THE NEW SSE 2006 YEARBOOK IS HERE. I'M SOMEBODY

[patty_b]

Could you tell me how I could get the 2005 SSE yearbook for $5? My only SSE yearbook is from 1994 which I purchased as a birthday gift for my Dad and he in turn, gave it back to me! Patty
ps. would 2005 be the best year for most tomatoes listed?

[travis]

Patty,

I just spoke with Joanne who is in charge of Yearbook distribution, and I'm going to order past Yearbooks by sending her an email telling her which ones I want and following up by mailing her a money order since I've been charging stuff to credit cards lately way over what's reasonable for such a "humble hobby."

Here's Seed Savers Exhange's contact information:

For questions about:

Catalog orders or shipping: tara@seedsavers.org or kathy@seedsavers.org

General information about membership in either the Seed Savers Exchange or The Flower and Herb Exchange: steph@seedsavers.org

"Seed Savers Yearbook" or "Garden Seed Inventory" or "Flower and Herb Exchange" or "Fruit, Berry and Nut Inventory": joanne@seedsavers.org

Preservation Gardens, Historic Orchard or the Heritage Farm's seed collection:
matt@seedsavers.org

Madison store, rack sales or the availability of bulk seed: aaron@seedsavers.org

Planned giving options, grants, capital campaign and development: kent@seedsavers.org

Mailing Address:
3094 North Winn Road
Decorah, IA 52101
Ph: 563-382-5990
Fax: 563-382-5872

PV

[carolyn137]

Some of what I was reading here about purchasing Yearbooks just didn't make sense to me, including the super yearbook, so I just called and spoke with Stephanie at SSE about it.

Yearbooks from about 2000 onward are available at $5 each, and that includes shipping. Availability older than that is very spotty.

No seed requests can be made from older Yearbooks, as is also stated in each yearbook. Requests can only be made from the currently published Yearbook, which is the 2006 one which is sent to SSE members.

I forgot to ask her if one can purchase the current Yearbook each year without being a member but I doubt it for that would make no sense at all in terms of what a membership with SSE entitles one to and SSE would be shooting themselves in the foot if they allowed that.

The so called SuperYearbook is, as I thought, a work in progress and will not be made available publically. It is strictly for inhouse research. And it will have only the variety name, year introduced and introduced by whom, for rapid ID of varieties. There may or may not be brief descriptions, but it will not have background history type info and reports from individual listers.

Steph said that the back Yearbooks are for folks only for research purposes, obviously, since no requests can be made from them for seeds. And I'm telling you it may drive you nuts b'c several here have seen me do searches for folks and often a variety in a particular Yearbook will say something like....from NY MA C in 1992, and then when you look up that one it will say that NY MA C got it from OK ST F in, oh 1984, and then you're sunk. Sunk b'c before 1986 varieties were listed not by color, but by state, so one has to plow thru all the states trying to find something.

You can call SSE at (563) 382-5990 and if Stephanie answers, tell her that Carolyn sent you. And no, I don't get a kickback.

Carolyn. oh, and she said they normally get about ONE request/year for back Yearbooks.

[cdntomato]

Hmmm. I've loaned out my 2005 harvest edition so can't consult what was written on the Super Yearbook. Perhaps I am suffering mentalpause.

In any event this inquiry has done 2 things: clarified the current status of the compilation; indicated to SSE staff the interest in any future availability of such a publication.

Thanks for following up, Carolyn.

Jennifer

[travis]

"No seed requests can be made from older Yearbooks, as is also stated in each yearbook. Requests can only be made from the currently published Yearbook ..." [Carolyn]

Yes, that's understood. I think, but don't know for certain, that Andrey wants the old yearbooks for research. What I think they would be valuable to him for is like seeing what's out there and to see maybe what everyone he traded seeds with may be listing or what they might be calling his stuff.

"I forgot to ask her if one can purchase the current Yearbook each year without being a member but I doubt it for that would make no sense at all in terms of what a membership with SSE entitles one to and SSE would be shooting themselves in the foot if they allowed that." [Carolyn]

Joanne told me they would not sell a current yearbook as an "extra" or "back issue," and no yearbooks to non-members. But she didn't see anything wrong with a member sending a past yearbook to a non-member for a reference manual since you can't order out of a past yearbook.

"The so called SuperYearbook is, as I thought, a work in progress and will not be made available publically. It is strictly for inhouse research." [Carolyn]

That's exactly what Joanne said except I guess I didn't ask whether it would be available publicly, although I did ask whether it would be online and she simply said she didn't know yet.

"And it will have only the variety name, year introduced and introduced by whom, for rapid ID of varieties. There may or may not be brief descriptions, but it will not have background history type info and reports from individual listers." [Carolyn]

Well, that makes sense to expedite publication and to minimize volume, but ... seems like brief (accurate) descriptions and histories (corrected) would be about the most helpful background data unless you're primarily interested in the "who introduced it when" aspect.

