Fondly remembering Bill Greer

If you attended Master Gardener training in Washington County in the past 25 years, upon arrival you received a warm, friendly welcome from OSU Master Gardener, Bill Greer.  Bill volunteered at the check-in table at MG training for longer than anyone can remember. He was a fixture who could be counted on to welcome all, with a kind word and his delightful sense of humor.  We were deeply saddened to learn that Bill died on January 1.

Another place you were bound to see Bill was on Monday mornings at the Washington County hotline office.  In the office, Bill took on the role of mentor by listening, advising and guiding his fellow Master Gardener volunteers and the gardening public.  Many Master Gardeners learned the ins and outs of serving the gardening public while volunteering alongside Bill.  Bill was a patient teacher, guide and valued volunteer!

Bill became an OSU Master Gardener in 1993.  Bill was an avid gardener with an extensive collection and knowledge of rhododendrons. According to his family, his background in engineering also supported an elaborate irrigation system that hydrated his rhodie garden.

At this year’s Washington County MG training as we enter and pass the check-in table, we will be thinking of Bill with fond and grateful remembrance!  Bill gave so much to the Master Gardener program, fellow Master Gardeners and those wanting to learn more about gardening.

On behalf of the OSU Master Gardeners, we want to extend our sincere sympathy and thanks to Bill’s family.  In past years, Bill’s children would transport Bill to training classes and to the Washington Co. office for his hotline shifts, so Bill could continue his tradition of giving to the community!

Bill was a very special Master Gardener volunteer who touched many as he shared his love of learning and the natural world.

Remembrance donations can be made to Valley Community Presbyterian Church, the OSU Master Gardener Program, or the American Rhododendron Society.

Here is another memorial remembrance of Bill.

Remembering with Fondness and Gratitude: Ray McNeilan

It is with sincere sadness we report that Ray McNeilan, OSU Professor of Horticulture and head of the Extension Master Gardener program from 1978 to 1996, died on October 4, 2018.

It is impossible to overstate the impact that Ray had on Oregon’s Master Gardener Program and on home gardeners across Oregon. He taught generations of Master Gardeners, was a gracious colleague to fellow horticulturists, and authored several books and countless Extension fact sheets.

Ray was instrumental helping to establish the Oregon Master Gardeners Association (comprised of individual, county Chapters), as a non-profit 501(c) organization dedicated to raising funds and supporting the Oregon State Master Gardener program.

Upon his retirement, he continued to volunteer his time and expertise to the Master Gardener Program and to the Oregon Master Gardener Association. In honor of his contributions, the Oregon Master Gardener Association funds a scholarship for an OSU Horticulture student, in Dr. McNeilan’s name.

His smile was huge, as was his heart. Together with his wife Jan (who was also an OSU Extension Professional, and the Coordinator of OSU’s Master Gardener Program from 2003 to 2007), the McNeilans helped to establish the Statewide Master Gardener Endowment Fund at OSU, which has been integral to keeping the program strong, to this day.

A giant in the world of horticulture, Ray was humble, generous, and always smiling. His legacy will live on in the many Master Gardeners he trained, the students who study horticulture at OSU via the Ray McNeilan scholarship, and the many colleagues he has supported and encouraged.

The metro-area Master Gardener program remembers Ray with fondness and deepest gratitude, knowing the significant, positive difference that he made to the OSU Master Gardener program, the gardening public and horticulture in Oregon!

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests tax-deductible memorial donations to the program closest to his heart: OSU Master Gardener Program Endowment, OSU Foundation, 850 S.W. 35th St., Corvallis, OR 97333-4015.

After 22 years as the Metro-area, OSU Master Gardener Volunteer Coordinator, Jordis Yost retired on July 31^st and is starting a new chapter in her life.

We are both excited for Jordis and her family, yet very sad to see her go!

Jordis started her adventure (career) with OSU by taking the Master Gardener training in 1992 with her husband Michael.  Their goal was to get a handle on how to maintain their amazing property in rural Multnomah County.

Jordis believed so strongly in the power of community-based outreach and engagement that she applied for a job with the MG program in 1996.  Since then, she has supported 1000s of volunteers in the Master Gardener training and volunteer experience.

