Thank you for the many kind responses. This is the beginning, but the ultimate success will depend on the entire fig community and beyond. After a lot of paperwork is done, and all the “i”s and “t”s appropriately adorned, the real work will begin: finding money, property, adding varieties, and the like.
For those who will want to expand and add to the collection, the next year will be the time to start new plants from cuttings, to make air-layers, etc.
JD: Great advice, which was echoed at a recent SCORE seminar which addressed many of the issues involved in choosing board members, and what leads to a successful board environment. I do understand the need for diversity. There is a lot of work that doesn’t involve figs: ccounting, grant writing, thank-you notes, communication, website, begging, and so much more. Hopefully this week, or next I will have the opportunity to encourage a small group of such people to help with this endeavor, even if it is short term.
Martin: maybe not feeling the age so much at this time, but knowing that it is coming. I am definitely not getting younger.
Paul: The tax benefits are clearly geared toward Americans, but that does not preclude participation by anyone else in the fig community. Non-profit makes the money easier to attract (supposedly), and makes it go further.
Sue: You will definitely get your opportunity!
Mike: I expect to have a good working realtionship with NCGR/USDA/UC Davis. This month will be my fifth visit to the collection at Wolfskill. They have limited funding and staffing, which is a hurdle that we should have some opportunities to overcome. I do not want that to be construed as finding fault with any part of their program, but it is a reality which they must deal with. Additionally, their raison d’etre is more narrow than what I envision ousr should be. Hopefully we will be able to partner with them to enable distribution of more the the varieties which they currently posess, and do it in a way that mitigiates the fiscal impact for them. Not that any are even in the discussion stage, but there are some possible public sites locations for siting the orchard, and possibly some non-public ones that might come at little or no cost.
Dave: if you have experieince in fundraising and the like, I am all ears. This is not an area of expertise for me. I expect will be getting better at it real soon. If you have sources, ideas, techniques (I have been reading about crowd funding), please share.
Chris: Siting of an orchard is obviously a complex issue. An eastern site would probably be more accessable to more people, though the miracle of cuttings helps mitigate a ,lot of the distance issues. Winter weather is certainly a major factor in locating such a collection. Who want’s to winterize 2000 trees? And, after all, I am here in paradise, where that is not an issue. ;-)) Time will tell how this will develop. I learned from USDA/UC Davis the importance of having multiple trees (and my own experience confrims this), so there is the real possibility that that duplication could be in two locations, rather than at one. Some of the trees at WEO were badly damaged by in unusually cold winter and freeze, and many years later still evidence that trauma.
And to everyone else, if you have ideas, please e-mail. This is going to be an adventure, and I fully understand that no one person, including me, has all the answers.