170 



HORTICULTURE 



August 6, 1910 



SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FLORISTS AND 

 ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURISTS 



THOSE S. A. F. AMENDMENTS. 



Notice has been sent to the members 

 of the S. A. P. of a number of amend- 

 ments to be brought up for considera- 

 tion at tlie coming convention. The 

 most important of these are the series 

 intended to malte the members of the 

 board of directors elective and to make 

 the office of the Secretary and Treas- 

 urer appointive by the board of direc- 

 tors. 



The present conditions are that the 

 board of directors consists of eleven 

 members, namely, the President. First 

 Vice-President, Secretary and Treas- 

 urer, who are of course elected each 

 year, and the junior Ex. -President who 

 was elected the year before. These 

 five members can be said to be elected 

 by the direct vote of the members of 

 the Society. The other six, which is a 

 majority of the board, are appointed. 

 They are the personal appointees of 

 the President, each President having 

 the privilege of appointing two. so 

 that the Society is in the somewhat 

 anomalous position of having a ma- 

 jority of its board of directors not 

 elected by itself, but the personal ap- 

 pointments of various Presidents. The 

 amendments, it carried, will reduce the 

 board of directors from eleven to nine 

 and make them all strictly elective. 



Theoretically, at least, this seems 

 more in accord with the general cus- 

 toms of this country and is the prac- 

 tice in nearly all corporations existing' 

 in this country. Practically all ordi- 

 nary corporations are compelled to 

 elect their board of directors by the 

 law under which they exist. 



It will be noted that the amend- 

 ments also take away the voting power 

 in the board of directors from the Sec- 

 retary and Treasurer. If these officers 

 are to be appointed by the board of 

 directors it would certainly be an ex- 

 ceedingly bad proposition to give them 

 a vote in the delilaerations of the body 

 which appoints them and which can 

 remove them. It seems to the writer 

 that so long as the present close scru- 

 tiny of the handling of the funds is 

 carried out, and the heavy bonds are 

 required from the Treasurer, that it 

 really makes very little differenece 

 whether he is elected or is appointed. 



The office of Secretary, however, it 

 would seem could be most wisely taken 

 out of politics. Ttie Secretary is the 

 chief clerk of the Society; he is the 

 only person expected to devote any 

 great amount of time to its work and 

 should be placed in postition so that 

 he would be dependent for reappoint- 

 ment on the directors who are closely 

 associated with him and have a thor- 

 ough knowledge as to the quality of 

 his work. 



It seems to the writer that it should 

 be the policy of the Society to get the 

 serivces of the best man obtainable ana 

 to keep him in office continuously. A 

 new man in the Secretary's office can 

 not possibly pick up all the details and 

 be in a position to give the society 

 the best work of which he is capable, 

 until he has had one or more year's 

 experience. There are also many times 

 when, if he carries out his duties with 

 sole reference to the best interests 



of the Society, he must offend some ot 

 the memebrs. If he is subject to re- 

 election by popular vote, the tempta- 

 tion to the average man will be to let 

 the interests of the Society "go hang'" 

 when it is a case of securing the sup- 

 port of a possibly influential man for 

 his re-election, as against making that 

 same man an active worker against 

 him. It would seem a reasonable prop- 

 osition that the best service from a 

 Secretary will be secured by removing 

 any temptation for him to mix up in 

 politics or identify himself with politi- 

 cal factions which will certainly be the 

 case if the office continues to be an 

 elective one and the incumbent wishes 

 to hold it for any length of time. 



The President is frequently a new 

 man who has had no service on the 

 Executive Board and is entirely unfa- 

 miliar with the working machinery of 

 the Society, and he is compelled to re- 

 ly largely on the knowledge and ex- 

 perience of the Secretary, and both are 

 handicapped when the Secretary is a 

 new man and lacking in experience. 

 A good Secretary is like certain spirit- 

 ous liquors; if not compelled to con- 

 stantly play politics, he is sure to 

 steadily grow better with age. I speak 

 at the present time from personal ex- 

 perience knowing how much (although 

 I had seen four years' service on the 

 Executive Board), 1 was compelled to 

 rely on the thorough knowledge of the 

 Society's conditions possesssed by Mr. 

 Stewart not only by reason of his great 

 ability, but also through his long serv- 

 ice. The contrast was impressed upon 

 me most forcibly when recently I came 

 to fill the position of Secretary under 

 President Traendly and to realize how 

 my lack of experienece in the details 

 of the office made me less helpful to 

 President Traendly and less useful to 

 the Society. 



