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The National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS) is a society of flower arranging clubs and societies in the United Kingdom. They banded together as the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies in 1959. In 1984 NAFAS was granted charitable status in recognition of its education activities. It currently has around 70,000 members. ==History== Although the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies was formed in 1959 it had its origins in the years after the Second World War when various ladies travelled to America and saw how the garden club movement welcomed flower arranging as something to be linked with plant growing. Julia Clements visited America and returned becoming active in lectures and demonstrations on flower arranging to Women’s Institutes and other clubs. She published her first book ''Fun with Flowers'' in 1950. In Dorset Mary Pope, having returned from Canada where she spent some of the war years, set up a panel in 1948 to fill the need for more knowledgeable judges of flower arranging for the increasing number of classes in horticultural shows. She went on to form a club in Dorchester in 1949 to encourage entries in the flower arranging sections of the horticultural societies and it soon had five hundred members. The Flower Academy was an event staged at the Royal Horticultural Society’s New Hall in London when the four existing flower arranging clubs in the country joined to stage a floral arrangements exhibition. The Colchester Flower Club, the Dorset Floral Decoration Club, the Leicester and County Flower Lovers Guild and the London Floral Decoration Society arranged 350 floral exhibits which attracted huge crowds and became ‘news’. Visitors returned home and clubs were formed throughout the country. Guidance from the Royal Horticultural Society was sought in 1954 when Mary Pope approached them for advice and help as there was a need to co-ordinate the many flower clubs being formed. On 7 December 1954 the President of the RHS, David Bowes-Lyon convened a meeting attended by representatives from 45 clubs from England, Scotland and Wales. This led to the formation within the RHS of the Floral Decoration Society in 1955, delegates from 125 clubs attended the meeting and agreed to divide Great Britain into five large regions. At the Chelsea Flower Show in 1956 the RHS provided a large marquee for the five regional organisations to show their artistry, this was visited by both Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother. Huge queues to view the floral designs and this in turn led to an upsurge in membership of flower clubs. As well as exhibiting at Chelsea each of the now seven Areas (North East Area was formed in 1957 and North West Area soon after) held shows in their own regions to great acclaim. Over the next few years the RHS Floral Decoration Committee produced lists of judges, teachers and demonstrators of flower arranging to help clubs organise their programmes and shows and by 1958 it was realised that a separate organisation should be formed. On 26 January 1959 the serving members of the RHS Flower Arrangement Committee agreed to form a Caretaker Committee under the proposed name, The National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies of Great Britain (NAFAS). They had three immediate tasks: to draft a constitution, to accumulate funds and to set up a central administration. Once again the RHS helped by providing a venue, free of charge, for The Festival of Floral Decoration held on 14 and 15 July 1959 in order to raise funds. There was both a competitive section and non competitive section and to the amazement of the committee a clear profit of £800 was made and much valuable publicity gained. By the end of 1959 a new area was formed, Three Counties & South Wales, from clubs originally in the South West Area and the Midlands. The Association was by now employing a part-time national secretary who shared a small room at Denison House, Vauxhall Bridge Road with the Metropolitan Gardeners Association. 1960 saw the first General Meeting of NAFAS, as it had become known, and a National Council was set up and a constitution adopted. From then on it was case of organisation and development as lists of judges, teachers, demonstrators and lecturers were set up and the idea of a national journal was explored. The Flower Arranger magazine was published in March 1961 as an A5 publication and is still going strong fifty years later. Over the next five decades NAFAS developed and became known throughout the world as a flower arranging organisation, of men and women, and membership peaked at 100,000. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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