IPA Regional Reports
Barbara Noe
A
couple years back, a strategic planning committee
was hard at work for IPA examining where the organization had been and where it should be going. All
information gleaned from our members was interesting and useful in one way or another. Some members
mentioned that reading about ‘people and their activities’ in
our Journal was not as important to them as breeding and culture information; while others thought that news about IPA
‘people’ should be definitely be a part of the publication. The
latter group embraced the idea that our organization is ‘the
people’ and while perusing our last Journal’s coverage of the
August symposium in Austin this did seem uber apparent.
From speakers to vendors, officers, directors, our valued members and guests … it was ‘the people’ who made the showcasing, judging, selling and sharing of all things phal related the
reason the event was so successful. People from 18 states and
one foreign country gathered largely because of the love of the
genus Phalaenopsis. Because these people did attend the symposium, donate and bid generously at the auction and support
the vendors who had supported our effort by purchasing sales
tables, we are able to continue passing on to you the best of
phal information in this Journal. Moreover, while doing this
for our organization, they had a really great time schmoozing
with other attendees from all over the country.
Please consider that you can accomplish much the same
thing in each of your regions by assisting the regional directors in producing local meetings featuring speakers, plants for
sale, an auction to raise money for your region as well as IPA
- all the while enjoying the camaraderie of association with
people who love Phalaenopsis. A win-win scenario any way
you look at it.
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Phalaenopsis | Fourth Quarter | Volume 23 | 2013
Region 3 – Northwest Tier - Joan Bateman
Our annual IPA event coincided with Orchidaceae’s 10-year
anniversary celebration of moving to Walla Walla. We had a
great line up of speakers including Jason Fischer from Orchids, Ltd., Bill Zimmerman/AOS judge and intrepid traveler
and Mark Srull. Mark spoke about the latest trends in Big Foot
Breeding in Taiwan. Big Foot breeding is now being used in a
variety of ways from whites to harlequin style breeding. This
type of breeding is not widely available so it was fun to share
trends seen so far. The weekend began with a chili feed and
bonfire on Friday for about 20 people. On Saturday, we had
around 60 attendees from all around the Pacific Northwest.
Thank you to all who came.
Region 6 — Texas & Louisiana - Olie Garrison
Region 6 will host their host our Fourth Annual Symposium,
February 22, 2014, in conjunction with the Shreveport Orchid
Society’s tabletop show and open house. The event will be held
at the Randal T. Moore Center, 3101 Fairfield, Shreveport,
Louisiana. The format will be the same with ribbon judging,
AOS judging, two speakers, and an auction with lunch. Registration for the event will be $40. Details will be posted on
the IPA website, the Shreveport Orchid Society website, and
the SWROGA website. Contact Olie Garrison at orchidolie@
me.com for further details.
Region 11 – Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi &
Georgia – Tom Harper
IPA SE Region meeting scheduled; Saturday, February 22,
2014 at Peach State Orchids in Woodstock, Georgia. We’ll
again plan to meet there for our winter meeting. Speakers are
Region 3 - IPA get together - Photos by: Joan Bateman