CHAPTER XII. CONCLUSIONS

1. The Torrey Botanical Society has changed over time from a gemeinschaft situation to a gesellschaft situation, that is, from a unified group with clear and common goals to a fractured group with no clear and common goals except, in general, to encourage interest in botany. The TBS is a local society that was started to deal with local issues, namely the regional flora. But today the TBS cares little about the local flora, leaving that to the "amateur" field botanists along with a few academic field botanists. The only problem, however, is that no satisfactory goals have replaced the old goals and so the society is without overall goals.

2. The Torrey Botanical Society was primarily founded out of an interest in the local flora. Over time this interest has weakened, but other goals have not come to the fore to give the Society a sense of unified purpose.

3. Because of this, currently the Torrey Botanical Society finds itself in a rough situation. Hence, the reason for the history. Because the TBS traditionally has speakers on very narrow topics, the more business oriented NYBG administration probably figures much like the larger public that the botanical organization is not of much relevance to any goals in which they are particularly interested.

4. The Torrey Botanical Society was the founder of the NYBG. (Credit has been wrongly assigned to the Drs. Britton by the NYBG.) This has to be made widely known.

5. The herbarium of the Torrey Botanical Society was put in the care of the NYBG under the explicit conditions that its separate identity be maintained and that it be available for viewing by any and all members of the Torrey Botanical Society. The NYBG Board of Directors and the TBS may not have been aware of this agreement and integrated the TBS collection into the overall collection. The Society did not effectively protest this situation.

6. Once there was no separate TBS herbarium, the right to a separate Torrey Room given to TBS by NYBG at the time of the Society's 100th anniversary was effectively rescinded by the NYBG. The Society now has to meet in make-shift conditions in the herbarium area.

7. The TBS needs a clear mission statement that both gives the society effective goals and lets others know what the society is doing for the larger community. Then the Society needs to sit down with the NYBG Board of Managers and have a serious discussion of our grievances.

8. A mutual working relationship needs to be worked out with the NYBG. The Society can promote NYBG through its websites (by banners for instance), its field booklets, its lectures, etc., but NYBG should also promote interest in TBS.