This year the Greater Louisville Bonsai Society is celebrating its 35th year. This is some milestone. The club started small with 3-4 members who knew little about bonsai, grew to a maximum of 150 members in the late 1980's, and now has about 60 members. We should all make an effort to bring in at least one new member this year. It would be fantastic to end the year with 200 members. This should be our target!

 

We want to make 2006 exciting for all the members. We hope that some of the changes that will occur, as well as the assortment of workshops planned, and variety of different meetings will bring more members to all the meetings/workships. Although the tentative 2006 calendar was printed in last month's issue of this journal, we would suggenst that you watch for changes and additions. One of the changes that you will notice in the meeting schedule is that there will be NO meeting in January. Since January is such a risky weather month, it was decided to not have a meeting in January this year.

The officers proposed that at all of this year's meetings/workshops, there will be a raffle. What will be raffled? You will have to attend the meeting to find out and participate. It could be an antique pot, a nice styled tree by one of our skilled members, some tools or something bonsai related. For a dollar chance, you could go home with a very nice item and help the club build its funds. There may even be a quick auction of something nice. Come to the meetings to see what will be offered.

Last year, Earl Ekman obtained some very attractive polo shirts with the club name and logo on them. They were navy with gold printing. Earl has offered to get additional shirts with the same gold printing but in different colors. He can order dark green, red, or black. If you would like to order one (price of $15.00 each), contact Earl with your size and color selection. Support your club and proudly wear a GLBS logo'd polo shirt.

Earl also informs us that there still are several GLBS aprons left. These cost $15.00 each. Get one before they are all gone.

Earl also wants to have the club members design a 35 year club pin. We would like to have these pins available for our spring show. In order to have them produced, he will need to get the design to the vendor soon. Send your design ideas to Earl. Most other clubs have their own pins - why shouldn't GLBS? They make nice additions to aprons and to trade with other clubs. Bonsai pin trading has become a hot collector sport.

In order to help pay for this newsletter, the board has decided to accept advertisements. Please see details on page 2.

Also look at the information on the Rodney Clemmons demo/workshop on page 8. Even if you don't plan on attending this workshop, look over the tree details to get some information on great tree prices.