Our club has 86 members, as of today. Some of our members are "life members," meaning they've paid upfront so they never have to pay dues again. Our club is affiliated with The Gardeners of America/Men's Garden Clubs of America. It used to be The Men's Garden Club of Austin. That was until all us pesky women were invited in and they changed the name a bit! The judges for our flower shows come from Dallas and Houston clubs that we're affiliated with also.
How many show up depends on a variety of things...weather, program and speaker, conflicts with other commitments, among other things. I would say we average about 50 members most nights....way more if it's a "hard to get" speaker or program. We also encourage members to bring guests. We have a fantastic duo that hunt down new speakers and find spots around Austin for us to visit (this month for our mtg. we'll be guests again at The Great Outdoors for an evening of talks, give-aways, and discounted shopping!). Next month we have a plant auction for our scholarship fund. It's always a fun evening with members trying to up their buddy's bids!
Our club offers scholarships to deserving college students majoring in the horticultural field. (The guy that started Southern Bulbs was one of our recipients in his college days). We maintain the fern beds at the Zilker Botanical Gardens. I would guess that most of our members are also involved in at least one other gardening club. Our youngest member is a home schooled senior (who has chaired our flower show three times already!) and our oldest members are in their 80's and possibly 90's. We also volunteer to help other projects at the Gardens, planting bulbs, helping with the annual festival...traditionally our club man's the gate for the festival, too many things to list this morning. And I've written about our chartered bus trip to Dallas to visit Casa Flora last year. That was special...
