Master Gardener State Advisory Board
May 3, 2013 Meeting Minutes
The Meeting was called to order by Chair Mary Zeug at 10:05 AM
In attendance:
Mary Zeug – Chair, SAB (C)* / Kit Sitter- Member (NE)Tom Voigt – Vice Chair, SAB (C) / Terry Straub – Coord. Hennepin County
Paul Wood – Secretary, SAB (C) / Dave Knapp – Member (C)
Peggy Zimmerman Belbeck –Member (C)* / Nancy Lizette-Berlin (SE)#
Nancy Hall- Member (NE)* / Diane Henry (NW)
Barb Gasterland (C)# / Rick Ellis (C)#
Julie Weisenhorn – State Director, MG Program / Dave Moen – Program Manager, MG Program
*-Outgoing Board Member
#-Incoming Board Member
Not in attendance:
Dori Vikla – Member (SE) / Patty Citrowski – Member (SW)Sandra Paulson – Member (NW) / Bob Azman – Member (C)
Housekeeping
· Agenda
o The topics of Finance and Recognition were added to the agenda. Dave Moen will address these
o The agenda was adopted
· Minutes
o The minutes were amended to note that Nancy Hall is from the NE Region
o The minutes were approved as amended
Director’s Update – Julie Weisenhorn
· 125th Anniversary of Horticultural Science
o 24 Master Gardeners attended
o The program gave a historical time line of the Department and some of the faculty gave five minute presentations their departments (past and current)
o Julie gave a Master Gardener Program review and tied the program to the Horticulture Department.
· Marketing
o The new banners are available at a cost of $55
o There are table top signs, banners, and take aways as well
o Counties will order their materials and pay via a separate web site
o For individual MGs, the banners etc. are available through the MG website
o Kit noted that you must order before you can see the costs of the marketing material.
§ Julie stated the site has been set up by the vendor, but she will see that this is fixed.
· Seed trials
o This is the 31st year of the Seed Trials
o The Trials will be chronicled in a book that will be published in conjunction with the Minnesota State Horticultural Society
o Rhonda Hays has been contacted as the writer
o The plan is to publish the book both in hard covered and as an eBook.
o The generated revenue will be split between the Hort Society and Extension
· State Fair
o The Master Gardener Booth will now be part of the CFANS Booth by the Dirt Stage
o CFANS will have the entire wing
o CFANS is supportive of having the MGs in the booth.
o Dave gave a brief committee report
§ The booth has been redesigned to facilitate flow
§ The booth will not be on a raised platform
§ The plan is to have the booth at one end of the CFANS area
§ The committee is planning to meet again on May 13th.
§ The Committee will take responsibility for the coordinating the Dirt Stage speakers
§ The Ramsey County MGs have volunteered their Hot Spot for use in the booth
o The booth design must incorporate handicap accessibility
§ The new booth design has an area for “Hot Topics” by region. The banners will be provided through the Marketing site.
o The booth needs a lockable area for storage
o Dave raised some questions about the Dirt Stage Presentations
§ It was suggested that the MGs give presentations of a fixed set of topics.
§ Presentations on timely topics might help alleviate pressure at the Ask a Master Gardener table
§ PowerPoint presentations are suggested because:
· It is increasingly difficult to park and bring in materials for demonstrations.
· Set up and tear down of demos causes Dirt Stage scheduling problems
§ PowerPoint presentations need to be screened for formats, county approvals, and logos.
§ A goal is to have the lap tops provided for presentations
§ Starting a presentation and maintaining the audience attention span is sometimes difficult because of the walk through traffic, and drop-ins during the presentations.
§ Lighting at the Dirt Stage is not a problem for PowerPoint presentations
§ Hands on demos still attract and hold the audiences
§ Parking passes (and the lack of them) are a problem
· Presenters need some sort of wheeled conveyance to bring materials to the Dirt Stage.
· The problem gets worse later in the day (the pass does not guarantee a parking spot)
o Julie noted there was a concept of “Parking Buddies” who share a pass that they can transfer amongst themselves
· RROC
o The preparations needed to begin mining at RROC have started
o The existing gardens at ERDG will close (eventually)
o The planning for the new gardens has started
§ Site: White Tail Regional Park in the Vermillion Highlands
§ The Kestral Group was selected as the design agent and have begun design work
§ A committee, lead by Bob Mugaas, are the overseers of the design. Also on the committee are Julie, Corrine Johnson (MG in Dakota County), Marc Battistini (Assistant Gardener at ERDG and a MG), and Vince Fritz. Bob is also the liaison to the Master Gardeners.
§ The name of the gardens is still being decided: Discovery Gardens/ Gardens of Discovery.
§ The garden will have a Garden Manager responsible for maintenance activities
§ The planned opening is either 2014 or 2015.
§ The garden will feature Woodland Forest and intense gardening
§ The garden’s goal is to provide education to the urban gardener that can be applied at the home.
· Press
o New PR effort: A new radio show - “Smart Gardens”
§ Saturday mornings at 8 AM on WCCO.
§ The show stars Julie with a supporting cast from other Extension staff: Mary Meyer, Sam Bauer, and Karl Foord.
§ Since the show began there has been a 20% increase in hits on the MG Face Book Page
§ The show is available as a Podcast though the Face Book Page
o There is always need for stories for the MG Website Newsreel to keep it fresh. Submit articles to Julie, Dave, or Terry.
Program Managers Update – Dave Moen
· An Extension Staff Development Meeting was held at the Arb for Coordinators and Leaders and Dave prepared a handout for the Arboretum docents on the MG Program that they could use on the garden tours to give some visibility to the MG Program.
o The handout will be posted on the website.
