by George Buehler

I have been somewhat remiss in not welcoming our recent new members. We welcome Mike Samolsky, Jennifer Bryson, Paul Probst, James Doiron, and Daniel Ledford. We also 're' welcome longtime member Jack Patton. We hope to see you at future meetings. To those 'old' members, please welcome these new people when they are at meetings or ask for help.

This journal uses an open format in that you can submit a comment or question to me and I will print it here for answering.

Once again, welcome - and if I missed anyone, please, let me know.

For the new members, we set up a mentor program a while back and would like to know if you are interested in working with a more experienced member to answer questions, get help in trimming, repotting, etc. If you would like this type of help/guidance, give me a call and I will get you in touch with one of our experienced members.

You will notice at the top of the page a reminder about the 2011 symposium we will host here in Louisville. We are going to need everybody's help when the symposium starts. If you are interested in joining one of the committees and haven’t been asked, give me a call. There are many areas where we need assistance.

Thinking about the 2011 symposium, I thought I would give you a brief overview of where we are. We have commitments from 14 'masters' to teach at the meeting. This symposium will use the ABS 'learning seminar' format. Each master will teach 4 individual 1/2 day course. These classes can be either instructional, workshop or a combination. We have set up two demos, one by Boon Manakitivipart (California), the other by Min Lo (Taiwan) – these should be fabulous demonstrations. I have been asked by one of the new members what the registration fee ($295) covers. Each registrant will be able to take 4 of the "courses", have 4 meals, and be able to spend lots of money at the raffl e tables (hopefully) and vendors. I hope to publish a complete schedule in the near future. Save your money for this event. We hope that a large number of our members will register for this meeting and will stay at the hotel during the symposium.

John Callaway (our webmaster) is working on a web site with more information, and I hope to announce it in an upcoming newsletter.