Minutes of the February
Regularly Scheduled Meeting of
The Virginia Master Gardener Association, Inc.
February 12, 2005
Hanover
Attendance
(Amherst, Campbell, Lynchburg) Al Thompson; (Chesapeake) Pinky Derieux,
Pauline Price; (Fairfax) George Graine; (Fauquier) Jim Scibek;
(Goochland/Powhatan) Joe Florino, Chuck Miller, Philip Morris; (Halifax) Bill
McCaleb; (Hanover) Pamela Armstrong, Christy Brennan, Colleen Colderwood, Judy
Durant, Emily Gianfortoni, Cheri Haggerty, Harland Patch, Linda Simon, Gail
Taylor, Francis Woodruff; (James City County/Williamsburg) Angela Cingale, Ann
Deforest; (Mecklenburg) Nancy Drewry; (Nelson) Maudie Ratliff, Nancy Welker;
(Norfolk) Donald Snipes; (Northern Neck) Pat Rogers; (Northern Shenandoah
Valley) Bud Gregory, Fran Gregory; (Prince George) Cheryl Sebera; (Prince
William) Frank Reilly, Pat Reilly, Bill and Janet Scott; (Roanoke) Ginny Craig,
Shelby Snider; (Rockbridge) Ted Jenks; (Virginia Beach) Paul Campbell, Liz
Maurer, Fran Shelton, Betty Villers; (Virginia Tech) Max Bales, Dave Close
Call to Order
President Bill McCaleb called the meeting to order at 10:02 a.m.
Introductions
President McCaleb thanked all who traveled from across the state to the
February board meeting in Hanover. It is the biggest crowd we’ve had in awhile
and he would love to see all 51 units represented at one of our meeting. Hanover Extension Agent, Colleen Colderwood
welcomed us to Ashland, known locally as “the center of the universe”. Since 1981, they have trained 775 MGs and
currently have 225 active MGs. The last full year, 2003, MGs volunteered 12,000
hours. Some of the projects they are involved with include: educational
demonstrations, lectures and workshops for the public; plant clinics and plant
sales; home garden visits; work with local botanical parks and gardens; work
with youth and the schools; and writing articles for the newspaper.
Bill
introduced guest, Max Bales (Va Tech). Max is raising money for the School of
Agriculture and Life Sciences. The Dean
of Agriculture, Dean Quisenberry has sought to reach out to form partnerships
with groups across the state and she is very excited with the partnership with
Virginia MGs to endow the state MG Coordinator chair.
Introductions
followed around the room with names and units represented
Treasurer Pat Reilly reported:
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Overall
Balance of Accounts |
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Checking
Account Balance |
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$7,333.36 |
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Money
Market (including PDR EEF of $4217.41) |
$7,625.17 |
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CD
Balance |
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$6,494.29 |
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Total
Overall Balance of Accounts |
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$21,452.82 |
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Checking
Account |
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Balance
as of 12/11/2004 |
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$6,276.80 |
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Income |
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FY 05
dues* |
$666.00 |
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VT
Endowment |
$515.00 |
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EEF |
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$125.00 |
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FY06-FY12
dues* |
$264.00 |
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*as
corrected |
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$1,570.00 |
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Expenses |
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Newsletter |
-$513.44 |
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-$513.44 |
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Balance
as of 2/12/2005 |
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$7,333.36 |
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Year
to Date Income & Expenses to Budget FY 05 |
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Income
YTD |
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Committee |
Budget |
Income |
Remaining |
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Membership |
$5,000.00 |
$2,755.00 |
$2,245.00 |
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Education |
$0.00 |
$216.57 |
$0.00 |
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$5,000.00 |
$2,971.57 |
$2,028.43 |
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Expenses
YTD |
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Committee |
Budget |
Expense |
Remaining |
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Comm/Unit
Support |
$450.00 |
-$414.35 |
$35.65 |
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Membership |
$1,500.00 |
-$1,111.84 |
$388.16 |
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Newsletter |
$1,875.00 |
-$2,196.71 |
-$321.71 |
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State
Fair |
$50.00 |
-$53.99 |
-$3.99 |
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Gifts |
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$600.00 |
$0.00 |
$600.00 |
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Marketing |
$200.00 |
$0.00 |
$200.00 |
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Nom &
Elections |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
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President
(SCC) |
$75.00 |
$0.00 |
$75.00 |
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V Pres |
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$25.00 |
$0.00 |
$25.00 |
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Sec |
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$50.00 |
-$13.64 |
$36.36 |
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Treas (banking) |
$175.00 |
-$52.35 |
$122.65 |
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$5,000.00 |
-$3,842.88 |
$1,157.12 |
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Report was accepted pending annual audit.
Minutes
The December minutes were accepted as posted.
