EDUCATION COMMITTEE DUTIES
General Duties:
Once the MG elections are held in OCTOBER and the Education Chairman is determined, meetings must begin immediately to set up all the Brown Bag programs and any Seminars to be held in the next year. Suggestions for programs can come from members of the organization or from the public (by looking at the Brown Bag evaluation sheets, for example).
The monthly Brown Bags are usually a timely topic for that time of year or growing season. Once the topics are set, it is time to determine the speakers. (sometime the ability/knowledge of the speaker will set the topic.)
The third Tuesday of each month is set for the brown bags, so, check with the Aransas County library in October to find out when they are setting their calendar in order to reserve the meeting room for all brown bags and seminars. Do this as soon as the library sets their calendar, as many other organizations use the room. Seminars are different as they are more than one hour in duration and are usually held on Saturdays. Members of the committee will contact speakers to set up the final program guide.
Regular Monthly Duties:
Beginning in JANUARY through DECEMBER: Members of the Ed. Committee will be delegated to introduce the speaker and be available to help set up the room on the day of the program. The computer/projector/extension cord can be checked out from the Extension Office. Check to make sure you have a sign-in sheet and any handouts that are prepared for the program. The meeting room at the AC Library must be set up prior to the program and reset at the end of the program. The chairman will use the sign-in sheets and count the number who attended and how many were MG’s for the BOD and next general meeting.
Give the program guide to the Communications Committee for publication.
If any speakers are to be paid an honorarium or for gas/mileage, etc. this information is needed for the upcoming budget meetings in
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
Other duties of the Education Committee include:
Requests from schools for field trips at Green Acres generally come in the spring. We host field trips for primary and elementary groups. A field trip implies that we set up “stations” in order to teach different topics on Horticulture. MG volunteers organize, set up and teach the topics as requested by the schools.
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GRANT / SCHOLARSHIP CHAIR
The grant information papers should be mailed out to the superintendents of the school districts in the Aransas/San Patricio counties by APRIL 15. The Communication Committee will submit an article to the local newspapers regarding the application process for grants around the same time as the mailing of the information. Forms to be sent out include: a cover letter from the Education chairman, the press release sheet sent to the newspapers, the Part A and Part B Grant Application Forms and the Mission Statement of our organization.
Part A of the Grants Forms is for funding for teacher training.
Part B of the Grants Forms is for monetary help for projects.
The due date should be the third Friday in MAY. At that time, the chair will
set a meeting date to review any/all applications and determine which will be awarded. Certificates for each of the grant winners are prepared in the Extension office and the Education chair requests a check from the Treasurer for the award amount. The check and the certificate are given to the recipient of the award and a digital picture is made for the appropriate newspaper. (late JUNE OR JULY). All winners will also receive an AgriLife Extension survey form for the breakdown of the participants in the grant, including ethnicity, grade levels, etc. of all who were those involved.
Winning projects from the Aransas County Ind. School District are handled differently.
The total amount going to any/all schools in the district is figured and one check is taken to the ACISD Business Office (see Kathy Henderson). Name the campus and a designee teacher in charge of the winning grant. An ACISD account will be set up for the winning schools.
At the end of the next school year, an evaluation sheet is sent to the grant winners so that we can determine the impact of the project on the intended audience.
Grant winners may apply again, but the expectation is that the next project be
different, or at least have significant changes from one submitted previously.
(See an attached page for the listings of the school districts in the two-county area.)
If a MASTER GARDENER SCHOLARSHIP is to be offered, the information and
forms should be released as a newspaper article and be emailed to colleges by APRIL 15 by the Communication Committee. Forms may also be requested from the AgriLife Extension Office. To be eligible, a student should be a junior in college and have a declared degree plan in some facet of Horticulture. We also require that the student be initially from or currently live in either Aransas or San Patricio county. The due date for the application, an official transcript and letters of recommendation is JUNE 15. Master Gardeners interested in choosing the scholarship winner may attend a called meeting to review any/all applications. The winner is notified by the end of JUNE or beginning of JULY.
The winner of the scholarship is invited to the SEPTEMBER evening meeting.
(See an attached page for the listing of colleges, etc., who receive the scholarship information. Please note that personnel changes do occur at the college offices, so email addresses and names may change. Other colleges may be added to the list.)
FINANCIAL AID OFFICES
DelMar College
Texas A&M University, College Station
Texas A&M University, College Station
Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi
Texas A&M University, Kingsville
Texas State University, San Marcos
Welder Wildlife Refuge, Sinton