Recording Your Time

Updated 1/08/2024

The Master Gardener Program is a program of the University of Minnesota Extension. Under federal law as a land grant university, the University of Minnesota carries the important responsibility for bringing University-based education to Minnesotans through our programs in outreach, teaching and research, and reporting these activities annually to the federal government is required.

When you volunteer as a Master Gardener, you are representing the University and therefore, you play an important role in the report from Extension. It is also important for local and county groups to report on Master Gardener activities to their communities and local stakeholders about the important education and service each of you contribute.

I forgot to enter my hours last year! Now what?

Life happens and we understand that. However, there is no way to back-date your hours and have them counted towards your volunteer efforts for the previous year. There is a HARD STOP on 12/31 and anything not entered before them cannot be included.

In this situation, if you failed to meet the minimum requirements for Year-1, a flag is set on your volunteer account for Year-2. Internally, the flag is a status change from A (Active) to TI (temporarily inactive).

This change doesn't affect you as a volunteer in any way during Year-2, however it may affect your ability to access some things that depend on "being in good standing," like taking a leave of absence, changing to an Emeritus status, or returning to the Master Gardener Program in the future (if they leave the program voluntary).

In the second year,

• If you complete all of the minimum requirements for Year-2, the flag is removed and your volunteer status is changed back to A (active) in the internal database.

• If you fail to meet the minimum requirements for Year-2, your volunteer account is disabled and you will be removed from the program. Your volunteer status is changed to PI (permanently inactive). You may apply to rejoin the program at a future date through the Intern Application.

Why do we record volunteer and education hours?

The hours that you enter are used to create reports for the federal government, University of Minnesota Extension, Ramsey County, Minnesota state legislature, and many other organizations.

Additionally, our program in Ramsey County is funding by Ramsey County's the Department of Environmental Health and that funding depends on each of us to record our volunteer service as Master Gardener volunteers. Without that, we lose access to our office at the Maplewood Extension office, the Diagnostic Clinic, the Milk Shed, and our paid program coordinator (me!).

In addition, we are do so many great things across Ramsey County; we should be sharing that with the our partners and community!

Where do I record my hours?

Volunteers should log into the CFANS page for Master Gardeners to record their hours. You will need to enter your NAME, COUNTY, and PASSWORD.

When should I record my hours?

You are encouraged to submit your hours regularly. We strongly recommend that you enter your hour immediately after the volunteer activity but you can also do so on a monthly basis. (This might be advisable for long-running projects like an At-Home Pollinator Garden.)  

It is NOT advisable to wait until the end of the year to report all of your hours. It's very hard to remember everything and it can take a lot of time to enter a whole year's worth of information at once.

We will send reminders throughout the year to report your hours. As a program we do run regular reports on overall volunteer hours. These reports helps us assess how we are doing as a program.

I'm stuck! I need help entering my hours!

The State Master Gardener Volunteer Program website has a lot of good information on reporting your volunteer and continuing education hours. Check out their page for tutorials on:

• Hours FAQ

• Logging In for the First Time; Watch the Zoom tutorial (recommended for interns)

• Forgot your login info? Tutorial

• Log Your Volunteer Hours

• Log Continuing Education Hours

• View Last Year's Hours

• Core Area Descriptors

Please try these tools first and then contact Darren or Brianna for additional help.

How should I record my hours?

Most of the volunteer opportunities posted on Sign Up Genius include information on how to log the hours for that activity. These reflect the Core Area Descriptors listed on the State Master Gardener Volunteer Program website.

For example if you work at an Information Booth (e.g., Farmers’ Markets, Diagnostic Clinic, Ramsey County Fair, Minnesota State Fair, Home & Garden shows and other arranged locations) you would report your hours in the database under "C5", which stands for Core Area C (Answer garden questions) and Activity 5 (Information booth).

In case a project page does not include the recommended way to record the hours served on the project, you can reference the Core Area Descriptors are listed on the State Master Gardener website.

How many hours do I need to record?

All participating volunteers are expected to record their hours during the year. This includes Interns, Active, Active-Emeritus and Temporary Inactive volunteers. You can review the expected MINIMUM number of hours required based on your volunteer status in the chart below.

	Volunteer Service Hours	Continuing Education Hours (for Ramsey County MGs)
Intern (First Year) Volunteers	50	8
Active Volunteers	25	12
Active-Emeritus Volunteers	1	5
Retired-Emeritus Volunteers	0	0
Leave of Absence Volunteers	0	0

Temporarily Inactive volunteers are expected to enter hours that match their regular status – active or active-emeritus.

Brianna Gohde

RCMG Assistant Program Coordinator