Virginia Master Gardener Association, Inc.

Bi-Monthly Board Meeting

December 8, 2007

James City County/Williamsburg

Final

Attendance

(Alexandria/Arlington) Vivian Ballard; (Bedford) Bob Gamache, Patty Gamache; (Chesapeake) Pinky Derieux; (Chesterfield) Lynne Foote; (Fairfax-Merrifield) George Graine; (Fauquier) Jim Scibek; (Gloucester) Florace Arnold, Bonnie L. Bernard; (Halifax) Bill McCaleb; (Hanover) Christy Brennan, Cheri Haggerty; (Henrico) Beverly Cochrane, Erica Gilliam; (Isle of Wight/Surry) Betty Jo Hendrix; (James City County/Williamsburg) Dave Banks, MaryAnn Carlson, Angela Cingale, Carol Conner, Pat Crowe, Vane Davis, Sarah Dougherty, Leanne DuBois, Lynn Flood, Carol Fryer, Art Gustafson, Barbara Gustafson, Jim Kavitz, Frances Knight, Denny Mehigan, Lyn Natanski, Sheila Nigro, Diana Nolan, AnnE Odle, Jim Pressly, Nelda Pressly, Ruth Schutz, Sally Sissel, Susan Voigt, Bob Winters, Jean Winters, Donna Xander ; (Loudoun) Pat Martin; (Newport News) Anita Smith; (Norfolk) Don Snipes; (Northern Neck) Julie Denny; (Powhatan) Nancy Golden; (Prince George) Cheryl Sebera; (Prince William) Frank Reilly, Pat Reilly, Bill Scott; (Roanoke) Kathryn Debnar; (Rockbridge) David Mims; (Virginia Beach) Paul Campbell, Jim Kincaid, Mary Ann Kincaid, Fran Shelton; Betty Villers; (VT/VCE) Dave Close;  (York) Jackie Lohr. 

Call to Order

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

Introductions

Anne Odle, James City County/Williamsburg Representative, welcomed everyone, thanked the hosting committee and made a couple of annoucements.  Dave Banks, President, welcomed everyone to the historic triangle.  Leanne DuBois, JCC/Williamsburg/New Kent Extension Agent, told us about the growth in the unit and their importance in giving the gift of nature to the community.

Introductions followed around the room

Minutes – Angela Cingale

The October minutes were accepted as sent to the membership and posted on the website.

Treasurer’s Report – Ted Jenks

In absence of Ted Jenks, Bill Scott presented the Treasurer’s report which was accepted pending audit    

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Education - Fran Shelton, Pinky Derieux, Co-Chairs

Fran reported she has been to the newly renovated Mount Vernon buildings and they were spectacular and the gardens were beautiful.  George is checking into the possibility of having an April or early May program there.  She would like to plan a Friday event and feels that location would be good for travelers because of the many attractions in that area.  The committee tries to hold 2 events a year in different parts of the state so that everyone has the opportunity to attend an educational program.  There are also educational opportunities at MG College as well.  As plans are finalized, she will inform us

Newsletter - Florace Arnold, Editor

Cheri introduced and thanked Florace Arnold, retiring editor of the VMGA newsletter for 5 years.  She received a round of applause.  Our president thanked Florace for her hard work and dedication in editing the VMGA newsletter.  She was given a round of applause for her dedication and efforts.  Cheri proposed that we have a team consisting of a content editor who will proofread and oversee the articles, and a layout/graphics editor.  Dawn Myerriecks, Loudoun MG, has volunteered to be the Layout Editor. Cheri asked the membership for volunteers or to recommend someone who would be interested in handling this important job.

Membership – Mary Ann Kincaid, Chair

As of December 4th, there were 501 members; 339 are Active members; 5 are Auxiliary members; and 157 are Lifetime members.  This is an increase of 15 members since our October meeting.  There are 143 who did not renew.  Lifetime members will be surveyed to confirm they have “active’ status.”

Unit Support/Communication - Frank Reilly, Chair

Unit Support Members: Pat Reilly, Karen Sacasky, Pinky Derieux.

The unit support committee answered questions from a unit concerning Incorporation vs. Association; tax exempt status and application; and sales tax.

Communication Committee Members: 

Cheri Haggerty, Kathryn Debnar, Shelby Snyder, Tom Bolt, Betty Truax, George Graine, and Jim Kincaid

The VMGA.net website marked the 9^th anniversary as of November 12^th.  We’ve grown from a single page giving the minutes of the last meeting to a large web site with more than 240 pages of content and more than 100,000 (131,460) visitors annually.  Since the October regularly scheduled meeting there have been 2029 visitors to VMGA.net and the web page has been updated on 44 separate occasions.  The most popular pages in the last two months have been Calendar, about VMGA, resources, and membership; but more than 58% of our page views come in through the front page.  Kathryn Debnar is currently accepting changes to the calendar.  Membership Applications are available on-line at the Membership page.  We added a Banner ad to the page to facilitate subscriptions to Fine Gardening.  Frank reminded us that we get a stipend for every NEW subscription obtained from the web site.  The committee is currently working on the MG College Recruiting presentation and could use some photos of activities, and the Sunday going away picnic.  The presentation is planned for distribution in January or presented at the February meeting.

