2012-11 Minutes

Missouri Master Gardener Association, Inc.

Nov. 2, 2012 Meeting Minutes

9:30 a.m. Vice President Elaine Fix called the meeting to order. President Steve Stacey could not attend—he is a Red Cross volunteer and had to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Fix introduced the officers. She handed out a revised agenda. Don Bjuland moved to approve the agenda, it was seconded. Discussion, none. Approved. Everyone introduced themselves. Thirty-three people attended. Dr. Trinklein and Jim Quinn attended. Don Bjuland has been a Master Gardener the longest of those present:  20 years.

Voting Member review: Chapter presidents or their representative and former Master Gardener Advisory Board members may vote. Fix read through the attendance of voting-eligible representatives.

Secretary Laura Redfield-Jacobs summarized the minutes from the June meeting. Marie Pasley moved to accept the minutes. Seconded. Open for discussion. No discussion. Approved.

Marie Pasley discussed the proposed changes to the MoMGA bylaws. The bylaw review committee met June 3, 2012. Copies of the proposed bylaw changes have been on the web site and were sent out 60 days before the Nov. 2 meeting. Copies of the proposed bylaws with changes in color were handed to everyone in attendance at the meeting. Pasley read through each change.

Discussion. The membership meeting will meet at the annual State Conference. But the Board of Directors will meet three or four times a year, with one meeting concurrent with the membership meeting at the State Conference.

It was mentioned that Phelps County is hosting “orphan” Master Gardeners who no longer have a chapter. They want to list themselves as Gasconade Master Gardeners and report their hours that way. They hope to get their group rejuvenated. Carolyn Morgret said she is in Knox County and is in that situation. She goes to Scotland County meetings, but has her hours turned in under Knox County. Dr. Trinklein said there is an Extension person assigned to every county (they may be in charge of more than one county). There should be someone who can help.

David Moll said we have a lot more representatives involved on the Board. We are doing a lot of the business of the organization without an executive committee. We need a definition of executive committee. Fix said officers of the Association guide the association. Patrick Farrell said this could be included in the Policies and Procedures.

Don Bjuland moved to approve the bylaws as written. Jo Ann Hill seconded. No further discussion. Approved.

Patrick Farrell gave the Treasurer’s Report. Income: Lifetime Memberships are $425; Conference Rollover, State Fund is $5,000; Membership dues to date are $1,478. Anticipated Income from Dues $320; Other Miscellaneous $120; Conference Income $725. Total is $8,068. Expenses: The lanyards for the conference $531.54. Anticipated Expenses: Checks, about $101.31; Meeting Expenses for this meeting, $300; Conference Expenses, $825; State of Missouri Filing Fees,$20; Badges for Board Members, $100; Website, $55.47; Website $82.58. Total expenses: $2,015.90. Projected Balance: $6,052.10.

Conference Expense: The Association sponsored some meet and greats, informational items, marketing expense. Discussion on Budget.

Patrick Farrell gave the Endowment Report: The Ray Rothenberger and Jim Wilson Endowment was established to support the Missouri Master Gardener program. There are some conditions within the endowment to be clarified. The Distribution provision currently states that the Statewide Master Gardener Coordinator has the authority to make distributions. We currently do NOT have the Coordinator Position. It has been frozen by the University. In the absence of the Coordinator, the Dean of the College of Agriculture is the one to make the decisions on the Distribution Account. As a result, no decisions on the distribution account have been made in over a year. Farrell said David Baker said there will be no State MG Coordinator until the endowment reaches $3 million.  Dr. Trinklein said reworded documents have to be able to pass the legal department. Trinklein said we need to make a recommendation with support of the Board. Realistically, we need to get up to $25,000 to use the income as the endowment wording suggests. Most new endowments must have a minimum of $25,000. An endowment is a legal, binding document. Farrell has met with the development officer at MU that handles this.  Farrell said he is suggesting that this Board sit down with the University to discuss the Ray Rothenberger endowment. Don Bjuland gave a history of the Ray Rothenberger endowment. He put in 1/3 of the money in the endowment when a friend died.

Jim Quinn said the Board should speak to the University and with family representatives as well.

Farrell said the Principal Account is $16,239.61. Distribution Account: $3,243.76 Farell said he is asking for an action: Be it resolved that the MoMGA, Inc., take action to rewrite the provision for the Ray Rothenberger and Jim Wilson Missouri Master Gardener Endowment to change the Distribution provision authority from the Dean of the College of Agriculture to the MoMGA Board of Directors.

Carolyn Morgret made a motion that Patrick Farrell, as representative of the board of directors, be given the authority of this group to meet with the family members and the University to discuss the provisions of the endowment. Seconded by Mary Kuhn. Approved.

Sedalia Conference Report: 154 attended. We made $5,400 divided between four counties and $5 per person was taken off. People enjoyed the Friday tour. We set precedence with four counties coordinating it. It was amazing how much people gave. It was wonderful.

