INSIDE THE IPA
T
The IPA Spring Meeting will be hosted by the Orchid Society of Minnesota in conjunction with the 2014 Spring Meeting and
Orchid Show “Orchids – A Growing Obsession.” The event headquarters will be the Double Tree Minneapolis South Hotel, in
Bloomington, Minnesota from Wednesday April 30th to Sunday May 4th. The IPA Spring Members Meeting will be on Saturday
May 3rd at noon followed by a lecture on Phalaenopsis species.
This is an orchid packed weekend; the Mid-America Orchid Congress, The American Orchid Society, The Slipper Orchid Alliance, The
Pleurothallid Alliance, and the Angrecoid Alliance will also be meeting. For more information regarding meetings for each of the
organizations and hotel, you can visit www.orchidsagrowingobsession.com I encourage everyone to attend this IPA meeting. This may
just be the last of the great orchid meetings like we have seen in the
past.
This important spring event, for the IPA, is our general election; four
members will be elected as officers to the Executive Committee. In
2014, the President, First Vice-President, Membership Secretary and
the Treasurer are being elected to two-year terms. You can read more
in the report filed by the Nominating Committee in this issue of the
Journal.
The bylaws call for IPA to hold meetings in the spring and fall every
year. It is the only time where the Board, comprised of the officers
form the Executive Committee and the Regional Directors, from 17
regions in the US plus five International Regions, meet face to face.
Normally the IPA has been meeting in the US, invited by local orchid
societies that are also hosting meetings. This has not been a problem
during the spring as is the case this year. However, during the fall
there are fewer national meetings prompting the IPA, last year, to hold
its fall meeting in conjunction with the Symposium in Austin, Texas.
If we cannot find a suitable place to hold our fall meeting, this year
we will be holding it together with the 2014 Symposium in Ontario,
California in August.
The 2014 Symposium. As I mentioned above, will be hosted by
Region 1 – Southern California & Southern Nevada. It will be held
at The Ontario Airport Hotel in Ontario, California on August 8th
and 9th (Friday and Saturday). Speakers for this event will be Michael
Ooi from Malaysia and Mike Mims from North Carolina talking on
hybridizing and Alan Koch from Gold Country Orchids and Norman Fang from Norman’s Orchids talking on culture. It will also feature
vendors from the US and Taiwan. We expect all the speakers to be selling plants at the event. More information on the Symposium will
be emailed to the members as it becomes available.
So mark your calendar for the spring meeting in May, and the Symposium in August. Both are going to be great events…
Respectfully submitted,
Carlos
Phalaenopsis | First Quarter | Volume 24 | 2014
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