Sound Bonsai the newsletter of the Puget Sound Bonsai Association October 2020 In this issue: Lifetime Membership awarded to John Muth October Virtual Club Meeting November Meeting Announcement PSBA Treasurer's Update Free Mirai Livestream and Membership discount (limited time offer) Now Is The Time October 2020 Annual meeting of the Pacific Northwest Bonsai Club Association October 15th Register for the Zoom Seminar with Bjorn Bjorholm Missing the Point - Re-potting Bonsai Lifetime Membership Awarded to John Muth of Bonsai Northwest In recognition of his tremendous service to the bonsai community, his mentorship and his support of our PSBA, the Board unanimously voted to award John Muth a Lifetime Membership. In a small ceremony on October 11th, President Tony Fajarillo presented John Muth with a plaque commemorating his service to our community John will be at Bonsai Northwest during his usual store hours until his retirement and closing on November 8th. You might want to stop by to congratulate John and wish him well. October Virtual Club Meeting Vice President Ladd Smith is pleased to announce our second virtual club meeting Monday October 26th at 6:00 PM via Zoom We are happy to announce our next virtual PSBA meeting. Our speaker will be Jonas Dupuich of Bonsai Tonight https://bonsaitonight.com/ Jonas Dupuich runs a Northern California bonsai nursery where he teaches and writes about bonsai. He is the author of The Little Book of Bonsai and the Bonsai Tonight blog, a twice-weekly publication featuring how-to articles and photographs of bonsai around the world. His trees have been selected for display in local and regional exhibits, including the US National Bonsai Exhibition. Jonas grows a variety of different species and specializes in developing black pine bonsai from seed. Learn more at bonsaitonight.com. "The program, "10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Beginner," will cover the tips I wish I knew when I got started with bonsai. Using examples from my collection, I'll show successes and failures that demonstrate these tips in an effort to help you avoid the mistakes I've made over the years." We urge all of you to join us. Those who attended our last meeting found it easy to connect. For those of you who will be connecting for the first time, we include these instructions from our last newsletter: Here are some important notes: We are featuring the virtual meeting on Zoom. Many of you have probably already used Zoom or another meeting platform. If you have not used Zoom before, it is very simple. Follow these instructions: Please know that the meeting ID and password will be coming in a separate email. 1. Copy and paste this link into your internet browser: https://zoom.us/ 2. Once on the home screen, in the upper right corner, click on “Join A Meeting” 3. You will be prompted to enter a Meeting ID. Please enter this code. 4. Then you will be prompted to enter a password. Please enter this number. 5. If you log on early you may be in the Zoom waiting room or you may be directed to the Zoom meeting. 6. You may have to adjust you volume on your computer to hear the presentation. We will be in the Zoom room earlier with some music playing so you can adjust your sound. We will also be running the presentation livestream on YouTube and Facebook if these platforms are easier for you to attend. We will send additional instructions on how to link up to the livestreams. We will send you the actual link to connect to the virtual meeting a day or two before October 26th. Remember the start time is 6:00PM See you Monday October 26th at 6:00 PM via Zoom November Virtual Club Meeting Vice President Ladd Smith wants to announce the speaker of our November virtual club meeting Monday November 23rd at 6:00 PM via Zoom Save the date and time! Our November virtual club meeting will feature guest artist Eric Schrader. Eric will be speaking on his "Root over Rock" techniques. Eric Schrader is a bonsai artist, bonsai grower, photographer and teacher. Eric grew up in Boonville, California, among beautiful redwoods, oaks and buckeye trees; his interest in bonsai has led him to study the mountains of California, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, and Utah searching for wild and wonderful trees. Eric believes that bonsai is an avenue for exploration of the natural world around us as much and an art form that captures the essence of trees. Visit his website: https://phutu.com/ Plan to join us for his interesting root over rock presentation. PSBA Treasurer’s Update - Dave Bollman - PSBA Treasurer In this strange year, our club has not had the ordinary expenses that would be incurred during any normal year. The majority of our expenses go to guest artists, with the rental of the CUH meeting hall facility coming in second. This year, however, having only had one meeting at the CUH and only two guest artists so far, we have not had the normal expenses. On a normal year, we would have expenses for the auction and pot luck also. Aside from membership dues, the auction is our primary fundraiser. This year, of course, we did not hold the auction. The auction typically brings in almost as much as membership dues, and on a good year, can surpass that amount. In addition to those meeting and special event related expenses, we have monthly and yearly expenses that are not meeting dependent. We rent a storage unit for our meeting and show appliances. We pay for liability insurance on a monthly basis. We also pay for web hosting services, website calendar service, website domain name registration and a membership to the American Bonsai Society. These expenses come to a little less than $3000 per year. Because our expenses were reduced due to our inability to meet physically, the board of directors has voted to discount the cost of renewal dues for current members by 50%. So, for members who renewed for 2020 or joined new this year, renewal dues will be $20 for an individual member and $25 for a couple membership when the renewal is paid before January 1 2021. If you feel that the discount is unnecessary or want to donate the additional amount, we will also accept the full membership amount. As usual, dues renewal payments may be made by credit card at our webstore at https://puget-sound-bonsai.square.site/ or paid by check mailed to: Puget Sound Bonsai Association PO Box 15437 Seattle, WA 98115-0437 Thank you, be safe, and have a wonderful fall season. Dave Bollman PSBA Treasurer Free Mirai Livestream For a limited time only Free Bonsai Mirai Livestream: Display Fundamentals - Maria Walton Hello PSBA members! I am pleased to announce that the generous folks at Bonsai Mirai have given us limited time access to one of their recent amazing livestreams, Display Fundamentals. Ryan Neil takes apart and puts back together several displays, while breaking down the “whats” and “whys” of what each of the components do in a display, how they interplay with one another, as well as the wide array of possibilities within these elements that have the potential to explore and elevate the aesthetic quality of our bonsai displays. He also explores the traditional versus non-traditional approaches to display in an enlightening and non- judgemental way that I believe everyone can appreciate. Also, any members who are not already members of Mirai Live, and who would like to join, will receive a 20% discount on new memberships as another little gift to our club from Ryan. This promo code will be active during the same timeframe as the video. You will find all of the details you need to access the video below. It will be available to you from Oct. 17th-24th to watch as many times as you like. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, and that it proves useful to you in your bonsai practice. Video presentation URL: https://vimeo.com/468253190 Password for the Video: PSBA20 (Password is case sensitive) Remember, the video link and password will not work until the 17th Mirai tells us if you are inspired to try out a Mirai Live membership after viewing, you may use the following promo code at checkout to get 20% off for new users only. The 20% off is a one-time billing discount, so if you use it for a monthly subscription, 20% off will be applied only for the first month. If you sign up for an annual plan, you will have 20% off for their whole first year. Mirai Membership 20% off Promo Code: PSBA20 (promocode is case sensitive) Now Is the Time October 2020 - Maria Walton Hello PSBA members. I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful fall weather and some much needed relief from the smoke that seems to be an annual event now that reminds us of a simple fact that, as bonsai practitioners we know very well through developing good relationships — sometimes hard-earned, with our trees, that if you go to war with nature, you will lose every time. It’s hard to look back on the past year and not consider the power of cause and effect as it applies to our relationship with nature. I can personally say that I have lost a few regrettable battles. But, I suppose that is how we learn, and hopefully that process translates to the larger scope of humanity as a whole and we can emerge on the other side of these multiple crises that now face our world with a new understanding of ourselves as an integral, connected piece of the natural world, rather than an adversary with it.