Genesis of Middle European Iris
Society.
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There were more attempts to unify iridaceous movement on the territory of Central Europe. In former Czechoslovakia it was possible to spot two waves - after a year 1972 and 1982. The core of the current Middle European Iris Society started to be gradually formed by Zdenek Seidl from Hlucin, who contacted growers and Iris cultivators in Silesia in Ostrava region, in Boh e mia in Prague region and in Slovakia in Bratislava region in 1989 and 1990 in connection with a specialized organization of grower of bulbiferous and tuberose flowers - IRIS Hlucin. Since 1990 the cooperation has expanded into Poland, to Silesian towns R ybnik, Gliwice and Zabrze. Thanks to that cooperation Polish growers gained the top assortment of modern Iris varieties , first from the other side of the border and then by obtaining contacts directly from the world's cultivators.
In 1995 during the Conven tion AIS in Oregon visitors from Europe declared a will of national European Iris societies to establish European Iris Society (EIS). The Middle European group was there represented by Milan Blazek. Closest to concensus was a variation for Italian Iris S ociety to be a co-ordinator of these tendencies in connection to Competition in Florencia. Representatives of Czech, Slovak and Polish cultivators agreed on a collective meeting, which was realized in February 1996 in Otrokovice. There the EIS club was est ablished. Thanks to weak EIS activities, a year later in Hlucin it came to a transformation of the club into a similar interstate non-governmental organization MEIS, which has legal subjectivity, its own account and regulations approved in the country of MEIS residence, it is in the Czech Republic.
Into a board were elected: Zdenek Seidl (president and Czech representative), Jerzy Wozniak (Polish representative), Ladislav Mu\'9aka(Slovak representative) and Milan Blazek (for relations with external organizations).
Fundamental principle of MEIS leading is a principle of the national equality, guaranteed especially by rotational post of a president after triennial functional period among representatives of all fundamental national groups: Czech, Polish and Slo vak. Tendency to open the society for other nations in Central Europe is restraint by the language barrier, thanks to weak knowledge of the world languages in a generation upon 30 years of age, which was caused by an international isolation of the former e aster block. Communication among MEIS members is based on the lingual similarity of Slavonic languages. However it is possible to assume, that future development will lead to realization of original tendences about MEIS openness for those countries in Cen tral Europe, where a national iris society is not for the disposal of growers and cultivators.