What keeps you interested in your bonsai club meetings?

[Silentrunning]

I think one thing that helps a club succeed is to keep it about the trees. The Raleigh club has a great mixture of design, horticulture and show advice, but everything revolves around the trees. At most meetings you can bring a tree in and receive help after the meeting is over. They also have the beginner classes throughout the year. Our meeting place is 60 miles from my house but I make the drive gladly because I know it will be worth it.

 

[AZbonsai]

At most meetings you can bring a tree in and receive help after the meeting is over

Ours is that way as well. We have two tables set up one eastside mentors one westside mentors. Put your tree on the table depending on which side you live on and the mentors can help you out and may even make a home visit.

Every meeting we have a guy who brings pots in for sale and another who brings prebonsai in.

 

[Vance Wood]

Ours is that way as well. We have two tables set up one eastside mentors one westside mentors. Put your tree on the table depending on which side you live on and the mentors can help you out and may even make a home visit.

Every meeting we have a guy who brings pots in for sale and another who brings prebonsai in.

You should, unless a scheduled event is planed, bring in a tree and associated supplies to work on during the meeting. That way you are working on a tree and will have advise available if needed. You do not learn without doing and you do not gain proficiency without repitition.

 

[grouper52]

As a devote of Dan Robinson's naturalistic style, as opposed to the mundane, predictable stuff promulgated locally, and having broken the code to the best photographic display of bonsai when I created his biography a dozen years ago, I quickly found myself the victim of politics wielded by the low-wattage powers-that-be in the local club here, and quickly and permanently lost all interest. Ultimately, at their request, I put a few of my best trees in a yearly show at the local mall a few years back, and the support and feedback from the upper echelon folks in the club was dismissive at best. I've never gone back. "Clubs = Politics", as far as I can tell, and I have no interest in that at all.

 

[leatherback]

I am in two clubs. Membership to the second club happened because I am not happy with the first, and I find myself going less and less to their meetings.

The original club is in the Netherlands. Here I find a lot of people who are post retirement, and seem to use the bonsai club as a moment to socialize. People arrive early, get a coffee and chat for half an hours. Then the formal part starts. So there is a formal meeting structure, announcements and the likes. The annual exposition is discussed at length including what feels like an hour discussing who can bring which tree. After the formal part if over, many pack up and leave.I have gotten into the habit of bringing a tree that needs work, and just working throughout the meeting.

Any suggestion to change the format of the meetings and include more working on tree is met with scepticism. As I do not have the time to be regularly present, I have so far refrained from being in the club leadership. This year someone new joint the group leaders and is making changes, making discussions more about styling and content. Unfortunately, still, less than half of the people bring trees to work on or discuss.

The other group does NOT have a meeting structure. All formal parts are sent around as they come up. During the meetup there might be a discussion about some practical matters, visits, invited speakers etc. But the whole meetup is about trees. Everyone brings trees. Everyone works on them. And some of the more experienced hands jump in when people need advice, help etc.

I prefer the second type of meeting. It is where I go to work on my trees and meet people. I spent the full evening there, and like to hear the input from several members on my trees. And of course, if a group of people starts discussing one particularly dificult piece of material I like to listen in, and where possible, share my thoughts.

Bonsai clubs are clubs for doing bonsai. So ensure content is there (Experienced members, invited speakers) and push people to bring their trees. Especially those that they are a little ashamed about. Those are the trees that can benefit from a club. The award-winning trees are nice to show off. The ugly ducklings should be brought to become swans

 

[BubblePopScott]

My club meets monthly and also has a seperate workshop monthly. We also have a mini competition where if you have a tree (doesn't have to be good) you can bring it along and everyone at the meeting gets a stone. People place the stone Infront of the tree that they like and at the end of the year the person with the most wins gets a trophy. Also all trees are critiqued by a senior each month. It's great fun. Also we have a buy sell table. (Small fee to the club) and we have a yearly event calender with at least 2 shows a year that the club are entering it ( not many bonsai shows, but larger flower/garden shows). Then there is club yamadori digs and guest speakers

 

[Joe Dupre']

We have a show and tell and give-away table at every meeting. The show and tell ends up taking up about half the entire time of the meeting. I like to bring unusual mostly native plants. Last month I brought a couple of shohin lantanas......one with a really curvy 1" trunk and one with a 3" Fairytale style trunk. Lantana is not native, but I found them on the side of a backroads highway. Little pencil sized give-away seedlings are popular for newbies to try out.