Virginia is the Delta chapter of the American Gourd Society, and was active
for many years as the New River chapter based in Blacksburg, VA. After
a period of inactivity, the chapter restarted with a core group of gourdheads
in the upper Shenandoah Valley who met online at a Yahoo Group called Gourds
For Art & Utility, begun by Nancy Shrum of Woodstock. The group had
begun to gather at each other's homes to talk about gourds, show new techniques,
and of course eat! At that time no one wanted to get involved with
the bureaucratic effort of forms, officers, and schedules that restarting
a chapter would incur. Several meetings passed with the members of the
group voting to not have a chapter.
Eventually
the little group grew much bigger and wanted to meet on a grander scale,
a
festival!
At about the same time, Eddie Richard became enamoured with gourds and
offered to play host to a festival at his farm and market, Richards Fruit
Market. We started with one festival, and had so much fun we knew we needed
to restart the Virginia chapter, but under guidelines we could live with:
no officers, no monetary dues, a public outreach program, and only doing
what the membership volunteer efforts could produce. In other words, if
we couldn't walk the walk by ourselves, we wouldn't do it at all.
That's how we now have Coordinators and not officers, Membership Agreements
and not by-laws, membership donations to the common goal as a book of first
class stamps and not dues. Our annual festival is held at a member's facility,
and our public outreach project supports state youth agricultural programs
to further gourd knowledge in the coming generations. We are a loose, flexible
group of gourdheads that work together to get the gourd word out but with
fun and low stress. We do not have judged competitions or contests; our
annual festival is set up as a marketplace that benefits all who attend.