Page 18 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2023

Fiona’s round up
FIONA SHENFIELD FNVS, NVS GENERAL SECRETARY
Thank you!
Firstly, a big thank you goes to Neil Hope F.N.V.S. who has been proofreading our “Simply Vegetables” Magazine, since it was first produced in Winter 2009/10 (replacing our previous small quarterly Bulletins).
Neil has decided to hang up his reading glasses after his many years of review and feedback. Thanks very much Neil for all your hours of support.
Looking for Unwins Seeds?
Unwin’s Seeds can now be found in Marshalls Garden. Established in 1903, Unwin’s, as you know, has been a highly respected seed supplier. They continue to be and in addition to their well-known development of Sweet Peas, they have now diversified into vegetable seed and so, sit side by side with Marshalls Garden as their specialist heritage brand. Unwin’s now shares all their expertise in seed selection and the testing of Marshalls Garden https://marshallsgarden.com/pages/unwins
Marshalls, as most of our members know, are a major partner and sponsor of
the NVS, from sponsoring prize money at shows, providing a 10% discount to our members and carrying out a seed trial last year too with 30 members. Check out the NVS web site to see more and to pick up your Marshall’s discount code.
Budding film producers
Something we used to do a few years ago to do was to produce a video at our National Championships with
an overall view of the event, close ups of exhibits and interviews of various exhibitors to learn a bit about how they produced their winning
veg exhibits. Is this something that you would be interested in doing? Contact Fiona Shenfield (see page 3 for contact details).
Software skills
Back in our Autumn Magazine edition we
included a small article on page 6 advising that
we were looking to create a problem solving
knowledge bank – database that our members
could search through to gain knowledge as a
help tool. Examples would include things like
identifying a problem (from a description and/or photo) and then providing solutions for prevention or correction. Our idea is for this to be a live growing database that’s easy to use and easy to add to. If any of our members have software skills that they feel they could provide advice or assistance, it would be most appreciated. Contact Fiona Shenfield (see page 3 for contact details).
?
Membership Subscription – IMPORTANT – payment by Credit Card
We have seen a few duplication errors in membership renewals, where a member has previously paid their subscription
by credit card, but due to a lack of understanding of how it is set up, they ended up paying twice. Some instances may have been due to insufficient information having been provided by the NVS and so we would like to help explain how the credit card payment works.
The system is what’s known as a “RECURRING CARD PAYMENT”. This means, for example, if you first paid
£20 by card on March the 8th in 2021, a further £20 would be taken off your card on the 8th March 2022 and again on the 8th March 2023 etc.
Note: Two weeks prior to your payment due date, you will be sent an email to advise that your payment is due soon.
This provides you with time to either; a. Do nothing (and continue with
your annual recurring payment) b. Check your card details and
update them via your user account online (www.nvsuk.org. uk) e.g. if you card is due to expire, or if you wanted to change to a different card.
c. Cancel your card payment
d. Switch to Direct Debit (to avoid having to do these checks each
year)
Examples we have seen have included,
but not been limited to;
1. A member had taken out a
second subscription with a second card payment (and therefore paid twice). We have advised individuals of this and
refunded them.
2. A member took out a Direct
Debit but did not cancel their card payment (and therefore paid twice). We have advised individuals of this and refunded them.
3. Various combinations of members having forgotten their payment method and so had either set up an additional one or sending a cheque.
If you are not sure of your payment method or wish to check it out with us, please just contact your membership Secretary’s (see page 5 for contact details) or contact Fiona Shenfield (see page 3 for contact details). We will be happy to help you out. Thank you.
18 Simply Vegetables