Jordis has embodied the spirit of community and volunteerism during her tenure with OSU.  Patience, a sense of humor, and purpose-driven investment of time and energy are just some of the traits that Jordis has brought to her work.  Jordis also served in volunteer support roles for the Master Recycler, Master Watershed Stewards, and Metro Natural Gardening programs along the way.

Jordis has guided, and educated Master Gardeners with a delightful sense of humor, levelheaded perspective, kindness, and grace.  We are immensely grateful to Jordis for her dedicated service, hard work and steadfast commitment to the OSU Master Gardener program and the Master Gardener volunteers.

Our heartfelt thanks to you Jordis!
Wishing you a wonderful retirement!

On September 2nd, OSU Master Gardeners, OSU Extension staff, family and friends gathered to celebrate and honor Jordis.  Here is a snippet of photos from the festivities…

Dear Master Gardener volunteers,

Welcome to 2018!

The Master Gardener program team (Weston, Jordis, Marcia) and our supervisors at OSU appreciate your participation in our outreach and engagement efforts in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties.

Your volunteerism makes a difference, helping to spread sustainable gardening information in the community.

Thank you for your contribution of time and expertise!

Volunteer statistics- Wow! and thank you!

In 2017, we conducted the Master Gardener training for 144 students (with volunteer requirement) plus an additional 15 students enroled in our certificate option (no volunteer requirement). Of this group, 105 students submitted volunteer hours.

We coordinated an additional 412 volunteers (517 total volunteers for 2017), who provided 38,422 hours of service.

Based on the Independent Sector (https://www.independentsector.org/volunteer_time) value of volunteer time in Oregon of $24.15 for 2017, the in-kind value of this contribution is $434,700 toward this public service of OSU Extension Service.

About 18,000 of these hours were applied toward OSU sponsored outreach activities including helplines, plant clinics, and gardening presentations. This volunteer effort produced 34,093 unique educational contacts with adults and 394 pesticide free zone pledges.

Master Gardeners make gardening presentations to the community via our Speakers Guild and 10-Minute University.  In 2017, MGs conducted 69 seminar events with 2,820 educational contacts.

As a learning community, Master Gardeners reported 7,753 hours of continuing education credit through recertification classes, webinars, and pest curation groups.

In addition to the activities described above, Master Gardener chapters in the metro area manage multiple demonstration gardens, conduct plant sales, and orchestrate chapter activities.

These program statistics paint a picture of an incredible learning community focused on community service.  We are in awe!

Thank you to MG program/chapter liaisons!

The MG program team would like to extend a special thank you to a group of MG volunteers that provided us with timely and sage advice through the course of the year through our on-going MG liaison group.  With the goal of improving communications between and MG program and chapters (and individual volunteers) and among the chapters, the Liaison group met eight times in 2017.

Thank you to you:

• Kimberly Culbertson
• Janet Evans
• Jack Lazerek
• Rich Becker

We had a great meeting in December with this group and Liaison representatives for 2018.  We are looking forward to continued and improved collaboration.

Strategic plan 2014-2019- Update

To guide the MG program into the future, we are working toward the following goals:

1. Improving the effectiveness of the MG training and volunteer program.
2. Streamlining branding and communications.
3. Optimizing resources (financial, human, and organizational).
4. Expanding our reach to under-served audiences to promote diversity and equity.
5. Growing the next generation of gardeners (youth and adults).

Here is an update on these efforts:

1. Improving the effectiveness of the MG training and volunteer program

In 2015, we modified the format of the MG program from 11 weeks of in-person classes to a hybrid learning format including seven weeks of in-person training, online content, online final exam in addition to seminars, and hands-on workshops.  This format has provided more flexibility and multiple pathways of learning sustainable gardening content for our students.  This format has also provided more flexibility for the MG program team to provide the MG curriculum.

New for 2018, we have asked our instructors to include active-learning opportunities for in-person classes, which have been mostly lecture-based.  Inclusion of new, hands/minds-on activities is part of a state-wide effort to provide a richer learning experience for our students.

We encourage you to come on out the the 2018 classes to experience this new focus, aimed to support adult learning.

2. Streamlining branding and communications

In 2015, the MG program and our area chapters adapted new logos and made efforts to improve MG program and chapter websites and to give them a more standard look and feel.  Additionally, we initiated the MG program/chapter liaison group as an important means of getting advice from you, our volunteer network.

