Tuesday, November 3, 2020

President's Message - November 2020

Dear Rose Friends,

Here we are in November already! I have been canvassing the GRS Board to make some decisions:

  1. Due to the worsening of the Covid-19 pandemic, the majority of your Board supports not meeting until sometime in 2021. Our primary concern is your health and safety.
  2. All memberships are extended until the end of the operating year, June 2021. Since we have ongoing expenses, we ask those who are able to pay dues. See Dan Mills’ Treasurer’s report.
  3. Jean and Ralph Stream will explore the possibility of holding a rose show in late spring or in the fall of 2021. This largely will depend on whether The Village, site of our last show, will be hosting such events.

I would like to share some background information on the state of our finances. Many years ago, when I joined the Gainesville Rose Society, we met at the Doyle Conner Building at no cost. Around this time Dan Mills and John Tucker hosted a rose rooting workshop at The Weed Patch. We stuck hundreds of rose cuttings which Dan and John lovingly tended until they were large enough to sell at the Kanapaha Gardens spring festival for several years. This greatly benefited our finances, and our balance increased to about $10,000. About the same time, we lost our meeting place and moved to Kanapaha Gardens where we also installed a rose garden. This was a mutually beneficial relationship for a  number of years, although we were required to pay for use of the facilities.

Eventually, the cost for using Kanapaha became prohibitive. For the last several years we have met at Celebration Methodist Church and then First Christian Church. We have made donations to cover their expenses. Meanwhile, other fund raising activities included yard sales and “profits” from hosting District meetings. Memorial donations have been used for designated purposes.

Our usual ongoing expenses also include rental of storage space for rose show equipment, rose show expenses, newsletter, donations such as supporting the ARS garden restoration project. Our bank balance has slowly decreased over the years, so we need to do what we can to keep GRS on a good financial footing. We need your continuing support. Finally, some cool weather is here. We have added Bermuda Spice roses along the street to eventually replace the Knockouts that have been there for many years. On Saturday I viewed a “Webinar”, A New Shot: Judging Photos in Your Rose Show, presented by ARS Photography Chairman Curtis Aumiller. It was very interesting to learn what judges should look for in rose photography. One of my photographs appeared—as an example of what NOT to do. I learned a lot. The program should be available on the ARS website soon. Several other seminars are already posted including Rose Diseases and Pest by Dr. Mark Windham who was such an entertaining speaker at our last winter Deep South District meeting. Look under Video on the rose.org website.

Congratulations to Richard Howard for having one of his photographs included in the ARS calendar. There was lots of competition, so this is quite an achievement. I hope some of you entered the Deep South digital photo contest.

Enjoy your fall blooms.

Jean Giesel, President

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