Finance Committee:  Bill Scott

Committee Members – Nancy Golden, Ted Jenks, Jim Kincaid, Brenda Shimchik

Bill reported that a committee was being recruited to assist with next year’s budget and they’ll try to get together  late January.  The committee can meet electronically or in person to prepare and finalize the finance report.

Special Reports

MG Coordinator Endowment – Pat Reilly, Chair

Pat reported that there is $241,336.75 in the MG Coordinator Endowment Fund.  She discussed ways of bequeathing donations by making various bequests through estate planning and gave examples of MG’s who have pursued this way of donating to the endowment fund, i.e. insurance policies, cash, or 401K retirement plans.  To reach the million dollar goal she had a chart that showed the amount of donations needed as follows: 

1 corporation/foundation-$250,000; 2 people/businesses- $100,000; 4 people/businesses - $50,000; 10 people/businesses-$10,000; 100 people to donate $50.00 for 5 years ($250 total) more than 100 VCE MG volunteers have already pledged this amount.  She asked every unit to contribute $100.00 to assist with this effort.  Each unit is being contacted to donate by Kathryn Debnar.  Pat encouraged the units to request a member of the endowment committee to give a presentation at one of the monthly meetings to familiarize members with options of gifting.  Due to the state budget cuts every year, the MG Coordinator position is in jeopardy every year due to funding shortfalls.  The Reilly’s will donate $250.00 for every invitation extended by a VCE unit for a presentation given by a member of the endowment committee.

Fund-Raising – Betty Villers, Chair    

Betty is still selling T-shirts for $10.00, license plate holders at $3.00 and decals at $2.00 each.  She sold $250.00 the same day of meeting.  All the proceeds go toward the MG Endowment Fund.

Extension Liaison - Dave Close, MG Coordinator

AAG – Dave reported that he’s winding down the project by holding three focus groups. Facilitators will be

interviewing growers and retailers to determine the projects impact on our industry partners. Two groups will be

held in December and one in February as follows; December 10th in Richmond, December 11th in Chesapeake,

and February 18th in Fairfax.  Fall In-Season will be posted on the VA Tech web next week. The Pest

Management Guide is available to order.  Orders received by January 4, 2008 with ship the following week.

Tour of VA - since the October meeting, he has met with the Fairfax MG unit for the first time at Green Spring

Gardens.  Handbook Revisions - we are still on track for a fall 2008 release of the next edition.  A grad student

just completed editing of the chapters submitted so far. There are a few more chapters to be assigned and

reviewed.  At least 4 more are currently in the process of being revised.  Misc:  He and Dawn Lerch continue to

make endowment visits.  They recently made one contact in Northern VA. And he has written a first draft attempt

as a letter of inquiry to send to some 40 corporations, publishers, or foundations. The letter is set to go out in

January.  They still have a target date of June 2008 to finish out the endowment. There is renewed urgency in

funding the endowment due to the state budget shortfall and he requested we please continue to bring names

and suggestions forward for us to pursue.  Kathryn Debnar has been contacting the remaining units who have not

contributed their minimum $100 donation toward the endowment. Kathryn’s work has netted two more

commitments.  The opportunity with Fine Gardening to raise $10/new subscription for the VCE MG program

and this promotion will run through May 2008. Virginia Tech should receive the first check by January 2008. Links

to the promotion are on both the VMGA website and the Horticulture MG website.  Dave traveled to Davis, CA

for the Horticulture Forum III.  eXtension will be officially launched in February of 2008 and he’ll be working

with a group of Consumer Horticulture Specialists and MG Coordinators in early January to publish some

horticulture FAQs for the Horticulture Community of Practice.  There will also be a national assessment of the MG

Program and Dave expects to be involved with this process. The National MG Coordinators Conference (for state

and paid county coordinators) will be October 8-10, 2008. VA is hosting and they will be spending majority of the

time in Washington, DC and hope to have a legislative reception at the US Botanical Garden.  Budget cuts –

$2.36 million in 2008-09. The governor will announce on December 17 the details of the cutbacks at which time

VT will know specifically how it will be impacted.  Reilly Challenge for endowment – for every invitation extended

to anyone on the VMGA Endowment Committee (including Dave and Dawn Lerch) to speak to a group of at least

20 MGs and/or potential donors (all offers will be considered), Frank & Pat Reilly will pledge $250 of their own

money toward the endowment. These invitations and presentations must be completed before MG College 2008.

VT Engage website– www.engage.vt.edu. This is a challenge to volunteer 300,000 hours of service by the end

of the spring 2008 semester.  This is to honor the victims of the April 16th shooting. MG program has been

encouraged and invited to join the effort. You would not be volunteering above and beyond what you normally do,

just self reporting it to the VT Engage program as a means of support to the community.  MGs will become more

visible when VCE unveils it’s new and improved website with MGs on front page with our projects and stories.

