The President's Post

This is the fifth in a series of quarterly posts from your current President about the Norfolk Master Gardeners

There has been so much going on with Norfolk Master Gardeners in the past two weeks that I am reminded that we do not work only in the April-November period. Moreover, for the last few years I have been describing our wonderful 20 some projects as the beating heart of the Norfolk Master Gardener organization. I think that metaphor still holds because our projects remain our raison d’etre, but an analysis of both how we actually spend our time and how we functionally operate makes me think that a better metaphor for our organization as a whole is a four-legged stool. Let me explain using 2022 data.

The first leg of the stool is all our projects except the Plant Sale. These projects generally run from around the beginning of April to the first half of November. These are our direct efforts to educate the public about horticulture and to green up Norfolk – our mission in condensed form, as it were, the very reason we exist. In 2022 the vast majority of our work hours were spent – as they should be - on these projects alone, far more than any other category described below. Enough said.

To be able to do these projects we need to have money, and that is the second leg of the stool, the Plant Sale Project. We have other income sources, but the plant sales are the main ones. We know how well the plant sales did last year in raising money for us, but what you may not know is that the total work hours for this project in 2022 significantly exceeded every other single project or committee with one exception noted below. Interestingly, this leg of the stool does much of its work when the other projects have finished – in the first few months of the year (the fall plant sale of course, does not fit this timing, but has significantly fewer work hours than the spring plant sale). Of course, as I hinted above, we have also just finished with another record-breaking plant sale – congrats to the Plant Sale Team!

Every volunteer organization needs people, and that is where the third leg of our stool, the Intern Training Team, comes in. This Standing Committee – it is not a project – recruits and trains new VCE Master Gardeners and thus provides the lifeblood (or seed corn, as a friend has said) of our organization. In 2022 the Intern Training Committee’s total work hours were just shy of the Plant Sale Project hours, again significantly more than any other single project or committee. Interestingly, like the Plant Sale Project, the Intern Training Committee does most of its work in the period from mid-November until mid-April. Also like the Plant Sale Project, the Intern Training Committee has just finished its work with another great class that will serve us well in the future. Congratulations!

The last leg of the stool is made up of the various other committees that functionally serve to keep our organization running smoothly. Without these committees and their members who work so hard in support, we would be unable to operate. In 2022 the combined hours for these committees was roughly equivalent to those of our largest single project other than the Plant Sale. These committees are headlined by the Steering Committee, which as its name suggests functions as the organizing brain of our organization. These committees work year-round, of course.

So, there are the four legs. In addition to comparing the recorded hours, note the overall calendar timing: the Training Committee and the Plant Sale Project are mostly in what is our off-season, with the large majority of the project hours in our “busy season” from early April thru early November, and the committee hours providing year-round support. When our greenhouse is up and running, we can add a fifth leg to what is already a very steady stool.