Guidelines for Conducting University of Illinois Extension Plant Clinics at Retail Sites
Advertisement of Plant Clinics Conducted By Master Gardeners At Places of Business
Master Gardener workshops may be advertised by the place of business. Keep in mind that Master Gardeners should not promote the sale of items while conducting programs at the location in question. Plant clinics are for answering horticulture questions from the general public and the event should be advertised as a plant clinic for people to bring their questions and samples to you there.
Equal Availability
The clinic/workshop that Master Gardeners provide should be equally available to all places of interest. For example, it would not be appropriate to provide workshops or plant clinics exclusively at one garden center. If another garden center, library, or other store site is interested in having Master Gardeners conduct plant clinics or workshops, they should be considered as sites for workshops, as well. Local Master Gardener programs may not be able to meet all requests due to scheduling or other limitations, but workshops/clinics should not be exclusive to one business.
Promotion of the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener Event
It is also important to use University of Illinois Extension banners or display items, especially Master Gardener nametags, that promote the event as a University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener event, not an "ABC Garden Center Plant Clinic" or "XYZ Garden Center Pruning Workshop." In instances where garden center employees are also Master Gardeners, the individuals involved must be clearly identified as Master Gardener volunteers (by wearing their Master Gardener nametag and/or Master Gardener apparel), not employees of the garden center to avoid any possible conflict of interest. Master Gardener activities should draw people to the place of business and will indirectly benefit the host location.
Compensation for the Plant Clinic
It is perfectly legitimate to receive a donation of supplies or cash to the Master Gardener program for Master Gardener involvement at a place of business. Some groups have a set fee for a talk or clinic. Others use an hourly wage rate for each Master Gardener hour spent in the plant clinic as a guide for making a donation to support the local Master Gardener program. For example, if 5 Master Gardeners worked 3 hours each at a plant clinic, and a fee of $7 per hour per person is charged, then an appropriate donation would be $7 x 15 hours = $105. This must be a donation to the Master Gardener program or Extension Unit office, but not to individuals. Monetary donations to individuals would be compensation for work done and would not be volunteer education by Master Gardeners. It is permissible for individual Master Gardeners to be reimbursed for direct, out-of-pocket expenses involved in setting up or conducting the workshop. However, reimbursement for workshop expenses should be handled by the local Unit Extension Office. For example, if demonstrating container gardening design and assembly, cost of the materials for making the container gardens is a legitimate, reimbursable expense that the place of business may provide payment to the Extension Office which in turn would reimburse the individual Master Gardener conducting the program.