2014 AHS Region 5 Service Award
In 1974, the AHS Board established this award for outstanding service to AHS at the regional level. Currently serving board members are not eligible. However, Serving Regional Presidents are now eligible to be nominated for these awards.
Only one AHS Regional Service Award may be awarded per region per year. A dual award for two members of the same family counts as one award. An AHS member will only be eligible to win a Regional Service Award once. Nominations may come from any member of the nominee's region. Nominations must be sent to the AHS Awards & Honors Chairman by September 1st by mail or email, and must contain a summary of the nominee's worthiness for this award. The AHS Board votes by secret ballot at the annual fall board meeting, and the award is presented at the following AHS National Convention. The 2016 Region 5 AHS Service Award goes to Camilla and David Arthur.
Only one AHS Regional Service Award may be awarded per region per year. A dual award for two members of the same family counts as one award. An AHS member will only be eligible to win a Regional Service Award once. Nominations may come from any member of the nominee's region. Nominations must be sent to the AHS Awards & Honors Chairman by September 1st by mail or email, and must contain a summary of the nominee's worthiness for this award. The AHS Board votes by secret ballot at the annual fall board meeting, and the award is presented at the following AHS National Convention. The 2016 Region 5 AHS Service Award goes to Camilla and David Arthur.
Anyone can be of service in the activities of AHS. You don't have to have a special degree in botany and you don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love, which is characteristic of Camilla and David Arthur from Marietta, Georgia. Here are some examples of the service they have accomplished since they became Region 5 AHS members in 2005;
Local Daylily Clubs: Camilla and David are members of both the Cobb County Daylily Society (CCDS) and the Daylily Society of Greater Atlanta (DSGA).Camilla has been vice president of the CCDS . David is a past president of the CCDS. Both have been on the board of CCDS since the beginning and are charter members of the CCDS.
Region 5 Members: Camilla and David are very active in all of the events in Region 5. In 2011 they were co-chairs of the Region 5 Meeting sponsored by the Cobb County Daylily Society which resulted in them being asked to co-chair the 2015 National AHS Convention. Camilla has also served as Publicity Director for Region 5.
Daylily Judge- Camilla and David serves as a Senior Exhibition Judge and also as an AHS Garden Judge.
AHS Display Garden – Camilla and David's display garden is named Prissy's Garden. They call their little bit of heaven a "city" garden located in a residential setting. What visitors really observe is a lot of love and hard work and a large place for sentiment that gives garden guests the appearance that it serves them as their private refuge for inspiration, creativity and a connection with nature. Their collection of daylilies included a wide range of forms and types. Prissy's Garden was an AHS 2015 National Tour Garden and I could see many folks writing down garden ideas and taking pictures to take back home with them for David and Camilla have probably the same size of garden that most AHS members have. Their yard art was just phenomenal especially with their bird bath fairy garden, oh how gorgeous it was!
Co-Chairs 2015 AHS National Convention- It is easy to do things for our own families and loved ones, but to give of our substance is the real test of our charity and love for our fellow daylily lovers. Camilla and David Arthur believed that if you take care of the little things everything else would fall in place. For example on the first day after the tours, I was to do a program at 4:00 p.m. Before I came to the convention I had asked the person (not David or Camilla) that had asked me to do the program did I need to bring a computer and projector for my power point program. The answer was "No, they'll have one at the hotel". It was getting about 10 minutes before the program was to start and I was really worried for there was no way I could do a program without the equipment. Then David Arthur came lugging in the computer and projector and began setting it up. Just imagine, he and Camilla had just had over 600 people tour their garden that day, then he gets in his vehicle and navigates it to the hotel in that awful Friday afternoon Atlanta traffic. Camilla and David Arthur implemented the technical, operational, and the overall vision for the convention along with overseeing the financial, administrative and logistical management. They were assisted by a great team of committees from both the Cobb County Daylily Society and the Daylily Society of Greater Atlanta .They took full responsibility for the convention schedule and assignment of rooms for meetings and workshops. Also they took total accountability for obtaining and distributing the convention guest plants. This dynamic duo was responsible for the design of the logo used at the convention and designed and obtained the garden stones displayed in the eight tour gardens. They wrote the articles placed in the Daylily Journal and the Georgia Daylily and wrote the garden descriptions used in the convention book. Camilla and David were on the committee to select and negotiate the contract with the convention hotel and they handled all planning of the auxiliary tour to the botanical garden on Thursday including lunch. Camilla coordinated the sale of shirts for the National and they both organized the digging of plants on the I-75 side of Atlanta. At every convention in recent times someone has to obtain the porta potties for all the tour gardens and of course this also was one of their jobs on their convention do list. Of all the events in the daylily world, an AHS National Convention has to be the pinnacle of experiences one can be involved in. Since 1947 many thousands of daylily lovers have attended this annual get together, meaning there have been 68 chairs/co-chairs of events of this magnitude in the history of AHS. Realizing that most daylily folks since 1947 have an array of things they have accomplished on their daylily resume, it can be truthfully stated that only a very tiny percentage of AHS members ever can list on their resume that they have been a chair or co-chair of a national convention for their region. In 2015, Camilla and David Arthur joined this elite and very small group of daylily folks who can say they have been in charge of a national daylily convention.
