D R A F T

Minutes of the Regularly Scheduled Meeting of
The Virginia Master Gardener Association, Inc.
October 14, 2006
Abingdon

Attendance
((Bedford) Bob and Patty Gamache; (Brunswick/Mecklenburg/Lunenburg, Nottaway) Linda Logan; (Chesapeake) Pinky Derieux; (Fauquier) Jim Scibek; (Goochland/Powhatan) Chuck Miller; (Halifax) Bill McCaleb; (Hanover) Cheri Haggerty, Christy Brennan; (James City County/Williamsburg) Anne Odle, Angela Cingale; (Loudoun) Dave Hellums; (Norfolk) Don Snipes; (Prince George) Cheryl Sebera; (Prince William) Frank and Pat Reilly; (Portsmouth) Sylvia Heaster; (Roanoke) Kathryn Debnar; (Rockbridge/Bath) Ted Jenks; (Suffolk) Betty Freedman; (Virginia Beach) Paul Campbell, Mary Ann Kincaid, Fran Shelton, Betty Villers (Virginia Tech/VCE) David Close; (Washington) Theresa Frazier, Evelyn Goldston, Margie Munsey, Florence Powell, Patte Redmond, Barbara Smith.

Call to Order
President Cheri Haggerty called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m.

Welcome
Evelyn Goldston, Washington unit President, welcomed everyone and introduced the hosting team members. She gave us a summary of Abingdon projects which included a “Salute to Spring” with gardens of Red, White and Blue around town. Her group arranged discount tickets at the Barter Theatre. Introductions followed around the room.

President's Report – Cheri Haggerty

Cheri has requested that the unit reps ask their individual newsletter committee to include Cheri on their mailing list, either by e-mail or by mail. The newsletter would keep her informed and “in-touch” of what the units were accomplishing, for ideas, and for contacts purposes. Other items under new business.

Minutes – Angela Cingale
No corrections were made to the August minutes and were approved as posted on the VMGA website.

Treasurer's Report – Ted Jenks
Ted reported that all the funds in the money market account have been designated to be the Professor Diane Relf Education Endowment Fund consistent with the approved motion from our last meeting. In addition, the Money Market account has been closed and the money transferred to a new PDR Education Endowment CD which has a current Interest rate is 5.25% APY for 13 Months. In addition, with the approval of the VMGA Executive Committee, an additional CD, called the Future Dues CD was opened at a current interest rate of 5.00% APY for 13 Months. The Lifetime membership dues for all future years were transferred from the checking account into this Future Dues CD to then be available for use in the appropriate future years. The full Treasurer’s Report is at the end of these minutes.

Standing Committee Reports

Education - Fran Shelton and Pinky Derieux, Co-Chairs
Members - Al Thompson, Chuck Miller, George Graine, Pinky, Kathryn Debnar, Lenore Plissner, Debbie Hamilton, 

and Nancy Drewry

Fran Shelton reported that the Fall Educational Program at Maymont in Richmond on Friday, October 27^th has 50 paid registrants but that they are expecting at least another 20 to 25 attendees. The cutoff date for registration is October 20^th.

Newsletter - Florace Arnold, Editor

Florace was not present but Cheri stated unit reports are to be sent to Angela for review and assembly as this process is very helpful to her. The VMGA newsletter and electronic copy is in the new format featuring interesting items from units around the state of interest to the membership. Complete reports from units are on the website. Betty Villers selects items from each report for the newsletter.  Hard copies of the newsletter are sent to members without e-mail.

Membership - Mary Ann Kincaid, Chair

Mary Ann Kincaid reported that the total membership is 474. Breakdown is as follows: Active – 319, Auxiliary - 10, Lifetime – 145. These figures reflect an increase of 27 members since August. There are 160 members that have not renewed. MaryAnn is hopeful that after the Maymont program there would be additional memberships. A question was posed as to how many trainees became members their first year and don’t renew. Many of the memberships are new MG’s. It’s up to the individual units to encourage new memberships by informing them how VMGA helps the individual MG’s throughout the state. Pat Reilly suggested a brainstorming session on how to obtain new members.

Communication/Unit Support - Frank Reilly, Chair
Unit Support /Website Members: Pinky Derieux, Kerry Goldmeyer, and Karen Sacasky

The VMGA unit support role was explained by Frank. No activities were reported since last meeting.