President's
Report
President, McCaleb reported that the meeting with VCE (Pat Sabero,
Jim Riddell and staff), Dean
Quisenberry and VMGA Executive Board to sign the endowment agreement originally
scheduled for January 31st was canceled because of bad weather. New date is March 7th in
Blacksburg to sign agreement. Virginia
is first in the nation to have an endowment for this position. There will
always be a MG coordinator or like position at VaTech. Georgia and Ohio are in
the process and West Virginia is interested in knowing more. Bill will be
visiting and talking to them in May. The endowment will supplement the MG
coordinator position. The current money
comes from state and federal support. The $3.1 Million CSI (Commonwealth
Staffing Initiative) funding Tech was looking for from the state legislature is
in need of support from the MGs. If we
don’t get it, it will be harder to fund 51 critical positions without state
help. Contact your local delegates and
senators and ask for their vote to approve this funding. Information is available on the Extension
website.
SRK
– State Record Keeping System – Need realistic numbers of who we have in
Virginia as active MGs. Spread word to
record keepers to move those not active to inactive status in the
recordkeeping. The dollar amount
associated for each volunteer hour in Virginia is $20.01 an hour (rate including fringe benefits). Dave needs total volunteer hours in his
office by April 15.
Committee Reports
Education - Fran
Shelton and Pinky Derieux, Co-Chairs
Reminded everyone that VMGA is backing two spring programs, the Good
Gardening Symposium in Petersburg, March 12 and the Lewis Ginter program
sponsored by Chesterfield MGs, Thursday, April 21. Information is on the
website under calendar of events.
The fall event is Saturday, September 10th at the
Hampton Roads AREC in Virginia Beach.
Newsletter -
Florace Arnold, Editor
Florace was not present. Bill reported she appreciates the timeliness of
submitted reports and articles. If you
have any suggestions for the newsletter, please let Florace know.
Membership is at 533 including 119 lifetime
memberships. Sending letter to Charlottesville unit to thank them for the 21
new memberships. Thanks to George
Graine for his efforts on behalf of membership. Encouraged unit
representatives to speak to their new intern classes about VMGA
membership. Pauline needs a
volunteer to represent membership at
the Ginter Garden program in April.
Paul Campbell volunteered to help take new memberships at MG College.
Membership applications are on the VMGA website
and you can pay by PayPal or mail check.
You can also download a recruiting brochure with application.
Communication/Unit Support - Frank Reilly, Chair
Unit Support
Communication Committee
The VMGA Communications Committee consists of Kathryn Debnar,
Cheri Haggerty, Shelby Snyder, Al Thompson & Chair Frank Reilly.
1.)
The Communications Committee has prepared a MG College 2005
Promotional CD. The CD Contains 2
different presentations; one with sound that runs as a slide show and another
that is silent. There is a
printer-friendly script to accompany the latter presentation. Additionally the CD contains operating
instructions, and information concerning the VMGA Educational Endowment Fund
Scholarships for MG College 2005. We
will begin distribution next week.
2.)
The web site has been updated 72 times since the last
regularly scheduled VMGA Meeting.
3.)
There have been 14,457 visitors since the December regularly
scheduled meeting of VMGA. 52% of those
visitors entered the site through the front page making it a very viable tool
for getting any message out.
4.)
9% of those entering went directly to the Minutes page, and
6% went directly to the Hort Updates pages.
5.)
Several Units have added their links to our links page. If your unit has a website, and it is not
listed at our site, please submit your website’s URL.
Unit Support Committee
The VMGA Unit Support Committee consists of Kerry Goldmeyer,
Karen Sacasky, Pinky Derieux, and Chair Frank Reilly.
There was no activity to report this period.
State Fair - Christy Brennan,
Chair
Christy is in the process of going over the evaluations. One
of the things mentioned is more hands on displays. Christy would like to challenge units to prepare a demonstration
for use at Fair and encourage the new MGs to participate by telling them it
will be displayed at the State Fair. Also looking for free giveaways. Last year there were 5000 contacts. The State Fair is moving next year so may
want to wait until after the move.
Maymount Flower Show – Cheri Haggerty reported that the VMGA has
filled 50 percent of the booth workers with a mix of MGs from across the
state.
Finance
Committee – Bill Scott, Chair
The finance committee over the next couple of months will be contacting
all the committees to get input for the budget. Deadline for the completed
budget to the Executive Committee is May 15th. Committee members,
Ted Jenks, Al Thompson, Margaret VanWinkle and Bill will be contacting
everyone. Meeting at lunch today to consider what to do with the investments,
reviewing some of the ideas from the Charlottesville meeting.
State
Coordinator Endowment Committee – Pat Reilly
Committee met January 15. Formal
signing and PR event will be coming up. Donations should be made out to the
Virginia Tech Foundation and sent to Max Bales at his mail code, 406. This information will be on the website. The
first initiative we will have is to get each unit to commit to $100. That is a minimal amount, an initial request
and will use this when we turn around and write grants and apply to foundations
to show that the state is behind us 100 percent in this endowment. Dave Close and Carol Dixon are in charge of
contacting the units about this. Have already received $100 each from
Gloucester, Mathews, Hanover and Southside.