· County Organizations
o There are 67 organized and active MG groups at the county level
o The Program Office is getting good feedback from counties
§ Concerns are shifting: from problems/issues of restructure to more forward looking tact
§ Dave met with St. Louis County in the NE Region to support staffing and transition
§ He also met with the NC Region Coordinators and Leaders in Grand Rapids.
§ The volunteer leads are doing well and reaching out to coordinate with neighboring counties.
§ In general, there are a lot of “positive vibes”
o Options with Core Course Cohort concept
· Kit commented that having the Core Course on-line is a real plus, but that there were difficulties logging on.
· Meeker and McCloud Counties have Cohort Groups
· Leadership Workshop
o The Workshop was held at Andover in February; 30 people attended.
o Very positive feedback – may become an annual event
o The workshop concentrated on Leadership Development and Policy Guidelines
o Terry noted that every one at the workshop was fully engaged
o The plan is to roll this Workshop out statewide
· Local Issues
o A group has been formed to look at local issues
o Finances (MG Groups organized under the University)
§ Found that some local checking accounts had individual Social Security Numbers attached to them rather than an EIN or TIN.
§ Dave is in discussions with the State Taxation authorities and some interesting things have surfaced
· An organization that has gross sales of over $5000 must file a tax return with the IRS
· If an organization is not a non-profit then it is a business
§ Fund Raising
· All fundraising dollars must be allocated
· If an organization is not a 501(3)c then it must have a fiscal agent to take in donations and provide a tax deductible receipt.
· The 4H Foundation can act as a fiscal agent for local MG organizations.
· The 4H Foundation operates differently than the U Foundation
o Local programs using funds in the Foundation, spend the money and then expense it back to the Foundation.
o Local programs using funds in the 4H Foundation requests the needed money and the money is sent to them less a 10% Administration Fee.
§ Sales Taxes
· To avoid paying sales taxes, local programs must use a U purchase account
· Counties are not exempt from sales taxes and therefore county programs have to pay a sales tax
§ FAQ sheet on local finances is being put together
o Food at Events
§ When hosting a public event, food must be purchased, or commercially prepared
§ This leaves open the question of testing food in gardens and the safety of food donated from community gardens to the food shelves as well as food purchased at a farmers’ market
§ The Program Office is working on an answer for the local MG programs.
· County Blogs
o The County Blog capability is about to debut with a fresher look.
o It is up to the local county to populate their blog
o The Blogs will be managed and coordinated
o The county blogs will provide Face Book widget, a Google Calendar link and a Flicker icon (for photos).
o A user must be in the Blog to link to the independent county web sites
State Conference Discussion
· Any State Conference would be in the 2015 time frame to allow for planning and coordination
· Sterns County offered to host
o The site of the conference: St. Johns University
o The local MG program can handle the conference administration, but needs a committee to select and coordinate the speakers
· Move conference and rotate host amongst regional as in the past
· A problem with moving the conference is not all regions may have a site to host the proceedings
· It was suggested that an inquiry be made of other coordinators/leaders to see if there was any interest in hosting a State Conference
· Other concerns are: conference duration (1 day? Overnight?) and Cost.
· Timing might be a issue as well: winter weather/ summer vacation plans.
· Hosting a conference could be expensive for a region with even just food and handouts.
· The goal of a conference is education, but it would also provide a platform for interaction with other MGs.
· The State’s role:
o Sponsor
o Assume the financial risk, but would get the rewards.
o The State Advisory Board oversees the conference
Advanced Certification (Dave Moen)
· There are differences across the States on how advanced certifications are monitored
o Montana manages three levels of advance certification
o It was suggested the State Advisory Board work on an approach to advanced certification: what to do and how to encourage it.
o Possible advance certifications might be:
§ Plath health
§ Insect control
§ Tree care
§ Invasive species
o Relative to invasives, there is a Center for Invasive Species Management (CISM) (www.weedcenter.org )
§ Acts as an invasive species clearing house
§ They have a link for invasive plant training.
· Plant anatomy (idea for a certification?)
· Invasive Plant ID
o Nancy Lizette noted that there is a Midwest Invasive Plant Network
o Julie will add the CISM link to the MG web page.
Volunteer Recognition (Dave Moen)
· Current Program
o Milestone star at 10 year intervals
o 1000 hours of service is recognized at the state level
o Stars and certificates are provided by the State Office and sent to the counties
o All recognition is based on data in the data base.
· Most MGs do not realize the recognition comes from the State
· Problem: recognition is for tenure only and does not recognize accomplishments
· Terry offered that his experience in teaching classes in volunteerism is that volunteers want concrete awards such as life time learning.
· A Hennepin County Education Task Force concluded MGs want advanced education
· Tom suggested that Social Media recognition was important
o Recognition could be achieved in specialized mediums (IPM, Insects, etc.) by meeting requirements for the specialization.
o There needs to be a continuous focus on Continuing Ed, along with levels of competency.
· Kit suggested that the State might provide funding for continuing education or specialized training ( part of a State Conference?).
o Continue Ed provided for recognized MGs at the Region Level might be a possibility
· Terry suggested educational scholarships
§ One can self nominate or nominate others.
§ Legacy awards based on hours
§ Winners selected by other winners.
· Dave will provide input for the next meeting based on this discussion
o Plan is for a 2014 implementation
Continued Topics
· Due to time constraints other discussions were tabled until the next meeting
· Dave noted there would be a fund raising campaign through the Foundation
· The biggest funding need is for the support of continuing education and leadership development
Election of Officers
· Chairman
o Tom Voigt was nominated for Chairman
§ There were no other nominations
§ Tom was elected by acclamation
o Kit Sitter was nominated for Vice Chairman
§ There were no other nominations
§ Kit was elected by acclamation
o Paul Wood was nominated for re-election as Secretary
§ There were no other nominations