MoMGA Membership Drive Update: Farrell reported that we kicked off the drive June 1. Eight people are lifetime members, and 1,067 people are in chapters that have joined the Association. The figures do not include St. Louis. We are on our way to 1,500 members in our first year. He said we are tracking 20 chapters out of 58 so far. A person asked if “orphaned” Master Gardeners can vote in the organization. Farrell said they can vote once a year at the state Convention.

Farrell also said every Master Gardener Chapter gets to send one person to the Board Meeting, regardless of whether the Chapter has joined.

10:55 10 minute break.  

11:05 Resumed. Dr. Trinklein moved up on schedule because he has to leave.

Dr. Trinklein said after Mary Kroening left, a Self Directed Work Team became the leadership team advancing the Master Gardener program. He and Jim Quinn received a grant to create on-line Master Gardener training. It will not replace face-to-face meetings. We have all but one chapter completed. Each chapter of the core training manual will be a training module. We plan to launch this early next year, hopefully late January. We are copying the University of Minnesota, with the way they went about doing this. If there are questions, answers will come from Extension Administration.

Right now, fees range from $400 in St. Louis for face-to-face training down to $95 in some areas. We charge $175 for the on-line training. Trinklein said that current Master Gardeners can take a refresher without paying a fee. That is a battle he is willing to wage. He said it is his intention to have an on-line chat room where people can ask questions.

All of the Power Points will be loaded onto MOODLE so they can be used for face-to-face training. Each module has its own set of learning objectives. People who take the on-line training will receive the training handbook, which also is available on-line.

What will tie the person to their chapter? When we receive that person’s name (who wants to take the on-line course) their name will be sent to the regional extension agent, who will make contact. They will need to start volunteering. People who want the information, but do not want to volunteer, can take it but will pay $350 for the program.

Trinklein said Program Evaluation is extremely important when trying to raise money. He received the final report of the survey. The results will be made available—there are 72 pages of additional comments. This will help us show the public value of this program to the state of Missouri. More than 1,300 people responded to the survey—which is almost 40 %.

Fix: Website: www.momga.org. Please put me on your newsletter list for your chapter.

Policies and Procedures: We were going to have special nametags given to lifetime members. But there are so many styles. Redfield-Jacobs said she thought the special nametag was for the conference only with colors around the edge. Christine Chui and Laura Lackey suggested adding a pin to the nametags. Chui suggested lapelpinplanet.com. She said it cost about $2 per person when order 20 at a time.

New Business

Heartland Horticulture has a new editor,  Chyrle Arens, a St. Louis Master Gardener. Any chapter can put their chapter newsletter in it.

2013 Master Gardener Conference Sept. 20-22, 2013 Lisa Bakerink said Todd Lasseigne, Director of Oklahoma Centennial Botanical Garden in Tulsa will be the keynote speaker. There will be at least four Advanced Training workshops offered over three days, and many breakout sessions. Christine Chui said if there were speakers you liked at past conferences, or topics you like would like to see, let us know. One person said they did not want all of the classes at the same time. He only could attend three classes. Chui said past Advanced Training classes have not been advanced enough. E-mail her ideas at natgreeneveg@gmail.com. Visit www.mggreene.org for conference information.

Break for lunch about 11:45 to 12:10.

Slate Of Officers:  Marie Pasley, secretary;  Patrick Farrell, treasurer; Elaine Fix, vice president;  and Steve Stacey, president. Attendees were asked if there were any nominations from the floor. There were none. Ginny McCook moved to accept the slate, seconded and approved.

Pasley encouraged those folks who do not have a chapter in their area to speak up, let people know there is an interest.

Carol Buck and Farrell said in the big counties the hours that are recorded go to Extension specialists and then the total hours are sent to Columbia, so their members are not on the e-mail list and were missed. Fix said the Listserv Dr. Trinklein was talking about is not accessible by MoMGA.

Chui said phone numbers should not be listed on the web site to avoid bots. Fix said we have something that blocks the e-mails being retrieved by bots. Chui said phone numbers are also attacked by bots. Fix said any chapter that wants to have their phone number removed, may request it.

2013 Meeting Dates: March 22, June 7, Sept. 21, Nov. 8. We discussed meeting in different locations, but Columbia is central. The group will meet in Columbia in a free room.

Many chapters have their own criteria for Advanced Training. Please send the information to Marie Pasley so we can look at what the criteria are. Karen Kunz wants to make sure people are not disappointed in the Advanced Training. Send us a draft or whatever you have.

Laura Lackey said every time she has to make a form, she has to start from scratch. Other Master Gardener groups have a central repository for forms (attendance sheets, plant sale sheet, form for their hotline call, etc.) . It would not be a cost, it seems like a natural fit for this group. It is easy to upload word documents and pdf. Fix said she will communicate with everyone to e-mail forms to MoMGA so anyone can print off forms, or a link to a form file. Chui said Google docs is free, you can create forms from templates. It is already built for you.

Ginny Cook: St. Louis volunteers to do the 2014 State Conference.

Don Bjuland made a motion to adjourn. Seconded. Meeting adjourned 12:45 p.m.