"I .....have given some thought to Web usablility, especially because I
can't even get 56K from my modem.
>>>>>>>>>>56k modems here work at usually less
than 5k, even 1k/second sometimes!!!!. So thanks for highlighting the
difficulties of "distance". Is it not distant off-shore people who enable
the Society to call itself "International". It appears to me that
operations & logistics often disfavour off shore & otherwise distant
Members...By having globally focussed Member evolved strategies & policies &
finding out & meeting their real needs there could be thousands more of
us........
As you pertinently write "the purpose of a newsletter is to communicate
information". BUT.....is not it important for it to be an OPEN DIALOGUE FOR
MEMBERS not just the quarterly hand-down?
There is the greatest appreciation to Alan & colleagues for their work in
design & operation of Aroid-L. But it is still for the Public
"subscribers"....free of charge. The only place that all IAS Members can
talk together is there. So, apart from the Plant Exchange, what point in
joining IAS anyway? Could there not be a Forum "division" for all
Members. just for Society discourse so that EVERYBODY within the Society
knows what is happening as or BEFORE it happens...continuously.? A two way
system for ALL Members with opportunity for referenda, surveys, etc, etc. I
suggested this (& many other seemingly desirable changes) in my June 2001
Newsletter Editorial. The Board now has such a separate "closed" site?
I am disturbed because I noticed that in the Web Version of that Newsletter
a statement as follows was added seemingly recently to my Editorial
apparently saying that the pre-publication approved statements do not
necessarily reflect those of the IAS.... Albeit the suggestions & ideas were
strong, but can I request Members belatedly to advise me please?
These are but a few of many key IAS things about which I have been brought
to feel VERY strongly. but sadly I feel I have been unable to achieve much
of lasting worth for IAS after wasting far too much time & energies. . It
would have been so good to have been able to debate EVERYTHING positively,
objectively, rationally & uninhibitedly with ALL Members WITHIN a Society
Forum. How much extra do Members of IAS constitutionally & democratically
share that the Public can do equally anyway? Could we look at these things
again? Incidentally for the past two years or more it is unclear who are
still Members, who are new & how many or how few remain? A Member Forum
might remedy this deficiency?
Now...picking up on what you wrote Leo, can I support your ideas...
1. Please can the Newsletter be in plain ASCII text files (with file
extension .TXT) for communicating information simply & quickest to download?
2. Can the Newsletters be most easily downloaded in the appropriate version
of Acrobat Reader as Leo intimated?
3. Can photos be on a dedicated separate IAS page with the URL written in
the NL text. 1-3 might make Life much easier
for Editors & the Graphic Designer?
4. Could the photos be posted simply (with thumbnails?) on a dedicated
Members only IAS NL Photos Web Site.
5. Why is most of the IAS Archive Site given away free? In the time it
takes to do an
old-fashioned quarterly maximum 12 page "Newsletter", maybe hundreds of
edited pages incorporating vibrant creative
feedback such as Leo's might be posteable in MEMBERS DAILY
DIALOGUE Pages to move IAS fast forward in World FOCUS?
4. Can there be a text based forum as Leo now details.....?
5. Structuralisation is obviously paramount. As well as information
writings could it contain topical "Reports, Dialogue & Communication between
ALL Members"? Again at the risk of incurring disfavour can I suggest an
inclusive title for the Forum be something like "Proceedings of the
International Aroid Society".... (The Forum might only be less & less
traditional "news"?)
6. Can Members without Internet connections receive mail printouts of
text and photos on an as required basis.
7. Leo writes "I am amazed a large list like this has moderators who approve
each
message. That is a tremendous amount of work and at times might lead to
long delays. Other lists seem to get by without pre-approved messages, on
the theory that
people can ignore what doesn't interest them, and spammers have privileges
terminated quickly".
>>>>>>>>>Could a lot of that work be avoided by having th dedicated forum
for all & only Members with a defined code of practice. It might surely
reduce pressure on & fear of Aroid-L being "inflamed". Aroid-L standards
could be indirectly influenced by ALL of its Members from WITHIN their own
debating forum? Aroid-L is the ONLY medium in which I can write to ALL
Members on line & in THIS missive I would prefer a Members Forum. However
it is the only way now to take wide "soundings".
Leo asks do we like cactus and succulents?
>>>>>>>>>>>Yes, my Aunt who would have been100 this year was Life-Time
President of
Bristol UK Cactus Society with a very extensive & rare Collection & you may
have met her when she safaried from
Phoenix, Arizona in her 80's. My paternal & maternal family each have >120
years of horticultural experience. You know my interest in Spathiphyllum
species? So, do you grow Spathiphyllums even in Arizona? Roots in warm
water (like many aroids) they thrive maybe anywhere warm, shady & even dry &
good for humidifying indoors in quantity.....
Once again Leo, thank you for the new blood enthusiasm , great ideas &,
having made my own unstinting commitment to IAS, for stimulating me into an
unihibited positive reply.
Ron Iles Ireland
http://www.centralarizonacactus.org
>>>>>>>>>>PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep being a positivecatalyst!
Ron Iles wrote:
>
> Thank you, Elizabeth
>
> Sadly, using Adobe Acrobat as recommended on the IAS Site, with 56k modem
&
> state of the art PC, downloads of complete low resolution 2001 NLs are
> inexorably slow, those of high resolution impossible.
>
> So to all Aroiders, Members & Prospective.
>
> Can "IAS Proceedings" be put in files of most easily accessed one page at
a
> time? Maybe then electronic "News" for World Members could be as often
as
> needed & available. As I said in June 2001 it might allow OPEN Dialogue
> between ALL Members, not quarterly, not monthly, but even daily. One
> page at a time within a planned folder structure would seem to be most
easy
> for the producers as well as consumers. Having a "production chain"
> arduously to grind out & print dutifully", "THE" "News"letter, maximum
> twelve page quarterly does not seem to be in keeping with the image of a
> vibrantly communicating International Aroid Society.
>
> Please could we have a snail mail referendum of those who want Hard Copy?
> Please can some of us have day to day AND more historic "Proceedings of
the
> International Aroid Society" in most easily downloadable weekly/daily
single
> page files in colour on the IAS site. To me this would appear to increase
> opportunity for sustained major dialogue & understanding the real &
dynamic
> needs of World Membership. Also, would it not transfer much of the heavy
> work load from the willing shoulders of the few stalwarts, especially in
> Florida & nearby who strive so hard & idealistically for the success of
the
> IAS & to keep it viable. As I suggested over a year ago in NL2001 (1) is
> this the evolutionary road which IAS should take?
>
> There is no SINGLE password protected Site for topical Reports, Dialogue &
> Communication between ALL Members so that all proceedings involving &
> between all Members are not "in camera" but fully open & democratic.
Indeed
> it might function as the "heart beat" of the Society keeping the body
whole,
> healthy, growing & most active.
>
> I hope my breaking of "radio silence" on matters about which I felt VERY
> strongly proves positive for the International Aroid Society.
>
> R.B.Iles
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