SRGC- changing name?

[cohan]

Cohan,

If we blew the vein wide open there would be very rich ore indeed.  You've started me on a whole bunch of possibilities.... the 'Society for Grooming Rancid Cats', for example.    I think I need a good lie down now.

!! Fascinating indeed, Paul! But I think it might be more useful to have just a little relevance to the actual business of the Club

[Paul T]

Gosh.  Everyone wants relevance these days.  

 

P.S.  I'm betting these last posts will not be being treated as of equal value...... and with good reason too.  No more joking in here from me, unless provoked.

[angie]

SRGC sounds good to me I go with David  If it ain't broke don't fix it.   sometimes I am proud to be Scottish  

Angie

SOMETIMES???!!! You should ALWAYS be proud to be Scottish! I only lived there from the age of two to fourteen but I still feel proud to think of myself as an honorary Scot, having spent most of my childhood there.

Yes Martin I am proud to be Scottish, it's a beautiful place. Where did you spend your childhood.
Angie

[Paddy Tobin]

No name will have the impact or make the same impression on people that the SRGC members do. You can have any name you want - if the name is to attract more members/interest the general public - but it is the people in the SRGC who make the difference, set the tone, show the welcome, open the doors and make such a wide range of strangers as post here feel at home. No name can do that. 

Don't fret over the name, it's largely irrelevant, just a tag for identification; continue to support the people who make it the wonderful club it is.

Paddy

[Stephenb]

Just looked up one of the acronym databases on the net and this is the list for SRGC:

http://www.acronymattic.com/SRGC.html (these are the alternative definitions, Scottish Rock Garden Club is the main one on a different page).

There is one that fits extremely closely with the discussions herein (as one of the commonest topics) and it is:

Secrets of Really Good Chocolate

A random browser could well be fooled to believe that that was what it was all about...

Now, if you had that as an alternative definition, membership would be bound to swell...

 

[Darren]

This proposal is suspiciously close to what the corporate world (the root of all evil) would call a 'rebranding'. In their case it is simply an excuse for exectives to pay themselves more, simply for designing a new letterhead. 

Please leave the name alone. In my opinion the SRGC gets everything right, which is a rarity these days. Paddy's response above sums it up nicely.

[Diane Clement]

There is one that fits extremely closely with the discussions herein
Secrets of Really Good Chocolate 

I just misread this as There is one that fits extremely closely with the discussion's heroine
Secrets of Really Good Chocolate 

[Martin Baxendale]

SRGC sounds good to me I go with David  If it ain't broke don't fix it.   sometimes I am proud to be Scottish  

Angie

SOMETIMES???!!! You should ALWAYS be proud to be Scottish! I only lived there from the age of two to fourteen but I still feel proud to think of myself as an honorary Scot, having spent most of my childhood there.

Yes Martin I am proud to be Scottish, it's a beautiful place. Where did you spend your childhood.
Angie

Broughty Ferry. We moved there from Lancashire in the 1950s because my dad was writing and drawing cartoons for the Beano and other comics published by D.C. Thomson in Dundee, for whom he invented strips including The Bash Street Kids, Minnie The Minx, Little Plum and The Three Bears (for those who might remember these from their childhood). My wife keeps nagging me to take her on a tour of Scotland to show her where I was raised - when we have the time!

[ranunculus]

Excellent Cohan, three serious radical names, I love them all, but so hard to choose!  I'm in a toss-up over Serious Radical Gardening Club, with a photo of Cliff attempting EPPM (Extreme Photographic Positioning Mode)

There are a number of these in collections across the country, Mark ... hopefully under lock and key!  LOL.

[angie]

Hi Martin

Tell your wife to keep the nagging up. It would be nice to show you wife Broughty Ferry and the surrounding area and whilst you are there it's only a short distance to see bonnie Deeside. I live on the way to the Deeside so there is always a room here.

Now as for the Beano that brings back some wonderful memories. Fun times, maybe if I had got my nose out of comics and read things like Look and Learn I might have been a bit or should I say more clever than I am now. Still those Bash Street Kids were the best. When I was 16 my mum decided to cancel our comics and I can still remember my dad saying no no just leave it for a bit. I can't remember when they were cancelled but I do no that I had left home and he was still reading them.
You must have got your talents from your dad. I bet you have some lovely drawings that your dad did. Well worth treasuring.

Angie

[tonyg]

This proposal is suspiciously close to what the corporate world (the root of all evil) would call a 'rebranding'. In their case it is simply an excuse for exectives to pay themselves more, simply for designing a new letterhead. 

Please leave the name alone. In my opinion the SRGC gets everything right, which is a rarity these days. Paddy's response above sums it up nicely.

Yep - I agree!
How many of us bemoan taxonomists for changing the names of our favourite plants?

[Regelian]

I agree with others that the current name is as good as any! In terms of modernising, the initials SRGC are in line with what many companies have used to 'update' names which may have lost some relevance.

As far as attracting younger members, I'm not sure how much that can be pursued? I can envision a series of ads (no idea where such ads might appear--online somewhere? leaflets at garden centres?) with the initials SRGC displayed, followed by several different possibilities for each letter (I'm just giving examples off the top of my head, so I'm sure something better could be imagined):

SRGC
Serious Radical Gardening Club
accompanying photo(s): members hanging off a cliff to photograph  plants


SRGC
Socially Responsible Garden Club
accompanying photo(s): edimental garden (think StephenB)

SRGC
Scottish Rockers Gone Crazy
accompanying photos: I'll leave this one to the Scots  
etc
etc-- with a final slogan for each --The Scottish Rock Garden Club- What Could We Mean To You??

Cohan,  I think we will need to incorporate kilts into the fotos, don't you?

[Darren]

Thinking about it, taxonomy and corporate culture are quite similar in that respect Tony - one is not considered to be earning one's keep unless changing things just for the sake of it.

 Anyone stressed or disrupted by illogical corporate changes are sent on 'resilience training' - which is treating the symptoms and not the disease.  Maybe 'resilience training' for gardeners would be useful each time a species gets meddled with?

[Richard Green]

The SRGC consistently comes up towards the top of the Google results list when I am searching botanical questions, so that that is probably a good reason to keep the name.

I know this is a bit off-subject, but it would be interesting to know how many Forum members, (or reading-only lurkers) are not SRGC members yet.  And also how many of the many new members who joined via the web were encouraged by being a Forumist first?  Maybe a survey of what new members think of the name would be interesting, but then if they became members then they were obviously not put off much !!

[Regelian]

It seems pretty clear that none of us really see a need to change the name. As I take it, the reason it was even considered was to attract more young people.  Always a good thought, as they will be the future of any gardening club.

How about, instead of changing the name, creating a membership campaign with 'Scottish Rockers' as a theme.  I like the idea of kilted gardeners hanging from cliffs taking notes on some obscure crevice inhabitant.  'Scottisch Rockers-Not just another plant club.'  Where the action is.

Or, how about paragliders floating down the face of a ravine photographing hard to reach botanical treasures.  Still in kilts, of course.   

Let's face it, plant people are not typical inhabitants of planet earth.  Young people do seek that bit o' andrenalin.

Jamie

PS:  I'm glad to hear we all like our name.  Once you're through the door, there is no getting away.