IPhoto file organization

I am new to both iMac and iPhoto so please bare with me.
Is there a way to import my photos as they are in the finder? For example, I have my files set up like this:
2009
01 Jan
02 Feb
12 Dec
Easter
Birthday
Random
2010
01 Jan
02 Feb
12 Dec
Christmas
Beach
Random
2011
2012
When I import them into iPhoto, the software groups the pictures by month regardless of year which makes it hard for me to manage the files. It would be great if I could view the photos in the same convention as they are in the finder.
Hopefully my question is clear. 

Yes you can set that up in the iPhoto window.
Create Albums for each of those dates. Then a folder for the year, and drag the album to the folder.
But date-based organisation is a bit pointless in iPhoto. Why?
You can find the photos from any day, month or year with a couple of clicks using the search tool. Additionally, using a Smart Album you can find from any date range, or even compounds of date ranges - like April 12 2010 to May 11 2010 etc.
Date-based organisation is limited too, especially when you have many thousands of photos. How often will you find yourself saying 'Oh I want that pic I took on March 11th, 2009' compared to 'Where's that photo of the dog jumping to catch the stick I took a few years ago?'
The point of using of iPhoto is that it offers much more than the Finder for organising your photos. Here's a canned answer I offer that illustrates the possibilities for organising in iPhoto. It might spark some ideas...
I use Events simply as big buckets of Photos: Spring 08, July - Nov 06 are typical Events in my Library. I use keywords and Smart Albums extensively. I title the pics broadly.
I keyword on a
Who
What
Where basis (The When is in the photos's Exif metadata). I also rate the pics on a 1 - 5 star basis.
Using this system I can find pretty much find any pic in my 50k library in a couple of seconds.
So, for example, I have a batch of pics titled 'Seattle 08' and a  typical keywording might include: John, Anne, Landscape, mountain, trees, snow. With a rating included it's so very easy to find the best pics we took at Mount Rainier.
File -> New Smart Album
set it to 'All"
title contains Seattle
keyword is mountain
keyword is snow
rating is 5 stars
Or, want a chronological album of John from birth to today?
New Smart Album
Keyword is John
Set the View options to Sort By Date Ascending
Want only the best pics?
add Rating is greater than 4 stars
The best thing about this system is that it's dynamic. If I add 50 more pics of John  to the Library tomorrow, as I keyword and rate them they are added to the Smart Album.
In the end, organisation is about finding the pics. The point is to make locating that pic or batch of pics findable fast. This system works for me.
Some tips on accessing your files from iPhoto:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4491

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