American Daffodil Society, General, Publications and Resources

Daffnet History

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Peter and all,

As I remember, the impetus for Daffnet might have started in 1995 at the Dallas ADS Convention when the concept of a Daffnet was presented to the ADS Board.  Marilynn Howe was ADS President then and strongly urged its undertaking. Nancy Tackett was a new ADS member and had prepared a proposal for creating an ADS web page. I took her proposal to Dallas and read it to the Board,  which approved it along with Daffnet.

Perhaps Marilynn, Ted, and Nancy augment or correct my recollection.

Bob

At 03:49 PM 1/25/2009, Peter Ramsay wrote:

Hi Everyone,

The Daffnet history has started Les and me thinking – a very dangerous thing to do!!!  I recollect very clearly a meeting convened by Ted Snazelle at an ADS Convention to discuss the possibility of a daffodil discussion group on the Internet.  I remember waxing eloquent on the possibility –  I was involved at the time on a couple of university net groups and knew the value of such groups especially to people like me living in an isolated country. There was sufficient support for Ted to get it going.  Now where and when Ted’s meeting was held is beyond my recall.  This is where Les came in – she has a far better memory than me for events (although I can always recall her birthday and our wedding anniversary – forgot the former once when we were at a flower show in Solihull and that cost me dearly!!!)  So the possibilities  -I think we met Ted first  in 1982 at Nashville – too soon perhaps for Daffnet.  Ted was at the World Convention in 1984 in Hamilton, NZ (which I convened) as a Guest Speaker.  Not then either.  We also met coincidentally in London – amazingly we were staying in the same hotel – remember St Margarets, Ted?  Not there either.  Our next ADS Convention was Washington and then Columbus.  Now that’s where we think it all started.  And from a  small acorn we now have a mighty oak thanks to Ted, Nancy and Ben.

Over to you Ted to fill in the gaps – where was the meeting,  who else was at it, and how long was your Uni the host?  History is always important but gets even more so as we age.

Cheers to all,

Peter and Lesley


 

2 comments for “Daffnet History”


  1. Yes, when Marilynn became President and talked about her goals she said she hoped the ADS would join the world of the internet.  It was the same meeting where she asked me to join the Board, so I remember it well.
    Kathy



  2. Hi Daffnet,
    I proposed the concept of the Daffnet when I became President in 1994 at the Portland Convention. Most members thought I was out of my mind. My message was printed in the June Journal and Ted Snazelle called me offering the services of Mississippi College and Dr. Lowery. On April 13, 1995, the Daffnet went “on-line”. Nancy Tackett designed the first Web Pages. My original thought for the Daffnet was to make the Round Robins speed up ( a complaint that was heard at most Board Meetings from the Round Robins Chairman then) and also make the contributors writings available to all. Did not exactly happen. I read most messages, sometimes with a chuckle but mostly I enjoy the postings and photos.

    At the Fall Board Meeting in 1991, I went to dinner with Dr. Tom Throckmorton who was then Chairman of the Data Bank where we talked about the future and challenges of continuing the Data Bank. He was planning on retiring at the end of Jack Romine’s  term. Dr. Tom assured me that the main frame computer at Iowa Methodist Hospital would continue to maintain the Data Bank. Sometime later I called Mary Lou Gripshover concerned that all of Dr. Tom’s hard work would be lost as Personal Computers were becoming the new technology and main frames were becoming Dinosaurs. MLG then took on the project and typed in on the ADS Personal Computer all of the current Data Bank, an enormous task. When I went to Spain in the Spring of 1994 with Steve Vinisky and Kathy Anderson  we discussed the concept of adding pictures to the data bank, Steve worked on this concept with MLG and others. Enter Ben Blake and Nancy Tackett and the rest is history. I have enjoyed watching this evolution over the years and thank everyone who has helped in this project and keep adding relevant information to Data Bank.
    Marilynn Howe
     


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