by George Buehler

The year is about over and it's time to look back over 2006. Did all your trees make it through 2006? I hope so. Did you get any new trees this year, did you get rid of some of the stuff you had, or both? While things are still fresh on your mind, why don't you go to your bonsai journal and make sure you recorded all the pertinent information about each tree (you should have done it long ago but sometimes we forget to do the obvious). I know there were many things I wish I had had time to complete, but unfortunately, it didn't happen. Sometimes we set our sights too high or maybe we just try to do too many things. It is also time to make our 2007 bonsai resolutions (I gave up making regular resolutions years ago). Here are some of mine:

1. Get all my trees wired early
2. Get my bonsai database in working order
3. Come up with different article ideas (this is a hard one) for the newsletter
4. Try to persuade other members to write articles (also hard)
5. Redesign the newsletter
6. Finalize proposal for holding the 2011 ABS/BCI convention in Louisville

If I can get all these done, I will be pleased. If not, I will put them on my list for 2008. Here's hoping!

At the December meeting, we elected the following officers:

John Callaway – President
Earl Cormney – Vice President
Tom McCurry – Treasurer
Gene Sewell – Show Chairman

I know we all wish them great success as they lead our club into 2007. They have a daunting task in trying to get new members, maintaining our current membership, and keeping our monetary status on a positive basis. It will require help from all members; so if they ask you, please help out!

As the notice at the top of the page says, there will not be a newsletter in February. I will be out of the country for most of January, so will not have the opportunity to get one together. Hopefully, I can make it up in the March newsletter. If anything of importance happens in January that needs to be communicated to the membership, John will mail it to you. Don't anticipate it, but just in case.

I hope you all had/have a great holiday season and may God Bless!

On February 17th, we plan on traveling to Greg Hollander's to dig trees. Last summer on a visit to Greg's, Tom, Earl and I marked several Seju Elms that range in size but have a nice trunk caliper. These trees need to be dug and they will be for sale to the membership. Greg also has a number of Cork Bark elms, Yatsubusa elms and several other types of trees in the ground for sale. These trees are reasonably priced, have good trunk size, and would make excellent bonsai. He also has a number of different species in grow pots also reasonably priced.

We plan on meeting at the Ramada Hotel parking lot (I-71 and Zorn Ave.) at 8:30 AM to car pool to Greg's. Due to the potential of bad weather, we need to know who plans on going so that we can call everyone if we need to postpone to Feb. 24th. Please call John at 418-9552 to let him know you will be going.

Remember, there will not be a February newsletter. If you plan on attending the tree dig at Greg Hollander's on February 17th, be sure to RSVP by February 14th. See additional information page 10.