Minutes of The February Regularly Scheduled Meeting of The Virginia Master Gardener Association, Inc. February 10, 2001

Fauquier County/Warrenton, VA

Attendance

(Amherst, Campbell, & Lynchburg) Karen Sacasky; Susan Wingfield; (Arlington) Marti Klein, Alice C. Nicolson; (Blacksburg - VA Tech) Sarah Lineberger; (Charlotte) Anne Anderson; (Chesapeake) Kerry Goldmeyer; (Chesterfield) Peggy Johnston, June Rosini; (Culpeper) Ed Tyner; (Fauquier) Frank Reilly, Jim Scibek; (Fredericksburg, Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George, Caroline) Ann Gorrell; (Gloucester) George Simpson, Mary Simpson; (Goochland), Julie Cochran; (Hanover), Cheri Haggerty, Evelyn Parker; (North Shenandoah Valley) A. Gregory, Fran Gregory; (Prince George) Tom Geer; (Prince William) Scott Cochran, Pat Reilly; (Roanoke) Shelby Snider; (Suffolk) Betty Freedman, Kathryn Pruden; (Virginia Beach) Jessica O'Connor.

Call to Order President Pat Reilly called the meeting to order at 10:02 AM in Fauquier County/Warrenton, VA. She thanked everyone for attending the meeting.

Introductions

Fauquier County Extension Agent Chuck Hoysa and Fauquier Master Gardeners were introduced, and an overview of their program was given. VT Barbie was introduced to Scuba Ken.

Minutes The minutes of the December meeting were approved with corrections.

Treasurer's Report: Pat Reilly reported for Sybil Przypek. The treasury has a balance of $16,062.02. Interest earned through 2000 was 379.49. The treasurer's report was accepted as presented.

President's Report Pat Reilly wished Happy Birthday to the VMGA. Yesterday was the 11th anniversary. In January she attended a Recognition Gala of the Central Rapahannock Area. It was a very nice event.

Ann Gorrell gave the following report on the Master Gardeners Association of the Rappahannock Area's Gala and Unit Report. MGACRA had its annual Awards Gala on January 16, 2001. We recognized 96 Master Gardeners for reaching milestone hours totaling over 18,400 hours. In addition, 31 individuals completed the requirements to become Master Gardeners along with 36 who received their internship certificates having successfully completed the Master Gardener course. MG Handbook was updated and handed out , and clipper pins were presented to those meeting basic requirements. The annual calendar has been completed for the first Saturdays in the Garden events for 2001. The first event, which was in February, included lectures at Mary Washington College on Native Plants; 122 people attended. Our 2000 programs were very successful; we expect greater success in 2001. A core VA group of Master Gardeners have begun forming the Fredericksburg Area Chapter of the Native Plants Society. There is much interest in native plants in our area and we expect many opportunities for Master Gardeners to develop and participate in major projects.

Pat had a meeting with Dr. Barrett and Dr. Umberger in January at the Petersburg campus of VA State. Name tags - 85 different classifications of volunteers that volunteer with Extension. Master Gardeners and 4-H will be the only Extension volunteers separated out with that engraved on their name tags. Even Extension Agent tags will be generic. We may see the new name tags in June. Dr. Barrett reported that any budget cuts will not be seen at the agent or volunteer level. There are plans for retraining agents and for attracting new agents. There is a new recruiting brochure. In southern states, for Extension Virginia is about 3rd for salaries. Youth Education - funding is not a real big issue. Most Master Gardeners feel good about their working relationship with 4-H agents. Both Drs. Umberger and Barrett were concerned about how risk management was not being addressed and Master Gardeners working with youth had not received 4-H Leader Risk Management Training. Junior Master Gardener program - Materials won't be available until things have been ironed out about how to implement the program. Dr. Barrett made it clear that with local units it may or may not be a priority of the 4-H agent to implement the Junior MG programs. Some issues regarding the price of the books. Leader's book is about $60; workbook for children runs about $20. In the March/April time frame, districts will receive an overview of the program. At this meeting we reported that Sarah was doing a fabulous job; please give her pats on the back; please give her a raise; please don't let her leave. We'll meet again on June 21st at MG College. Sarah and Pat had talked about how to enhance cooperation between VMGA and Sarah's office such as helping the Office of Environmental Horticulture in promoting MG College. Presentation of 2 more stars - for her work on the History Report - Karen Sacasky, and for continuing work on Long Range Planning - Kerry Goldmeyer.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Education Ann Gorrell - Focusing on new training for Wildlife Habitat. Anyone who would like to volunteer to help, contact Ann or Pat.

