MCMGA Board Minutes for August 24, 2021 at 6:30p
/This meeting was recorded Zoom online meeting
Attendees: Claudia Groth, Susan Marcus, Corinne Thomas-Kersting, Jack Lazareck, Elaine O’Keefe, Christine Semeniuk, Marcia McIntyre, Mary Abplanalp, Susanne Cavicchi, Linda Goldser, Lorna Schilling, Dave Owen, Tom Ralley
Secretary - Nancy Fine
Secretary was N/A. Susan took Minutes.
Treasurer - Susan Marcus
Budgeting process is going according to schedule. Contact Susan or Christine for info.
Communications budget items are computers and website updates. Do we need to add an additional category? Board Vice President, Dave, is in favor of increasing the Communications budget for items like software.
Linda asked how to handle unforeseen expenses. Example: water bill - Portland Parks and Rec has not billed for water though they stated it would be billed. DG needs water in the budget, but the amount goes unused.
Inquiry about a $1000 donation to a nonprofit. Are we going to do that? Normally donate excess plants from IE sale to Oregon food bank. In lieu of holding the IE sale we made a cash donation last year. Dave will research possible groups that we can donate to - disadvantaged and marginalized groups.
Policy & Procedure Update
Board President, Claudia, noted changes to the policy and procedure policy.
Corinne made a motion and Susan seconded the motion. All present board members voted in favor.
DEI Toolkit
Group didn’t receive feedback from anyone but said that Claudia’s introduction was well done.
Comments: It’s a great document. Suggestion to put a date at the bottom so it can show revision dates. Comment: Next step is to institutionalize it. Get members in the habit of referring to the toolkit as we do any projects, events, etc. Question if anyone has an objection to sharing the document with other organizations? No one objected. Comment: sharing would be good. Maybe share it with Wash and Clackamas counties?
Action Item: Toolkit needs contact info so people can email or call someone about DEI support.
Land Acknowledgement
Board president will send out the land acknowledgement from OSU Ext. Metro DEI group.
OMGA - Elaine O’Keefe
OMGA sent Claudia the website link as the best place to stay up to date on OSU COVID policy.
As of this Friday, Governor Brown mandates masks inside and outside in events and groups of 10 or larger.
Next OMGA meeting is online, September 10th in the afternoon. Elaine is looking for someone to attend in her place. She will confirm date and time. Board Vice President, Dave, offered to attend the meeting for Elaine.
Comment: OMGA survey was sent after attending mini college but the survey didn’t offer a place to offer constructive criticism, so not much use.
Education Update - Corinne Thomas-Kersting
Current education project - second batch of free seed kits have been collected. They put together 60 seed packets and have distributed 20+ so far. Low cost project. It could possibly be customized for kids or for a specific culture or language. Translations in multiple languages.
Should this be budgeted at the Chapter level? Inquiry for it to be made with less plastic, which Dave is researching.
Educate committee will add a link to the DEI toolkit to their forms. Committee plans to start in person meetings again in February 2022.
Trench gardening seminar. Tabling events - booth and activities for adults and kids - at neighborhood events, repair fair, etc.
Extension Request
Extension requests all the counties to sponsor the intern training. (Chapters do classes and seminars, and Extension holds workshops). MG training will be mostly online.
OSU Extension Representative, Marcia - Training is being coordinated statewide. Some in-person workshops will occur outdoors. They’re seeking Chapters to support this effort and training similar to the past. Multnomah County has done a great job of this. Focus on training interns to handle diagnostics.
4-5 classes are typically offered at the IE Sale. This cost should be budgeted by Education.
Communications Update - Susanne Cavicchi
eNews deadline is Sept 8th.
Susanne should connect with Cory Haussmann/neighborhood associations. Claudia will send her contact info.
DG brochure update. Cara Finlayson is updating hours/days of being open on the brochures. It doesn’t need to be reprinted. They have about 400 brochures.
New logo might continue development into next year. Claudia will contact Jennifer Simpson, Merchandise coordinator, about using the new logo on merchandise.
YouTube channel is up and running. Next steps are to publicize it and populate it with videos.
Corinne and Claudia are working on a video. The YouTube channel will be announced in the September eNews. We need to encourage members to subscribe to our channel so they get alerts when new videos are posted.
We need to decide how we’re going to get Instagram up and running.
Demo Garden Update - Linda Goldser
1,500 pounds of produce donated to date this year.
HPSO grant is finalized and the report is sent in. Project is done. All expenses are in. Signage in four of the perennial beds. Additional signage costs to be estimated in the budget.
DG survey received an 11% response rate. General consensus was to get DG reports on a monthly basis sent via email. No report since April. Claudia has a problem with demo garden sending a separate newsletter. Claudia sees it as part of the Chapter communications. Linda asked how DG info would be conveyed to all of the non-master gardener entities. Suggestions to post it on Facebook and the website (and Instagram when that gets started). We should absolutely have the same demo garden news that we put in the eNews.
Comment: Tom supports Linda in that demo garden news is sent out to a bunch of non MG folks. It’s important that we continue to connect and reach people outside our master gardener circle.
Long discussion about how to reach those folks.
Decision to send them an email with a link to the DG news on our website. Also post the link on Facebook.
Member Connect
Awards
Tom sitting in for John. Longevity awards. Suggestion to award other items. Ex: mug
Revised schedule for awards so that it coincides with the gardening year. Process now starts in June and July with awards decided in August and given out in the Fall. So we won’t give out awards this year as we move to a new schedule.
Directory
Heidi requests what we’re including in the directory and she will get it done. Do we just list names and numbers, or do we also want to know dates of events, meetings, etc? Heidi will create a pdf in a 8.5” x 11” format so people can print it out. Won’t include 2020 interns unless we get that info from Marcia.
Fund Raising
Incredible Edible Sale is May 7th, 2022.
Plant stakes
Ordering 4,000 stakes costs $134. 7000 stakes costs $200. Need to decide what to put on the plant stake.
Decision to list website address and tag line. Claudia to coordinate printing 7000 plant stakes.
Meeting Location
Budget for meeting space in 2022. Everything stays online through March of 2022 but we might return to in person meetings after that.
Meeting Dates for 2021
All Tuesdays (generally the 4th Tuesday, but adjusted for holidays)
On Zoom until conditions justify changing
6:30pm to 8:30pm
Next meeting is Sept 28, 2021
Meeting adjourned.