The October meeting of the Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies was hosted by the Florida East Coast Bromeliad Society and held at the home of Ron and Carolyn Schoenau. The meeting was called to order at 1:05 pm by Vice Chairperson Jay Thurrott. This was the fourth meeting of 2006.

Roll Call. 8 Societies were represented: Seminole Bromeliad and Tropical Plant Society, by Sudi Hipsley; Florida West Coast Bromeliad Society, by Linda Sheetz and Brian Corey; Florida East Coast Bromeliad Society, by Ron and Carolyn Schoenau and Jay and Calandra Thurrott; Gainesville Bromeliad Society, by John R. Moxley; Bromeliad Society of Central Florida, by Betsy and Bill McCrory; Bromeliad Society of Broward County, by Jose and Sara Donayre; Bromeliad Society of South Florida, by Juan Espinosa-Almodovar.

Guests Betty Dollar, Bradley Rauch, Linda Stagnol and Louis Dianto from the Florida East Coast Bromeliad Society, Howard Frank of the Weevil Project, Karen Andreas Council Newsletter Editor and Michael Andreas FCBS Webmaster were introduced.

In the absence of Chair Vicky Chirnside, Vice Chair Jay Thurrot presided at the meeting. He circulated a Calendar of events aimed at facilitating scheduling.

REPORTS.

-Secretary’s report: Treasurer Sudi Hipsley requested that her reports not be mailed to members without e-mail addresses but be picked up at the meetings. It was decided that reports would be sent to representatives of the respective Society by the FCBS chairman.

-Treasurer’s Report: The Treasurer provided the meeting with tables showing that the ending balance as of October 14 was US$ 20,075.82 against a beginning balance of US$ 24,251.16. Newsletter printing was US$ 2,262.82 and payment from the Weevil account amounted to US$ 5,555.00. The FCBS account remains at US$ 9,362 and the Weevil account at US$ 10,713.30. The Quarterly Report indicated a deficit of US$ -1,099.12.

The Treasurer received a fax from the BSSF announcing the mailing of the product of the Extravaganza auction at US$ 3,966.38.

-Announcements: The next event will be the Caloosahatchee sale scheduled for November 18-19.

-Webmaster Report: Webmaster Andreas indicated he is catching up with the backlog which has been reduced to about 150 photos. They are coming from many places including Thailand and Japan among others. Pictures of the San Diego Conference have been posted. Several newsletters are on line from FECBS, FWCBS, CBS, BSCF some in Adobe Acrobat format.

An e-mail has been sent announcing the sale of Manny Lorenzo’s book collection.

Illegal use of FCBS photos continues being monitored. The major offenders are from Australia. Trademe.com in N. Zealand the largest seller of bromeliads by e-mail have been seen cropping off copyright from pictures. Pictures and articles may not be used for commercial purposes but could be used by affiliated societies in newsletters with acknowledgement of their source.

-Newsletter Report: The new Roster published in August uses a better format. It has been a group job. About 560 have been issued.

- Weevil Research Report: Dr. Frank reported that batches of fly pups from Honduras received during August and two weeks in September have had mixed success in growing to adult flies probably due to temperature conditions during transportation and inspection step in Miami. Later batches have developed normally. Trials continue on pineapple crowns but also on Spanish Moss and plants with larvae exposing them to the flies.

An application for flies to be launched is still in process but there are good chances for a release in January at the Caloosahatchee Reserve. The next step would be a release in another park in about 2 years.

There is some evidence that the weevil has moved north on the East Coast to the Enchanted Forest, south of Titusville and also in the West Coast in Pinellas County. This dangerous expansion is being actively monitored and requires close follow up.

-Florida Judges Report: A make up School 4 & 5 took place on September 16 at the Frazel’s home. Four students attended. A make up School 1 will be scheduled in the near future.

-BSI Report: The next Board Meeting will take place on June 27, 2007 in New Orleans. A request for identification of any issues for the meeting was made.

-Societies Activities Report:

Florida East Coast Bromeliad Society: New plantings have been installed to improve landscaping in the facilities used for meetings. An increase in new members was noticed.

Seminole Bromeliad and Tropical Plant Society: The Society is going well; members seem satisfied with new approach. A sale took place on August 19-20. New officers will take over in January.

Bromeliad Society of South Florida: The Society had a very successful Extravaganza on 30 September. The Annual Auction will take place on November 11 at the large Corbin Auditorium of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami.

Gainesville Bromeliad Society: The Annual Sale was scheduled for 30 September and a second one will take place on October 14 at the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens.

Florida West Coast Bromeliad Society: Two members of the Society had been taking care of the plants left by a deceased member which were the subject of a special sale. The November program will be on the San Diego Conference and a trip to Grant Groves will take place on November 11. The Botanical Garden at Largo is planning to eliminate the bromeliad garden which is maintained by members of the Society, to expand a parking lot. The Society wrote a letter to the editor after an article on mosquitoes and bromeliads appeared in a newspaper.

Bromeliad Society of Central Florida: Election of new officers will take place soon. The Society had a field trip including a visit to Deroose’s Nursery. The Christmas party will take place in Winter Park at Azalea Lane with no charge for the use of the building. A tour is planned to Betsy’s brother’s 30 acre Sunny Hill Nursery.

OLD BUSINESS:

Seed Project: There is no information from Steve De Cresie on the status of the project. John Russell will be approached to inquire.

World Bromeliad Conference: The deadline for registrants at the 2006 Conference was September 30. From that point on til 30 June 2007 the price would be US$ 140. A first update e-mailed from Lynn Hudson was read. It contains information on the planning for the Conference, Cairns location, weather and attractions.

Extravaganza 2006: The event at the Micossukee Resort was very successful. Preliminary figures indicate that sales reached about US$ 15,000, the raffle produced almost US$ 900 and the Auction US$ 3,966.38. There was a special advertising effort including an article in the Sun Sentinel, the Fairchild TG Magazine and the AAA newsletter. A table with the number of plants donated for the auction by the Societies was circulated. Surprisingly, two Societies did not contribute plants, one contributed only one and two contributed two plants. The Bromeliad Society of South Florida brought 16 plants to the Auction.

Extravaganza 2007: The BSBC has followed the planning of the 2006 event very closely and will start preparations forthwith. The scheduled date is September 29, 2007 pending inquiry about the date for the Fall Sale at Tropiflora. The Society proposed that the Council be involved directly in pursuing financial sponsoring by large firms providing supplies to bromeliad nurseries, growers and collectors. The most productive approach would be to involve the large nurseries in approaching those enterprises. A preliminary motion was approved for the Council to support the BSBC plans.

NEW BUSINESS:

Australian Bromeliad Book Sales in US. Update: Bob Reilly of the Queensland Bromeliad Society has approached the Council for the distribution in the US of a new book on bromeliads. The book was to be printed in October. The Council is awaiting the receipt of a copy to make a decision. Of the two options i.e. receive the printed books or printing them in the US, the first one is preferred. It will consider the cost of the book, transport, taxes and a small profit. As benefit to members the book will be priced at cost. The decision will be taken at the January meeting.

2007 Officers: Rotation of officers for 2007:

Chairman: Florida East Coast Bromeliad Society

Vice Chairman: Bromeliad Society of Broward County

Secretary: Bromeliad Society of South Florida

January 13, 2007 Meeting: Will be hosted by the Florida West Coast Bromeliad Society.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:35 pm.