Newsletter Pat - Marie Papadakis became our new editor. (She is a professor at VA Tech.) She had good response from regional reporters. Newsletter is ready to go and will be a March/April issue. Pat will mail out a one page report for February. We will have our own stationery for the VMGA report. New masthead, new look to it. Still need a regional contact for the Southwest region.

Membership No report..

Communications Chair Frank Reilly reported the following: I apologize for getting the December minutes mounted on the website so late. I mounted them late the week before last, but for some reason they didn't take. They have been up since Thursday 02/08/01. I have gotten some questions since the last meeting regarding the web site updates. The web site is updated on a frequent, though irregular basis. If you visit the web page, and it doesn't look changed, consider either using your browser's refresh button, or cleaning out your browser's history folder. Most browsers have a switch in them somewhere that tells the browser how often to update your view of a page. So the page may have changed, but your browser may be displaying an old copy of the page saved on your computer. Since the last meeting there have been 3 main updates to the Web page. The History of VMGA has been added. It was written by Karen Sacasky. You can find a link to it on the web site. The links page is up. Cheri Haggerty has gathered interesting links. If you have any suggestions, please send them to her. The Calendar is up. Alice Nicolson writes it. Send her your event data. We have had more than 1500 visits since the December meeting. I know your visits haven't been VMGA members because I mounted a bogus page called the December minutes, and only three of you wrote to me saying that you read the page. George Graine (AKA the Graine Thumb) won the contest as most observant Master Gardener by being the first to catch the ruse. We got a nice email message and a request for some help from the New Mexico MG Association. They had seen our website, and are in the process of building their own. 4.) I have been having some problems sending email messages. I sent a notice of the meeting, and announcement that the minutes were updated on the website. I sent over 400 messages, and got about 100 bad address replies. An email address is an address; I would appreciate it if folks kept their addresses current. I can't be sure that you are informed of our activities if I can't send a message to an existing email address. We are offering some incubator hosting for local associations. Julie Cochran and I will be developing a template, and hopefully we will be able to allow you to edit your pages. A representative from local associations that are interested in having a VMGA-sponsored web page could contact Julie for details. Julie Cochran has prepared a power point presentation that touts MG College. It was previewed after lunch, and will be available to local associations to show to inform people about MG College. It will be set up on a CD, and will not require any special software. (You don't' need your own copy of MS PowerPoint to run the presentation.) Shelby Snyder has added some VMGA and MG photos to her web page. If you have pictures for us to see, send them to Shelby Snyder. This is a good way to share your MG experience with others.

. Unit Support Communications to put chart up on website. Get minutes out as soon as possible. 8 hard copies are mailed out. Have 8 to 10 hard copies available at the meeting.

State Fair Evelyn Parker - August 1st is the deadline for everything. If your unit can't do a full day, let Evelyn know so that arrangements can be made with local units to cover the rest of the time. Dates of the fair are the 20th to 30th of September. Gloucester wants the 27th of September, all day.

Extension Liaison Report Sarah Lineberger reported: Photo pages for MG Handbook have been sent out to the coordinators. Extras are available for 50 cents each. Leadership Development Newsletter was mailed out. MG College - speakers are being finalized. Info to agents and coordinators around the 1st of March. No "Sounds of the Night" this year. Junior MG program - Preliminary info - optional program. To be a leader of Junior MG program, you have to be a 4-H leader, must be a current and active VT Master Gardener or a volunteer that has demonstrated a knowledge of horticulture and, if not an MG, look for a Master Gardener in their area to serve as an advisor. This will not be strickly a 4-H program. There will be a connection to Master Gardeners. Training will be one day, 10:00 AM to 3"00 PM, slated for April. Program for children will consist of about 25 hours of lessons and 25 hours of service. Title may be something like Virginia Cooperative Extension 4-H Youth Master Gardener since Junior Master Gardener is a trademark name. Ages targeted - 3rd through 5th grades (ages 8-11)

Unfinished Business Long Range Planning Committee investigated endowment. Suggest taking 80% of interest income and disperse as a scholarship, etc. Endowment Exploration Committee - Kerry - Every year since 1994 we have taken in more than the expenditures. Suggest $5K endowment, $5K carryover, disburse approximately $6K over next 3-5 years toward education. A motion was made and approved to "Designate $5K Education Endowment Fund and establish a committee to determine disbursement methods of 80% of all interest and leftover operating funds to promote education and other VMGA interest.'

New business None.

Announcements

George - Daffodil Festival first weekend in April (7th and 8th) and 350th anniversary of Gloucester County. MG's have planted bulbs at all of the schools. Membership Directory - Gary - hasn't responded yet. 3.) Next board meeting - Yorktown - April 21, 2001. Meeting site is close to the Extension Office.

The official meeting was adjourned at 1:17 PM

Respectfully submitted,

Jim Scibek Secretary VMGA, Inc.