MCMGA Board Minutes for October 24th, 2023
/Present: Present: Lorna Schilling (President), Cynthia Chase (Vice President), Marcia McIntyre (Programs and Speakers), Rich Becker (OMGA Chapter Representative, IE Plant Sale), Christine Semeniuk (Bookkeeper) Mike Rutherford (Administrator G-Suite and Historian), Linda Goldser (Director Demonstration Garden), Jack Lazareck, Andrew Norwood , Director of Development, Scholarships and University Initiatives OSU Extension, Brenda Hein, Angela Myatt (Secretary)
Approval of September 2023 Minutes
The September Minutes were approved. Lorna moved to approve the Minutes and Mikeseconded the motion. The motion was passed.
Andrew introduced himself. In this new OSU Extension position he will be focusing on fundraising for several OSU Extension positions. He will supply the Board with a job description.
Andrew asked for suggestions of folks who might like to talk more with him. His email is andrew.norwood@osufoundation.org, phone:503 313 2777 Brenda Hein is attending the meeting because she is interested in the position of Board Treasurer.
Meetings with County Commissioners
Laura noted that the goal is to mail out letters to all the County Commissioners. Discussion followed on the strategy of arranging a meeting at the Demo Garden, to include County Commissioners and Dr Lyles. Andrew noted the goal was to get County funding back to the level before funding was cut i.e. approximately 20 years ago.
Following a meeting with Dr. Lyles, Cynthia reported that the Chapter will now have administrative support . Nadine Menashi will be helping the Chapter in her role as Multnomah County Administrative Manager. She will report to Angela Sandino.
At this point Andrew Norwood left the meeting.
Board Positions
Cynthia reported that Brenda is interested in the position of Treasurer. This will require Brenda to be a certified Master Gardener. Cynthia is in the process of ‘sounding out’ potential Board members for 2024. Voting will be in December. The December Board Meeting will be on January 2nd 2024.
Financial Check In
Christine lead a comprehensive review and discussion of the Draft Budget for 2024. Including, but not limited to, the projected Demo Garden expenses, OMGA Annual conference scholarships and the Chapter Insurance policy which is due to be renewed in December.
Meeting with Attorney about Chapter Insurance Policy
Mike met with Stuart Jones who is an attorney. Here is what they discussed and Stuart’s advice:
Stuart said the Chapter should strongly consider having Directors and Officers Insurance. Board members can be sued individually if, for example, neglect, unreasonable behavior or events occurs against the existing Chapter policy. The risk exists.
On the question of who is insured, Stuart said Board members are insured at meetings and for their actions and decisions that pertain to their job as board members and volunteers at the Demo Garden are covered as well as at other MCMGA sanctioned events like the IE Sale. Coverage for an individual claim is up to $2 million and an annual aggregate of $4 million.
He suggested that basic training programs be offered to all volunteers instead of requiring waivers to be signed. This is termed “benign intent” i.e. an intent to care.
He also suggested the Board look at the Chapter Charter and change wording in order to more closely match our mission and intent thereby covering eligibility.
On the questions about sale merchandise, he said that is not his area.
For event insurance, exceptions to coverage are sports, animal related events, construction and traffic congestion (such as occurred at the IE sale this past summer)
Musical events are covered as long as any performer(s) are not advertised as the main event and can be considered incidental.
He questioned whether the City has any responsibility for liability as the Demo Garden is on City land. (Christine said no this was not the case.)
He suggested a policy checkup with the insurance company, to include the question of Directors and Officers insurance. If the insurance company does not offer this, then pursue acquiring a separate policy.
Discussion followed, centering on the question of whether more insurance is needed for 2024.
Demonstration Garden Report
Linda reported the following update for the time period 10/1/22-9/30/23
We donated 1910 pounds of produce to local food pantries.
We had 271 visitors to the Demo Garden (this number does not include any big event)
We used 3095 volunteer hours with 72 volunteers.
we noted that 43 of those volunteers gave under 20 hours each while the remaining 29 volunteers gave us between 20 to 250 hours of their free time to maintain work the Demo Garden
Meeting with Dr. Lyles
Cynthia requested a meeting with Dr. Lyles to discuss administrative support for the Board’s extensive efforts to reinstate funding at the County level. Cynthia duly met with Dr. Lyles and Andrew Norwood. As a result, the Chapter, as reported earlier, will now have administrative support from an Administrative Manager who reports to Angela Sandino.
Endowment
Cynthia reported that Sheri Sheng, a Clackamas County Master Gardener, has asked for financial support for an Endowment designed to fund a Garden Ecology Laboratory. This project is not affiliated with OSU Master Gardeners.
Fundraising
Nothing to report
Activities and Future Planning
There will be a Board retreat in January 2024
The meeting closed at 8.05pm
The next meeting of the MCMGA Board will be on November 21st 2023, at 6.30 pm
Minutes submitted by Angela Myatt (Secretary) November 17th 2023