Ten Years of History...

The Buffalo Area Daylily Society was ten years old in 2005! Not only did the then current president,
Peter Weixlmann, instantly declare a year-long party, but when Kathy Guest Shadrack mentioned
the anniversary on the internet, Mary Collier Fisher immediately extracted a promise of a history.

It seems like only last week that 12 stalwart daylily lovers huddled in a living room in a Buffalo suburb
and discussed whether the area could support a daylily club, but it was actually January 19, 1995. Leading
up to that meeting were attempts by Peter, Kathy and a few others to align ourselves with an existing club.
Kathy tried our regional officer for direction and received no reply. We traveled to Rochester to attend a
meeting there - but it was not exactly what we were looking for. We traveled to Pittsburgh, PA to attend
meetings there.. a great club, but a long drive (4 hours each way).

So we finally decided to run the daylily flag up a flagpole and see what happened. We gleaned local
AHS members' names from the directory. We put a small ad in the newspaper and we sent out postcards
to a select list of people who had signed up at a garden fair for information. Then we held our breath
and scheduled the meeting.

The response was actually pretty good - although there were only 12 people who showed up,
several are still active members.

At that meeting we decided several things - we decided we would formally organize as a club,
that we would use the working name "BADS" (although this was not universally embraced),
that dues would be $10 (still are) and we voted to affiliate with AHS. We were off!

The BADS crew visiting Daylily World

That first year was incredible. We participated in any green outreach events we could find and collected
names shamelessly. We sent everyone a newsletter - paid dues or no paid dues. We ran raffles, we organized
a plant sale (on nothing but good intentions) and one of our members designed a membership brochure.
By April we had attracted the attention of Tom Rood of Penn Yan, who not only joined BADS,
but helped us to grow much faster than we ever dreamed. Thanks to Tom, we were introduced to
incoming RVP, Melanie Mason (who we all know is nothing but a bundle of kinetic energy), the daylily
robin and Dan Trimmer of Long Island - who agreed to be our banquet speaker. a banquet we didn't
know we were going to have.

By the end of that first year, we had 41 members (18 of whom are still active), $1,500 in the treasury
and we were recognized throughout the local area as a viable, energetic daylily club.

The next year, 1996, we hit the ground running. We established the club Acquisition Program
to bring newer plants into the area, we scheduled two sales - one in the spring to jump-start the year's
treasury and one in August. That spring sale was memorable in that a brand new member, Keith Romanczyk,
informed us that the house he had purchased came with a field of daylilies and that he would be happy to
donate a truckload to our sale. To our utter astonishment he did - driving up from an hour away in a pickup
truck packed full of huge clumps of no-name daylilies in plastic shopping bags. Because he was digging in
heavy clay, and because these were all pretty - but unlabeled - he put each enormous clump into a bag
and threw it on the truck. He offloaded at the Farmer's Market where we were set up and we proceeded
to organize ourselves while a few early birds waited patiently. No sooner did he leave than a security guard
for the shopping plaza showed up an informed us that whoever told us there was a Farmer's Market in that
plaza neglected to give the date - which was not for another month. We were told we had to leave.
Of course, we had publicity out and no way to notify people that we had been booted - so Peter invited
us to his house and we hung a few signs around the plaza to tell people where we were.

In the meantime, the early birds followed us and after a few hours of no sales - one of them offered to
buy the load. We jumped at her price and she left with HER truck packed. We later learned that she ALSO
came from the same rural area as the donor. that she owned a commercial nursery and it so happened
that the donor happened to arrive at her nursery to browse at the same moment she arrived with his daylilies!
In Western New York we 're one big family.

The BADS crew at the Clarence Farmer's Market

Anyway, that second year, we had the two public sales plus a members-only sale, we scheduled
Open Gardens and invited the public. We organized trips to Grace Gardens, Rochester and Bliss.
We added a members picnic and we ordered official BADS tee shirts. We had a program at each
meeting, including two special speakers; John Yonski of Pittsburgh who helped with our public sale as
"Daylily Doctor" and Kevin Walek of Washington, DC who actually spoke on hostas - underwritten by
BADS - and was the inspiration for the local hosta club! And none other than the irrepressible
David Kirchhoff agreed to be our banquet speaker! And, even though we were only a year old,
we made our first donation to the region - $350 - even creating a blow-up check for a photo
op at our banquet.

By now, Melanie Mason was in high gear as RVP and soon Region 4 expanded to include the eastern
end of Ontario. Four Canadians joined BADS and some of us began feeling a responsibility for helping
them to launch their own club since we were the closest. Also we were beginning to feel a little bit out
of the loop (hell, we couldn't even see the loop from Buffalo), and were anxious to have other
clubs nearby. So a plan was hatched by the 'breakfast club' e-mail people - fueled by coffee and
naivete - to organize a cross-border daylily symposium, focusing on northern hybridizers.
We began making inquiries and using contacts from other plant organizations, were soon able
to book the Royal Botanical Gardens and find a nearby hotel, plus attract promises from
high-quality speakers for only their expenses.

So, by the end of our second year, we had 150 members, had crafted and adopted bylaws,
$5,200 in the bank, high local visibility and the beginnings of a cross-border symposium in the works.

Up until this time, Kathy had been acting as Chair of BADS with a loyal band of ad hoc officers.
In our third year, we decided to organize a nominating committee and legitimize.
Voted in by acclimation were Kathy Guest as Chair, Rachel Martin as Vice-chair, Pam Hoffman
as Secretary and Audrey Eisenhardt as Treasurer. During 1997 we not only actually pulled
off the first Can-Am (now known as the Can-Am Classic) with a sold out crowd and that
stellar cast of speakers, but that event spawned the Ontario Daylily Society - and we voted to
donate the proceeds to their start-up treasury (a generous donation due to the generous donations to
our auction made by people like David Kirchhoff, Curt Hanson and Steve Moldovan).