The amendment to Article 3 is with 

 the intent ot giving the Society the 

 privilege of saying when it shall meet, 

 as well as where. Under the present 

 conditions no matter how necessary it 

 might be for the interests of the So- 

 ciety to change the date of the meet- 

 ing for even one week, it could not be 

 done unless a foriual notice to change 

 the By-Laws had been gotten up some 

 months in advance and all the rest of 

 the red tape had been gone through 

 with. The arguiuent has been ad- 

 vanced that we ought not to make this 

 change because it had always been 

 the other way. This seems to me 

 about as poor an argument, either for 

 or against any proposition, as one 

 could possibly bring up. I can not 

 see why we may not as safely trust 

 ourselves, when we are assembled in 

 annual convention, to decide what time 

 we shall meet as to decide where we 

 shall meet. There will be nothing to 

 prevent our continuing to meet at the 

 same time in August as heretofore, 

 unless the majority of the Society wish 

 to meet at another time, and whenever 

 the majority of the Society wishes to 

 change the date it certainly seems that 

 we should give ourselves the privilege 

 of doing so. 



The last amendment contemplates 

 the changing of the fee for Life Mem- 



bership from $25.00 to $50.00. This has 

 been repeatedly thrashed out and vot- 

 ed down, but it still seems to me that 

 $25.00 is an absurdly small fee for 

 Life Membership and I feel quite con- 

 fident in looking over the present list 

 of life members that there are but few 

 of them who would not have taken the 

 Life Membership just as willingly at 

 a $50.00 fee as at a $25.00 one. 



W. N. RUDD. 



TRANSPORTATION. 

 Boston to Rochester. 



Vice-President E. Allan Peirce, of 

 Waltham, Mass., is working like a 

 beaver to increase interest in the S. 

 A. F. in his terrritory and to get to- 

 gether a representative crowd from 

 Boston and Bay State points generally. 

 He is having good successs as is usual- 

 ly the case when a man gets about his 

 duties industriously with heart and 

 soul. 



A. S. Hanson, general agent of the 

 Boston & Albany R. R.. has sent out 

 the following information regarding 

 rates: 



Meeting ok Society of American 

 Flori.sts and Ornamental Hor- 

 ticulturists, Rochester, 

 N. Y., Aug. 1G.19, Inc. 



nrst class fares to Rochester are as 

 follows: 



Boston to Rochester $8.3S 



Worcester " " 7.73 



Palmer " " S.y.'i 



Springfield " " 6.63 



Pittsfleld •• •• 5.5S 



Reduced fares have been authorized ou 

 the certificate plan. Going tickets to be 

 purchased August 12 to 17, inclusive. Ask 

 Ticket Agent tor certificate account the 

 meeting. Certificate when properly en- 

 dorsed nud vised at meeting will entitle 

 origin.Tl passenger to return ticket at 3-."' 

 fare until August 23rd. Sleeping or I'arlor 

 aocommodations can be secured at City 

 Ofiioe, 298 Washington St., Uoston, or by 

 applying to any ticket agent. 



Write to E. Allan Peirce for details 

 and itinerary of the party going by 

 special car from Boston on Monday 

 morning, August 15. 



New 'York to Rochester. 



A few words from A. L. Miller, 

 President New York Florists' Club and 

 State Vice-President S. A, F. & O. H.; 



The time is very limited and in a 

 few more days it will be train time and 

 all aboard for Rochester. Our very 

 much alive Transportation Committee 

 ( F. H. Traendly. John Young and H. 

 A. Bunyard) have left nothing undone 

 to give the party the greatest time 

 of their lives en route. It will be 

 necessary for those intending to take 

 this trip with us to notify F. H. Tra- 

 endly, Chairman. 131 E. 2Sth street, N. 

 Y., at once, so that the necessary ac- 

 commodations can be attended to. 



I would like to state that the Offi- 

 cers and Transportation Committee 

 extend a cordial welcome to all friends 

 to travel with the New York Florists' 

 Club on this occasion and to be their 

 guests at dinner, the arrangements be- 

 ing made to stop at Glen Summit 

 Springs Hotel for this repast. It you 

 have never attended a Convention now 

 is your opportunity. Every florist is 

 certainly entitled to a vacation and he 