Oh, well, awaiting Andrey's reply ...

PV

[carolyn137]

PV and others,

Andrey has had some contact with Matt at SSE in the past in terms of a trade, some of his veggie varieties for some of theirs.

I tried to help that along by speaking to Aaron about it but it just couldn't work out.

The major problem was customs and shipping.

Andrey has told me in the past he would like to see his tomato varieties listed with SSE and I have tried to do that with all that I grew myself.

In Spring of 2005 I was in this walker and knew I couldn't grow out all the ones I knew that weren't listed yet so I sent some to Bill Minlkey and some to Neil Lockhart, after asking them first if they were interested, b'c I knew those two would list them.

Neil had already gotten some varieties from Andrey.

Bill told me on the phone on Monday that he just didn't get around to them this year, but would next year, and I havn't talked with Neil, nor e-mailed him, and haven't even had a chance to check out the 2006 Yearbook in that regard.

And that's b'c as a Moderator I'm trying to read all the posts here as best I can.

What has happened in the past, and has not been totally appreciated by most SSE members I know, is that someone sends Yearbooks to someone and then they have the list of listed members and then they contact listed SSE members for seeds anyway, even though they are not SSE members and are using back Yearbook issues.

I've had that happen to me and I know others have as well.

I don't mean to be picky and/or snippy here, but SSE relies more and more on membership monies to help fund things b'c of the lack of soft money these days, and that's why until last year, of all the years I've been an SSE member I've never requested a variety for a non-member. But that one request was, in my opinion, a very special case and the person who had the seeds was also a friend and also agreed with the rationale.

I almost forgot, thanks for clarifying that back SSE Yearbooks are ONLY available to current SSE members. I forgot to do that.

Carolyn

[carolyn137]

PV,

I forgot something else as well.

The so called Super Yearbook will not be online publically and will not be published publically in any form whatsoever.

Steph said it was strictly for inhouse use.

Years ago both Craig and I had printouts of what was available to that date and I swear it was almost 6 inches thick and that was back in the early 90's.

Carolyn, and yes, Joanne is a dear person and a long time friend, and Arlyss before she retired two years ago was also a wonderful person as well. But poor Joanne, it's she who has to do all the entry work for the YEarbooks, the Summer and Fall editions, the Garden Inventory, the Fruit Inventory and all else. As I keep telling folks, the staff there is not large at all.

[travis]

Carolyn,

Your points regarding circumventing the established SSE process are very well taken. SSE administrative efforts and the efforts of the individual members to promote SSE's mission as well as gathering necessary funds to carry on that mission should be backed by all its members.

That's one reason I offered to pay Andrey's membership (so as not to circumvent the established process). And while I would look at it as a donation to SSE, both Andrey and I would benefit personally as well.

Besides, buying back copies and shipping several of them to Belarus is gonna work out to the same cost and SSE is only gonna get 5 bucks a pop with the US Postal Service getting the lion's share I surmise.

Are you saying that if Andrey becomes a member that he may still have problems obtaining seed through the normal SSE procedures? I may be misunderstanding something there since there are several members listed in Europe.

Maybe I should go back and read what Andrey said again.

Keep up the great work monitoring this site and contributing your valuable time as Moderator.

PV

[carolyn137]

(That's one reason I offered to pay Andrey's membership (so as not to circumvent the established process). And while I would look at it as a donation to SSE, both Andrey and I would benefit personally as well.


Are you saying that if Andrey becomes a member that he may still have problems obtaining seed through the normal SSE procedures? I may be misunderstanding something there since there are several members listed in Europe.

Maybe I should go back and read what Andrey said again.)

And maybe I should go back and read more carefully myself, for I was reading quickly and missed that you said you wanted to pay for Andrey's SSE membership.

No, he should have no problems requesting seed and sending seed to SSE members, except for the following.

I think the prices being asked for non-US, non-Canadian members is much too high. But all listed members, as perhaps you know, were given three options and asked to vote. I did not vote for the new price increases that were put into place at all levels of membership.

But that applies to Andrey and all other foreign members.

I lowered my prices for the few varieties I'm offering and Bill Minkey does the same.

The other problem is a more general one. And that's that it's currently illegal to send seeds from foreign countries into the US and while initially there was a distinction between commercial and hobby amounts that wasn't included in the final Federal document.

Commercial incoming shipments have to have phyosanitary documents.

Now the major problem occurs at borders as in the Canadian/US border, and not via the USPS mail. But I do know of a few cases where seeds coming in in hobby amounts were confiscated.

I prefer to think that that is a rare thing and in talking with Aaron at SSE he says he's not hearing of much of that either.

Prior to that it was the concern about irradiating mail, but that's only done, still, for the five zip codes in the Washington, DC area that serve the Federal Government.

So for small amounts of hobby seed I don't see a problem, fingers crossed.

