A Look Back and a Look Ahead
The pandemic made the years 2020 and 2021 challenging to keep PSBS alive and active, even holding some Zoom meetings at the end of 2021.
But there was nothing like beginning to see one another’s faces in person again on the first Wednesday of the month, beginning in March with the Mini Bonsai workshop presented by Linda and BC Bonsai. My Japanese Wisteria is still growing and is 18” tall. Seeing someone actually do what is being discussed is always my favorite kind of meeting, so I particularly enjoyed meetings like the rock planting prepared by Larry and presented by Phil and Nick; the boxwood workshop; the Iron Bonsai meeting watching Jim, Phil, and Victor work their magic; the Elms on a marble tray artfully prepared by Jennifer and Dan; and likely a couple of other meetings I am not remembering right now.
We had a successful Silhouette Show at Cantigny in February. Finally, my favorite event began again with the full Destination Asia Festival at Morton Arboretum, although Sunday did get partially washed out.
We are busily rebuilding our membership with 56 members (including many Family Memberships, so our actual number of members is higher). We plan to keep building those numbers as we go through 2023.
So now your Board of Directors and General Membership is planning 2023, starting with a Silhouette Show at Cantigny on February 18, 2023. There will be a PSBS Picnic at Cantigny on June 25, 2023. Destination Asia Festival at Morton Arboretum is scheduled for August 4-6, 2023. I just bought my 2023 wall calendar, and all those events are posted. Put them on your calendars as well.
We will close out 2022 with what sounds like quite an interesting presentation by Angelica Ramirez regarding bonsai pottery for our November meeting and our Christmas Party in December. We hope to see all of you for these special events.
And Our First 2023 Project
Periodically we place an order for PSBS shirts. You will see some of us wearing green polo shirts embroidered with the PSBS logo several years ago, and some also had their names embroidered. More recently, we had sweatshirts screen-printed with the logo. Unfortunately, the company we used to work with has gone out of business. Still, our friends at the Midwest Bonsai Society gave us contact information for a company in Buffalo Grove, and we are now working with them on a project.
In the next couple of months, we plan to order embroidered shirts (polo, t-shirts, or sweatshirts) and caps with our logo, hopefully including first names, for an additional charge. Jason Davids has agreed to coordinate this project. We will talk more about this project at the November meeting and hope to be able to distribute them by February. I am tired of freezing in my short-sleeved polo shirt at the Silhouette Show!
And always . . .
Let us know if you have ideas for presentations you would like to see discussed in 2023. It is your club, and we want to know what information you can use. We have already heard a suggestion to include a presentation on air-layering. If you have a topic you want to see addressed, either as a Bonsai 101 or as the evening’s main event, please email me at psbspresident@gmail.com, and we will try to include it in our 2023 programming.
And thanks to all of you who have made 2022 a successful year. It was a rebuilding year, and as all sports fans know, those can be challenging. I look forward to seeing you all at events as we prepare for an even greater 2023.
Craig
