by George Buehler

I just returned from the ABS convention and ABS board meeting in San Antonio Texas and thought I would tell you what I saw that worked and didn't work. I must confess that things may not have gone as planned, but I wouldn't necessarily have known it. There were some things that happened that were no fault of the people who were in charge, like when one of the air conditioning units apparently froze up and overflowed the drain line, thus causing the ceiling tiles to fall, showering the whole classroom. This didn't seem to faze too many, since the class went to the hallway and continued the session. But I get ahead of myself.

The ABS board meeting started the weekend. Of importance was the announcement that Dave Bogan - one of our GLBS members and a good friend of mine - was elected to the ABS board. It didn't take long for Dave to get his feet wet, by agreeing to be the advertising chairman. So in addition to working full time, running a part time bonsai business, being on the NBF Board of Directors, he graciously (?) accepted the assignment to take over the advertising position. Way to go, Dave.

The next ABS seminar in June 2009 will be in Boise ID, and some time was spent going over the particulars of the meeting. They have set up a collecting trip and a white water rafting trip (possible rock collecting experiences), along with a full agenda of instructors and workshops. At our next 2011 planning meeting, I will bring flyers showing the agenda.

While the Board met, the new talent competition was being held. There were eight competitors, working on four year old field-grown shimpaku. I didn’t get to see the starting material, but was told that all eight trees were very good quality with lots of branching and very healthy. The competitors ended up with some nice looking trees. The winner of the competition as judged by three masters and a vote of the attendees was a young man from Florida - I'm sorry I didn't write down his name, but it will be published in the next ABS journal.

At registration, I got the usual carry bag, but also was presented with a tote bag that had all kinds of donated items in it. There was a garden snip, a pair of garden gloves, a rain gauge, a calculator, a plastic training pot, a commemorative shohin pot and a number of other small items. All, except the shohin pot, were donated by companies and suppliers thoughout the community - not necessarily bonsai companies.

The symposium actually started Thursday night with a cocktail mixer held in the vendor area. This allowed the participants to view the vendors' offerings, and it appeared that they were looking for and got some real bargains on trees, tools, and other supplies. In addition, a local Texas band entertained. I talked to several of the vendors about coming to Louisville for our 2011 symposium, and they expressed interest. I will pass on their names to the vendor committee.

There were a variety of classes to educate all levels. I saw some distinguished bonsai artists attend classes given by others. When I asked one of them, he said that he was always interested in listening to others to help him hone his skills. There were the following instructors: Guy Guidry, Jerry Meislik, Sean Smith, Martin Schmalenberg, Mike Hansen, Ted Manson, Hal Mahoney, Ed Trout, and Michel Phaneunf. There were carving, daiza, blue atlas cedar design, penjing and claft workshops, among others.

During the symposium there were a number of raffle drawings. I don’t think I have ever seen as many items raffled at a convention. There was everything from trees, tools, etc. to a 400 pound rock "forest" on a marble tray. They had three categories of raffles - $1.00 items, $5.00 items, and silent auction items. Interestingly enough, there was only one actual live auction, where the new talent trees (not wanted by the designers) were auctioned off. The live auctions usually bring in lots of money (read "profit") for the symposium, but I guess since the local club had such a wide variety of raffle items, the difference was made up there. The co-chairman had set up an arrangement with FedEx to ship out purchased items Saturday night. This allowed the participants who flew in to purchase items and not have to worry about the weight limit the airlines have imposed. A number of people said that they would not have purchased items without this service.

The hotel food was quite good for hotel food. Mexican food was served at one dinner, and the classical steak or chicken dinner at the other. Both were buffets which moved the crowd through quickly and somewhat more cheaply than a sit-down dinner. One lunch consisted of a variety of hot dishes, and the second was a box lunch (which was a good idea since it allowed the participants to grab the box and get back to what they were doing).

The support staff were all wearing the same color shirts, so if there was a question, you could walk up to one of them to get a response or directions as to who to see for an answer. We definitely need to consider doing this.

As with all bonsai meetings I have attended, the people were hospitable, willing to help, and seemed to make the meeting run smoothly. I’m sure there were a number of "oops" during the meeting (some of which I found out about later), but the meeting went smoothly. There were some last minute changes, one prior to the Saturday night pre dinner happy hour entertainment (Japanese taiko drummers) which was supposed to be held on an outside veranda but had to be moved indoors due to rain potentials.

Of course, I just had to purchase an Itagawa shimpaku that called to me. On the way back Betty "convinced" me that we should stop by Brussel’s, since we wouldn’t be able to get back there the rest of the year. I don’t have to tell you that I added another baby to the collection.

Some of the things I saw at the meeting that we need to put into our planning for the 2011 meeting are:

• Entertainment – We need to decide what we can have and what we can afford and how it is to be presented time-wise.
• Donations - This saved the convention a lot. They had a number of companies give small monetary donations, and they were simply recognized in a handout at the Saturday dinner. We need to set up a presentation for Toyota to see if they will help underwrite the meeting for a large sponsorship promotion. This will have to be done during this year so that they can get it approved and in their advertising budget for 2011. It sounds like a long way off, but it isn't. Contact UPS for shipping service.
• Get shirts for all the local staff.
• If we are going to have demonstrations, we need to decide who will do them, what the material will be, and when they will do it so we can auction them off.
• We need to start thinking about where we are going to store the raffle items and when we should start collecting them.
• We need to get the new talent trees lined up this year so they have time to grow in the ground. I will find out from the new talent chairman the specifications for the trees.
• I will get with Earl C to discuss the vendor area and the vendors I talked to.