus and I partake of that regularly.  Some 15 years later I have made many NARGS friends and the forum has increased that lately.  I do hope that some of the non-members visiting the forum may, at some point, consider joining NARGS

I became a member of NARGS long before I learned about computers! And while living in the States I became a Life member as I figured I'd live at least 20 more years and I hoped the Society would as well so I'd get my money's worth! ;D Only 7 more years to go! ;D ;D ;D
I also belong to the SRGC, AGS, NZAGS (and joined RHS as we're visiting the UK this year and membership has it's privileges!) and it does take awhile to get through all the literature! But it's mostly things I want to read. The seedexes are the next major reason for joining for those of us living a long way from the local groups and National events but the Journals alone are worth the cost of the subscription.
Our "local" AGS group's rules state that to become a member you must to belong to the AGS (UK) - to encourage members to participate in the Seedex and to get decent information through the Journal. This has been a contentious issue (the cost is about $50 a year!) and I can see how local chapters of NARGS would baulk at the idea of making it compulsory to belong to the National Group.
cheers
fermi

Fermi wrote:

Our "local" AGS group's rules state that to become a member you must to belong to the AGS (UK) - to encourage members to participate in the Seedex and to get decent information through the Journal. This has been a contentious issue (the cost is about $50 a year!) and I can see how local chapters of NARGS would baulk at the idea of making it compulsory to belong to the National Group.

Though the reasoning might be commendable, I'm glad we don't require that here at NARGS.  Our membership in general is perhaps less devoted, I think, than the Brit based AGS.

Requiring NARGS membership for all Chapter members is a contentious issue, and one that won't go away. Our Chapter (Berkshire) has in its bylaws the requirement that to join the Chapter, one MUST already belong to NARGS. As a matter of practice, we don't enforce it, or I'm guessing we would lose a bunch of members. On the other hand, our Chapter, like all Chapters, benefits from its status as a 'NARGS Chapter.' Yet the Chapters themselves are not participating in the costs of running NARGS, a peculiar situation from my perspective. If NARGS membership, either as an individual or a Chapter, provide some benefits, are we to assume that those benefits have costs, and if so, who is to bear the burden of those costs?

In general terms NARGS has to do a better job of providing tangible benefits to its members and the Chapters. The Journal is certainly a real benefit, and in my opinion, is worth the $$$ for membership by itself. Add in the seed-ex, and the conferences, and in the near future, a return of the 'expedition/tour/guided hike' program, and we're looking at an organization that is worth the cost. The speakers tour as well provides substantial benefit to the Chapters and THEIR members, NARGS members or not, and those speakers don't come for free to NARGS.

So the question might well be restated this way: Does the current and projected body of benefits have a real worth of $35 per year, and if so, why aren't more Chapter members taking advantage of those benefits by joining NARGS?

I checked in with Bobby Ward, I've been a NARGS member since 1975 (I was 21 yrs old), although could have sworn it was a few years earlier when I was in my late teens, but maybe I was dreaming.  One of the best benefits of membership is the printed quarterly, whether the Bulletin of the ARGS/NARGS as once called, or as the NARGS Rock Garden Quarterly in the later years.  When I first joined, I bought some "back issues" from the late 1950s up until when I joined in the mid 70s.  I still use these 50+ years of bulletins frequently as an invaluable reference resource.  I had various interim "cumulative indexes" of the journals through the years, but discarded them recently, as one of the NARGS member benefits is a full cumulative index of all bulletins/quarterly from 1943-2008, accessed on a NARGS member's page.

The second benefit, and perhaps the most compelling, is the annual NARGS seed exchange.  If one donates some seed to the annual seed exchange, you can get 35 packets of seed, otherwise as a member not donating see you still get 25 packets of seed.  The list of wild collected seed is always strong.  A more recent development is the Surplus Seed List; last year I had so many packets of seed from the surplus list I admit to not getting it all planted.  As one who has ordered seed from the various specialist seed collector lists, and spent small fortunes on them, I can't forget NARGS as a primary source of highly affordable seed to feed my habit.

Also important, is the ability to attend local NARGS Chapter meetings.  In my area, there have been three such chapters within reasonable reach through the years; the Connecticut Chapter, the New England Chapter (mostly Eastern Massachusetts), and the Berkshire Chapter (Western Massachusetts and New York, where Peter George presides).  The plant sales, friendships, garden visits, and meetings, have been an invaluable resource to enrich my Rock Gardening experience.

