Draft February Minutes

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Archived Minutes

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Virginia Master Gardener Association, Inc.

Bi- Monthly Meeting

February 14, 2009

 Hanover

(Draft)

Attendance:

(Albermarle) Joyce Grunewald, ( Arlington/Alexandria) Joe Kelly; (Brunswick)Virginia and Edward Myrick, (Bedford) Patty Richard ; (Chesapeake) Pinky Derieux; (Chesterfield) Lynne Foote; (Fairfax) George Graine;(Fauquier) Jim Scibek; (Green Spring) Joan  Richards;  (Hanover) Christy Brennan, Cheri Haggerty, Emily Gianfortoni, Rene Henderson, Marsha Kirby, Kate Brooks, Martie Radeff, Judy Durant, Becky Watson ; (James City County/Williamsburg) Jim and Nelda Pressly, Susan Giandomonico; (Louisa) Tina Chalekie, Ira Wallace;  (MGACRA) Linda Dunn, Laura Collinsworth, Cathy Smith; (Prince William) Janet and Bill Scott, Frank Reilly; (Newport News) Anita Smith;  (Northern Neck) Edward Munns , (Norfolk) Donald Snipes; (Prince George) Cheryl Sebera, Barbara Geer, Mary Vinsh;  (Rockbridge) David Mims; (Roanoke)  Kathryn Debnar; (Suffolk) Nita Holt; (VA Beach)  Mary Anne and Jim Kincaid, Fran Shelton, Betty Villers; (VATech/VCE) Dave Close; (VA Tech ) Dawn Lerch;  ; (Western Tidewater) Betty Jo Hendrix; (York) Jackie Lohr.

Call to Order –

President Betty Villers called the meeting to order at 10:00am

Introductions;

Hanover Unit Representative, Christy Brennan introduced the President of the Hanover Master Gardeners, Cheri Haggerty who welcomed everyone to Hanover.  Cheri expressed thanks to Hanover’s’ Vice President, Judy Durant and her committee of interns and members who decorated and prepared for today’s meeting.

Cheri introduced Patti Bland, the Extension Master Gardener Coordinator.  Hanover has a very active group volunteering in major projects at Maymont, Lewis Ginter, State Fair, historic Scotchtown, local plant clinics at farmers markets, fairs and festivals, and a Roots and Shoots program. Hanover has a Landcare Stewards program which has been very active with composting, verimcomposting, rain barrels and Firewise education.  The new agent Rose Bradshaw is a huge asset to the group and is developing programs and opportunities to MG’s to educate the public in several new venues.

Introduction – All attendees were recognized by name and the unit they represented.

Minutes:

The minutes of the December Bi-monthly meeting were approved as posted on line.

Treasurer’s Report – Bill Scott

Bill presented copies of the treasurers report, there have been no significant expenses incurred. The treasurer’s report was accepted as read and will be filed for audit.

The report is attached at the end of this document

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Education – Barbara Geer

The committee met during lunch and reported that an education event has been planned in Rockbridge for 2010 concerning the School cafeteria and garden program.

The committee is working on a fall program and hopes to announce the topic soon. The group is researching the prospect of an event based on several recommended topics concerning the green situation, community gardening, and environmental concerns.

The committee has decided that 4 events per year is an attainable goal, and they are soliciting request and information.

Newsletter- Peggy Fox- Content Editor

-         Peggy was not at the meeting but asked that all articles be submitted by Feb 25^th.  

-          A Change for Unit Reports was announced. Please send all unit reports to Cheryl Sebera by Feb 20^th 
 

Membership – Mary Ann Kincaid, Chair

As of February 11, 2009, there are 560 members of the Virginia Master Gardener Association.  Of these, 393 are Active members, 8 are Auxiliary members and 159 are Lifetime members.

This is an increase of 33 members since December 2008 and an increase of 56 members since February 2008.

Please make note that VMGA By-Laws require that Unit Reps be members of the organization.  If there are any questions about this policy, please contact Mary Anne Kincaid.

 Loudoun County paid for VMGA membership for the 2009 interns.

Piedmont MGs had a raffle during the Christmas meeting and awarded a VMGA Lifetime Membership.

Communication/Unit Support - Frank Reilly, Chair

Unit Support Members: Members: Pat Reilly, Karen Sacasky, Pinky Derieux, Bill Scott, Kerry Goldmeyer, Chair, Frank Reilly and whomever else we need. 

