Where are the younger members

[maggiepie]

I only joined in the first place to get my hands on the seed exchange but quickly discovered the forum ( thanks to Maggi). I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and size of the journal when my first one arrived.
Actually, I think most of my membership fee gets eaten up by journals and postage as well as postage on the seeds.
Personally, I feel that if there was to be a reduced fee for online only, I don't think the seed exchange should be included in that price, ( not sure it should be included at all) so by the time you add extra for seeds and postage you might as well pay the full amount and get everything. That works out at roughly 42pence a week, or approximately 70cents a week US.
Overseas members get their first 16 packets of seed included in the subscription, ( non donors) whereas UK members have to pay an extra 4 pounds for the seeds.
Forgive my ramblings, I tend to type as I think 
I do think one of the worst things that can happen in a club is the us and them mentality, clubs need to be united to be successful.

[Maggi Young]

Forgive my ramblings, I tend to type as I think

 Seems perfect sense to me, Helen!

[Michael J Campbell]

could a smaller version of the Journal be made available on-line four time a year to avoid the large file download ?

[Maggi Young]

For regular availability on the web the file could be reduced from the full size, I believe, because the resolution needed for web viewing is not as great as that for printing.

[Rodger Whitlock]

I can tell you where the (potential) younger members are: they're at rock concerts, raves, Gay Pride festivities, and similar events. (The inspiration for this remark comes from an online news article this morning (which I cannot find a second time) that made passing reference to the RSPCA exploiting such venues to increase *their* membership.)

If we want to interest younger people in rock gardening (sensu very latu), it won't do to sit on our behinds and hope they come to us; we must go to them, seek them out. Outreach, in other words.

I've often thought that a display of potted treasures in a large shopping mall on, say, one Saturday a month would do more to get our passion in front of the public than pretty much any other method. This depends, of course, on mall management having a modicum of public spirit mindedness - not all do. The tired old method of posters pasted in shop windows just won't cut it any more.

[Katherine J]

We have thus far resisted the temptation to have much in the way of advertising. The limited amount we can have in the scrolling banner, top right of forum pages, is a small concession and we would not like to have adverts from a major fast food firm, for examble on the site. The adverts need to be truly relevant to the SRGC membership.... most obviously, specialist nurseries and the like.

Absolutely! I really wouldn't like to see all kinds of fool ads on the SRGC forum site or in the journals. And I also like to have The Rock Garden in my hand.  I used to read them, or just look at the pics again and again.
We here, in Eastern Europe can afford much less things as the "Westerns", our salaries/pensions are much less than Yours. Me and my husband earn together about 2000 euro/month - and this is not a bad salary here! Even so I don't consider the SRGC fee too high and I am prepared to pay it in the future even if I cannot join the meetings, just to help such a wonderful club to live.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Even so I don't consider the SRGC fee too high and I am prepared to pay it in the future even if I cannot join the meetings, just to help such a wonderful club to live.

That's the spirit Kata !
Exactly my thoughts ! 

[Maggi Young]

It's been a long time since this thread was active, but something Chris Parsons brought my attention to today   made reopening it seem right.... 
A blog in the Guardian begins :
 "Recently this blog published a post by Tom Smart bewailing young people’s preference for smart phones over tulip bulbs, blaming millennials’ lack of patience as the root cause for their lack of interest in horticulture. I’ve also come across this argument in the RHS magazine, The Garden."

...and goes on to argue that.....

" Millennials aren't too impatient to garden - we just don't have the space
Don’t accuse young people of lacking patience - we’ll have to wait decades, if ever, until we can afford a house and garden."

read more here : https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gardening-blog/2017/apr/05/millennials-arent-too-impatient-to-garden-we-just-dont-have-the-space

I think there's a lot of truth there- it's so hard to get a place to live now, let alone one with a garden where one can get growing....

[Lewis Potter]

As a younger person, that has been interested in horticulture/gardening since a young age I feel that schools and colleges can be the worst. In my opinion nowadays schools sadly have a very narrow minded view on what education is. Learn about plate tectonics and algebra, though important, they do not exactly inspire their students to pursue a career in what they love or find something new to be passionate about.

For example I have just finished studying horticulture at writtle, which was I would like to say, brilliant, I got so many opportunities to some some awesome things while I was there. Horticultural colleges are filled with students that all like gardening with some degree of enthusiasm, obviously. But I feel that clubs like the SRGC and AGS and others and their members have to find a way to get to promote gardening clubs too those students in various sorts of Horticultural education.

This is one small part of this issue, however, but I think it would be a step forward.

[François Lambert]

" Millennials aren't too impatient to garden - we just don't have the space
Don’t accuse young people of lacking patience - we’ll have to wait decades, if ever, until we can afford a house and garden."

I think there's a lot of truth there- it's so hard to get a place to live now, let alone one with a garden where one can get growing....

On the other hand, I was talking with my wife earlier this year about the low number of young gardeners, and I thought a rock garden and the typical alpine vegetation can be ideal for a balcony or perhaps a roof garden.  They don't need a lot of soil, can resist drought & some neglect, and with XPS one can make lightweight rocks.  If small enough, you can even take your garden with you when moving to another home.

[Tim Ingram]

This has long been a concern of mine having started running a Group(s) - both AGS and HPS - when I was one of this younger generation, and still being much the same some thirty years later (i.e: still one of the younger members, but now of the older generation!). I don't know the answer because on the whole there are divisions between the generations in all sorts of ways to do with resources and outlook. Where these are less is in a common concern for environment and conservation, and these are probably where the specialist plant societies should concentrate more - that is in sharing the knowledge and insights that they unquestionably have. This was Robert Amos' conclusion in his article 'Just how do we assess the true value of alpines?' in the AGS Journal Vol. 84, March 2016 where he says: 'If we are to have a wider impact on the conservation of alpines in their natural habitats we must make greater efforts to acknowledge their ecological value. Keeping specimen plants for showing is not a sound basis for conservation in the wild... AGS members must make a collective effort to educate both ourselves and the public of the ecological value of alpine plants... If we get this message across, positive change will happen, like in plants, from the root up.'

So this includes the 'ecological' use of alpines in gardens, viz: gardening with them - which informs and is informed by the study of them in Nature, and the propagation and dissemination of plants in cultivation to ensure less pressure on wild populations. The Seed Exchanges are fundamental in this and probably the most valuable practical aspect of the AGS, SRGC and NARGS. It includes writing articles in the media and on websites; lobbying the RHS about the value of the Specialist Plant Societies for the way they hold such long held expertise about so many plants; questioning the BBC about its coverage of alpine plants and how this could expand into the Natural History of their habitats (this is just as true of other classes of plants as it is of alpines); and practically demonstrating how alpines can be grown, as on this website and Forum, and even more by opening our gardens and using the Shows to demonstrate the practice of growing as much or more than the competition. There is nothing new about this debate - it has been going on within our societies now for five or ten years as memberships have declined. More is the sense that this can be reversed in this new interconnected world of the Internet, which sometimes seems to have the reverse effect.

[ian mcdonald]

Perhaps there is a simple answer if someone raises the question "what good are plants?" Without plants there would be no life on the Earth.