Board Blurb: January 2026

1/14/26

Prepared by Laurel Watt (2026 RCMG Secretary)

Summary for the January RCMG Board of Directors Meeting

The RCMG Board of Directors Meeting was held on January 13, 2026 on Zoom. The next Board Meeting will be on Tuesday, February 10, 2026 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Zoom. All volunteers are welcome to attend.

Committee Updates

Communications Committee Update – Nanette Boudreau and Amanda Swanson

Linda Hinderscheit, Internal Newsletter editor, and Maddy Kaudy, Garden Journalist lead, are now meeting with MarCom, and Mitzi Peine is the new Social Media manager. The committee has been working on new signage for Speakers Bureau classes taking place at the Barn as well as estimating the cost of Plant Sale signage for insurance purposes.

Education Committee Update – Susan Mason and Jo Sullivan

The Education Committee currently has 14 members including the chair and co-chair. They meet most months in person at the Como Park Dock and Paddle on the Sunday prior to the Board meeting. The committee has programs planned for the first half of 2026, and speakers for the next two monthly membership meetings include:

• January (online) - Dr. Loegering from the U of MN will present on the topic of wildlife and human interaction.

• February (online) - Krista Cooke from Homegrown National Park will speak on the biodiversity crisis and the importance of native ecosystems and how people can help restore nature where they live.

Finance Committee Update – Julie Bechtold

Julie Bechtold listed the committee’s 2025 accomplishments including developing financial aid, purchasing, and project grants policies, recommending funding requests and budgets to the Board, adopting QuickBooks to streamline the accounting procedures, and creating a project reimbursement form for project leads. They also held their first committee retreat in July 2025. Julie also shared an ambitious outline of goals for 2026.

Membership Committee Update –Susie DeShon and Travis Sandland

Susie and Travis reported that 40 interns graduated in 2025, 16 moved to the 2-year program, and 6 withdrew. There are 98 interns who signed up for 2026. On January 8th, the Intern-Mentor Welcome took place with 71 interns and 42 mentors attending. The event was an unqualified success! They are waiting to confirm a date in late March for the Project Fair. Stay tuned.

Leadership Updates

Secretary Update – Laurel Watt

The November 2025 Board Minutes were approved.

Treasurer Update– Kathy Passe, Interim Treasurer

The November 2025 Treasurer Report and the December 2025 Treasurer Report were approved.

After presenting these reports, Kathy proceeded to lead the Board through an examination of the proposed Budget for 2026. The Board moved to approve the 2026 Budget as proposed.

Program Coordinator Update – Darren Lochner

Darren had these updates:

·      The Annual Report 2 for the State Master Gardener Program is in development. Ramsey County volunteers contributed 21,666 volunteer hours in 2025.

·      Updates are being made to the Ramsey County Directory that will include volunteer status and contact information along with project contacts.

Vice-Chair Report – Maggie Maggio

Maggie reported that members have been recruited to assist with the audit that will take place in the morning of January 24^th.

Chair Report– Beth Fritcher

Beth provided an update on the 501c3 working group (Beth Fritcher, Maggie Maggio, Laurel Watt, Kay Wimer, Gene Ranieri, and Karen Randall). This group has been formed to guide the transition to independent Program and Non-Profit functions for the Ramsey County Garden Education Volunteer Program and moving more things we currently do over to Extension.

• The first meeting was on Wednesday, Jan 7th.

• Outcome: Outlining a phased approach to moving more financial items to run through Extension rather than the 501c3.

• Phase 1 is focused on resolving Speaker’s Bureau 2025 contracts, 2025 payments, and 2026 contracts. There is a financial training session from Extension that Darren, Sandy McDonald, and Jan Fransen (new Speaker’s Bureau leads) attended on Jan 13th. (The U of M system is an entirely different payment system that our community partners will be interacting with instead of paying our program directly.)

·       The next meeting of this working group is Wednesday, Jan 14^th.

• The next meeting with Extension is Friday, January 23^rd. The Board will be updated in February.

New Business-None

Old Business-None

The Board moved to approve the new Financial Aid policy that includes revised language on glove sale net profits being applied to financial aid, a reporting requirement, and the extent of allocated funds. This was last reviewed by the Board at their November 2025 meeting.

2026 Board Leadership: Beth Fritcher (Chair), Maggie Maggio (Vice-Chair), Laurel Watt (Secretary), Kathy Passe (Interim Treasurer), Julie Bechtold (Finance Chair), Susan Mason (Education Chair), Jo Sullivan (Education Co-Chair), Susie DeShon (Membership Chair), Travis Sandland (Membership Co-Chair), Nanette Boudreau (Communication Chair), Amanda Swanson (Communication Co-Chair), Darren Lochner (Program Coordinator).