VMGA 2003 Annual Minutes

Virginia Master Gardener Association, Inc.

Minutes of the Annual Meeting,

June 7, 2003

Call to Order

President Jim Scibek called the meeting to order at 7: 00 PM in the theater of Litton Reeves on the Campus of Virginia Tech. President Jim Scibek welcomed those attending.

Minutes

The minutes of 2002 Annual Meeting were approved.

Treasurer's Report

Treasurer Shelby Snider reported that at the end of the Fiscal Year 2003, our net worth is $19,414.75. The report was accepted pending audit.

President’s Report

President Jim Scibek reported:

The Board met with Dr.Umberger this past Thursday. They will meet again in the fall. These meetings keep the lines of communication open.

Membership is over 500.

The Summary of Impacts was completed and presented to all units.

Urged members to continue their support to replace the lost agents and specialists.
Lost Sarah Lineberger to the State of Texas where she continues to be involved in Cooperative Extension
Lost Dr. Relf to retirement. Although we didn't really lose her because she is continuing to assist on a limited basis.

Committee Reports

Education - Lenore Plissner, Chair

Lenore reported that the VMGA sponsored two major education events between September 2002 ("Rejuvenation- Is your Garden Tired or Are You Tired of Your Garden?") and March 2003 ("Organic Garden of Eden"). Evaluation and comment sheets were very positive. A third event will be September 27 ("Mr. Jefferson's Gardens") at Monticello, which will include tours of the gardens and a seminar at Tufton Farms. Lenore also announced the VMGA- Prince George collaboration of the second Good Gardening Symposium to be held March 13 in Prince George. Speakers to be Brent and Becky Heath ("the bulb folks") and Peggy Singlemann of Maymont.

Lenore also thanked her committee made up of Joan Clements (Lancaster- Northumberland), Margaret Van Winkle (Prince William), Debby Hamilton (Prince William), Louise Livinghouse (Prince William), Mike Holmes (Stafford), Fran Shelton (Virginia Beach), Pinky Derieux (Chesapeake), George Graine (Fairfax) and Cheri Haggerty (Hanover). Ex-officio members Chuck and Caroline Norrington (Rockbridge), Barbara Geer (Prince George) and Cheryl Sebera (Prince George) were also thanked. A special thanks to Frank Reilly, Communication Chair.

Newsletter - Florace Arnold, Editor

Florace was unable to attend but reported that the newsletter is being published on a regular basis. Feel free to contact Florace with suggestions, complaints and ideas you might have to make this a newsletter one that you will be eager to receive

Membership - Pauline Price, Chair

Pauline reported that as of June 5, 2003 we have 536 regular members, an increase of 155 since June 2002, and 79 life members, an increase of 19 over the 2002 figure. We have 13% participation in VMGA of the 3881 active Master Gardeners in Virginia. Thanks to Paul Campbell (Virginia Beach) and Julie Cochran (Prince William), we have added 36 new members at Master Gardener College, making the membership now 572!

Unit Support

Members: Kerry Goldmeyer, Karen Sacasky, Pat Reilly and Frank Reilly, Chair. The Unit Support Committee is available to help units and local associations with organizational problems, questions and resources. If your Master Gardeners are conducting something new, another group may have already tried it, asking the Unit Support Committee for help could save you from reinventing the wheel.

In the past year we have been asked to help :

6 Units with by-laws selection
10 Units with incorporation questions
8 Units with questions on recordkeeping

Communication Committee

Members: Angela Cahn, Cheri Haggerty, Shelby Snider and Chair Frank Reilly. The duties of the Communication Committee are to foster communications throughout VMGA and all MGs in Virginia. We administer the Web site, send messages, facilitate the communication and work of the Board members, and help to produce and disseminate certain products like the MG College Promotional CD.

In the past year, the web page has been updated an average of 2 times a day (you must hit the refresh button…)

There are over 70 pages of content on the site and thanks to an employee of a Prince William MG, the site has a new look.

We have had over 60,000 visitors this past year from over 100 countries and 3 planets.

Our Calendar page has been the most popular page.

The web site sponsors links to local associations and will provide a limited amount of space and help to start any local MG web pages. Use the webmaster@vmga.net email address to ask for help.

The web page sponsors a forum that may be useful for discussions that seem inappropriate for the MG Listserv administered by Tech.
A copy of The History of VMGA produced by Karen Sacasky is available at the

web site.

The Communication Committee prepared a Promotional CD for MG College in the past year. We also maintained a MG College page with all the information needed to register for MG College online.
A page was established for information regarding the budget cuts at VCE.
Send your questions, suggestions, etc. to webmaster@vmga.net.

Education Endowment Fund - Pat Reilly, Chair

Committee members are Chuck and Sally Walters and Noel Priseler.

Scholarship recipients were awarded their scholarships at MG College this year. The 2003 recipients are Betty Ann Beardsworth (Arlington), Paul Campbell (Virginia Beach), Christy Brennan (Hanover), Sharon Corbin (Prince William), Mary Elliot (Halifax), Rachel Fleury (Prince William), Agnes Gregory (Halifax), Susie Howard (Northern Shenandoah), Jim Revel (Bedford), Fran Shelton, Virginia Beach), Jean St John (Hanover) and Pinky Derieux (Chesapeake)
Contributions to the fund were up this past year.
Due to increased funding, the number of scholarships was increased from 6 to10 this year.
Fauquier County is donating $.65 from the sale of their CD, Chuck Hoysa's Hort Updates to the endowment fund.

The Education Endowment Fund was renamed the Diane Relf Education Endowment

State Fair - Evelyn Parker, Chair

Over 120 volunteer MGs from all over the state participated in the State Fair booth this past fall. The savings to the state were over $10,000. The Fair will remain in Richmond next year

Audit

The audit committee consists of Barbara Geer, Bill Scott and Julie Cochran. As soon as the bank statements are received they will conduct the audit.

Extension Liaison Report

Diane Relf reported that the program is fine and to continue our faith in Dr. Umberger that the Extension Specialist and MG Coordinator positions will be filled.

Unfinished Business

There was no unfinished business.

New Business

There was no new business.

Announcements

Next Board Meeting – Saturday, August 9, 2003 at 10:00 a.m. in James City County-Williamsburg.

MG College Challenge

At MG College 2000 - Goochland/Powhatan challenged Prince William that they would bring more MG’s to MG College 2001 than Prince William. They lost 25-2.

At MG College 2001 - Goochland/Powhatan challenged Virginia Beach that they would bring more MG’s to MG College 2002 than Virginia Beach. Goochland brought 2, Virginia Beach brought 11, so Goochland/Powhatan lost again.

At Master Garden College 2002 - Goochland/Powhatan challenged Henrico. This year they won 3-1!

The challenge for 2004 is Henrico challenging Washington County.

International MG Conference is in 2 weeks in Cincinnati

The Northeast Regional conference is October 6-8, 2004 in Maryland. Susan Anthony extended an invitation to Virginia Master Gardeners.

The meeting was adjourned at 1957.

Respectfully Submitted

Cheri Haggerty

Secretary

VMGA.