Bonsai and Stone Appreciation Magazine by BCI

I just received my very first issue of the BCI magazine. I'm completely blown away. After only reading a competitors mag for years, I cant believe what I've been missing. I've been looking at it for two days now and the trees and photography are just incredible. A couple things I noticed were; 1, I don't recognize any of the tree owners names from the IBC.(Trees that are here in the states) I'm not sure why that seems strange but it does to me. And 2, Our old friend Al Keppler wrote a great article on the styling of an ancient Juniper. Good job Al!
Anyway, I just can't seem to put the magazine down and can't wait for the next issue. Way to go BCI, keep it up.

Is Bonsai Today no longer published?

Myrtle wrote:I just received my very first issue of the BCI magazine. I'm completely blown away. After only reading a competitors mag for years, I cant believe what I've been missing. I've been looking at it for two days now and the trees and photography are just incredible. A couple things I noticed were; 1, I don't recognize any of the tree owners names from the IBC.(Trees that are here in the states) I'm not sure why that seems strange but it does to me. And 2, Our old friend Al Keppler wrote a great article on the styling of an ancient Juniper. Good job Al!
Anyway, I just can't seem to put the magazine down and can't wait for the next issue. Way to go BCI, keep it up.

Hi Myrtle thanks for the feedback on the BCI magazine. In the interest of disclosure I will say I am the VP of BCI and will be the next president. While magazines in general have been struggling with rising production costs and mailing fees, BCI still puts out a good magazine and the editor has done a nice job improving the quality of the magazine the last few years. In the future we expect to increase our offerings to keep BCI relevant and maybe even lower our membership costs some. I would encourage all IBC members to consider a BCI membership as it is truly the leading global entity promoting bonsai.

I appreciate the concept of trying to please everybody, but some of us are disgruntled with the Stone Appreciation part. Believe it or not, there are bonsai growers who are not interested in suiseki, except as occasional bonsai accents, & prefer not to have their dues pay for such a large part of the magazine. If you must satisfy the suiseki crowd, please publish a separate magazine with a separate subscription.
Iris

Myrtle wrote:Is Bonsai Today no longer published?

A few years ago, Bonsai Today merged with Bonsai Focus.
Iris

[quote="Rob Kempinski
In the interest of disclosure I will say I am the VP of BCI and will be the next president.
In the future we expect to increase our offerings to keep BCI relevant and maybe even lower our membership costs some. .[/quote]

Rob,
Have you considered keeping the cost the same and going back to 6 issue per year as it was for years?
Dale

Dale Cochoy wrote:[quote="Rob Kempinski
In the interest of disclosure I will say I am the VP of BCI and will be the next president.
In the future we expect to increase our offerings to keep BCI relevant and maybe even lower our membership costs some. .

Rob,
Have you considered keeping the cost the same and going back to 6 issue per year as it was for years?
Dale[/quote]

Interesting question Dale, BCI would love to publish 6 magazines a year, unfortunately as we all know costs of everything including publishing and postage have risen through the roof. The reason for only offering 4 good issues was to keep costs low and not raise membership fees excessively. BCI is a non-profit organization and relies on membership and generous donations of its members. Next year we are restructuring BCI a bit and hopefully we can see some price relief and perhaps some new products to promote the art of bonsai. Thanks for the interest.

A lot of western speakers may not know that BCI has been publishing a Chinese language magazine on bonsai and stone appreciation for the last couple of years. I don't read Chinese but get a courtesy copy of that magazine and it really is good too.

bonsaisr wrote:I appreciate the concept of trying to please everybody, but some of us are disgruntled with the Stone Appreciation part. Believe it or not, there are bonsai growers who are not interested in suiseki, except as occasional bonsai accents, & prefer not to have their dues pay for such a large part of the magazine. If you must satisfy the suiseki crowd, please publish a separate magazine with a separate subscription.
Iris

Iris, sorry to hear that you are disgruntled about the stone appreciation part. I personally don't have much interest in stones either but the fact that the are in the magazine doesn't bother me, I actually like looking at them to see what creative work has been done to complement bonsai. The fact is many bonsai enthusiasts either have/or collect stones or appreciate them as a related art to the display of bonsai. This is especially true in Asia where BCI has had the most recent growth in membership. Adding content about stones has allowed BCI to reach a broader global market, which in itself is fairly small. Hence, the added membership has been a benefit to BCI which benefits all members.

Rob Kempinski wrote:

Dale Cochoy wrote:[quote="Rob Kempinski
In the interest of disclosure I will say I am the VP of BCI and will be the next president.
In the future we expect to increase our offerings to keep BCI relevant and maybe even lower our membership costs some. .