We also planned an overnight bus trip to the gardens of Pittsburgh, organized our members to attend
the regional meeting in Saratoga, established a library and came up with the concept of "3-4-1", in
which the big three local plant societies - iris, daylily and hosta - would cooperate in such things
as garden shows and sales, thereby lessening the demands on volunteers and also improving membership
by offering three memberships for one price (a green "sampler").

Our banquet speaker that year was Bob Schwartz, who introduced us to spiders and UFO's
and infected and inspired a group of BADS folks who have followed that form since.

By 1998, we were involved in five outreach events and were continuing with our two sales.
We had a large public display garden at the Botanical Gardens, we were able to make a
significant donation to the Region ($1,000), we were invited to enter the rotation to host a regional
and we eagerly agreed to take on 2000. We also tackled the question of how to best support
other regional meetings - and hit upon the scholarship idea that we still use today. Each year
we consider our treasury and then vote a pool of money to be made available to anyone
who wishes to attend. In those early days, we made no restrictions on the amount of the
scholarship - and so people were able to attend free of any charges other than personal expenses.

We continued offering 'name' speakers whenever we could (in '98, Peat/Petit) and we organized
a "hem and hosta" garden tour, a daylily exhibit and a trip to Mecca - Florida. We now had
70 members and were well-established. John Shooter was our banquet speaker.

In 1999, in addition to our regular calendar and activities, we struggled with the problem
most clubs have - with so many members (230 by now), how can we get more of them
to take on some of the work of running the club. A regional was looming and our core
people were getting burned out and surly. Out of desperation comes inspiration and innovation -
the BADS Bux program was born! BADS Bux are currency.. they are oversized bills in
brilliant colors - a different color each year. The value of each bill is $5, and they are paid out to
any BADS member who does anything at all to benefit the club. When a member attends a meeting
- they get a BADS Bux. When they complete a survey, bring cookies to a meeting, take a shift at an
outreach event, help at a sale, write for the newsletter or do any old thing at all, they get a Bux.
The Bux are distributed by whoever is vice chair - and there are few rules which results in no griping.
The Bux may be used on one day only - the members only picnic. At the picnic, we have people
dig special plants from their gardens - and older ones as well. This is also the time when
the babysitting plants come back. Everything is priced according to Eureka - with the high-priced
daylilies being reserved for the members auction later that day. On that day alone,
Bux are same as cash. You can buy whatever plant you'd like - straight sale or auction -
and pay with your Bux. If you don't have enough (or don't have any), we also take cash.
This solves problems on many levels... it is an incentive for more people to get involved
with club activities, and it gets the best plants into the hands of the people who do the most
work. It's always a good time and it has really encouraged more members to step to the plate.
It's also a program that has been adopted by other daylily clubs and even non-daylily clubs.

At the 1999 Fall Banquet, we voted in a new slate of officers; Rachel Martin as Chair,
Pam Hoffman as Vice Chair, Marlene Hyden as Secretary and Audrey Eisenhardt as Treasurer.
This banquet is also where Arthur Kroll gave one of his last talks before he went to a wholesale business.

Kathy & Mike Shadrack at Lambertson's

2000 was our turn at putting on a Regional - the first ever in Western New York. Being naïve
and enthused, we didn't consider that our regional was in close proximity with the national convention.
Even so, we had good attendance and a great time. We built the regional around 4 fanciful paintings
donated by one of our members, Linda Michaels. Using images in the paintings, we designated
gardens on themes, and also had tee shirts, tote bags and posters for sale. We were delighted
to have our own bus plants underwritten by the Long Island Daylily Society (as we had done for them).
The regional was a lot of work, but also great fun. Our keynote speaker was Diana Grenfell -
all the way from England. We had the usual auction and silent auction, as well as a plant sale and
even a plant delivery system. Of course, the weather was not ideal, and the bus did
run over a step stool - but even that was turned into an event.

2001 - now. Since the regional, BADS has relaxed into a comfortable pattern.
We still participate in garden outreach when it presents itself, we maintain our display
garden at the Botanical Gardens, and a smaller one at the County Fairgrounds,
we have a spring sale and a public sale, we offer scholarships to all regional events
(both Can-Am's and the regional meeting) with a total grant depending on our treasury.
We have an acquisition program that is undergoing some renovation, we have a tour or
open gardens each year - often in cooperation with other plant groups. On occasion, we offer
a "daylily day" at a commercial nursery with a speaker and discounts. Our BADS Bux
program is still healthy and popular, we have a speaker at every meeting. Our 'cabinet'
has changed in that Rachel Martin, having served her 3 years (as allowed in the bylaws)
was succeeded by Peter Weixlmann. The presidents have kept the energy high and the activities flowing.

And, from time to time, we take the temperature of the club with a survey. We like to ask
our members what is working and what needs work. And our members don't mind telling us!
We try to be mindful that there are all levels of expertise in our club, and all kinds of focus as well.
We have had Ned Roberts speak to us on his spider program, Melanie Mason on
northern cultivars, Jim Biaglow on his hybridizing program, and Curt Hanson on ..
I'm not sure! We have tried to keep the club fresh and involved. We have tried to keep
it fun, but educational. We have tried to involve more members and make every BADS
person feel connected to the bigger picture. We have reached out to other clubs
and facilitated those activities whenever possible.

Over ten years, it's hard to believe. But given the type of club we have,
we celebrated this milestone - especially by giving back to our members who have brought us this far.

Linda Bennett
President