Communications Members - Shelby Snyder, Kathryn Debnar, Pat Reilly, Betty Truax, George Graine, Tom Bolt, Kathryn Debnar, Shelby Snyder, Betty Truax, Tom Bolt, and Paul Campbell.
Since the August Regularly Scheduled Meeting there have been 13,770 visitors to VMGA.net and the webpage has been updated on 69 separate occasions. The most popular pages in the last three months have been Horticultural Updates, Endowment, Minutes, Unit Reports, Stewards, and MGPW. The front page has 74% of all visitors, which means that most people (by far) come in through the front page, and see the news and announcements that are posted there. We helped Northern Neck to get their page mounted at VMGA.net/NNMG and it is incubating there. Other units just getting started are welcome to use our service at no charge. Prince William is getting ready to leave our incubator with a new site of their own.

Finance Committee – Bill Scott, Chair
No meeting since August. The committee provided a copy of VMGA's current guidelines for debit card use to a local unit which requested them.

Special Committees

State Fair - Christy Brennan, Chair
Christy stated the State Fair was very successful due to the volunteers from 12 units, especially from Hanover. The governor attended the fair one day with 100 people. There was lots of traffic with the average of 500 school children stopping by almost every day. A total of 4,000 pencils were given out as well as handouts and puzzles. The segment on insects and the bug table was constantly busy with curious onlookers. Due to the high attendance, the booth could have used more volunteers to accomplish the many tasks, i.e., recording contacts, handing out evaluation/comment sheets, answering questions, etc. A suggestion was made that units bring their contact forms to see how they capture some of the information, such as, number of children/adults that visited. This information is needed and used by VA Tech for future funding requests. Planning for next year’s fair would include asking 4 MG ‘s or at least a minimum of 2 people per shift for the booth. This year demonstrations including grass cutting, mulching, and pruning and lots of people stopped by and showed interest in these topics. Next year more demos will be included with the additional volunteers that we’ll be soliciting. Christy will know in January 2007 where the state fair will be held next year.

Education Endowment Fund – Paul Campbell, Chair

Paul has agreed to continue as EEF Chairman. He explained how the $600 in the EE Fund current budget is for 6 scholarships awarded to VMGA members every year. The money is currently coming out of VMGA  operating funds allowing us to build the endowment thru a CD. If a donation is provided to VMGA for the Education Endowment it will be placed in the PDR Education Endowment CD to build the endowment unless the donor stipulates that it is to be used for an additional current year scholarship, in which case the donor’s wishes will be followed.

State Coordinator Endowment Committee-Pat Reilly, Chair
Members - Angela Cingale, Dave Close, Kathryn Debnar, Carol Dixon, Jane Pratt Schilling and Jim Scibek, Bill McCaleb, and Max Bales, Director of Development for CALS.
No meetings have been held of this committee. No report was given.

Extension Liaison - Dave Close, MG Coordinator

Reported on the following: Intern Nametags have been shipped! Replacement Nametags for everyone else (including agents and university faculty) are ordered but not sure when they will be in the system. The membership was shown a sample of the buff colored nametag. AAG – Held Partners meeting on September 12 in Williamsburg. We will be discussing a statewide contest effort. Details are available (refer to handout) and will soon be on the website, www.ext.vt.edu/americasgarden/index.html. Weekly Reader picked up the AAG project, through Jr. Master Gardeners, as a national garden design contest for 3rd & 4th graders which will reach 1.3 million children and more than 57,000 teachers. We should look for it in the November edition of the Weekly Reader. State Record Keeping System –AHNR-IT team met with folks from 4-H and Master Naturalist program about their needs. Worked on user interface ideas and are leaning toward a volunteer entry system; they continue to work on the project weekly. Wildlife Chapter – VCE administration is taking a look at how we can meet this need. Endowment Effort – still working channels through MG units and/or associations. New development officer will be helping (Dawn Lerch – a VCE MG from Chesterfield). MG College 2007 – MGCAT meeting postponed until October 20. Director of Conference and Guest Services resigned and no one new in place yet. Tour of VA – most recently in Augusta-Rockingham; beginning to schedule more for upcoming fall (Franklin County). Handbook Revisions –Dave will be meeting with Joyce Latimer next week to discuss the list of previous and proposed authors for updated version. Misc: The summer issue of In Season was sent out via listserv on September 15 and by snail mail soon after. If we know of someone not receiving it, refer them to Dave. Rebuilding Coastal Mississippi MG Projects – mid to late October 2007. International MG Conference – Little Rock, AR, May 2-5, 2007. Impact of Hurricane Katrina- several MG units has supported Mississippi by sending gardening books and tools. Dave would like to get a group of MG’s to go to Mississippi for hands-on work in Mid-Oct 2007 with 50 people on a bus for a minimum of 7 days at a personal cost of $175 per person and wouldn’t include room or board. The MG’s would go to Mississippi to rebuild community gardens and projects and provide resource guides. Several units have shown interest in helping out. MG’s can go to http://msmastergardener.org/Project_Rejuvenation.htm to see donors or organizations that have helped the Mississippi MG’s with Operation Rejuvenation. It was noted that 20 to 25% of the donations received for Hurricane Katrina came from Virginia.

