LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

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1 LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT What a successful year we have had! We have a couple of months left and tasks yet to accomplish before year s end. Never fear, November is fall back time so we have a whole extra hour. Our Teams have worked tirelessly to provide a host of events and educational opportunities. Fundraising members traveled the state selling items which, along with our Silent Auctions, help support our programs and scholarships. Communications produced our quarterly Garden Voice, managed submissions for our MG Calendar photos and updated our speakers bureau and county contact list. We held three District Digs, one in each of our districts; Advanced Training offered three full-house advanced trainings and RRR hosted four Annuals to Perennials events and managed our statewide MG awards. PNG Leadership hosted a first-rate conference with a new Round Robin feature that was a great success. Continued on page 2 Linda Soffer Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success. Henry Ford Mike Wilbanks What else can be said? After your years of service, and I have only known you for a few months, I WILL MISS YOU! "County 76 is the advisory board for the Arkansas Master Gardeners. It is a volunteer organization promoting volunteer horticulture education and service to the community. Members are graduates of the Arkansas Master Gardener program administered by the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service." TABLE OF CONTENTS What is this? pages 2, 3 Project reports pages 3, 4 Scholarship information page 5 MG 30th Birthday Pix page 6

2 Continued from page 1 We selected two Arkansas high school seniors as recipients of the Janet B. Carson High School Scholarship. And, new this year, two county programs were recipients of the Janet B. Carson County Program Scholarships. Wrong answers only... The topping on the cake, literally, was the fabulous 30 th Birthday Celebration where MGs were treated like royalty by Janet and a host of County Agents and volunteers. Thank You Janet! We also launched the Janet Carson Master Gardener/Consumer Horticulture Endowment Fund Initiative. This is a long-term fund-raising effort to develop a sustainable revenue for our Master Gardener Program. Funds are now managed by Extension which makes the process easier. Individuals can now make online gifts by clicking the Donate Now button in the header of the UACES webpage. This is a secure, easy way to donate. No donation is too small. Imagine if each of our 3,000+ MGs gave $5 what a contribution to our future that would be. New for 2019, County 76 is hosting the Planting Seeds of Hope State Conference. Mark your calendars and Save the Date April 30 th, There will be an optional pre-conference tour on April 29 th to Old Washington, a Monday Night Event, 5:00 8:00, with surprises, and the Silent Auction and Gardeners Market and an optional Fish/Chicken dinner. Four optional post-tours will be available on Wednesday, May 1 st which will include and end with lunch. To learn more about this event or any of our Projects, join us at our next membership meeting, January 22 nd, 2019, 10 3, Little Rock State Office. You can help make a difference in our Arkansas Master Gardener Program. Don t forget to log in All of your hours before the December 15 th deadline. Connect. Learn. Grow Be a part of County 76! Linda Meat Grinder Drill bit sharpener Clearly this is a photo of the hand crank mechanism used to continue powering an original gramophone after the hamster got too tired of running in his wheel for the music to play smoothly "Compost bin for fairy garden" It s a carrot peeler! It's a musical instrument. You make music by cranking the handle and vary the notes by turning the dial to use the different sized holes. After an active season of growing fruits, veggies and ornamentals, soil can be stressed and depleted of nutrients, which will lead to underperformance next planting season. Help soil recover by adding the proper nutrients to planting areas. 2