Concluding Statement: A celebration of daylilies and the people who grow them are indeed represented by this astonishing couple. The daylily world needs dreamers and needs doers to be successful. Thank goodness there are folks like Camilla and David Arthur because they are certainly representative of dreamers who do.
Local Daylily Clubs: Camilla and David are members of both the Cobb County Daylily Society (CCDS) and the Daylily Society of Greater Atlanta (DSGA).Camilla has been vice president of the CCDS . David is a past president of the CCDS. Both have been on the board of CCDS since the beginning and are charter members of the CCDS.
Region 5 Members: Camilla and David are very active in all of the events in Region 5. In 2011 they were co-chairs of the Region 5 Meeting sponsored by the Cobb County Daylily Society which resulted in them being asked to co-chair the 2015 National AHS Convention. Camilla has also served as Publicity Director for Region 5.
Daylily Judge- Camilla and David serves as a Senior Exhibition Judge and also as an AHS Garden Judge.
AHS Display Garden – Camilla and David's display garden is named Prissy's Garden. They call their little bit of heaven a "city" garden located in a residential setting. What visitors really observe is a lot of love and hard work and a large place for sentiment that gives garden guests the appearance that it serves them as their private refuge for inspiration, creativity and a connection with nature. Their collection of daylilies included a wide range of forms and types. Prissy's Garden was an AHS 2015 National Tour Garden and I could see many folks writing down garden ideas and taking pictures to take back home with them for David and Camilla have probably the same size of garden that most AHS members have. Their yard art was just phenomenal especially with their bird bath fairy garden, oh how gorgeous it was!
Co-Chairs 2015 AHS National Convention- It is easy to do things for our own families and loved ones, but to give of our substance is the real test of our charity and love for our fellow daylily lovers. Camilla and David Arthur believed that if you take care of the little things everything else would fall in place. For example on the first day after the tours, I was to do a program at 4:00 p.m. Before I came to the convention I had asked the person (not David or Camilla) that had asked me to do the program did I need to bring a computer and projector for my power point program. The answer was "No, they'll have one at the hotel". It was getting about 10 minutes before the program was to start and I was really worried for there was no way I could do a program without the equipment. Then David Arthur came lugging in the computer and projector and began setting it up. Just imagine, he and Camilla had just had over 600 people tour their garden that day, then he gets in his vehicle and navigates it to the hotel in that awful Friday afternoon Atlanta traffic. Camilla and David Arthur implemented the technical, operational, and the overall vision for the convention along with overseeing the financial, administrative and logistical management. They were assisted by a great team of committees from both the Cobb County Daylily Society and the Daylily Society of Greater Atlanta .They took full responsibility for the convention schedule and assignment of rooms for meetings and workshops. Also they took total accountability for obtaining and distributing the convention guest plants. This dynamic duo was responsible for the design of the logo used at the convention and designed and obtained the garden stones displayed in the eight tour gardens. They wrote the articles placed in the Daylily Journal and the Georgia Daylily and wrote the garden descriptions used in the convention book. Camilla and David were on the committee to select and negotiate the contract with the convention hotel and they handled all planning of the auxiliary tour to the botanical garden on Thursday including lunch. Camilla coordinated the sale of shirts for the National and they both organized the digging of plants on the I-75 side of Atlanta. At every convention in recent times someone has to obtain the porta potties for all the tour gardens and of course this also was one of their jobs on their convention do list. Of all the events in the daylily world, an AHS National Convention has to be the pinnacle of experiences one can be involved in. Since 1947 many thousands of daylily lovers have attended this annual get together, meaning there have been 68 chairs/co-chairs of events of this magnitude in the history of AHS. Realizing that most daylily folks since 1947 have an array of things they have accomplished on their daylily resume, it can be truthfully stated that only a very tiny percentage of AHS members ever can list on their resume that they have been a chair or co-chair of a national convention for their region. In 2015, Camilla and David Arthur joined this elite and very small group of daylily folks who can say they have been in charge of a national daylily convention.
Concluding Statement: A celebration of daylilies and the people who grow them are indeed represented by this astonishing couple. The daylily world needs dreamers and needs doers to be successful. Thank goodness there are folks like Camilla and David Arthur because they are certainly representative of dreamers who do.
