You should receive this newsletter with your Shows Handbook for 2008. It has been sent out to all known exhibitors and judges and to anyone else who has requested one.

If you have joined the Society in the last year, but have not yet exhibited at a show, we have also sent you a copy of the Shows Handbook in the hope that you might be tempted to become an exhibitor. If you would like to obtain a copy in future years, you need to let us know.

All members should have received a list of Show Dates in the Shows leaflet sent out with the December bulletin. If you know of anyone who might be tempted to exhibit at our shows, phone or email the AGS Centre and they will be glad to send a Handbook out to the member concerned.

Use of the members discussion area on the website is growing slowly. It is quite easy to upload the occasional show picture to this part of the website. A larger collection of pictures of a show can still be emailed to me for display as part of the more detailed show photogalleries. There are now about 3000 pictures of plants at our shows in this section of the website.

My thanks to everyone who contributed to the success of the shows during 2007 and good luck with your exhibiting in 2008.

Jim McGregor
email: Jim.McGregor@agsgroups.org

· Autumn South Show in Kent

· Loss of Summer North Show

· London Show – final year in 2008

· New venue for East Cheshire

· Artistic Section changes

· The Online Flower Show, report

· What is an Alpine

· Silver Bars – maximum of five

· New Exhibitors

· Show Reports

· Show Sub-Committee Membership

· Aggregate tables for 2007

The team who took over the Autumn South Show in Kent last year as a one-off experiment feel that it was a success and will be running it again this year. They have also included an Artistic section for the coming year. Thanks to David Hoare and his team.

Tony Rymer has retired as Show Secretary for Summer Show North. (Thank you Tony, for all your hard work.)

We were unable to get a team together to run the Show in Leeds this coming year, so there will be no show in the northern half of the country in June. If there is a group in that area that feel they would like to try running a show in June, they should get in touch with the Director of Shows.

Pam Turtle has retired as Show Secretary for the London Show after 9 years in the job. (Thank you Pam, for all your hard work.) Despite intensive lobbying, no one else has come forward as Show Secretary. In order to maintain this important link with the RHS, the Director of Shows will act as Show Secretary in 2008, but unless someone else comes forward, this will be the final year of the London AGS Show in its present form.

The East Cheshire Show has moved to a new venue this year – details in the Shows Handbook.

The classes for Paintings and Drawings in the Artistic Section have undergone an overhaul this year. The main changes are summarised below, but exhibitors should read the schedule carefully.

· The phrase 'for effect' has been removed as no one seemed to know what it meant.

· A new class for "6 portraits of alpine plants, in color, distinct, showing characteristic habit, in the wild or in cultivation". This replaces the old class 214 which was for plants in the wild only.

· The classes for botanical illustrations have been reworded and now require "all morphological structures to be shown".

· There is a new class for 6 botanical paintings in London only.

· There is now a needlework class in Section B

The online show has grown in 2007 attracting 340 entries compared with 120 in 2006. It has now been judged and the results can be viewed on the website.

The show will be repeated during 2008 and will be open for entries shortly. So don't forget to get shots of your best plants in pots or in the garden. Remember it is not a photographic competition – it is the plants that are being judged (but they must be your plants). The rules appear in detail on the website.

The results of this competition will not contribute towards any of the AGS national awards or trophies.

This is an ongoing topic for debate! Nothing new has been added to the rules this year, but you might like to refer back to the article in last year's newsletter. If you do not have a copy, it can be found on the Society's web pages.

The rules for Section B were changed a few years ago to allow exhibitors who have won their Silver medal to continue exhibiting in Section B and win Silver Bars. This change has been successful in encouraging occasional exhibitors who enjoy exhibiting once a year at their local show to continue competing even after winning their Silver Medal. However, the Shows Subcommittee felt that there should be a limit to the number of Silver Bars that can be achieved before the exhibitor has to move on to the Open Section, and this limit has been set at 5.

After several years decline, the number of new exhibitors showing in Section C has increased for the last two years This is probably as a result of a relaxation in the rules for making entries – C Section exhibitors can just bring their plants along on the morning of the show. We should all keep an eye open at the shows for anyone who looks new and see if they need help in finding their way through the process of staging their plants.

Do you know anyone that might be persuaded to become an exhibitor. We rely on our exhibitors to maintain the high standard at our shows and a steady supply of new exhibitors is required to maintain these standards. Most new exhibitors are brought along to a show by an existing exhibitor. Even if they don't bring any plants this year, point out Section C to them and encourage them to think about having a go next year.

You will soon receive your March issue of the Alpine Gardener containing the Show Reports for 2007. These are in a new style with more pictures and less text. Full text versions of the show reports from each show are still being published on the Society's website. If you are not online and would like copies of these, they can be obtained from the AGS centre.

Most major decisions about the running of AGS National shows are made by the Shows Sub-Committee. If you want to make suggestions to this committee, the members of the Show Sub-Committee during the current year are: Chair:Jim McGregor; Ex-officio:Frank Tindall, Val Lee, Chris McGregor; Assistant Directors of Shows: Jim Almond, Ray Drew, Geoff Mawson, Rannveig Wallis; Elected Members: Roger Stuckey, Alan Furness. (Shows policy is also discussed at a meeting of Show Secretaries held every two years – there will be one held at the end of the 2008 season.)

If you have any brief items that could be printed in future issues of this Newsletter, please let Geoff Mawson have them. He has agreed to act as coordinator.

The 2007 League Tables