minutes_april2000

The Union County Master Gardeners met on Wednesday, February 23, 2005, at the Union County Agricultural Services Center.

Vice President, Claire Loeffelman opened the meeting in the absence of President, Karen Long. George McVey welcomed and introduced several members of the Master Gardener Class of 2005.

Reports
Minutes of the January meeting were taken by Barb Ramm and were posted on the web site for review. There were no additions or corrections; the minutes stand as reported. Treasurer, Becky Rowe was absent. Claire Loeffelman gave the treasurer's report. Mary Ann Haynes stated there was no new information to report as timekeeper.

Leaping Frog
Jill Ricker, recipient of the Leaping Frog Award in January, reported on the frog’s activities while with her. She included a display of pictures with the frog taking part in various activities. The frog was then awarded to Dilu Juvarkar with Jill commenting on Dilu’s work on the puppet show theater curtain.

Coordinator
George McVey took care of several “housekeeping” issues. There was a conflict in the meeting room on the next scheduled date. Options were discussed and the consensus was to hold the meeting at the regular date of March 23 at the Union County Services Building. An envelope of pictures was handed around for identification. George announced recent birthdays for Claire and Jill. Information was distributed regarding the Delaware Gardeners’ Fair and the Union County Earth Day Celebration. George announced that the State MG Meeting would be held in Lima on October 8.

New Business – Standing Committees
Claire brought up a discussion of standing committees. She stated that the MG Constitution was available for review on the web as well as in the MG manuals. Posted around the walls of the meeting room were the various committees as well as all of the projects that came under each committee. Additionally, George had emailed out a list of the projects. Claire stated that she wished to start a dialogue on whether or not there was interest in specific projects. We have a limited number of volunteer hours that people are willing to give, while we seem to have a rather unlimited list of projects. Volunteers are needed to both work the projects as well as take a leadership role in chairing committees. Several particular projects were discussed. After which, Claire requested that we take a short break to stretch and sign up for projects according to our interests.

After the break, Claire reviewed the sheets, commenting that there appeared to be no interest in the garden calendar or the hanging basket project. The Garden Party/Plant Sale was discussed at length. While it was considered to be a success last year, no one had stepped forward to chair the committee for 2005. After further discussion, Kathy Altizer volunteered to chair the Garden Party/Plant Sale Committee. Thank you Kathy. Regarding the Houston House Project, a comment was made that the majority of the work has already been completed. There remains mostly maintenance work to continue. This led to a general discussion of master gardeners doing maintenance work. The constitution states that we do not take on maintenance projects. Barb Ramm commented that the Historical Society maintains the herb garden at their facility (designed and planted by master gardener volunteers) but requests special help in the spring. Comments were made that requests for maintenance work should be passed along to other, more appropriate, groups such as 4-H and FFA. We do maintain McCloud Park as our one demonstration garden. Additionally, we will maintain the Legacy Garden, which is in the early stages of development, for the Union County Agricultural Services Building. The County will maintain other landscaping at the facility.

An issue was raised regarding maintenance at Liberty Park in Milford Center. Apparently several master gardeners have spent considerable time in maintenance work and they questioned whether this was counted as volunteer hours. George responded by clarifying that, going forward, strictly maintenance work would not qualify as volunteer time and should be done on an individual basis. However, any previous work completed would not be disqualified. He also commented that if the work can be done in such a way as to involve education (such as including youth groups and teaching them while working) the activity can qualify as volunteer hours.

Claire stated that based on the interested expressed in the various projects, committees will be formed. These standing committees will review each new proposed project. If approved by the committee, the project will go before the entire group. If the committee does not approve the project, the officers will be notified. An additional comment was made that those not in attendance tonight will also have a chance to express their opinion and interests in projects as well.

Other New Business
On a final note, George introduced a new award (another frog) entitled the Laura McConnell Spirit Award for Excellence in Volunteerism. This will be an annual award selected by the executive committee and given at the recognition banquet.

The meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted
Barb Jackson

Members in Attendance: