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, then knew agreed 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.