Welcome to the fifteenth regular issue of the AIS News & Notes.  Please let us know what you would like to see here.  And if you have notes you would like to add, or you would like to become a reporter, please let us know!  You can contact either Bob Pries or Wayne Messer with your comments or interest.

 

The AIS 2016 Convention will be May 23-28 in Newark, New Jersey, hosted by Presby Memorial Iris Gardens and AIS.  This year is when they need to receive the guest bearded irises.  They will be accepting rhizomes from August 15 through September 15.  Ship to:

    Nancy Skjei-Lawes

    Presby Memorial Iris Gardens

           474 Upper Mountain Avenue

    Upper Montclair, NJ 07043 (mail) or (UPS/FEDEX)

 

Complete details (PDF) are available here or read our original News & Notes notice.

There are three 2017 meetings that are  requesting guest beardless irises.  The deadlines for shipping these irises are approaching.

• 2017 Spuria Iris Convention in Los Angeles.  Late April/early May 2017.    They are accepting guest plants from September 1 to October 15, 2014.  See the details and contacts in the Spring 2014 AIS Bulletin, p 39 or go here. 
• AIS National Convention May 22-26, 2017 in Des Moines, Iowa is accepting guest plants from August 25 through September 8, 2014. 
  Complete request here or download/read the PDF.
•  Region 13 Spring Convention and Garden Tour in cooperation with the Society for Japanese Irises early July 2017 would like the plants shipped between August 25 and September 5, 2014.  Details in the Spring 2014 AIS Bulletin, p 37 or contact the Guest Iris Chair Dwayne Booth at DBooAnn1@msn.com .     

The AIS would like to know what you think  about AIS and some of its services.  Are you aware of them and do you use them?  How can we help your Club?  To tell us what your opinions are, click here to participate in the survey.  The survey is completely anonymous, but we would like to know your region and affiliate.  You are still encouraged to participate even if you are not a club member.

Thank you for your help!

 

Thank you to everyone for the updates on when, where, and what to expect at your Fall Regional Meetings.  These have been incorporated in this year's list on the Iris Encyclopedia.  And there is still time to attend most of these meetings!

Please let us know how we can make this more helpful for you.

A month ago we mentioned the new Newsletter Resources page on the Iris Wiki.  It was/is just getting started and could really use your help!  Whether you are a newsletter editor, newsletter contributor, or newsletter reader, check it out and let us know what else you would like to see there.

Thanks to Kathleen Sonntag, one of the resources it points to is a Style Guide.  Created by Kelly Norris and expanded by Kathleen, the style guide is used for the Irises Bulletin.  (Which is why I hope you will find the Bulletin italicized when I refer to it.)  Right now it is available as a PDF and a Word document.  Which is another reason I could use some help.  Every way I've tried to copy it into the wiki so everyone can edit it, the formatting has disappeared.  So all the examples showing how you use bold or italics end up plain.  Does anyone know how to overcome this?

 Another place to learn more is on the IrisEditors Yahoo Chat Group.  It is a private group that you can join by mailing iriseditors-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to request being added.  Hope to see you there!

 

Recently someone was looking for the AIS Marketing Guide.  Of course :) we have this available online; however, you may not be familiar with it or where to find it.

One way to find it is with the AIS website search function.  (I knew it was somewhere on the AIS website.)  You can find the Search AIS Website on the front page of the website on the right of the photos.  It will take you to the Search Website page.  Searching for marketing brought the Handbook up as the first choice.

Another route to finding it and other items on the AIS website is the Index to General Iris Information Topics on the Iris Encyclopedia.  You can find the Handbook under Marketing and under Affiliate Resources.  The Index is a great way to locate topics on both the AIS website and the Iris Wiki!  And on some related websites.  As a bonus, you can add topics to the Index as you find or create them.

For those of you who would like to see the Marketing Handbook, here is the link.  It is a marketing tool for your local iris club, Region, Section, or Cooperating Society.  Please let us know how we can improve it.

Another Dykes Medal winner for your enjoyment.  Again with your two preferred versions.  Here is the Standard version.  And this is the Harder version with twice as many pieces.  Both are the same photo of  'Ola Kala' as seen at our Regional Garden Tour this Spring.


I've dropped the version with rotation of the pieces allowed.  There were no comments asking for it to be continued.  If you would like to have variations such as rotation in your jigsaws, please let me know.   Please send your suggestions and comments to wrmesser@gmail.com .  Thank you for your help.