Come Back to Us!

Dearest Master Gardeners,

This is a call to action from your JCMGA Board of Directors.

The last 2½ years have been a struggle for our association:  COVID-19, loss of our program coordinator, loss of many of our experienced board members, fire, drought, the failure of the well on campus, and the condemnation by the county of our Practicum classroom.  All have conspired to diminish our ability to function and left a small, core group of dedicated volunteers struggling to keep the association going.

Despite all the bad news, we have been able to accomplish remarkable things:  We have teachers at OLLI, and folks giving classes at Jackson County Library Services branches and to garden clubs. The Plant Clinic is up and running. The Demonstration Gardens are open and the GEMS are on site every Wednesday from 9 to noon. The Native Plant Nursery is bursting with plants that need homes. We have had pop-up plant sales and are selling our The Garden Guide for the Rogue Valley: Year ‘Round & Month by Month book at all the local nurseries. The rain catchment system is installed and waiting for its interpretive sign to be purchased and installed. As you can see, the small cadre of dedicated volunteers are working like mad, but we need YOUR help!

There are so many ways you can get involved.

• The Plant Clinic needs more man/woman power.
• The Demonstration Gardens need volunteers to help keep them presentable.
• Our Communications Working Group needs help with outreach on social media – we could really use a volunteer tech person to help. We need folks with marketing experience, someone to help with the membership database and member services.
• We would like to reinstate our Garden Buds program with the 2023 class and need someone to head that.
• Our Membership Committee needs help planning and setting up for events like our annual picnic, first day lunch for students, graduation banquet and other events.
• We need folks to help get the Spring Garden Fair back up and running, albeit in a smaller form on campus for 2023.
• The Community Outreach Working Group needs speakers for community education, someone to work with Community Garden and School Garden grants and with scholarships.
• The 2023 Winter Dreams/Summer Gardens will need speakers and someone to line up those speakers, starting in July.
• Once our 2023 class begins, we will need an apprentice coordinator to place students with GEMS in the Demonstration Gardens.
• And Practicum is always looking for more mentors, as we would like to get that program up and running again.

If you would like to become more involved, please contact Lynn Kunstman at kunlynn52@gmail.com and let me know where you would like to “plug in.” I will forward your mail to the committee or working group chair in charge of the area in which you have an interest.