Rock Garden Quarterly Summer 2012 - (Page 302)

all over the world, and I’ve exchanged emails with hundreds more. That’s part of the joy of belonging. With virtually no exceptions, I’ve enjoyed the meetings and the email communications, and have learned more than from these people than I could possibly describe. And in all those years I’ve met almost no one who appeared to have a sense of entitlement, or were full of themselves, or who made me feel in any way that they thought themselves superior to me or to other rock gardeners. To the contrary – rock gardeners, almost to a person, have shown themselves to be the least class-conscious people I’ve ever spent any time with, worked with, or socialized with. Nevertheless, despite what I’ve just said, over the past few years I’ve discovered that there is a feeling that the members and Chapters of the Western United States are treated as second-class citizens by the Eastern “grandees.” I first heard of this in Portland, Oregon during the National Meeting in 2009, and I experienced it again during our recent National Meeting in Everett, Washington. Though not a widespread phenomenon, this is more than a relic of the past – it’s a strangely vigorous feeling that noticeably colors numerous interactions. I’ve asked several longtime NARGS members from Western chapters about it, and each insisted that there is, in fact, Eastern prejudice against the West. Even though none of them evinced a single actual instance of such behavior, they were convinced that it is real, and that it is viewed as a serious problem by a lot of Western members. As NARGS President this obviously concerns me, and if there are members (or Chapters for that matter) who feel that they have suffered from such behavior at any point I can only apologize on behalf of NARGS. Obviously, such a feeling is something that would concern any NARGS President. But, looking back through years of records, of awards, list of leaders, venues for meetings, I’ve been able to trace no evidence of any such bias, and I don’t personally observe it in action. And I’ll make sure that there’s never any justification for any group of members (Eastern, Western, MidWest, Canadian, overseas) or any individual to feel that they’re not equally treated by NARGS or anyone acting in its name. To end on a positive note, I’d like to thank all of the people who help us to grow and flourish with their work for the Chapters, their contributions to special projects like the Seed Exchange and the Forum, and their service on our committees and as officers of NARGS. Our organization is almost entirely dependent on volunteers, and even the very few paid staffers make so little that the term volunteer is more 302 Rock Garden Quarterly Vol. 70 (3)

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Rock Garden Quarterly Summer 2012

Digital Quarterly
Expanding Panayoti's Axioms
Photo Contest 2012
Photographing Alpine Plants: A Landscape Point of View
NARGS 2013 Election Timetable
Rock Gardening from Scratch - Seeds
Kim Blaxland and the Violets of North America
Viola pedata
Violas, Kim, and Us - A Celebration
Cooking Native Japanese Plants
Carl Gehenio Memorial Trough Show
Fire in the Hole: Phlox across Colorado
Rebuilding a Rock Garden in Pittsburgh
A Remarkable Garden: David Douglas and the Shrub-steppe of the Columbia Plateau
Bookshelf - Reviews
Swedish Dreams
Treasurer's Report
Bulletin Board
2012 - Eastern Study Weekend: October, Pittsburgh

Rock Garden Quarterly Summer 2012