David, I now see where you comments are coming from. You are confusing the new advanced manual with the revision of the basic manual. The progress on the new advanced manual was reported by Jim: "Most of the time was spent discussing the new advanced hybridizer’s handbook, written by a variety of RHA members and put together by Larry Peterson. The rough draft looked great - a lot of useful and interesting information. "
See the following earlier post by John Moe on this subject:
"Re: Follow-on to the RHA Blue Book
From: John Moe
Date: 08 Nov 2001
Time: 13:33:52
Remote Name: 208.12.28.136
Comments
It is to be a new book. What we meant was that it was not to be a replacement as was initially thought. When the executive board approved the concept, it was decided that it should be a bit more advanced, the next step or whatever. Being the basic book had the title of Rose Hybridizers for Beginners, we thought that if we called this one something for experts we might just turn off some folks. The thought was that the beginner would learn the process from the basic book, but that many would want to know more - how and why some part of the process works and some thoughts from different hybridizers on how they do a particular part of the process. Hope this gives you a bit more of what we were thinking. Looking forward to receiving your writings. Thanks, John"
I have corresponded with John Moe concerning the two complementary manuals. Perhaps he will be willing to share with you by e-mail what I have written him and what he has written me. John if you agree, please cc. copies to me to avoid further misunderstandings.
Dear Henry,
I am sorry for the misunderstanding. I’m glad that you caught and clarified that there will be two handbooks and that what you have been working on has a different purpose than what the Moe’s are working on. I took what you were saying in a different context than what you meant and apologize.
Sincerely,
David
David, Henry, et al
There are to be two(2) manuals! The basic hybridizers booklet that is referred to by all as the “bluebook” will remain. That was discussed at an RHA meeting as it was realized that the contents were valuable for the beginner and was subsequently approved by the board - Jack Walter, the General Director asked us if Mitchie and I would be the executive editors of another booklet, a bit more advanced and written by many different authors. We made the initial presentation of a proposal for contents at the meeting in Houston which was approved by the membership at that meeting. That is what we have been working on. I have made presentations of the progress at every RHA meeting since Houston and have made several postings on the Forum asking for help in specific areas. The first rough draft was mailed out to those who contributed a week or so before the meeting in San Jose. We have received some comments, corrections, etc and are proceeding to write the chapter introductions and have a “final” draft by the meeting this fall in Philadelphia. There are a couple more chapters being worked on but the time frame should still hold.
See next post
David, Henry, et al
Guess my first post was too verbose - had to cut it off.
Jack Walter should be the one that should clarify what the story is or was on the revision status. I do not have any documentation, notes or anything on this. I do have a copy of Henry’s work that Jack gave me at one of the meetings. I thought it was well done. The basic book should be revised - lots of time has gone by since it was written and some things change.
Henry - I do not have copies of our correspondence regarding your work. All of that would have been on an old computer that gave up the ghost.
BTW - at the meeting in San Jose, Jack mnentioned that he had asked Thomas McMillan to chair the nominating committee.
Hope this will clear up any misunderstanding on what Mitchie and I are doing.
John
John, I am pleased to hear that “BTW - at the meeting in San Jose, Jack mentioned that he had asked Thomas McMillan to chair the nominating committee.”
Once the RHA has returned to constitutional government, I suggest that a high-priority item be to consider revising the constitution so that a repeat of what has happened is less probable ( I say less probable because I have heard that the Soviet Constitution was great - on paper - but history has shown that problems can still arise even with a great constitution).
Specific suggestions: 1) the responsibility of the directors to oversee the activities of the officiers should be clearly spelled out (I.E. more checks and balances), and 2) there should be a requirement that both board minutes and general meeting minutes should be made available to the members. Democracy depends on an informed population.
Oops! I mistakenly wrote that the new Advanced manual was being compiled by Larry Peterson, although I know very well that it is John Moe who has been struggling to put together the chapters written using a wide variety of word processors on different kinds of computers. Sorry to all…
I believe that Mitchie said that she has asked Tom Carruth to write a chapter. Has he responded yet?
Jim - Yes, I believe he told Mitchie that he would regarding the evaluation of what to keep vs what not.
BTW Jim - didn’t you say you would write a bit about record keeping?? Have just the spot for it.
That’s great! That means we’ll have chapters by three AARS-winning hybridizers, Tom Carruth, Ping Lim, and Herb Swim. The Swim chapter is a reprint, but the other two will be written especially for RHA Advanced manual.
John, I’ll email you about writing something about record keeping.
I want to add that I attended the SJ convention and thought that it was well organized and very interesting. I would have enjoyed meeting more of the RHA members but alas the meeting coincided with a workshop that I had already paid for. The change was hidden in the schedule handed to us when we checked in at registration at the hotel. It does seem a little strange to have been walking around the convention with the rest of the crew there but not identified (o.k., I did talk to Mitchie and John who I have met before:). Maybe next time.
Thursday before the convention I had the pleasure of a day spent down at Ralph Moore’s nursery with a group and was able to join in taking Ralph out to lunch. Quite an experience. I went through four rolls of film. Another highlight for me at the convention was taking a seedling for the first time to a show - and getting a blue ribbon. (Being a judge means that I do exhibit, but this first will always be a bit special.) I didn’t win the section, but then I did cut the rose on Tuesday, stick it into a cooler, pack it into a suitcase, ship it as checked baggage across the country, refrigerate it again, and then bring it to the Saturday show…
Lois - That was a lovely bloom on that seedling that you brought from the Midwest. Sure hope that someone has a digital photo of it with its blue ribbon and can post it for all to see. Congratulations on the blue - keep up the good work.