Central Gorge Master Gardener Association Executive Committee Meeting Minutes Februry 13, 2012

Transcription

1 Central Gorge Master Gardener Association Executive Committee Meeting Minutes Februry 13, 2012 Next meeting: Monday, February 13, 2012, OSU Extension Service office Attending: Eric Bosler; Shari Bosler; Christie Bradley; Dennis Carlson; Cindy Collins; Pam Crider; Elizabeth Daniel; Donna DeRochers; Laurel DeTar; Gemma Furmo; Dede Garcia; Kathy McGregor; John Stevens Secretary s Report (Christie): The Secretary s Report for January was accepted. Treasurer s Report (Donna): Donna distributed the balance sheet and the budget versus actual report from the beginning of the year to date. The treasury report was approved. Old Business Plant Clinics (Elizabeth): Elizabeth is ready to get the plant clinic training started. She is bringing the sign-up sheets to class to get the new people signed up with their mentors. Master Naturalist Course (Elizabeth): Melinda Bradley is taking the Master Naturalist course that starts in March. We are providing her with a scholarship to cover the class cost, and she will be bringing back what she learns to us. Plant Clinic Computers (Elizabeth): John asked where we were with this project, which was on hold over the holidays. The committee has not met yet, but will be scheduling a date for some time in the next couple of weeks. Christie asked her manager about providing a free laptop and has not received a response yet, but it looks unlikely. Elizabeth has an old desk in the hallway that she believes will work well for the microscope and printer. When the committee meets, they will also discuss the possibility of getting a Dino-Lite USB microscope. Draft policy for Budget and Finance Committee (Eric): Eric ed out his draft policy and has gotten some good feedback. If anyone has any further comments, please get them to Eric so that he can get it incorporated into his next draft and get that sent out for review. The concept of the scope and authority of the committee he wanted to make clear is that this committee would operate as an advisor to the Executive Committee it would recommend

2 budget and finance decisions to the Executive Committee, but the Exec. Committee would have the authority to approve any of these recommendations. Library Book Purchase (John): 30 titles were submitted to the library, 10 reference books, 10 general interest (permaculture, shade plants, grasses, etc.,) and 12 children s books. Of these, the library will purchase half and we will purchase the other half. The library gets a good price for books and the total cost for us should be around $350. All 30 will have a sticker noting that they were recommended by CGMGA. The library asked them not to submit Spanish language books as that was something they needed to do. Kathy will work with them on this, as she has done some research and has some recommendations. John hopes that now that the process of book recommendations has been established, that it will continue in the following years. New Business Plant Sale (Cindy): The plant sale committee was really happy with the scope, size, and layout of last year s plant sale, and will, for the most part, be continuing with a similar plant sale for this year. The biggest charge for 2012 is the incorporation of the OSU greenhouse, though some of the details of that are still being worked out. They will be storing pots there, and one other primary usage will be seed starting. One of the scientists from the research center will be sharing the greenhouse with the plant sale and he will be using 2 of the 4 benches. There is room for an additional bench, and Cindy is working with Eric to build that, which will leave the plant sale two benches. Dennis is also using the greenhouse for some of his plant starts for his project. Cindy also wants to add some shelving, but first wants to evaluate space needs. Last year the palnt sale used the NCS (Nuestra Comunidad Sana) and White Salmon High School greenhouses. The White Salmon program is in transition again, and last year it was difficult to get enough access to their greenhouse, so we will hold off using that this year. The OSU greenhouse should have better oversight and control, so the seeds that need more attention can be planted there. The plants that need less attention, like lettuces, will be done at the NCS greenhouse. Cindy will be scheduling work parties at OSU and NCS for activities including seed planting. Leanne will be leading these.

3 2012 Master Gardener Training (Elizabeth): Shari noted that not everyone knows where classes will be held. Elizabeth responded that she had meant to note the location in the class schedule. She is going to send out a notification about the location. Dede has been working on mentor assignments and this is still in progress. We have 18 new applicants this year. Seven or eight of those are probably interested in some level of scholarship, though three of them have not gotten back to Elizabeth. We had discussed giving scholarships to people from the community who might not be interested in participating beyond the classes (such as employees of Good News, etc.). Only one person was interested, Maya, who will be the Next Door, Inc. gardening instructor. Maya may also be interested in the entire program, and Elizabeth noted that some of her hours working with the kids would be available for pay back hours. This year, Wednesday classes will be starting right at 6pm and Saturday classes at 9am. If people want to bring food to have at the beginning of class, they will have to come 15 to 30 minutes early. There will only be a 30 minute break for lunch on Saturdays, and people will be encouraged to bring lunch and eat at the church rather than leave for lunch. We will start having a signup sheet for a month in advance for food, but there will not be a formal process for sign-ups. Elizabeth noted that if anyone is concerned about the weather on a class day, they should feel free to stay home. Mentors should also let their mentees know this. Everyone should also be encouraged to check their before coming in on questionable days. Hospitality (Laurel): Laurel said that she would like to get more equipment for serving beverages at training. Since the church just has big percolators, she would like to purchase one large Bund coffeemaker and one electric kettle for hot water. She thinks one coffeemaker will be sufficient, as she can make 10 cups of coffee in three minutes and alternate between caffeine and decaf. They have the Bund coffeemaker at Bi-Mart for $100. This purchase was approved. Budget (Eric): John asked what the status was on funding the Project Coordinator Position. Eric said it is still under consideration but there has not been a formal request. This position is funded by the county for At some point, Master Gardeners will probably be asked to fund this. This is one of the

