Advanced Master Gardener
Education Committee
March 23, 2010
10:00-12:00a.m.
Present: Jane, Dana, Sharon, Sue
1. When to distribute badges: We briefly discussed when to give a
participant their Advanced Master Gardener badge. Sue wants to give
them out after the core and CEU’s are finished, and to give the certificate
at the completion of the volunteer hours which signifies that all
requirements have been met. There was a general consensus that we’d
go with Sue’s suggestion.
We also discussed how pre-classes would be applied. It was agreed that
pre-classes could be applied to either a participant’s past year’s
requirements or to an upcoming year’s requirements but not to both.
2. Time clock ticking e-mails: Jane has put together a list of activities that
are available that those working on last year’s requirements could take.
She will send everyone who took last year’s core an e-mail telling them
that they only have until October 6th to complete last year’s requirements
if they want to take next year’s core, along with her list. Jane will also
send the committee members a copy of the activities form as she updates
it. There was then some discussion about whether or not the
requirements in the brochure were specific enough that people realized
they could not take next year’s core if they didn’t complete last year’s
requirements.
3. Requirement submission forms: There was discussion about putting both
the volunteer hours form and the CEU’s form on the same sheet of paper.
We decided that it was better to separate them so people would not run
out of room when filling each out.
Jane suggested putting the g-mail address on the forms until we get the
“send” button working. Sue preferred leaving them as they are for now.
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Dana will revise the forms and send them to us to look at. Dana also
volunteered to be responsible for notifying Julie that there are e-mailed
forms to be reviewed.
4. Suggested core speakers and topics: Jane suggested Jody Anderson as a
possible speaker, but doesn’t know what her expertise is. Jody works
with the AG Experimental Station. We’d like Julie to speak to her.
Sue suggested Jeff ___________ speak about erodible soils, possibly as a
pre-core topic. He is with the Nat’l. Resource Conservation Service.
Jane suggested that perhaps Jeff can also speak about the Physical
Properties of Soil & Ion Exchange in Soils.
Suggested topics are:
Session 1: Healthy soil amendments vs. aberrant soil amendments
Benefits of compost
Session 2: Fertilizer application rates
Organic vs. chemical fertilizer
Session 3: Soil porosity (Jeff?)
Water flow model
Session 4: Preferred soil textures for specific plants
Layering different media in plant pots
Session 5: Erodible soils
Chemical ions
Pesticides and how they react in cold soils
Soil temperatures and plant response
Sue suggested that perhaps Julie could do some or all of Session nos. 1
and 2.
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5. Text for soils core: Sue had a copy of “The Soul of Soil” by Joe Smillie &
Grace Gershuny, ISBN 1-890132-31-4, Chealsea Green Publishing Co. She
suggested it might be a good basic soils book to recommend people
purchase for use in the soils core. We all agreed it looked like a good
choice.
6. Number of hours for this year’s pre-core courses and core: We discussed
how many hours we wanted this year’s core to be. Sharon suggested 15.
Jane suggested that we could then have 5, 3-hour sessions.
We also decided that the pre-core course sessions would be 3, 2-hour
classes.
7. Pre-core course activities: It was suggested that we could possibly have
field trips as part of the curriculum:
a. Alaska Mill and Feed – fertilizers
b. Someplace where we could see layers of soil—we’ll ask Julie for a
suggestion
Dean Davidson was suggested to possibly speak about why stress
damages our roads. He is a retired soils scientist with the soil service. We
decided that this was not specifically a horticulture topic, but would be an
interesting soils related topic.
8. Pre-core course dates: Since the core courses would begin sometime in
September, it was decided that the pre-core classes should be held in
June, July and August.
9. The next meeting is scheduled for April 7, 10:00-12:00a.m. at Dana’s
house. Her address is 1941 Meander Circle which is on lower Huffman.
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