St Charles County Master Gardeners

Friday 8 February, 2019 St Charles County Master Gardener Steering Committee Meeting Minutes

 

Attendees: Kevin Minard, David Wilson, Joe Walker, David Prince, Victoria Gally, Cindy Platzer Vistors: Mary Medina, Justin Keay, Jill Zupec,

 

Call to order: Kevin called the meeting to order at 9:00 AM.

Meeting Minutes from 11 January: were on the table as handouts Joe made a motion for approval of minutes as written. Minutes were approved.

 

Treasurer’s report: Joe reported net monthly change in January. End of January 2019 Cash-in Bank for 2019 was identified. Unallocated dollars was shown. Plant Sale Allocation remaining prior to the request for an additional allocation  from Marsha Brown. A motion to approve an increase to cover cost of plugs and other items, that were not part of the original plant sale budget, was made and approved. Treasurer’s report was approved.

 

Justin: Work is in progress to hire a County Engagement Specialist (CES) for the St Charles County Extension Office. Justin is involved in the Plant Diagnostic Clinic and Master Naturalist programs in St Charles County County Extension office.

Kevin mentioned the previous request for outside electrical outlets on the County Extension Buildings.

 

Four certificates for earned Master Garden membership have not been passed out due to lack of attendance. They will be notified to pick them up in the office. Some go back as far as 2015.

Cindy wants to set up SC coffee to discuss more ideas of how to get more participation in the demonstration garden. Possible summertime was suggested.

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February Master Garden meeting theme will be Mardi Gras. Mary Carey is the facilitator.

 

Speakers: Val Mertz/Mary Medina, speakers are booked through July. Mary: Dig-In volunteers are in place. Listing has been sent out by email. 83 have signed up for the Dig-In classes. Due to it being the only gardening classes being offered this spring, it is anticipated that attendance will be much larger. A maximum of 140 to 150 can be accommodated. . Volunteers are to be there at 7:45 AM. The St Charles County Community College (audio visual support) Mike Dukus is being paid $300. Keynote speaker Matt Lebon $150, Horticulturist honorarium Christina James $ 100, honorarium Maxine Stone $75 Victoria made a motion the approve $625 for the technician and other compensations being requested. Motion was approved.

 

Master Garden Training Class: 20 have enrolled to date. The first 1 ½ hours of the first class will be done by Justin providing information on the history, and introduction of the Steering Committee.

 

Mary Medina: Speakers bureau, Victoria and Kevin are the speakers bureau. Victoria is requesting power point presentations and topics to set up a library of topics and possibilities to aid future speakers.

 

Jill: Showed a stand with flip charts for demonstration of how herb garden signage can be done. The signage looked excellent, with plant identification, folklore and advice by the WebMD. Discussion about the web site is to be approved by Justin.

: Michaela Kornblum is wanting volunteers to help do gardening at Faust Park in Chesterfield. The park has historic houses with demonstration gardens done by volunteers. The DAR requested a speaker at one of their meetings to tell what the St Charles County Master Garden association does. Due to someone identified it as being a political organization it is not anticipated that we would send a speaker.

 

Requests for Dem Garden Tours are to be referred to Cindy and Victoria.

 

Mary Medina: Farmers Market in O’Fallon has a booth for the Master Gardeners. No sales will be allowed, it will be an information only booth. See calendar in newsletter for dates.

 

Kevin: Individual requests for personal landscaping jobs is not in our purview. We also do not do recommend landscaping companies.

 

Waneta Parmeter has put out a sheet of guidance instructions for reporting your volunteer hours. Also, there is a 15 minute video on line that can be viewed. Kevin will provide a list of 1,000 hour recipients to the office in order to get the bricks engraved. Four trees planted for 1,000 hours that were destroyed by the utilities companies. They may be replaced or changed to an engraved brick. Kevin has a computer map that shows the county extension ground boundaries. Prairie garden leads can use it to find the prairie garden boundaries.

 

MONGA dues require a list of names of active master gardeners. Dues funding was previously approved. Nursery License for the plant sale needs to be obtained. Joe made a motion to adjourn the meeting and it was approved.

David Prince 8 February 2019