1.       We have been asked to provide information about how to proceed as a unit when there is no agent.  This along with other questions will be part of the special meeting we hope to arrange.

2.       We are looking for ideas of critical issues that have come up in units due to the budget shortfall, and changes in Extension.  Please contact me so we can get these issues covered in the special meeting.  I am open to suggestions.

Communication Committee - Frank Reilly, Chair

Members:  Cheri Haggerty, Betsy Lyons, Kathryn Debnar, George Graine, Jim Kincaid, and Chair Frank Reilly and whomever.

1. Since the December regularly scheduled meeting there have been 12539 visitors to VMGA.net.  They viewed 29855 pages each visitor viewing an average of 2.38 pages.  Nine visitors from Belarus, 2 from Trinidad and Tobago and 4 from Uzbekistan!
2. Since the December regularly scheduled meeting, the web page has been updated on 82 separate occasions.
3. The most popular pages in the last three months have been the front page, Calendar, about VMGA, Membership, and College.  Remember that we can help you host your site for awhile under certain conditions.
4. There is a draft version of the MG College program at the web site as well as FAQs for College.  We will have the final version of the MG College presentation up before the end of this month.

Finance Committee – Ted Jenks, Chair

Members:  Jim Kincaid (Virginia Beach), Nancy Golden (Goochland Powhatan), Brenda Shimchicks (Hanover)

 Ted was not present at the meeting; the committee will meet soon to work on a budget for next year.

Anyone who is interested in serving on this committee please contact Ted Jenks.

Special Committees:

Endowment Committee :  Kathryn Debnar, Chair

The Committee will meet at VA Tech next week to investigate a new direction for funding during the difficult economic times. Please answer Kathryn’s e-mails if you would like to still be on the committee, she has had very few responses.

Dawn Lerch has issued a challenge to all Master Gardeners to help the endowment with your estate. There are many creative ways the endowment committee can help you with estate planning.

VA Green Industry Council:  Cheri Haggerty, Chair

The Virginia Green industry Council also partners with the Virginia Agribusiness Council and Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS). As a result of legislation earlier this year, a VDACS committee has been established to review pending regulations for commercial fertilizer application on non- agricultural lands. Met with lawncare operator   members of the Virginia Turfgrass Council to discuss pending regulations for commercial fertilizer applications on non-agricultural lands.

-         Authored article for a quarterly newspaper published by “Mission H2O” to give the perspective for agribusiness on Water Supply Planning Efforts (Mission H2O is a private stakeholders group tracking water supply planning developments in Virginia).

-         Led efforts to finalize recommendations to amend the Nutrient Management Cost-share Practices through a DCR Subcommittee.

-         Along with other business interest, provided comments to the Governor’s Commission on Climate Change, highlighting the potential negative impacts of some of the Commission recommendations on the private sector

-         Sustainable Sites Initiative – www.sustainablesites.org invites public concerns on the new Guidelines and Performance Bench marks Draft for 2008. The Sustainable Sites Initiative is an interdisciplinary effort, by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the United States Botanic Garden to create voluntary national guidelines and performance bench marks for sustainable land design, construction, and maintenance practices.

-         Net VGIC meeting – location TBA

-         March 17^th 2009 , 10am -3pm

-         GO Green VA , Garden Festival  Scheduled Saturday – September 12^th ,Theme Grown /Made in Virginia

-         Soliciting speakers, demos, and vendor exhibits.

-         To participate contact Rick.Baker@vdacs.virginia.gov

Fund Raising: Susan Giandomenico, Chair

       Since the last meeting we have made $250.00 from the sale of Logo items.

Susan has made up packets with all logo items for reps to take back to the units for orders. These are $20.00.  She has a good source for ceramic coffee mugs for approximately $5.00 and took a vote for potential interest.  
Members present preferred a travel mug/bottle rather than the coffee mug. Susan will be checking on a source.

Search for Excellence:  Christy Brennan, Angela Cingale and Bud Gregory

Christy mentioned that at the last meeting the proposal has been sent to each unit rep and there were few comments.  She will send the new form to the Board and they will determine how to proceed for Master Gardener College.