The Virginia Horticulture Dept recently ranked #9 in nation by Chronicle of Higher Education as follows: 

1. Florida - (Environmental Horticulture); 2. U. Wisconsin - Madison (Horticulture); 3. UC - Davis (Horticulture &

Agronomy); 4. Michigan State U - (Horticulture); 5. Purdue U. (Horticulture); 6. Cornell U. (Horticulture); 7. Iowa

State U - (Horticulture); 8. Washington State U. - (Horticulture); 9. Virginia Polytechnic Inst. - (Horticulture);

10. Texas A & M - (Horticultural Sciences).   More discussion followed different ideas in obtaining donations for

the Endowment Fund including corporate gift matches for retired employees for charitable organizations and

other ideas for contributions.

Unit Reports

The Unit reps attending were asked to send their reports to the secretary at arcingale@cox.net.  They will be posted at www.VMGA.net and highlights printed in the next newsletter.  The question for this meeting was “What does your Unit charge for MG Classes and does the amount have an effect on retention of MGs. 

Unfinished Business 

Nominations Committee – Jim Scibek, Chair

Committee members – William McCaleb, Pat Martin, and Paul Campbell

Jim is looking for additional members to the existing nominations committee.  If someone is interested they should see either Jim or Cheri and express their interest.  Jim will meet with his committee and have a slate of officers ready for the February meeting. 

Logo – Cheri reported that designs and ideas for the VMGA logo were received and a decision was going to be made on which logo would be chosen.   Pat Reilly gave history of how the VMGA logo was decided awhile ago with a lot of time and many discussions before one was approved by VMGA members and VCE.   The current logo used by VCE is the original logo of the VMGA.  Cheri will turn over the designs that she has received to Liz Maurer, VA Beach MG, who designed the water logo for MG College in 2007.  There may be other uses and suggestions for the design she comes up with which can be incorporated into a VMGA item in time for MG College.

Maymont Booth - Cheri had handouts and gave us the dates for the Maymont Flower and Garden Show.  If any unit has seminars or educational programs coming up they should provide them to Cheri or bring them to the flower show and display them.  She had a sign-up sheet for anyone who wanted to volunteer for one of the time slots during February 21 thru the 24th. 

New Business

Virginia Green Industry Council membership – Our president, Cheri, asked if the VMGA Association would consider becoming members of this non-profit group for a $50.00 yearly fee.  The VGIC organization wants MG volunteers to educate the public on various topics.  They are also members of the Council of Association of Landscape and Green House Growers.  Dave has approved hours for this collaboration between Master Gardeners and the VGIC.  A motion was made and seconded to approve this expenditure for this year.  A VGIC brochure was passed around for members’ perusal.  Cheri will be the representative for VMGA and David Mims, Rockbridge, will be alternate.

Electronic election of officers - Jim Scibek

To offset mailing costs of the 355 ballots, as we do for the newsletter, he asked if we could conduct an electronic election by e-mail for members that have internet access and for those without e-mail to send it by regular mail.  Patti Gamache made a motion to incorporate in the by-laws for ballots to be counted as a vote by either electronic or regular mail for the elections of officers by active members.  It was seconded and was opened for discussion.  "A two thirds majority vote of the active and life membership is needed for amending the by-laws, providing that notice has been given to the members at least 30 days prior to the meeting when they are to be voted upon".   Pat Reilly stated that the way the wording is written in the by-laws, it has to do with the number of days prior to MG College as follows:  Under article 4, section 2, which reads, “that officers will be elected by a majority vote of the membership responding by mail at least one hundred (100) days prior to the annual meeting.”  The annual meeting is conducted the third week of June at MG College  .One of the issues of the way it's stated in the by-laws now is that it could take some voting members as much as 150 days for those ballots to be returned and counted in time for the annual meeting in June.  Patti Gamache withdrew her motion until the membership investigates further and clarifies how to amend and change the by-laws.  An ad-hoc committee was formed consisting of Frank Reilly - Chair, Patty Gamache, Katherine Debnar, Pat Martin and Nancy Golden.   More information from the committee will be available at the February meeting.  It was pointed out that we may not have enough time to do it for this year because a newsletter committee in not in place to produce a newsletter to announce the proposed slate of officers.  If it is not possible for this year’s election, it will be voted upon and put in place for the following year.

Announcements

• Next VMGA meeting will be hosted by the Henrico unit in Richmond - on February 9th at 10:00 a.m.
• Horticulture Short Courses are being offered in Richmond and Virginia Beach
• Franklin County MG Guide which is a land care and landscaping guide is available for $15.00.  There is a fee of  $3.50 designated as donation to the VMGA Endowment Fund – There will be more information regarding the guide at VMGA.net
• Bud Gregory and Joan Richards have had illnesses and could use some get well cards by fellow MGs

Meeting adjourned at 1:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Angela Cingale

VMGA Secretary

Virginia Master Gardener Association, Inc

Treasurer’s Report

December 8, 2007

Virginia Master Gardener Association, Inc

Treasurer’s Report

December 8, 2007

Virginia Master Gardener Association, Inc

Treasurer’s Report

December 8, 2007