Blog

It’s a brand new year!

It is time to begin the year, which we hope to make one of the best ever for PSBS. A few minor adjustments have been discussed below, but we hope to have a great year, displaying great trees and spreading the club’s name throughout the Chicago area.

We are on the move for a few months.

For the first four meetings of the year, our General Membership meetings will move from our typical location in the TEC Building to the Homeland Security Education Center (HEC) next door to the north. The college has scheduled a class in our usual meeting room for the spring semester. We will be in HEC 1020, located in the northeast part of the building. You can park in the Fawell D parking lot (where many of us park for the TEC building), but stay in the northwest part of the lot and cross Lambert Road with the stoplight at Fawell Boulevard. Enter the building at the HEC 2 or HEC 3 entrances. 

Stay to the right of the staircase, and the meeting room is right ahead of you, behind the staircase. If you decide to park in the lot west of the HEC building, enter at the northwest corner of the building and walk straight ahead. Room 1020 will be on your right. We plan to post signs and a member at our usual meeting location for a month to help guide everyone to the new meeting place.

Date changes

We also have a couple of date changes for scheduled 2024 programs.

February 24, 2024 – We will hold our annual Silhouette Show at the Cantigny Park Visitor Center on this date. Initially, we considered an earlier date, but another organization booked the facility. Please look over your deciduous trees and find a tree to display. The Silhouette Show is a one-day event; we had a tremendous response in 2023.  

June 30, 2024 – This will be the date of our annual club picnic, to be held at the Cantigny Park picnic pavilion near the entrance. The park planned its annual Jazz and Wine Festival the week before, which involves the entire park, so we needed to reschedule.

August 2-4, 2024 – No changes here. These will be the Morton Arboretum Destination Asia Festival dates, and we will have been invited to participate again this year.

Yes, there are elections scheduled for 2024!

And not just for the state capitols and Washington, D.C. Every two years in even number years, the administration of the Prairie State Bonsai Society changes, with new people, new perspectives, and fresh ideas for programs and the direction of the society. The election will be held at the March General Membership meeting (March 6, 2024). If you are intrigued by the idea of helping to move the club forward during the upcoming two years, talk to Jim Beck, chairperson of the Nomination Committee, or members Badar Zulqarni, Char Field, and me – OR – you can talk to any of the current Board members.

I look forward to seeing you at the February 7th meeting when we will view the video critique by Mark Fields, our guest artist, at last August’s Destination Asia festival. 

We recorded his commentary about each of the trees displayed at the show. It is always interesting to hear the guest judge’s commentary to learn more about what features to look for in showing one of your trees.

Craig

630-244-0155