Bulletin - Summer 1979 - North American Rock Garden Society

decided they would be unable to followthrough. A few others sent in the namesof possible nominees. These, too, werefollowed up by Mr. Minogue and themembers of the Administrative Committee,but came to nothing. In the SpringIssue of the Bulletin Board, our presidentregretfully announced the possibledemise of the Seed Exchange for lackof a director.Only at the last moment was areprieve granted; Kathy Freeland ofHolliston, Mass. reconsidered her formerdoubts and agreed to try the jobof Seed Exchange Director for a year.Kathy deserves the whole-hearted thanksof us all.But make no mistake. We must notnow heave a sigh of relief and relax.This is only a remission in a diseaseto which too many volunteer organizationsare only too prone. Though ithas no name that I know of, its firstsymptoms are always the same. As theorganization grows larger, the membershipforgets its vital function. Itno longer works to keep the societyviable, but becomes accustomed to letting"George do it," forgetting thatthey are "George."True, the work of any organizationbecomes more arduous as it grows.In the May-June Issue of the 1944Bulletin, Mrs. Hildegard Schneider ofBronx, N.Y. wrote the first report ofthe newly reorganized Seed Exchangeof which she was chairman: "Soonafter the seed lists were sent out tothe members, requests for seed camepouring in and to date 536 packagesof seed have been sent to 49 differentpersons; this seems a pretty goodresponse to a venture which formerlyhad not been successful." Comparethese figures to those reported by theSeed Exchange Director, Mrs. FrancesRoberson, in 1979: Her committeecatalogued 4267 different kinds of seedfrom 503 donors and sent out 24,881packets to fill 882 requests.The job of the Seed Exchange Director,along with those of all the otherswho serve the Society in various capacities,has indeed, grown to tremendousproportions as the Society has grown.In its first years the Seed Exchangewas handled by one person, sometimeswith the assistance of one or twoothers; Mrs. Robinson had the assistanceof sixty members of the NorthwesternChapter.Perhaps this number of assistants insitu is not essential. A dedicated groupof four to six people could probablyhandle the job if most of the seedwas sent for packaging to groups withinthe chapters across the country. Thishas been done by past directors andis, I believe, the method used by theDirector of the Seed Exchange of theAlpine Garden Society in England. Aftera botanist or other person familiarwith plant names has, with the helpof reference books, verified the namesand their spelling and proof-read thefile cards, these could be farmed outto an expert professional typist for preparationof the list for the printer.Perhaps a judicious pruning of theseed list would ease the burden onthe Exchange without diminishing itsquality. Donors could help by beingtruly selective in their offerings: seedreadily available elsewhere, such as thatof border perennials, should not clutterup the Seed List of the ARGS. It onlyadds to the Director's problems to beplaced in the position of having tochoose which seeds should be culledfrom the list as inappropriate. Needlessto say, seeds should be sent in properlycleaned and packaged and clearly labeledwith the correct name properlyspelled.But despite the number of helpinghands and carefully selected, clean145