This was the original illustration drawn in 1994, by the young D. Ayres, son of long time GGCS member Mary Ayres. Illustration was purchased by the club from Mr. Ayres and copyrighted at that time. 

Our Personal Philosophy

The Golden Gate Cymbidium Society's objectives and purposes are to engage in the promotion of Cymbidium culture extending the knowledge, production and appreciation of Cymbidium orchids.

To obtain and circulate information relating to Cymbidiums; to encourage participation in orchids shows and displays

To meet and simply talk about Cymbidiums

Membership is available to anyone who shares a sincere interest in orchids, and wishes to actively participate in the activities of the organization.
 

 History of the Golden Gate Cymbidium Society 

Editor Rita Pascoe's note: "As you can see we have a great legacy to uphold…and I think we have done it!"

"In creating this page, I spoke to a few people asking what they knew of the origins of the club.  Neal Tadlock recently was remembering the days the 1980's when he, Barbara and Jerry Gonce were trying to formulate the club.

"This is an article written by member Vern Viani, (with his permission) on the Golden Gate’s 10th anniversary in 1999, that our then Newsletter Editor Rita Pascoe published in the 20th Anniversary February 2009 GGCS newsletter.  It tells about how our club got started to become the 10th member of the Cymbidium Society of America. Paul Chim, president of Golden Gate Cymbidium Society requested admission of the branch into the CSA June 26th, 1990 and we were accepted unanimously by the CSA Board of Directors on July 10, 1990.

Article as follows:

Through the years, there had been periodic attempts to organize a Cymbidium Society in the northern California area. Perhaps one of the most important attempts relating to our current society was the one mounted by Dr. K. L. Lee, who is well-known for his collection of oriental cymbidium species.

More recently, Paul Chim and Janet Stoll asked the Marin Orchid Society members how many would be interested in joining a society specializing in Cymbidiums. Thirty seven members were interested. Although, perhaps, a greater percentage of the Marin hobbyists grow orchids without a greenhouse than maybe true for the 5 or 6 other orchid societies around the San Francisco Bay. This still lent hope of a large number of hobbyists who might join a Cymbidium Society. The Marin Orchid Society very generously provided seed money and gave us an additional donation early this year. At the urging of Janet Stoll and Paul Chim, organizational meetings of the Golden Gate Cymbidium Society were begun December 1988.  The first meeting was hosted by Leland Williams of Oakland and was attended by Paul Chim, Karen Kinstle, Ted Surdam, Dean Haas and Wayne Ingalls. The first public meeting, replete with speaker, was held February, 1989. We have grown quite rapidly, as we fill the needs of people who are principally interested in growing Cymbidiums. Our paid membership is now 92 people and growing. At present members have commutes up to 150 miles and drive up to 3 ½ hours to attend our meetings. Talk about dedication! Presumably, some of our more distant members will eventually serve as foci for additional branches.

According to Paul Chim, in the late 1960’s a study group was formed including Millicent Brown, Art Latham and Dr. K.H. Lee and a few others to try and organize a Cymbidium society. Then in the early 70’s, Jim Crossley wrote an article about growing Cymbidiums in the Bay Area. He tried at this time to setup a Cymbidium society, and felt the forming of a society would give Bay Area people more chances of winning awards.  AOS judges in the Bay Area rarely awarded Cymbidiums in the area.

In the early 80’s, Weegie Caughlan tried to set up a group to promote the culture and promote better growing conditions. She had a list of twenty five interested people, but a society was not then formed. Then in 1988 when Paul Chim was President of the Marin Orchid Society, he was able to get a list of thirty five interested people from Marin Society and it was these people who eventually organized the Golden Gate Cymbidium Society. A motion was passed at the Marin Society meeting to donate $250.00 to the group for them to organize a new society.

According to Paul Chim, he met with Leland Williams, the first president of the society, in Santa Barbara. Paul was in a Korean restaurant reading an article in the Orchid Advocate when Leland Williams noticed him reading it. Leland introduced himself and said he was the author of the article. Both being from the Bay Area, they started to work together to organize this society. On February 24, 1989, a fictitious business name statement was filed for the Golden Gate Cymbidium, (file No. 134840) with officers as follows: President Leland Williams; Vice President Paul Chim; Treasurer Karen Kinstel; Secretary Estelle Emhart; and Directors: Mrs. R. W. Caughlan, Wayne R. Ingalls and Harry Wilmoth. 

The organizational meetings to set up the society were held in a pizza parlor on Grand Avenue, but as noted above, the first few general meetings were held at the home of Leland Williams in Oakland. Jim Crossley volunteered to set up a display for the Golden Gate Cymbidium Society at the San Francisco Orchid Society’s Pacific Orchid Exposition and wrote an article for the members about preparing plants for the show and about judging. Helping Jim were Bob Johnson and Art Nicoll. The display was a model of the Golden Gate Bridge. Jim didn’t even know that his display won until a few years later I mentioned that it had won $50.00.

The first speaker for the society was Leland Williams at the February 28, 1989 meeting. Leland talked about his experiences in selecting Cymbidiums for the Bay Area. The first year the Board of Directors  opted not to meet in the summer months, so there was no meeting in June, July and August. However, the members wanted to meet year round, so from 1990 and so on the Society has met all year and has had July as the Potluck dinner and December as the Christmas dinner. Since, we have had many well known speakers such as Andy Easton from Australia, Keith Andrews from England, Alan Moon curator of the Eric Young Foundation in England and many other experts in their various fields of expertise.

The first newsletter editor was Jeannie Look with Leland Williams writing the cultural page and continued to do so for several years. He also wrote cultural articles for beginners as well as the advanced members.  We still publish these in our latest newsletters. When Jeannie Look resigned as editor, Leland took over for a while until Laura Sutherland volunteered to be the editor. After Laura’s resignation Mary Ayres took over, then Audrey Young (Tarter) and back to Mary Ayres, our current editor.

During Leland William’s term of office, the Society was new and began making the rules and by-laws for the organization. They started participating in the San Francisco Orchid Show and made in-roads to join The Cymbidium Society of America. During Paul Chim’s term the Society did become a branch of the CSA and started the ball rolling to get members of the Golden Gate Cymbidium Society into training for becoming CSA judges. Paul Chim and the next president Barbara Gonce were very instrumental in starting the training for judges and six members of the society started the long training. In June 1998 Paul Chim became the first CSA Judge in the Golden Gate Cymbidium Society.

The first show held by Golden Gate was at the Lakeside Garden Center in Oakland and chaired by then vice president Raymond Greuel. The next two shows were held at the Bayfair Mall in San Leandro and then in 1994 returned to Lakeside Garden Center. All the shows and sales have been successful for the society.

In the ten years of the society’s existence, we have come a long way and have learned a lot about the Culture of Cymbidiums and the care for showing them. We have shared a lot of experiences, trials and tribulations in cymbidium growing. Some of our founders have since passed away, like Leland Williams and Janet Stoll and we miss them very much. On the other hand, we still have several of the first members like Paul Chim, Estell Emhart, Bob Johnson and Wayne Ingalls as members. The new members have pitched in and have helped to make the society what it is today. All I can add is that any club or society is only as good as the members that participate and work for it. We hope our members continue to do this and make a better Golden Gate Cymbidium Society.

- Vern Viani