Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State
Board Meeting
July 17, 2024

Held on Zoom

ATTENDANCE

At the meeting opening, Secretary John Strong announced that 17 chapters were represented by 33 members in attendance. (Several more members joined the meeting late.) A quorum was met!

VP Cathi Lamoreux opened the meeting in place of President Tana, who is traveling.

TREASURER’S REPORT

Treasurer Gilbert Plascencia presented the financial statements as of the end of June and explained several details. He noted that the current financial environment affords good short-term earnings on CD investments; and he rolled one of our maturing CDs into a new one to take advantage.

ADVANCE EDUCATION CONFERENCE

Debbie Benbow (2024 AEC Co-chair) shared the good news that 416 registrations have come in to date, 25 of them since the end of the Earlybird period.

She explained the class-session-sponsor program introduced this year. Conference sponsors (silver and above) may select classes for which they are shown as sponsor. Those choices are being made now.

Joyce Frazier is doing a great job with marketing. E-blasts are going out regularly.

Cathi noted that one of the scheduled classes has changed due to a schedule conflict. Bonnie Orr will be teaching the class on composting in place of the original instructor.

AWARDS

Patricia and Kathy Brenberger have collected several nominations including 2 for MG of the Year, 2 for Media, and one for the Ed LaCrosse awards. Deadline for nominations has been extended to August 1, 2024.

2025 AEC

Cathi told the group that the Format Planning Team, which is comprised of members from all parts of the state, has been meeting. Many novel ideas for conducting next year’s conference have been considered. A final announcement will be made at this year’s conference. It has been decided that the format will not be completely in-person.

OLD BUSINESS

HANDBOOK, BYLAWS, POLICIES

The team working on these documents has put in at least 25 hours each in their quest to update and complete them. An important part of their work has been to ensure all official documents are in sync with one another, and comply with state code (WAC) and non-profit handbook.

A special meeting of this board to review and approve this work is scheduled for September 4th. The team’s proposed documents will be distributed ahead of that date to allow time for review.

As part of this review, the team has proposed new officer terms and election schedule. Elected officers will serve three-year terms. Officers will be elected in staggered years, so that not all of them would “turn over” in the same election. Details are noted in the addendum to these minutes.

In discussion, several members expressed a desire to add a position of “President Elect.” Cathi agreed to consider that for future decision.

A motion was made by Karen Russo to approve the new election procedure and terms, as noted in the addendum. Motion was seconded by Kitty Linden-Ness. Passed by a vote of 33-1.

ANNUAL MEETING

Tana is working on her annual report and the full agenda. If you have suggestions, she would like to here them.

Don Enstrom will conduct the election. Nominations for any of the elected offices may be made at any time leading up to the meeting, or at the meeting itself. Contact Don if you wish to volunteer to run, or if you wish to nominate someone else.

We continue to look for a Development Director. Cathi pointed out that, with over 4,000 master gardeners statewide, surely there is someone with a background in fund raising who would like to volunteer.

Erin noted that she has found a possibly interested candidate for Newsletter Chair. That person is working with Erin, and will decide soon.

ADJOURNMENT

Cathi adjourned the meeting at 7:17 pm.

ADDENDUM – Proposed Officer Terms