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A Letter to the Members of MGGD

Dear fellow members of the Master Gardeners of Greater Detroit,

I’m sending this information to advise you on changes taking shape at MSU that impacts our group, the extension office and we as Master Gardeners. On January 18, Gene represented MGGD, along with Anita and members of the board of Master Gardeners of Western Wayne County, in Lansing at a meeting with Extension Director, Dr. Tom Coon, Assistant Extension Director, Dr Steve Lovejoy, State MG Coordinator Mary Wilson and other Consumer Horticulture Educators. This meeting was for local coordinators and board members of MSU affiliated associations to discuss the upcoming changes and to answer their questions. There were about 80 people present representing 31 of the 34 associations. The other three association representatives were on teleconferencing. There will be a lot of changes this coming year. These major changes will occur on 1 July. We will no longer be covered under MSU as a non-profit or covered by their liability insurance. They will no longer act as a fiduciary for association funds. Also any moneys that we have with MSUE will be forfeited (I don’t believe we have any at this time). We will need to obtain our own EIC number as we have been using MSUE’s up to now.

We will have to change our status; the options are:
1. Disband the group and we would no longer exist. Funds in our bank account to be disbursed as you wish. MSU will not be taking ANY of our Association funds!
2. Change to a garden club
3. Become incorporated, we’ll need more details on how much this will cost, and what we need to complete each year for the government, insurance and liability coverage
4. Become our own non-profit, the cost on doing this could be high as we need a lawyer to assist us. There is still the issue with insurance and liability coverage.
5. There was also a lot of talk about forming a state association with local chapters. But this would have to happen quickly to be in place and then the costs assessed to each club/group would need to be determined. At this time, there is nothing in the workings for this option.

There is a transition team formed, which Anita is a member, that will be meeting in early February to ‘fact find’ the various options. Education is the core mission of MSUE. It appears that our volunteer hours will be based on this. If we are not educating people in some way hours may not be applicable (We are leaders, not weeders. weeding is not teaching).

Classes will also be changing. There will be a new manual out that will be used state wide beginning in fall 2012. The fee structure for the classes will go to $300 in every county of the State. Also, the tests will be standardized. This fall there will only be 7 classes state wide. Wayne Oakland and Macomb Counties will be holding Fall 2012 classes. Anita is looking at the west side or down river for the fall classes. Venoy will not allow us to hold the required 4 hour length of each class so we need to explore other options.

I encourage all of you to carpool and attend the following meeting if possible:
Our February meeting on the 22nd we will start at 7:00 PM to discuss the information and bring any new information that has become available. Anita will have additional information from the transition team meeting to share with us.

At our March meeting on the 28th, I plan to present to the members the options for a vote. Based on the results of the vote, we’ll decide the next steps for Master Gardeners of Greater Detroit. We will be holding our usual meetings and events through the June Summer Sendoff. We do know that much for sure. If you have questions, please send them by email to mggdmail@gmail.com. I’m going to check every evening and if I don’t have the answer, I’ll post the question to Anita and will share all with the members. Due to the cost of postage, I will only be mailing to those that don’t have an email on file.

Lastly, we are going to have a sale on all of our ‘wearables’ with the exception of the license plates.

Thank you all for support
Theresa Gilliam-Kelly