Mark,
you have reminded me that one of the benefits beyond the cost of subscription was the camaraderie of like-minded gardeners when I got to attend some chapter meetings and study weekends while I was in the US or when we returned for the 1999 National Conference in Calgary.
cheers
fermi

Mark, could you please clarify the seed exchange pricing structure for me, I only looked at it once, and may have got it wrong-- besides the membership fees (obviously) there is a per packet price, no? When I was looking at it, I was considering joining with the seed exchange as the only benefit, and so would add the membership fees to the cost of the seeds.. I've never seen a bulletin, so that was not factored into my calculations..

Cohan,
The seed exchange costs a lump sum of $15 US for ordering seeds.  That's for 25 packets for nondonors, and 35 packets for donors (that is, those who donate 5 different taxa or more).  
The seed list is the most interesting (therefore best, IMO) seedex list that I am aware of - for example, the 2010-2011 list contains 3014 varieties of garden-collected seed, and 613 varieties of wild-collected seed.

After the main seedex takes place, with donors getting precedence for orders, there is another round for the dispersal of "surplus seed" which is at an even more attractive price - 20 packets for $5US, 40 packets for $10US, 60 for $15, 80 for $20 and 100 for $25!  (Errr, I guess I could have just simplified it by saying $0.25 per packet, but those are the order quantities that are set out.  ;))

For us as non-US donors, there is a reasonably simple process for sending seeds across the border (one just has to follow the directions, and I have managed to get it completely right in the last couple of years, it seems... I'm sure Laura S. must be relieved!  :D) .  Everything one needs to know about the seedex can be found out by following the various links here:

http://www.nargs.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=232:ba...

I originally joined NARGS for the seedex alone, but then started to find the book sales very worthwhile.  Eventually I  realized the value of the Garden Quarterly.... I have started re-reading my collection this winter on the train to/from work!

Skulski wrote:

I originally joined NARGS for the seedex alone, but then started to find the book sales very worthwhile.  Eventually I  realized the value of the Garden Quarterly.... I have started re-reading my collection this winter on the train to/from work!

Thanks Lori for answering Cohan's question in detail.This year I actually did not request any NARGS seed from the seed exchange, mostly because of last year's hybridization efforts where I have sown over 50 flats of Epimedium, Jeffersonia, and Iris and think I might be overwhelmed by seedlings as it is.  But then I just got a notice about the NARGS surplus seed list, and after all the of talk about certain plants on the forum, I have acquiesced to my plant lust, now aching to try some more seed, so I will indeed send in a modest order.  At $5 for 20 packets (for NARGS members), it's a total bargain, and there is still lots of wild-collected seed available.  I think even this still-unemployed guy can afford $10 for 40 packets!

Lori, I started doing exactly what you're doing, rereading the old NARGS/ARGS Quarterly publications.  I have them in cluttered stacks all over the place, and finally did some spring cleaning, gathered them all up, and put them on a bookshelf in order, starting from the mid 1960s to current.  There's an amazing amount of good stuff locked up in these bulletins; I had forgotten about so much of it.  Needless to say, what started out as a simple organization of my NARGS Quarterly collection dragged into days, as I started rereading them. :o

By the way, there's another good NARGS Rock Garden Quarterly coming up soon (Spring 2011) featuring Alliums, part 1 of a two-part article I've written. ;)

Mark, regarding the publication, I wonder if you had an accidental temporary lapse in subscription.  It's happened to me with Minnesota public radio.  I've been a member since 1977, minus 6 month (when I had forgotten to renew), so my card says "member since 1982".  ;D

A couple years ago, an older member in our Chapter gave me here collection of ARGS Bulletins (now called the Rock Garden Quarterly) back to the 1960's.  I voraciously read a lot of them last winter, but haven't had much time this "off" season.  There is so much usable information that you can't find anywhere else!

And I'll say it again: I love the new look!

--------- I am very much looking forward to your articles, Mark!

Thanks for the extra details, Lori, I had looked at it all before, but only once, so I wasn't that clear on it..

I mentioned under introductions that I joined the NARGS especially for the seed exchange (and notably because overseas donors get first bite at the biscuit!). Also the NARGS, and SRGC, are much more Garden orientated and dare I say democratic than the AGS in Britain, despite the latter's wonderful traditions. I enjoy the diversity of articles in the Quarterly which at times can become quite poetic, I think a fine literary tradition which takes you into the landscapes and the plants we find so fascinating. American gardeners are also, I feel, still pioneers in such a vast and varied land, something we can't have in the same way in the UK. This leads to a greater open-mindedness and sharing of ideas, all in all very worthy attributes. Perhaps we need to develop a Chapter in the UK!