We also know that there is much room for improvement to improve our communications with our volunteers and community partners.  Here are steps that we are taking in 2018:

• More efficient communications with our Liaison group to make it easier for them to share information from the MG program with chapters and vice versa.
• New and improved online newsletter format including email, blogs, and PDF documents.
• This annual report that your are reading now.
• An annual open meeting for all MGs (coming June 2018).

3. Optimizing resources (financial, human, and organizational).

We continue to benefit from the generous financial support of Clackamas County Extension and Metro.  Both organizations provide critical base funding to make our regional effort possible.  Thank your to Mike Bondi and Carl Grimm for the support.

Unfortunately, we still need to charge program fees to cover our costs of production.  In 2017, program fees provided $64,000 of income needed to conduct the program including materials, transport, and staff time.

We also greatly appreciate nearly $15,000 in donations (over three years) from MG chapters and individuals to support reduced-fee slots for the MG training.  These resources have made it possible for us to offer 61 reduced fee slots to community members (over three years).  Thank you for your generous support!

4. Expanding our reach to under-served audiences to promote diversity and equity.

In addition to offering reduced-fee opportunities to train Master Gardeners, we are making efforts to engage with diverse audiences.  Here are some recent successes in this realm:

• Master Gardeners instruct basic food gardening classes to the community through our partnership with Oregon Food Bank’s Seed to Supper programs.
• Collaboration with WIC (Women, Infants, Children) to conduct Spanish-language outreach at the Washington County Fair with xxxx+ visitors
• Conduct focus groups and questionnaires in Spanish-language and with immigrants/newcomers to get feedback about pests and pest control as part of SolvePestProblems.edu, a planned website project to provide comprehensive IPM resources for non-agricultural audiences in Oregon and beyond.  We have over 100 points of contact with diverse stakeholders including: Latino, Tongan, Russian, Vietnamese, and immigrant/newcomer communities.
• SolvePestProblems.edu is planned to be a state-wide resource with at least 750 content pages available in both English and Spanish.  Check out the project website for this planned resource.

For 2018, we are planning a pilot outreach program to reach diverse audiences:

Garden Bridges: Growing Cross Cultural Connection In the Garden

Would you like to garden with immigrants and refugees? Oregon State University is partnering with People-Places-Things LLC.  to build relationships between English language learners and Master Gardeners.  Master Gardeners will develop their intercultural communication skills, helping immigrants and refugees learn English and gardening skills.

The general commitment is two hours a week in a classroom setting developing relationships with language learners. Then when the weather gets a little better, we’ll welcome Newcomer gardeners and show them around, practicing English and tending your plots together. All experiences will be very practical and hands-on. You’ll make some new friends, learn about the amazing people in your neighborhood, and share your expertise.

Interested in becoming a cross cultural educator as part of this pilot partnership with People-Places-Things?

We will have an info session on Thursday, January 11 from 6:30pm to 7:pm30 at Kelly School Center 9015 SE Rural St in Portland.

Please RSVP to weston.miller@oregonstate if you intend to come or have interest in this opportunity but cannot make this event.

5. Growing the next generation of gardeners (youth and adults)

We want to train the next generation of gardeners by providing research-based information.

At the Oregon Zoo backyard habitat exhibit, MGs interacted with nearly 5,000 kids in 2017!

A handful of individual Master Gardeners connect with kids in school gardens through regular programming and consulting services.  Thank you to Frank Willie, Kris Lamar, and Jeanine Rychlic for reporting these important efforts in 2017!

Also, in addition to training the next generation of Master Gardeners, the OSU Master Gardener team is working hard to provide gardening information to the general public through public media contacts including our new partnership with The Oregonian.

Monthly “What to do in the garden” video series

We’ve had an outstanding opportunity to collaborate with the Oregonian to produce practical, how-to video series with monthly gardening tips.  Thank you to Monica Maggio and Ruban Lawrence for your contribution to these videos.  And thank you to 2017 trainee Michelle Nicolosi for fostering this partnership.

Check them out!

• September- What to do in the garden
• October- What to do in the garden
• November- What to do in the garden
• December- What to do in the garden