Kathy will give us a look at the past 40 years in the orchid business. She will cover the winding up and dissolving of the mega orchid ranges, the advent of the internet and today's specialized small businesses and what this all means for orchid collectors. She will give us her view of the future of orchid collecting.

Kathy will not be joining us for dinner so the speakers dinner has been cancelled for this month.

Greetings Orchid Friends,

Last month we held our annual late-summer auction and picnic. We had a wonderful variety of plants up for auction, including some rather rare and unusual species. Thanks to all who braved the unseasonably cool weather and came out to bid and socialize! If you attended, I hope you had a good time. I know I did. The auction is our major annual fundraiser; the proceeds fund the costs for our monthly meetings (rent, speaker fees, and raffle tables) and all the other costs the Society incurs (insurance, dues, speaker dinners, etc.). Special thanks go to Carol Klonowski for serving as our auctioneer; Diane Bond for organizing the event and putting together the catalog; Liz Charlton and Magie Woo handling the financial transactions; and Ulrike Ahlborn for running plants to the winning bidders. Most importantly, thanks to everyone who donated plants or other items to the auction; your contributions are what sustain the operation of our Society.

The Society’s next major activity is our annual ELECTION OF OFFICERS AND BOARD MEMBERS. There are several vitally important positions that are open, including The President, Vice-President, and Secretary. All three of these positions are limited to 2-year consecutive terms by the DVOS Constitution and all the current holders of those positions have timed-out. If the Society is to continue to exist, we need volunteers to step forward to fill these roles. Any DVOS member can self-nominate for any of the Society’s leadership positions and at our upcoming October meeting, we will be soliciting and accepting nominations (self or otherwise) for Board positions. If you can’t make that meeting but are interested in getting involved in the leadership of DVOS, please shoot me an e-mail at dvosshowandtell@gmail.com.

It's incumbent upon me to detail the duties of our open positions.

The President’s duties include presiding at our general meetings (when she/he is available) and general supervision of the activities of the Society. The President presides at all meetings when available and is an ex-officio member of all the Society’s committees. The President sets the agenda for the monthly Board meetings (with input from other Board members) and runs those meeting (via Zoom). It’s actually not that much work!

The primary responsibility of the Vice President is to schedule and introduce speakers for the general meeting and secure plants for the opportunity table. Being the VP is a great way to get to know luminaries in the orchid community. It does take some effort, though there are many resources to help find potential speakers. Speakers can be in-person people from the local area, or remote speakers who join us via Zoom. The Vice-President also has the responsibility to fill in for the President during his or her absence.

The Secretary’s primary duty is to generate the minutes of our Board meetings. We have a potential candidate for Secretary (current Board member at-large, Mara Kaufmann-Puchall), but I’m sure she’d be happy to stay on as an At-Large Board member if someone wanted to step up and nominate themselves as a candidate for Secretary.

We will also have open positions for At-Large Board members. Folks in those positions get to help guide the future of DVOS, provide input on events and initiatives, and will get called upon to help with specific initiatives and tasks.

The DVOS Board meets monthly at 7pm on the 3rd Thursday of the month (a week after the general meeting) via Zoom. (Any member can join these meetings, just ask a Board member for the Zoom link.) We try to keep meetings to an hour or less. There are occasional “special” Board meetings to plan for events like the Auction or the Show and Plant Sale.

Being a volunteer on the Board or as one of the non-Board leadership positions doesn’t take that much time, but having broad-based participation of our members is essential for the continued success of the Society. DVOS is a vibrant, fun organization because members get involved; consider getting more involved! For many years, the Society has relied on the efforts of a small group of dedicated volunteers. We need new blood to help run the Society you all love!

The status of our Board positions for 2025 is:

President – Open

Vice President – Open

Secretary – Mara Kaufmann-Puchall (nominee)

Treasurer – Maggie Woo

Board Members –Miki Ichiyanigi, Liz Charleton, Mary Christopherson, George Su, Rachael Brinkerhoff, Henry Shaw, (plus unlimited additional open positions)

Past President – Henry Shaw

Our current Board-appointed leadership positions, which are subject to change if someone on the list volunteers for a Board position or if someone wants to volunteer for a role:

Newsletter Editor – Barry Hart

Webmaster – Ulrike Ahlborn

Membership Chairperson – Ulrike Ahlborn

New Member Mentor – Eileen Jackson

Show and Sale Chairperson – Diane Bond

Meeting Hospitality – Francine Tchan

Raffle – George Su

Show & Tell Supervisor – Jan Dancinger

Communications and Media – George Su

Henry

Our 2024 fall auction went off without a hitch. OK- it was cold an windy (one plant was blown out of its pot!), but we had a good time and great picnic.

Some statistics:

1 great auctioneer. Carol Klonowski once again agreed to drive our auction and entertain us along the way.

14 catalog donors. MANY more donors the day of the auction.

21 bidders.

209 items auctioned off. MANY more purchased before/after the auction.

MANY wonderful dishes for our feast before and after the auction.

It is that time of year again. Our annual holiday party is coming up:

Thursday, December 12, 2924

Pleasant Hill Community Center

Set up 6:00, Dinner 7:00

We will have many of our favorite activities:

• Pot luck dinner
• Gift exchange
• Dennis Olivas is providing a plant for members who have renewed their membership (for 2025) BEFORE the party.

In the past couple of years we have tried to order bulk amounts of Orchiata. We now have a local source of this bark. You can see their information below. This is very high quality bark. If you need some, now would be a good time to get it.