4 things that need to be taken into consideration by the budget committee when they take on long range planning. Right now the budget committee is informal, but Eric is looking into ways to create a more formal committee that could be chartered to not only work on budgets, but also could do more forward thinking for investments and other aspects of budgeting. As an organization, CGMGA has unique funding concerns in a couple of different ways. First, unlike most other groups, we have some substantial money, including funds from the Metcalf Foundation. Second, we do not have monthly meetings with the full membership, so we do not have much opportunity to solicit feedback from them. Eric would like people to review our current budgeting policy as well as a draft policy for how a formal committee would work. Eric will be ing the documents to everyone for review. He asked people, when reviewing these documents, to do some brainstorming and come up with more ideas. Eric knows of 4 or 5 Master Gardeners who might like to be involved in a formal budget committee. This committee could make proposals, bring these to the Executive Committee, and then to the membership at large. There are some rules around how much money can be held in a 5013C account before there are tax implications. These mostly involve soliciting funds that are earmarked for specific projects and ensuring those funds are not co-mingled with non-targeted funds. The budget committee has been holding off on a recommendation for alternate investment funds while they are waiting for the stock market to become less volatile. They have stayed involved in the MCAREC budget process. Plant Clinic Computers (John): This project is on hold right now but will be taken up again soon. Library Book Purchase (John): The committee working on this is moving ahead on it. They had a long list of books from various sources, including Judy Maule s Facebook list. The committee took the list and rated the books according to desireability. They ended up with 44 at the highest rating. The library will choose 15 books and CGMGA would pick another 15. Of those, 10 books should be research oriented, 10 should be more interest and inquiry type books, and 10 should be either in Spanish or be children s books. John gave people assignments for checking the list, assigning the titles to a category, and making recommendations. He asked Kathy M to choose Spanish titles.

5 Part of the overall process was also to evaluate what was already in the library either immediately available or through the SAGE system. Kate worked on that. This group will meet on Wednesday at 10 am at a library conference room. OMGA (Shari): There is a March 4 OMGA meeting that Shari and Gemma will be attending in Roseburg. Learning Garden (Mary): The Learning Garden Steering Committee will be meeting on a Wednesday, January 25, right before a class to give an opportunity for more people to attend. Mary reviewed the major Learning Garden goals: Design, build, and install some type of solution for protecting and displaying brochures for visitors to the Learning Garden. This might be a single display or might be smaller displays in multiple locations. Install a new fence in the herb garden. An herb of the month feature has already begun, and there have been articles in the newsletter. One long term goal is to possibly add the Learning Garden to a future sign for MCAREC on Tucker Road. This is out of our control, but we want to keep Brian Tuck aware that we would like him to consider this. Parking lines will be painted in the spring. The Experiment Station has agreed to paint lines on our side of the parking lot when they do their own, and Steve prepared specifications for the parking spots. Complete the irrigation drip lines in the hellstrip once Elizabeth has finished planting. Consider a fence for the Native Garden. They will be looking into this later in the year as a possible way of better identifying the Native Garden as a feature. This could be something like a split rail fence along the walkway, arches along the parking area, or a sign. Publicity (Eric): Eric is now working on publicity. His first task is working with Tim Farrell to prepare a presentation related to Tim s journal of the trees in his cemetery. In general, Eric is tasked with heightening the visibility of what the CGMGA does in the community. La Clinica (Kathy): There are still plants that need transplanted in the cloche. There are not many activities going on while we are waiting for warm weather.

6 Garden Visits and Field Trips (Kathy): Kathy has a few ideas for garden visits. Laurel says she is ready this year for one. Leanne might be ready for a garden visit or summer picnic. Cathy F noted that Helen might be persuaded to have something, as well. Newsletter (Elizabeth): Elizabeth has liked the flexibility she has had working with Crystal on the newsletter. People like the format of the newsletter and have enjoyed the special features like the herb of the month in the newsletters. Gorge Heritage Museum (Shari): This is inactive right now. There were no reports for the Historian, Library Garden, and the Care Center Garden. Miscellaneous Topics Pam suggested we consider getting a video camera. We could use it for filming workshops and things as well as for filming activities in classes that would be much easier to see on a screen. Someone would have to do some research and find pricing and alternatives. Video could be posted on the website. Pam liked the calendar of problems that was developed and is now in the plant clinic room somewhere. It highlights garden issues that occur during particular times of the year. Elizabeth said it is really too big for the plant clinics, but that it would be a good project for someone to take on and develop something more portable. Another nice visual display would be bugs something where people could see what they look like in 3D. With no further business, the Executive Committee meeting was adjourned at 11:20. The next Executive Committee meeting will be Monday, February 13 at 10 a.m. Minutes by submitted by Christie Bradley