Christy will send the form to the unit reps and send to Betsy for the web site

P. Diane Relf Education Endowment Fund :

Paul was not present but has added an application to the web site and  the  LISTSERV. Please remind all unit reps to talk to their Agents or Coordinators to recognize some of their MGs for a scholarship to MG College.

State Fair- Christy Brennan, Chair

Interested members met with the State Fair Feb 6^th to discuss our first Fair at The Meadow in Doswell, VA.

The Master Gardener Booth will be situated in the middle of a long tent like structure, and Ruth has measured and hopes the tables can be set up in the center of the building leaving enough room for the 3 backdrops.  

Because this is the first year at the Meadow and will be a learning experience, we will be doing what we know works -
- Pruning demo, mulching demo, and the insect cage, (maybe a weed demo?)
 Composting and verimcomposting, and firewise landscaping house (Land Care Stewards)  

The teacher surveys from last year were very positive concerning the Strawberry DNA experiment, it was mentioned that several MGs felt this did not relate to agriculture and education.  Gwynn Hubbard and Jennifer Ross (SFVA) stated that biotechnology in agriculture was one of the most prevalent news items and teaching kids and adults about the basics and DNA was important- So we will be performing the DNA experiment again this year.

A tent has room for two more demos maybe for a JR Master Gardener Day and Master Naturalist Day - Please let Christy know if your group is interested.

Extension Liaison - Dave Close,  State MG Coordinator

·                     Dave is working with John Ignosh and Joyce Latimer on a survey to the industry on recycling plastics from nursery containers and flats, a joint project with Maryland. The survey has been sent out here in VA. John Ignosh  is the lead on this project and has really taken the project serious.

·                     National review of MG program was launched in late November. Unprecedented response rate of 43 states, including VA, and Washington DC.

·                     New interim dean named – Loke Kok.     He has been the Dept. Head of Entomology since 2004 and has been at VT since 1972. His research focused on biological controls for weeds and arthropods.

·                     Work on Emerald Ash Borer  with USFS is proceeding in Northern District. Some initial data collection has occurred in conjunction with a grounds-maintenance training in January. Dave co-presented with Gary Man of the USFS National office at the 17^th Annual VA Forest Health Professionals Conference.

·                     VCE came out with only a 3.5% budget cut on top of the previous 1.5% for a total of a 5% cut for FY 09-10. This is good considering some state agencies saw as much as 24%. Things will still be tight and we will likely have more cuts during the next cycle, but we are in pretty good shape under the circumstances.

·                     As a result of the meeting between VMGA Executive Officers and CALS Admin (including 2 reps from the Hort Dept.), the Dean has asked for external bids to complete the record keeping system. No commitment of funds has been made at this point, just looking potential options to get this completed.

·                     The videos used for missed MG training classes have been converted to DVD. Copies will be available to borrow just as the videos were. He's hoping to transfer 35mm slide sets to digital images too but that will take a lot of time and money for student wages.

·                     Dave and Dawn met with a different Corporate Relations Director for the VT Foundation this week and will meet with them again this week. May have some renewed hope and assistance on the corporate and foundation side of things.

Unit Reports:

The unit reps were asked to send their reports to the Vice President, Cheryl Sebera. They will be posted at www.VMGA.net and condensed version printed in the next newsletter

President’s Question of the Day : What would you like to see in the VMGA newsletter”.

Most represtatives would like to see more information to help educate Master Gardeners about the benefits of becoming a member of the VMGA.

Other items mentioned:  Highlight an Agent  by including  interviews on their background and  ideas about the units and future projects – Dave reported that there is a 50% turn over rate with agents and many new faces

List Future VMGA meetings and locations.

If  articles are submitted and are edited for spacing concerns , be sure to inform the author before publication.

Include special interests and new unit projects.

Have a “diagram” to explain VA Tech , VCE, Dave Close and the VMGA and  include examples of the importance of the  relationship to educate Master Gardeners on what VMGA does for them. 

Presidents Report:  Betty Villers

The Excecutive Board of the VMGA met with VCE on January 19, 2009 in Charlottesville. Attendees were  Christy Brennan, Cheri Haggerty, Bill Scott, Cheryl Sebera, Betty Villers (VMGA); Dave Close, Dean Sharron Quisenberry, Dr. Harris, Dr. Latimer, Dr. Mark McCann and Mr. Jim Riddell (VCE) .  Items discussed were based on a series of questions by VMGA members.  These items were read at the meeting and will be e-mailed to each unit rep.