Unit reports
The unit reps were reminded by our president to report on a completed project and what made it successful or not and a future project in the planning stages. Unit reports were given at this time. The individual unit reports can be found on the VMGA website.

Old Business
Fund Raising – Cheri Haggerty
Cheri discussed the 50+ flags that she has for any unit that wants to sell them. The price will remain the same as it was when the garden flag was purchased to offset the cost of the initial purchase. It is hoped that each unit will purchase one or two to attract people to an MG exhibit or booth. There is still a need for a Fundraising Committee Chair. Betty Villers has offered to help with the sale of special T-Shirts which any MG unit can sell to their members due to the way that it’s simply worded with “Extension Volunteer” and could incorporate the word MG with a units own colors. MaryAnn Kindcaid and Cheryl Sebera have offered to assist Betty on this fund-raiser. Ted stated that this expenditure was over budget. A motion was made, seconded and carried unanimously to authorize the purchase of 144 T-Shirts, in ecru and burgundy, and to purchase thru a vendor that Betty has used previously. A picture will be on the VMGA website for the membership to preview. The money would go into the state Coordinator MG Endowment Fund. 
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Volunteer Opportunities – Chairmen are still needed for a Historian to continue writing VMGA’s history as it unfolds. Cheri has a box of VMGA newsletters and meeting minutes that could be used to continue using the process already posted on the website. A need for assistance with our VMGA.net website is still being sought to assist Frank Reilly, our Webmaster. Frank will train any volunteers that require it. He will continue to coordinate the website as webmaster. Although an active member is preferred, the individual does not necessarily have to be an MG. If interested, Frank Reilly or Cheri Haggerty will be the contacts.
New Business
The Maymont Flower and Garden Show will be held on Feb. 22nd thru Feb. 25^th, at the Richmond Coliseum. The MG’s have had a booth there to educate and assist with gardening questions and handing out information bulletins. A motion was made that we use $175 of the Marketing budget to share the cost of a booth again with Hanover in 2007. Cheri will coordinate the Hanover and other unit volunteers to man the booth in their selected time slots. This motion was seconded and approved to fund the cost of the booth to have a presence at this event.
AAG participation- Let’s encourage all units to get involved in their communities with for patriotic gardens.
Jamestown 2007 participation- Each unit will decide how they want to participate in this 400^th anniversary celebration.
MG College 2007 – VMGA’s role to celebrate the 20^th anniversary was discussed with perhaps a commemorative T-Shirt.
Food Lion Program- Jim Scibek reminded the units to keep seeking participation by members in the Food Lion program. He is checking with Bloom and Bottom Dollar stores to see if they have a similar program.

Announcements
Next Board Meeting – The December 9^th meeting will be held at the York County  Fire and Safety Building at 10 a.m.

Meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Angela Cingale – VMGA Secretary

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Virginia Master Gardener Association, Inc.
Treasurer's Report
October 14, 2006

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		Data As OF:	9/30/2006
Overall Balance of Accounts
	Checking Account Balance				$5,084.27
	PDR Education Endowment CD Balance				$7,816.55
	Reserve CD Balance				$6,743.39
	Future Dues CD Balance				$4,137.10
	Total Overall Balance of Accounts				$23,781.31
	Checking Balance as of	7/31/2006			$12,496.93
		Receipts
			Coord Endowment Gifts	$10.00
			FY 08-17 dues	$12.00
			FY 07 dues (current FY)	$216.00
			Education	$0.00
			Fundraising	$0.00
			Gift for EEF	$100.00
					$338.00
		Disbursements
			Comm/Support	$0.00
			Coord Endowment Cmte	$0.00
			Coord Endow Gift Transfers	$332.41
			Education	$0.00
			EEF Gift Transfers	$112.00
			EEF Scholarships	$0.00
			Elections	$0.00
			Fund Raising Cmte	$0.00
			Fund Raising Gifts to Endowment	$2,861.25
			Lifetime Dues Transfers	$4,120.00
			Marketing	$0.00
			Membership & Roster	$43.05
			Newsletter	$275.81
			State Fair	$0.00
			Officers Expense
			President	$0.00
			Vice President	$0.00
			Secretary	$0.00
			Treasurer	$6.14
					-$7,750.66
	Checking Balance as of	9/30/2006			$5,084.27
Year to Date Income & Expenses to Budget FY 07
Income YTD
	Committee	Budget	Income
	Membership
	FY 07 (Lifetime/Prior Year)	$2,920.00	$2,852.00
	FY 07 (Current FY)	$2,000.00	$1,344.00
	Subtotal	$4,920.00	$4,196.00
	Education	$2,400.00	$0.00	</