Tricia & Gentle OGDers, As to promoting orchids and the orchid societies in my area, one of the things I have done in the past was to keep a few information cards about my local orchid society in my wallet so I could offer one to someone, if I was in Home Depot, Lowes, etc., when saw them looking at the blooming orchids there.
I would ask them if they had orchids and would chat about orchids a bit. Then if I determined a further interest, I'd ask them if they knew that there was an orchid society nearby that met every month. If there seemed to be any interest in attending I would give them one of the cards which had a simple map, the date and time of the meeting, and a phone number to call either for the membership person, the society contact person, or myself, if they had more questions or wanted to attend. Of course I always invited them on the spot as I was giving them the card. I would afterwards see maybe about a quarter of the people I'd talked to come for at least one meeting at our society. And some joined. They usually had had no idea that there was an orchid society nearby. Giving interested parties a card with the society's info and the map seems to provide a useful reminder about the monthly meeting that they would remember afterwards. Just my two cents here for how to make the public aware of our local orchid societies, and thus promote orchids and orchid growing on the local level. And that's where much of the needed interest in growing better and more interesting orchids -rather than the mass-produced, throw-away ones- really can be cultivated, isn't it?... Cheers! Paul == _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