Item 1.   In the future what can we expect from VCE concerning the "green" movement?

 The concept of "sustainability" will be seen at undergraduate and graduate level in the future.  Will be looking at areas of sustaining green space, land preservation, runoff, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) building. We can look for more available information for landscaping, eco systems, horticulture and agriculture, and storm water management.

Item 2.  When an Extension Agent leaves, the unit/association leadership should be notified.  In one case, there was no formal notification; the MGs heard it from the secretary. 

They felt this was an isolated case.  If you as a MG have a question concerning your agent or they are not available to you contact Dave Close. All agents report to and respond to their district director (1 for each of the 6 districts).  Suggestion made that we as MGs should recognize agents and specialists who we think do a good job. Could have different categories.  We will work with Dave concerning this.

Item 3.  More available information for a Hort and foods program that can be integrated into the SOLs.

Stephanie Huckestein has a program available for Hort and SOLS.  Stephanie correlated the JMG curriculum with VA’s SOLs.

There will be more emphasis on local foods and organic food as food banks, hospitals, and schools work together to go in this direction.

There is a new program out there, VA Master Well Owner program that we will be hearing more about. It was a session at MG College 2008

Ext agents will be attending a state wide food sustainability (sustainable vegetable production) training program in September.

Examples of ongoing research: Chicken feathers into biodegradable flower pots.  Chicken manure into fuel and slow release fertilizer.

Item 4. Budget cutbacks:  Impact on VCE publications, MG College, and position of State MG Coordinator.  What are the priorities?

Publications are being updated and will continue to be available by electronic distribution and print on demand. As the publications are updated, their individual URL codes will change.  VT/VCE website is being updated and will be up soon.     

MG College is self sustaining and therefore not affected by VT budget cuts.

State MG Coordinator salary is frozen at this time. All other positions are on hold.  On the local level, agents need to be patient; more open to technology, receptive to change, limited travel, and there will be combining of positions.

Item 5. Status of record keeping system.

Hang up is money.  Costs could be $10,000- 50,000.  One price was listed $100,000. Dave has seen what other states have done but cost is the problem for us.  Have fields already designated but online interfaces are needed. This system will track Master Gardener hours and contacts.

Item 6. More visibility at MG College by VCE staff.

Each day several of the VCE staff will be available at events and assemblies.

VCE has asked that we add the VCE /MG connection disclaimer to our news articles submitted to local public news sources.  Dave mentioned that the correct template in a short and normal version will be available soon. 

Unfinished Business-

           MG College - Goody bags -   Please contact Patty Gamache with any information on freebies or potential contributors for the Master Gardener goody bags. All items should be sent to Pattie in Bedford prior to MG College. Plan on at least 325 items for registered MGs and speakers.

          Silent Auction - Leslie and her group have handled the silent auction project over for several years, and have the project operating procedures refined.  They are ready to train another group to take on this project.  Please let Leslie know if you or your group is interested in learning the process this year. This is an important fund raiser for the Master Gardener Coordinator endowment fund.  Leslie will have a form posted on the web site to encourage all MG’s and Units to donate to this year’s Silent Auction, the form insures that the process goes smoothly and should be completed for MG donations prior to MG College. 

New Business:

The board addressed a letter from Mary Anne Kincaid (Membership chair) on the issue of a life time member moving to another state and the status of this VMGA member.  This particular member has been awarded the Emeritus Status by the local unit and therefore is an active member.

Cheri Haggerty called for a motion to renew our menbership with the Va Green Industry Council and pay the $50 dues for 2009.  The motion was seconded and passed.  

Betty reminded unit reps to send in unit reports to Cheryl Sebera with the suggested information for the newsletter and web site.

 Betty asked those present to be thinking of ways we could sell the value of VMGA membership to all  Master Gardeners who are not members.

Sites for the VMGA Bi-Monthly Meetings –   

• For 2009 the schedule is:

April- Louisa

June- VA Tech -MG College

August- Lynchburg

October – Lexington area

December- Virginia Beach

Announcements:   

Next VMGA meeting will be held on April 18^th at Obrigados in Louisa, 10:00 a.m. 

Meeting adjourned at 1:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

 Christy Brennan, VMGA Secretary

Virginia Master Gardener Association, Inc

Treasurer’s Report                Feb14,2009

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