A Brief Pause

The Conference is over for this year, and as the photo suggests, we are taking a little time for reflection. The blog has taken up a lot of our collective time over the past 18 months, and we have come to some decisions we want to share with you, our readers.  For starters, we have decided to post a little less frequently: once a week instead of twice.

We, in this case, being the two "survivors," me, Sue Dingwell, and Ginny Stibolt, co-blogger from the beginning, and now, friend as well.

As many of you heard in the extract from the Annual Report at the Conference, during May of last year the blog, barely three months old, was getting 51 visits a week. In its busiest week since then, it had visits from nearly 700 people. Our readers are from Florida, but also from Georgia, Texas, California, and Arizona; and those are just the states we know about because of comments received. The message about the importance of native plants is being carried forward by interesting groups all over our nation. It's great fun to be in touch with them here. But, we have almost three thousand members in our society, and we would like to bring more of them (you) into the conversation.

FNPS, this is YOUR blog. A blog is a place where information can be shared and discussed. It is a platform for dialog, and Ginny and I have both most certainly learned a lot from the comments and questions you have sent in. We know that it is not always easy to comment here, but each post is linked on our Facebook page, and it is super easy to comment there - https://www.facebook.com/FNPSfans  We want to talk about what is important to you, and to hear the varied perspectives and experiences that bring greater knowledge to us all.

So we will be spending more time on  bringing in:

• more of our FNPS members, and
• more writers (this means you) 

You do not have to be a "blogger' to write for one!! You just have to have something you want to share with others. This could be an explanation of how to do something, a report on a project your chapter is working on, a review of great place to see native plants, a plant profile, a book review, an explanation of a scientific subject related to native plants or their communities or anything you think is of common interest. We can do the actual posting on the blog for you, or let you do it yourself if you wish. So drop us a line at fnps.online@gmail.com if you have a post to share, or if you would like to suggest a topic for one.

Believe me, we know how hard it is to write! But what great exercise for the mind. We need you. 

Let's grow together, FNPS. 

Mark Renz photos    ~ http://www.fossilexpeditions.com/

sue dingwell