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<p>Thanks Keith,</p>
<p>I think your conclusions are right. I already contacted Pascal,
one of the FB managers, but used an old email address which
bounced, but try an other one.</p>
<p>I will let you all know what the outcome would be. I just
attended the FB group myself, although not very active on FB.</p>
<p>If FB is working for all of you, we can abandon this discussion
list (I have closed down several of the -L lists already). The
only problem with FB is that is does not interact well with an
other mail service (you can not post from email to FB).</p>
<p>Interesting question to all of you: who is not on FB Arisaema
Enthusiats? Because we have to choose!<br>
</p>
<p>All the best,</p>
<p>Eric<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Op 12-4-2022 om 13:25 schreef Keith B
via Arisaema-L:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:6E97E6A4-84E2-4835-B22F-30CDC8C2AF0F@yahoo.co.uk">
<div dir="auto" class="">Dear Eric and group members,
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Here’s my perspective, as someone relatively new
to the AEG and growing Arisaema. </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">1. The group resources were a great help when I
first began five or six years ago. Firstly the seed exchange,
but also the online articles and pictures. I have read the
mailing list but, as Eric points out, without someone actively
running this it will decline. So far there have been 10
responses to Eric’s appeal for help for the AEG: such a
limited response to an existential crisis suggests to me that
very few of the AEG members are reading the mailing list. </div>
<div class="">2. There’s a lot that I don’t like about Facebook,
but it is easy to use, the ‘Arisaema Enthusiasts’ Facebook
group has 3800 members and a regular stream of contributions.
Many of the contributions (including most of mine) are ‘here’s
a picture of my Arisaema …’, but there is also some more
in-depth botanical discussion. </div>
<div class="">3. Combining the above two points, in my opinion,
the ‘Arisaema Enthusiasts’ Facebook group has become the <i class="">de facto</i> discussion group for Arisaema. Perhaps
it is time to encourage AEG members to use the Facebook group
for discussion. </div>
<div class="">4. The AEG seed exchange is a very worthwhile, and
unique, activity. I would go further and suggest that there is
a need for an Arisaema tuber exchange (I’ve just finished
repotting my Arisaema and I have more A. fargesii offsets than
I know what to do with). However, appeals for seed from Eric
seem to have gone largely unheeded this year, and I fear that
this is because of the low readership of the mailing list. In
the past I have used the Facebook group to encourage people to
contribute seeds to the AEG seedex, and suggested it as a
source for seeds, but this has been in response to people
asking questions so has limited visibility. The next stage
would be to liaise with the Facebook group owners so that the
AEG seedex can be publicised on Facebook in a more direct way
(there is no/very little selling/swapping of seeds and tubers
on the Facebook group, in fact I think it is discouraged, so
the AEG seedex wouldn't be in competition with anyone). </div>
<div class="">5. That leaves the picture gallery, the articles
and the other resources on the AEG website. Again, they are
very worthwhile but I fear they are little used. I am afraid
that I am at a loss for ideas about how to make these better
known.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">In summary, I think that the future efforts of the
group should be focussed on the website resources and the seed
exchange.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">best regards</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Keith</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<br>
All the best, / Met vriendelijke groet,<br>
Eric<br>
<br>
--<br>
<strong>Drs. E.J. (Eric) Gouda</strong> | Curator Utrecht Botanic
Gardens | Utrecht University | Address Gardens: Budapestlaan 17,
3584 CD Utrecht | Postal Address: P.O. Box 80162, 3508 TD Utrecht,
The Netherlands | +31(0)30 253 9281 | <a href="mailto:e.jgouda@uu.nl" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated
moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">e.jgouda@uu.nl</a>
| <a href="mailto:botanische.tuinen@uu.nl" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">botanische.tuinen@uu.nl</a> | <a href="http://uu.nl/botanischetuinen" moz-do-not-send="true">uu.nl/botanischetuinen</a>
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