«Organization»
2009 TMG Partnership
Meeting
After Action Report
Name of report1
TMGAB
2009 TMGAB Partnership Meeting
Date of Activity
July 9, 2009 8:00 a.m. Jackson TN
Jameson Inn, 1292 Vann Dr Jackson, TN 38305-6001 (731) 660-8651
Description of Activity
Tennessee Master Gardener Advocacy Board cordially invites you to our third annual Administrative-Volunteer Partnership meeting. At this meeting we share our successes and ask UTE Administrators to participate in setting goals for the TMG state program. Each year the board rotates this event to a different region of Tennessee. We hope that gathering prior to an event such as Summer Celebration would be convenient and give east and central MG a chance to experience Summer Celebration at the WTREC.
Fees and Costs
None
Duration of activity.
2 hours
Serving MG group (Group Hosting).
TMGAB
County Associations participating.
Western TN Region
Other associations (i.e. out of state) participating.
Administrators from Plant Sciences, UT Extension Western Region and State Offices
Describe university/county agent participation.
Invited:
Dr. Joe DiPietro, UTIA Vice President
Dr. Tim Cross, Dean of UT Extension
Mike Gordon, Retired Ext Director West TN
Bill Wyatt, Extension Agent Madison County
Mike Dennison, Extension Agent and Director Shelby County
Invited and Attended:
Dr. George Smith, Assistant Dean of Agriculture
Richard Powell, Ag Extension Program Leader West TN
Dr. Robert Augé, Plant Sciences Department Head
Dr. Gary Bates, Plant Sciences Extension Liaison
Number of Tennessee Master Gardener Advocates participating
Carol Watkins
Chris Cooper
Jack Smith
Denisa Cate
David Craig
Keith Miller
Beth Babbit
Host/Presenter Contact Hours
2
Participant Contact Hours
2
Describe the goals of the activity.
The purpose of this meeting is to share the TMG program’s accomplishments and set goals for the future with the input of the stakeholders, including agents, MG, and administration.
Did the event fulfill the goals?
Yes, TMG will be recruiting volunteer to help with the website soon. The tax issue is being carefully considered. The meeting was very efficient, organized and allowed administrators comment, make suggestions and to see how our board functions. (See emailed comments below).
What went well? Comments from follow-up conference call
Chris: Thought went well. He has received comments from Deans thanking him for the Shelby County effort.
Carol: Concurred with Chris. Was first meeting and somehow did not feel prepared.
Denisa: Thought the meeting touched all points that needed to be briefed.
Jack: One note; was thinking that there were not enough Deans meeting but has now has to recant based on after meeting feedback.
Dave: Thought was good meeting. Got an email from Gary Bates thanking Board for their involvement. Would have liked to have had more time to talk about MG programs like HUG for the Deans.
Areas needing improvement.
Working to provide an impact statement for the Deans of the program support for UT.
Beth: Would have liked to have more time to talk about our needs and issues as well as the successes. (Work for longer meeting timeframe to capture the Deans.)
Carol: May want to have a pre-meeting to verify the scope and timeframe for future meetings.
Lessons learned.
Carol: May want to have a pre-meeting to verify the scope and timeframe for future meetings.
Additional training needed.
Pre-planning meeting to confirm group game plan.
General comments from other attendees.
Dr. Gary Bates emailed:
Thanks for the invitation to meet with your Master Gardener Advocacy
Board. I enjoyed meeting each of you, and learned several things about
your efforts. The Master Gardener program is very important to our
department and the overall mission of UT Extension. We see this program
having a huge amount of potential of growing over the next several
years. This is in large part due to your efforts, as well as all of the
volunteers in the MG program.
Thanks again for taking time to meet with us. I look forward to seeing
each of you in the future.
Dr. Bob Auge emailed:
Okay Beth. I had a look at your MS web site to see how you handled county news, and I'm guessing you're not totally happy with how things are progressing generally with the site. There are still lots of holes and broken links. Let's cogitate someday if you want to, about how best to keep a site updated. It's a challenge. But doable.
I was going to suggest that you keep a news resource front and center on your page... which you do have now. But if you don't mind a suggestion.... most of your news items are the monthly gardening info. What if you archived those in their own spot as time goes by, having just the current and/or next month's info spotlighted there, with the bulk of the news items things like I heard about last Thursday (Spring Fling; Plant-a-Row for the Hungry) Some of you county groups are really doing amazing and impressive things, and you might feature those right there on the front page. Maybe no more than five or six (or even four) at a time, archiving the older ones as you replace them with newer ones. Maybe archive by year. I think this is a valuable thing that the site could offer: a running log of the projects and successes of the different counties gives ideas to other county groups, it lets administrators and agents and legislators and everybody know some of the impressive specifics, it kind of gives shape to the MG efforts across the state.
Hey -- what are the chances some avid master gardener somewhere in Tennessee also knows web stuff? They get their hours or some of them via revising your web site? Totally bonkers idea?
Oz
Dr. Tim Cross Emailed:
Excellent summary, Beth. 4-H is another organization that may have
similarities to the umbrella approach to 501c3 status statewide. It will be
interesting to see how Arkansas gets this handled, perhaps we can learn
from them. Tim
2009 Partnership After Actions Report1