A Modest Proposal - NABS

Kelly Irvin kellso@irvincentral.com
Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:27:11 PST
The potential difficulties from attempting a name change, besides the 
variety of opinions on what that name might become, do suggest this 
could be too big a hurdle to tackle right now, and maybe never. If a 
name like the PBS becomes standard in the flower bulb enthusiasts' 
world, then it's lack of inclusiveness by name won't really matter. If 
PBS ends up stagnating in membership, a look at the name amongst other 
things might be something to reconsider.

I would hope the idea would remain on the table for folks, though. To me 
"Pacific" is more limiting than "North American", which is more limiting 
than "International" or such. And I don't so much see a limitation in 
it's more regional classification in the sense of "people" or "members", 
but in it's application to flower bulbs. Essentially, when I think of 
"Pacific", whether I'm correct or not, I think of hardiness zones 9 & 
10, maybe 8. As soon as you expand to North America, you represent zones 
4-10, which is, in my opinion, more representative of it's members, even 
if from another country.

I really like the word "geophyte", but I would suggest that this 
description will only attract major students of flower bulb culture. 
Although no longer regionally restrictive in it's name, I believe it 
then becomes restrictive in the realm of "people". Most gardeners are 
not going to do internet searches on "geophyte".

I don't want to push any idea one way or the other, myself. PBS is doing 
pretty good as it is, I think. I exited the IBS when most of the 
original members of PBS formed the new society, but I didn't join for 
quite awhile, believing it would only be about California bulbs, or 
bulbs popular in CA, like South African bulbs.

It would be great if folks just mulled it all around in each's own mind 
every now and then. Another list of names I like is:

The Flower Bulb Cooperative Society
The Flower Bulb Enthusiast Society
The Flower Bulb Enthusiast Cooperative
The National Flower Bulb Society
The Flower Bulb Culture Cooperative

No matter how you slice it, just identifying the meaning of the society 
with the single word, "bulb", is not practical for society promotion, in 
my opinion. This was also true with the IBS, which happens to also be an 
acronym for a syndrome I'd much rather do without. PBS is going to be 
more familiar in folks minds with the public broadcasting system.

Bottom line for me is, this is a solely (or almost so) internet based 
organization, which means you should cater to that internet as much as 
is reasonably possible. As PBS has been around several years now, it may 
be too late. As has been suggested, the change could interfere with 
visibility, although I know Google will correct search engine links if 
you do some things with forwarding or parking. With all of this said, 
you have to have the consensus AND the people power to make any changes, 
not one without the other.

"What's in a name?" --Shakespeare

Mr. Kelly M. Irvin
10850 Hodge Ln
Gravette, AR 72736
USA																
479-787-9958
USDA Cold Hardiness Zone 6a/b

http://www.irvincentral.com/



Tom Mitchell wrote:
> I joined the PBS a little over a year ago despite living, as I put it  
> at the time, 'about as far from the Pacific Rim as you can get  
> without leaving the planet', in a sleepy corner of England.
>   


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