Rob,
Have you considered keeping the cost the same and going back to 6 issue per year as it was for years?
Dale

Interesting question Dale, BCI would love to publish 6 magazines a year, unfortunately as we all know costs of everything including publishing and postage have risen through the roof. The reason for only offering 4 good issues was to keep costs low and not raise membership fees excessively. BCI is a non-profit organization and relies on membership and generous donations of its members. Next year we are restructuring BCI a bit and hopefully we can see some price relief and perhaps some new products to promote the art of bonsai. Thanks for the interest.[/quote]

Thanks Rob. I have been a member of BCI for MANY years and remember when it went from 6 issues to 4 after many years. Then, almost immediately, we heard about the stone magazine being brought out.

"A lot of western speakers may not know that BCI has been publishing a Chinese language magazine on bonsai and stone appreciation for the last couple of years. I don't read Chinese but get a courtesy copy of that magazine and it really is good too."

At the time I couldn't understand why the BCI mag was dropped by 1/3 and then another Chinese magazine was funded? I THINK the BCI dues have also gone up since then?
How is the stone magazine related to/through BCI? I never really got a good answer to this? I don't get the magazine and have always been curious about that.

Dale

Rob Kempinski wrote:Asia where BCI has had the most recent growth in membership. Adding content about stones has allowed BCI to reach a broader global market, which in itself is fairly small. Hence, the added membership has been a benefit to BCI.

Duly noted. I will just hit the delete button on those pages.
No, I'm not going to tear them out. It's the club's magazine.
Iris

Thanks Rob. I have been a member of BCI for MANY years and remember when it went from 6 issues to 4 after many years. Then, almost immediately, we heard about the stone magazine being brought out.

"A lot of western speakers may not know that BCI has been publishing a Chinese language magazine on bonsai and stone appreciation for the last couple of years. I don't read Chinese but get a courtesy copy of that magazine and it really is good too."

At the time I couldn't understand why the BCI mag was dropped by 1/3 and then another Chinese magazine was funded? I THINK the BCI dues have also gone up since then?
How is the stone magazine related to/through BCI? I never really got a good answer to this? I don't get the magazine and have always been curious about that.

Dale

Hi Dale, I don't want to get into the details of BCI funding but let me try to explain a bit. The stone magazine of a few years ago was a joint venture BCI had with a Chinese entrepreneur. It merely used the BCI name and some articles from past BCI magazines but received no funding from BCI. That magazine didn't work out economically for the entrepreneur so it folded after a handful of issues. There is no longer a separate stone magazine affiliated BCI. We added stone content to the english BCI magazine to reflect the substantial interest in stones among bonsai enthusiasts but BCI still remains committed to promoting the art of bonsai. The economics of 6 versus 4 issues per year had nothing to do with that separate stone magazine but solely reflect the realities of publishing a global paper product in this economy.

For the past few years there has been a Chinese version of the BCI Bonsai magazine. It is similar to the English language magazine but written in Chinese. As such it has a completely different publishing mechanism due to the nature of the differences in languages and it focuses more on China. It is completely funded within China although some of its content appears in the English BCI magazine. I think most Westerners really don't appreciate the depth and vastness of Chinese interest in bonsai and China has been a big area of growth for BCI.

Iris's comment about using the club magazine has probably been the biggest stumbling block to BCI sustainability in the west. While BCI was once an organization aimed at clubs that mission may have to evolve to sustain the organization. BCI really needs individuals to join to remain viable. So if some of you aren't individual members I would encourage you to join as an individual. Thanks for the support.

Thanks for the further, and detailed , explanation Rob.
I think I have it now....along with drawers and drawers of BCI, ABS, Stone Lantern, Bonsai Europe (and it's various names) and Int. Bonsai ....most going back to when I ( or they) got started
BTW, I agree it would be nice if all individuals interested in bonsai would subscribe to all the mags/associations but I can certainly understand why some can't.

D.

Dale Cochoy wrote:Thanks for the further, and detailed , explanation Rob.
I think I have it now....along with drawers and drawers of BCI, ABS, Stone Lantern, Bonsai Europe (and it's various names) and Int. Bonsai ....most going back to when I ( or they) got started
BTW, I agree it would be nice if all individuals interested in bonsai would subscribe to all the mags/associations but I can certainly understand why some can't.

D.

Great Dale, glad you are a member and supporter.

Publishing a magazine is a tough job in today's economy and digital age. (Look at the newspaper and magazine industry in general). Many people read the BCI's copy that their club gets. However the BCI magazine is not really a public good - unlike the government we can't raise taxes to cover costs or go into great debt. If we can not obtain more individual members it will be very difficult to continue to exist in its current form. So if you read the magazine and enjoy it we ask that you please join the organization to help support it.

Sorry, in regards to stones, I, apparently, am one.

Someone please include a link to the membership page for BCI. I'm looking for something new to read!



Membership up by 1!

http://www.bonsai-bci.com/

And while you're at it, join the American Bonsai Society (ABS) too: http://www.absbonsai.org/

They also have a very nice magazine.