I just got thru organizing an effort to send seeds for 1000 heirloom varieties to Israel for a research project being done at Hebrew U on the evolution of the tomato. I got Glenn Drowns at Sandhill and Craig involved b'c no way could I do 1000. We all had to use green customs labels for shipments, but I've used those in the past in sending seeds to Australia, which is also a bummer for seeds, and that was no problem.

And again, for SMALL amounts there should be no problem getting stuff into the US.

Carolyn

[Plantersville]

Hmmmm.....
Guess I'd better get to the post office then.........

[Rena]

I called this fall and asked them to send me any yearbooks that they had and they sent me 96-2005. This left me with an Extra 2005 as I had already paid my membership so I sent it to John in Australia. Early in the season I had sent John all the seeds I had traded with Andrey as he had some trouble I believe. I think Andrey deserves a yearbook and I would be happy to chip in. Please let me know.-Rena PS I thought I would spend more time looking at the old yearbooks but alas being a Mom, Wife, Teacher and caregiver that I have not looked at it them.
EDIT : One reason that I wanted them is everytime someone on the forum asked about something it appeared to me if Carolyn did not have the answer she was reaching for old SSE books. This is what gave me the idea to use it as a reference. :wink:

[Andrey_BY]

PV, thanks a lot for all your activities. Of course I will be glad to get any old/new SSE Yearbook just for that reason you mentioned I might be interested :wink: Exporation, proper names, statistics... So what I'm really don't want is to ruin in a day SSE good traditions and well-established system.

As I'm really fond of making presents it is still very confusing for me when somebody offer me something as a gift There would be some problems for me if I become a SSE member regarding mostly payment (transfering) system in both ways (when I'd like to pay to USA or other foreign non-CIS countries or somebody would like to pay for my seeds to Belarus). So far it was the only way of exchanges (trades), but maybe there could other possibilities like cheque or I should use my Swiss friends' kindly offer to open an account in one of their banks

Anyway, I'm glad so many people care about me. Thanks a lot! PV, I'm sending you an e-mail.

P.S. As for sending seeds to Australia I had some problems only once when I forgot to mention "tomato" and "egg-plants" in Latin on every seed packet. They hold my envelope with seeds on Australian customs for several weeks and let know about it the gardener we had this exchange. But later when she provided this information she was able to receive my envelope with most of the seeds (90%) and only egg-plants were confiscated.

Originally Posted by Papa Vic

Andrey, I sent an email into SSE yesterday asking about the availability of Yearbook copies to mail to you, but the lady who handles that apparently is very busy with wrapping up this year's Yearbook mailings, etc., as Carolyn has said.

Anyway, I would be glad to trade you books for seeds or other interesting items from Belarus. Let me explore this further.

Forward me your address via PM or email me at papavic@tomatoville.com.

PV

EDIT: Update: Andrey, I just spoke with Joanne on the phone. She's very busy as Carolyn said. She said that many years of back issues of the Yearbook are available at $5.00 each, but that the 2006 is still considered current and not a back issue as they are still going out to the membership.

If you would like me to pursue acquiring some recent Yearbooks ... say 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, like that ... and mail them to you, let me know via email.

Joanne also said the "Super Yearbook" compilation is still a "work in progress" at this time and is not available in print or online.

By the way, Joanne is a very nice lady on the phone, and must be doing an awesome job at SSE considering the number of members and sheer volume of Yearbooks she is responsible for mailing out.

PV

[carolyn137]

Andrey,

There's no problem at all.

PV pays SSE for a one year membership in your name with your address in Minsk.

Once you're a member then you can directly request the back SSE Yearbooks via e-mail that we've been talking about. No doubt there would be an additional shipping charge to send to Belarus, but it shouldn't be that much. There are quite a few other SSE foreign members so in your e-mail request to SSE just ask the best way to send the money for them, as others do for their annual memberships.

You pay PV if that's what the deal is between you two or perhaps he's giving you the one year SSE membership as a gift. I just can't remember b'c so much has been written here and I didn't go back up to earlier posts to review all that was said. So I apologize for that.

Carolyn

[Andrey_BY]

Carolyn, that is the matter - I can't pay to USA from Belarus - only trade for something I have :wink:
Belarus is a very closed country with last European dictator as a president. We are not in EU and have no sucg well-developed system of international transfers. There is even a prohibition to open any branches of the foreign banks here...
So I'm very glad of PV's offer.

[carolyn137]

Thanks for clarifying that Andrey, I honestly had not realized that you could not exchange money with anyone outside the country.

PV, if all works out I'd be more than happy to help pay for Andrey's SSE membership beyond the one year one you'll be purchasing for him.

Please just let me know when and if that happens, and you'll know what's happening with me and future health, any surgeries, etc., by either reading the thread someone here put up about my health, or contacting my nephew Garrett, who is here as co administrator with Mischka, and mind you, I was not responsible for that.

Carolyn