3 Project Reports The month of March 2019 will have two Advanced Training classes. March 8th & 9th (Fri-Sat) Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, hosted by Crittenden County. Save your frozen, broken water hoses and bring them to the class. At County 76 meeting, Jan 22, we will learn other items we may bring. March 26th & 27th (Tues-Wed), Healthy Trees-Healthy Lives will be hosted by Faulkner County. A few of the topics listed on the agenda are "Trees and their Role in Green Infrastructure", "Tree Planting", "Right Tree, Right Place", "Identifying Hazardous Trees", "Taking Care of Trees". A tour of the Hendrix Preserve has been arranged. May 31 (Fri), How to Protect, Preserve and Conserve our Water will be hosted by Pulaski County. The purpose of the training for participants will be to acquire knowledge on how to protect, preserve and conserve, both locally and statewide, our water. What threatens our water systems in Arkansas? What is being done to preserve and conserve this natural resource? As an individual and as a citizen, what can we do to assist in the protection, preservation and conservation of this life giving resource. Marty Lynch, Chair Advanced Training Project Fundraising project has had 28 sales events this year with 2-3 more planned. Inventory has included over eighty different items throughout the year. Gross sales have totaled $23,495 (plus $834 in sales at the County 76 Meeting) The committee considered: potential new items to order for future sales Straw sun hats with MG band MG caps, visors Plant labels in stainless steel with longer posts Restock MG Windbreakers for spring HipKlips (clip-on bags) Bee and Ladybug hotels ways to improve inventory management, e.g., bar code scanner possibly having a clearance sale on some items scheduling a total inventory twice each year June 15 th and December 15 th Fundraising Co-Chairs for 2019 will be Glenda Bell and Janice Dickerson Ouida COMMUNICATIONS PROJECT We welcome two new members to the Communications project; Diane Smith Chris Weems Birthday greetings will be sent monthly to County 76 members from the Jacquie Lawson card company. The speakers bureau list is up to date and ready for use by all. All of the available head shots have been acquired for the C76 Membership poster and will be ready in January. We are continuing to send s to all new members welcoming them to C76. WHAT IS THIS? Submit wrong answers only. Best answers will be revealed in the next issue of GARDEN VOICE. Send answers to: mwilbanks3@gmail.com 3

4 Project Reports September 2018 Joan 4

5 ANNOUNCEMENT for Scholarships The Janet B. Carson County and the Janet B. Carson Student Scholarships, which are funded through County 76 Silent Auction proceeds and private donations, have been posted on the open portion of the MG website. The County Scholarship is open to any Arkansas Master Gardener program with project scholarship funds available for up to $750. For the Student Scholarship, we are asking you to share the Scholarship information with individuals that work with Arkansas high school seniors who will be attending an Arkansas University or College and who plan to major in a horticulture related field. Please note new deadlines for the scholarships: Janet B. Carson County Scholarship: January 15, 2019 Janet B. Carson Student Scholarship: March 1, 2019 If you have any questions concerning either of these scholarships, please contact me at mg@uaex.edu. Jane Burrow, County 76 Past-president Scholarship Chair What is County 76? County 76 is the statewide advisory group for the Arkansas Master Gardener program. It is open to all active Master Gardeners in Arkansas. County 76 members help set policy, and provide guidance to county programs. Programs offered statewide will be County 76 "projects." The structure of the group is based on our county programs, and since there are 75 counties in Arkansas, this group is now the "76 county. The "County Agent" is the State MG Coordinator (Janet Carson) and the officers will be elected from the membership of County 76. The projects will focus on organizational, leadership and general management issues. County 76 members will decide which projects will be created, and each member will decide on which project he/she wants to work. County 76 is open to all Master Gardeners who have completed the training and are in good standing in their local county programs. In addition to their county commitment, each County 76 member must accrue 10 additional hours on County 76 sanctioned projects. Membership term is unlimited for those who recertify both in their local c o u n t y a n d a t t h e s t a t e level. County Agents who have an active Master Gardener program in their county may also participate. 5

6 Arkansas Master Gardeners 30th Birthday Party at Moss Mountain 6

7 New ideas and thoughts regarding the "Garden Voice" newsletter are always welcome! Mike Wilbanks at: 2019 Officers will be: President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Assistant Treasurer Past President Patsy Louk Susan Colles Mary Wells Janis Callaway Linda Soffer 2018 County 76 Officers President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Assistant Treasurer Past President County 76 Agent County 76 Coordinator Linda Soffer Patsy Louk Mary Wells David Anderson Janis Calaway Jane Burrow Janet Carson Julie Treat Garden Voice Editor - Mike Wilbanks The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. 7