QBARS - v34n2 Report of American Rhododendron Society Research Foundation

Report of A.R.S. Research Foundation
For the Trustees, Alfred S. Martin

The ARS Research Foundation is now entering its fifth year of legal existence and it is interesting to look back on the progress made to date as shown in the following table:

The donations shown for 1975 were the result of a spontaneous suggestion made at the 1975 annual meeting that such a foundation be established under the auspices of the Society. The first real year of legal existence and active solicitation was 1976. The cost of getting organized as well as providing an initial mailing to all members of the Society in preparation of promotional and explanatory materials, accounts for the expenditure of $1,433.72 in 1977. Actually, most of these funds were expended during 1976 but not charged until 1977.

At the present time, the Research Foundation is sponsoring a total of three projects. The first one which I am sure is familiar to all of you, was a grant of $1,300 as a joint project with the Species Foundation to assist in the translation and the subsequent publication of the Chinese volume, lconographia Cormophytorum Sinicorum.

I am sure that those of you who have read the current quarterly bulletin have noticed the article on Azaleas and Their Cold Tolerance by Dr. Harold Pellett of the University of Minnesota's Landscape Arboretum. This is, as Dr. Pellett indicates, an active project of the Research Foundation.

The Foundation has also made a grant of $1,000 to Dr. Robert Lambe of Virginia Polytechnic Institute to initiate research of azalea petal blight. A recent letter from Dr. Lambe to Fred Galle indicates that this project is moving along and before too long, we should be having a preliminary report from Dr. Lambe which will be certainly viewed with extreme interest by those members affected by petal blight.

We will still have funds available for additional projects and we do hope that we may have the active participation of the Research Committee of the Society in making recommendations for these projects. Interested members should not hesitate to suggest specific projects to the Trustees who will forward them immediately to Dr. Mehiquist, chairman of the Research Committee, for evaluation. It is obvious that additional grants will have to be relatively small, generally in the $500 range, until the funds of the Foundation have increased.

Progress in this manner still remains rather slow but we can report to you that since our last report in October, 1979, about 54,000 has been contributed by members of the Society. Of this figure, about 52,400 came as a result of a reminder letter which the Trustees sent out to those still having unpaid pledges. The reaction to that letter was generally extremely favorable. Now that we are beginning to have a few concrete things to show, we do hope that we might be able to make another general appeal to the membership which hopefully will then put us in a position to seek larger gifts from foundations and trusts. Our only current disappointment is the fact that only a very small percentage of the membership has made any contribution to the Foundation. At least 75% of the funds have come from less than 25 individual members of the Society. We have had especially fine support from a few chapters and we hope that this aspect can also be improved.