Barbara Low

If any of these working groups interest you, please contact the chair of that group.  Their contact information is in the JCMGA Chapter Directory and on the JCMGA website.

Community Outreach Working Group –

Our meetings are held on the third Friday of each month.

In February we discussed:

• Medford Open Streets Project
• Speakers’ Bureau
• Friends of the Master Gardener program
• Articles for The Garden Beet

Fundraising Working Group and the Spring Garden Fair Working Group–

In February we discussed:

• Sale of the JCMGA Garden Guides
• Spring Garden Fair on May 6^th from 9-3 p.m.
• Fall Festival on October 14^th
• Will start working on creating a priority list of items for possible grants

Garden Working Group –

Our meetings are held on the 4^th Monday of each month.

At the February meeting we discussed:

• Status of the Native Plant Nursery
• Irrigation for the gardens
• Practicum update
• Water Catchment update
• Garden Enhancement Committee update
• Janine Salvatti is now the Chair of this Working Group.

Marketing and Technology Working Group —

Our meetings are held on the second Monday of each month unless it works out to be a national holiday.  In February, we discussed many topics such as:

• The focus of the Garden Beet
• Working on QRL codes for gardens
• Exploring Google Workspace for Nonprofits
• The Marketing Brochure
• Updating the website

If you are interested in joining our group for a discussion or to lend a hand or if you want more information, please contact Sandy Hansen, Chair at sandyhansen08@gmail.com or 707-332-4934.  All are welcome.

Member Services Working Group –

We are continuing to work on updating the Chapter Directory for 2023.  Our goal is to have the directory ready for you by the end of March.   We are starting to work on a possible Field Trip later this year – details to follow.  In trying to meet the needs of our members, we are creating a survey to email later in March.  Please take the time to complete it for us.  We are also going to be surveying our past members to find out how we can serve them.   If you are interested in being a part of our group, contact Barbara Low at barbaralow@msn.com .

Program Support Working Group –

The Program Support Working Group has been focused on restarting engagement and learning

activities. We have held the first Practicum sessions since the shut down and are building a

Community Education Class schedule! The Plant Clinic has been busy with updates and

preparing mentors to train all our new Master Gardener Students. We will soon have a current

list of reportable pests. The Plant Clinic loves puzzles so much that we have been holding a

scavenger hunt through the Oregon Department of Agriculture and Oregon Department of

Forestry websites to update our reportable pest list.

Winter Dreams Summer Gardens Working Group –

Our group has started meeting on a regular basis to plan for the WDSG 2023!  We have brainstormed possible presentation topics and speakers.

If you are interested is being a part of this group, please contact Colet Allen coletallen1@gmail.com , Susan Koenig srkoenig@aol.com or Barbara Low barbaralow@msn.com .

Recording your recertification hours is a very important part of being a Master Gardener.  Our organization is based on gardening education and volunteers’ hours.  In addition to providing documentation for your recertification, these hours are needed to provide funding for Oregon Master Gardeners.

This task may seem daunting at the beginning, but the more you do it the easier it becomes. 

Currently we are required to have

• 20 hours of approved volunteer service. Half of these hours must be in the category of direct or indirect education efforts – which are detailed on the OSU website https://vrs.osumg.org/sec_Login/
• 10 hours of approved continuing education.
• These 30 hours (minimum) are to be earned from November 1^st to October 31^st.

The steps are easy to follow as long as you take your time –

• Login into the JCMGA website https://jacksoncountymga.org/
• Login into the JCMGA Member Portal
• On the right-hand side you will find a side bar with Member Links – click on Report Your Hours

This takes you to the OSU Master Gardener Volunteer Reporting System (VRS)

• In the left-hand side of this page you will find lots of good information. Take time to check out the following –
  • Report Hours button – where you choose if you want to record Volunteer Service Hours or Continuing Education Hours.
  • Documentation Button – there is information here explaining.
    • what is required for re-certification
    • what the new categories are what can be included in each category
  • How To Videos – shows you step by step what to do
• If this is your first time reporting your recertification hours, you will need to click on the link Enrollment in VRS and follow the directions.
• If you have recorded your recertification hours before, you should put in your email address and password. Since this is a new website and to strengthen security, OSU has changed their requirements for a password.  You may have to update your password.

People keep track of their hours in a variety of ways before they input them into the OSU Volunteer Reporting System.

• Many people use a calendar or log to keep track of them.
• Some people officially report their hours weekly, monthly, etc.
• You can enter your hours for each individual event, or you can “bundle” them. By bundle, we mean you can take the number of volunteer hours – as long as they are the same coding – for a month or longer.  You would need to explain it in the description box.

If at any time you have questions about this process, please feel free to contact Grace Florjancic, Barbara Low, Sandy Hansen or Jane Moyer.

Have a wonderful year gardening!