Silent
Auction – New River has done this in the past but VMGA will be
running it this year and the proceeds will go into the State Coordinator
Endowment. Need someone to coordinate
the entire event, but task can be broken down to about a dozen volunteers to
help at MG College to collect the items, prepare the paperwork and help during
the auction and do the final tally and collect money. Couple from New River who
has run this in the past has offered to help in any way they can. Also looking
for six individuals to handle the donation solicitation within the six
districts and they will be responsible for contacting only the units in their
district for Silent Auction donations. Angela Cingale and Ann DeForest
volunteered to coordinate donations from the Northeast District. Shelby Snider and Ginny Craig volunteered
for Northwest District. Letter will be
sent to New River Valley unit in appreciation of all they have done in the past
handling the Silent Auction and thanks for their help as VMGA takes over the
auction.
Prospect
List for the Endowment - will be
contacting each unit for names who might want to donate to the Endowment.
Education
Endowment Fund (EEF) – Paul Campbell
The MG College Scholarship committee consists of George Graine, Al
Thompson, Sybil Przypek, Susie McCrea, Judy Kinney and Paul Campbell. Letter was sent to all the units in January,
article was in newsletter and information will be on the website concerning the
scholarship. These will be one-time $100 amounts. Deadline is May 20. Number of
scholarships, a maximum of six, depends on amount in the fund and quality of
applications. Individuals will be
notified week after deadline and checks will be presented at MG College. Two people from each unit may apply and
criteria are on the application.
Unit Reports –
The unit reps attending presented written reports or have e-mailed them
to the secretary. They will be posted at http://www.VMGA.net and in the next
newsletter.
Extension Liaison - reported by
Dave Close, MG Coordinator
Nametags – met with
Charlie Stott (Director of Ag and Extension Communications). Have initiated a
system where nametags are to be ordered on a monthly basis, when MG interns
have completed their initial 50 hours of training and 50 hours of volunteer
service. When placing an order you
should be getting a confirmation email saying your order was received. If you
don’t receive this email, let Dave know.
Looking at samples of tags for reusable temporary tags for interns that
will be standard statewide; the reusable temporary tags will be ordered one
time and one time only for the entire state.
State Record Keeping System - incompatibility issues between
program and new server; new errors are occurring, but solutions are being
developed for the problems. If you are entering information and get an error
message, print the screen message including the entire error message (cut and
paste) and send it to Dave. He will
pass on the information and be more able to fix the problem. URL is still the same: http://doriant.ext.vt.edu/mg/.
System says there are over 4700 volunteers, but his
fact-finding mission indicates the real numbers should be closer to 3700 active
MGs. Encourage unit coordinator to get a more accurate count.
SOD Initiative – training materials are
not 100% complete but are being finalized; still should be out early spring.
MG College 2005 – June 21 –26; June 21(1:00 – 5:00) and 22 (9:00
– 5:00) are set aside for leadership development training, we will spend half a
day discussing policy, the other day will cover a variety of topics; speakers include Jim Greene from USDA
CSREES, Felder Rushing (Sunday speaker), and a general session on Low Impact
Development; awards night has been moved to Thursday to encourage more VCE
agents to be present; still have brag night on Thursday; silent auction is
still Saturday night and will be run by VMGA; will have VMGA meeting and
announce brag night winners on Saturday night; picnic, plant sale, and plant
swap will all be at the Hort Gardens on Sunday; registration price will be same
as last year ($125); likely begin registration around mid to late April (first
of May at latest); online registration; discounts available as usual through
usual channels; brag boards will be in the Torgersen Atrium instead of the
museum room.
Newsletter In Season – winter edition is printed and ready to be
mailed; finally have worked out an annual schedule for each issue to be
released.
Miscellaneous information -
* Advanced trainings - Want to survey MGs to
find out what kinds of advanced trainings people are interested in receiving.
Suggestions include Wildlife and some
type of Turf training.
* Volunteer hours for 2004 – Ready to collect
hours data for 2004; encouraged everyone to update the SRKS, especially for
those receiving awards. Hours should be
in by March 15 for MG College discounts.
*CSI – Senate gave it a thumbs down, but
received $2M instead of $3.3M out of the House of Delegates. Continue to make
contacts with your legislators.
*WVA MG conference – Bill McCaleb will
represent the VCE MG program at WVA state MG conference in May; he will sit on
a panel to discuss the endowment process in VA and the direction we are
headed.
*Travel to local units - Still traveling to
local MG unit events to introduce himself and to see first-hand some of the
local projects.
Unfinished
Business
No unfinished business
New Business
Ted Jenks‘s unit is considering putting together a donation to an
organization called Heifer
International for the Tsunami victims in the form of a challenge to local
garden clubs, VMGA and other MG units. The organization operates mostly in
Africa and provides livestock to families.
Bill suggested each unit would have to decide what they want to do. Don Saunders made a motion that we put
information on the website and it was carried.
Announcements
Next meeting April 9, 2005 hosted by Rockbridge unit.
The
meeting was adjourned at 2:09 p.m.
respectfully submitted,
Betty
Villers
Secretary
VMGA