Minutes of The August Regularly Scheduled Meeting of
The Virginia Master
Gardener Association, Inc.
August 11, 2001
Prince William, VA
Attendance
(Arlington) Marti Klein, Alice Nicolson; (Blacksburg - VA Tech, SMGC) Sarah Lineberger; (Chesapeake) Kerry Goldmeyer; (Fauquier) Jim Scibek; (Gloucester) Florace Arnold; (Halifax) W.H. McCaleb; (Hanover) Cheri Haggerty, Evelyn Parker; (Newport News) Gary Bill; (Page) Bud Gregory, Fran Gregory; (Prince George) Cheryl Elmore; (Prince William) Ron M. Cloer, Julie Cochran, Sharon Corbin, Susan De Bolt, Gregory Evans, Debbie Hamilton, Karen Pitton, Frank Reilly, Pat Reilly, Mary Seikel, Jane Wyman; (Roanoke) Jerry Crumb; (Rockbridge) Caroline Norrington, Chuck Norrington; (York) Sybil Przypek.
Call
to Order
President Pat Reilly called the meeting to order at 0958. She thanked everyone for attending the meeting.
Introductions
Pat introduced Susan DeBolt, Environmental Hort Agent for
Prince William County, who gave an overview of their programs.
Others present introduced themselves.
Minutes
The minutes of the June meeting were approved as submitted.
Treasurer’s
Report
Treasurer Sybil Przypek reported a total balance of $17,598.57. The Treasurer's report was accepted as presented.
President’s
Report
· Pat Reilly announced that the Education Endowment Exploration Committee consists of Bud Gregory, Chuck Walters, and Susan Wingfield. They are requested to present, at the October meeting, a draft of the guidelines as to how, within any particular year and given the guidance of the board, what projects they would like to make available to the membership and how that individual can get that money.
Nomination and Election Committee – Karen Sacasky has volunteered to head up the committee. Need volunteers. Gary Bill and Bud Gregory volunteered.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Education
Pat Reilly reported for Ann Gorrell- Ann to get volunteers together. Pat challenged them to come up with two huge programs, one in November and one in February. Pat would like to see Plant Problems for November.
Discussion: Alice Nicolson – Fauquier program not advanced training. It is continuing education (refresher, in-service, etc.). Tree Steward is advanced training. 8 hours of continuing education per year is required. Programs should be called continuing education.
Discussion: From Ann –
Hort Therapy planned in Fredericksburg with Diane Relf.
Does the VMGA want to partner. Entails
taking their information and making it available to our membership.
i.e. use our mailing list. Conclusions- Mailing labels to show from VMGA.
VMGA will be allowed to recruit at the event.
Newsletter
Maria Papadakis is extremely ill. It is serious but not terminal. It takes about 40 hours to put together an 8-10 page newsletter. If she could have a news editor to take care of news across the state, she feels the rest will fall in line. Or she could only do the newsletter quarterly. The news editor would have to be in contact with regional reporters and would have to receive reports and get them to Maria within a certain time frame. Would also have to serve as back-up for regional reporter. It was decided not to go quarterly and to seek out a news editor.
Membership
Gary Bill does not have a count at this time.
Will have Sharon Corbin send out renewals.
Communications
Members: Julie Cochran, Cheri Haggerty, Alice Nicholson, Janis Stone, and Chair Frank Reilly.
Frank reported:
1.) Since the June Regularly Scheduled Meeting there have been 4694 visitors to VMGA.net.
2.) The web page has been updated on 12 separate occasions.
3.) The Hort Updates provided by Chuck Hoysa, Fauquier County Agent have resumed, and are currently up to date – thanks to Julie Cochran and her high-speed access.
4.) The Hort Update is a very popular page. The August 1, Hort Update has been visited 1131 times since it was posted. Some folks are visiting the Hort Update directly, bypassing the front page.
5.) Alice Nicholson is currently accepting changes to the calendar. If you find submitting calendar updates to Alice too slow or cumbersome for your event, you are always free to place announcements on the VMGA.net forum page. You can find a link to that on the front page.
6.) Cheri Haggerty maintains the links page. If you have any interesting gardening links to add, send them to her. She’ll vet them, and edit the page accordingly.
7.) Janis Stone has had a critical look at our web site, and made some suggestions. One thing she noticed was that our page doesn’t view well using the Netscape browser. Apparently most of the buttons and marques that we have been using do not show up in Netscape. If you see something that looks wrong, have trouble reading a page, or find something missing on the web site, please send an email to webmaster@vmga.net so that we can look into the problem. We have been editing those errors for Netscape users. You may notice that we are removing most buttons and replacing them with hyperlinks.
8.) Membership Applications will be available on-line by the end of next week.
Unit
Support
There has been no activity to report since the last regularly scheduled meeting.
State
Fair
Evelyn Parker – All dates are taken: September 27th- Norfolk; 28th – Central Rappahannock; 29th – Goochland; 30th – Suffolk; October 1st – Northern Neck; 2nd – Loudon; 3rd – Prince William; 4th – Henrico; 5th – Hanover; 6th – Chesterfield; 7th – Hanover.
Sarah Lineberger – newsletter out this week.
1.) New publication from the Office of Environmental Hort called Human Horticulture and Your Health. 5 of them. Online and can be ordered.
2.) State record keeping system is nearing completion.
3.) Coordinator’s manual will be revised this fall.
4.) MG College - Question on name tags – They are available to order and are for volunteers who have continuing responsibilities. They are offered through the Extension Office. They are not replacing the old blue tags. Use tags in plastic holders instead for the interim.
5.) MG College – about 160 people. Lots of feedback. Recognized Evelyn Parker for 4000 hours.
Unfinished Business
There was no unfinished business.
New business
1.) Budget – proposed budget was reviewed, discussed, and approved as amended.
2.) Discussion on possibly changing terms of election schedule of officers. (a) Officers can succeed themselves. (b) Alternate year elections. (c) Vice president change to President Elect. Discuss with local groups and continue discussion under Unfinished Business next meeting.
3.) Gary Bill – proposed plastic membership cards with renewal stickers.
Announcements
The next board meeting is in Virginia Beach, October 13, 2001, at 1000.
The official meeting was adjourned at 1335.
Respectfully submitted,
A
Jim Scibek
Secretary
VMGA, Inc.