St Charles County Master Gardeners

St Charles County Master Gardener Steering Committee Meeting Minutes Monday 11 Nov, 2019 Attendees: Kevin Minard, Joe Walker, David Prince, Cindy Platzer, Victoria Gally, Alex Reichert, Justin Keay, Rebekah Davis, Marsha Brown, Jan Carron Call to order: Kevin called the meeting to order at 9:05 AM Secretary’s Report: Steering Committee Meeting Minutes for 11 October were approved as written. Treasurer’s report: Joe reported net monthly changes for September ($980.48). End of Oct 2019 cash in bank for 2019 was identified. Remaining Demo Garden allocation was shown. Unallocated dollars were shown. MU Horticultualist Specialist: Justin reported on the “Soil Health Workshop”. Attendance was 73, a vegetarian lunch was served. About 2/3 of the attendees were master gardeners. MU County Engagement Specialist: Alex said they were going to re-align the office. The storage of engraved and unengraved bricks and bird houses need to be relocated out of the office. Cindy volunteered to move the bricks to an area outside of the greenhouse. Engraved bricks are to be installed around the flagpole. No decision as to who would install the engraved bricks was established. Bird houses are gifts for future events. Alex asked for someone to move the bush blocking view of the CE Office sign. It was identified as a volunteer and will be removed. Committee Reports: Membership: no report. Demo Gardens: Cindy asked about a mailing list for the plant sale. The office has a list. Victoria announced that the garden leads budget is due this week. The garden leads meeting is Saturday Nov 16 and is the final quarterly Demo Garden Leads meeting. Plant Sale: Marsha talked about the Feb 8 one hour seeding session for the plant sale in the greenhouse. She suggested new MG trainees be invited to see what some of the winter activities are for MGs. Speakers: Kevin said the Paul Hendricks award will be presented at the January MG Meeting. Hort line is not being manned but voice mail is still being monitored and responded to. Education: Justin announced that the theme for the Dig-In speaker is “Gardening in a Changing Climate”. The speaker is from the University of MO and a weather specialist. The $10 fee per person for education classes for the University is not applicable to the Dig-In or local MG events. F rom Mary Medina: “Dig-In 2020 is moving along over a few speed bumps. Registration will continue to be handled through the office staff starting January 10th with advertising handled through MG’s website and Constant Contact disbursal of flyers to members and out to the public. Cost will be $30 and perhaps $20 - $15 for St. Charles County Community College Ag students. (Vote this in or give me the option to choose). Thoughts are to possibly to have a strand of classes geared to these students or they can just mix in. Still working on this idea. Justin would like to lay out a series of classes for the year, or we’ll need to have a group interested in education form a committee to put this together. Suggestions: Volunteers or ask these: Val Mertz, Chuck Baur, Tom Conley, Karen Klearman, Micha Kornblum, Donna Lindsey, Leslie Mitchel, Ken Peine, Rebeca Poon, Terri Scheer, Bonnie and Al Winkler, Craig and Pat Morton.” A vote to allow Mary to decide on class fees for Ag students was approved. New Business: Elections for the Steering Committee were held at the 24 Oct SCC Master Gardener Meeting. Rebekah Davis and Kevin Minard were elected to a two year term. Old Business: Faye Aubuchon recommends that a MG be appointed to the Extension Council as a Community partner. No one has volunteered. It was agreed that Cindy would attend EC meetings as appointed by Kevin. Cindy asked what shall we tell Leslie Limberg about her request for a platform/classroom to use in the Native Garden. (Plans being looked at are for a classroom 13 ft by 20 ft raised a minimum of 18 inches off the ground. It would be used by school groups, St Charles County library classes and demo garden classes.) Kevin suggested we need to complete existing projects first. Marsha said we are on schedule with the Orchard Garden on our 5 year plan. Most of it will be completed in the 3rd year. Justin said we previously decided to postpone building the classroom. Joe would like to see a landscaping map to see what the completed Native Garden will look like. Alex asked what is the cost to the EC. Cost will be covered by MG funds. Only EC approval is requested. Marsha questioned the problem with a platform being 18 inches off of the ground and raccoons living under it. That problem will be addressed with a requirement to fence the bottom open space. Leslies has discussed plans to use the used wood from Libby’s deck by laying them flat on landscape timbers so she could go ahead with just a platform. David advised landscape timbers laying on the ground will swell on the ground side warping them and un-leveling the platform. Also there is no level place in her garden for her to lay landscape timbers. The building of a classroom was previously approved by the Garden Leads. It is on hold at this time. We are fortunate to have a garden lead with the extensive knowledge Leslie has. Education: Mary Medina has asked to be replaced after the Dig-In. Discussions were held as to how to replace her, either with an education committee, or one person, etc. Holiday Party on Dec 6th . Kevin asked who has the decorations. Set up time will be at 10 AM on the 6th . The room has been set aside the whole day for the MGs use. Old Business: Replacing the Pergola floor stones with concrete: Alex asked why not use paving stones. David said paving stones requires releveling them after frost heaves them. Patti Kolek (at Oct SC meeting) was to ask the EC if we need their approval. Patti was not available, but Kevin will find out from her. Good of The Order: A summary of all activities will be required at the end of the year. Kevin and Jan will follow up. Motion to adjourn was approved. Meeting was adjourned at 11:14 AM Respectfully, David Prince